Bill & Jude Go It Alone

A festive fountain
The scene from above
The garden still
A roman type structure? But the lights are decked out for the holiday.
Our lunching spot
The gravel road less traveled
Driving back to Jinju. . .
driving. . .
a small town. . .
driving. . .
over the roof of the car. . .
still beautiful sights. . .
a little side street to follow the highway. . .
look out lady we can't read the signs. . .
a house with a shiny blue roof. . .
almost back, don't sweat it. . .
someone burning something. . .
ships in the ship builders harbor. . .
an interesting building in a parking lot. . .

the everyday surrounded by the grandeur.

Hello from sunny (well, not today) South Korea!

Bill and I have been requested to make a blog entry, so here goes. . .

Ana and Mike planned a weekend getaway, 2 days in Gyeongju with them, then off for two days on the island of Geoje by ourselves. And here is how it went ~

After the weekend, when we were supposed to drive from Gyeongju to Geoje, we chickened out and drove Ana and Mike back to Jinju. With a little more encouragement from them, I suspect they needed a break, understandable, we headed southwest for an overnight stay. Traveling is not bad when you're in a car driving on numbered highways, no problem, we're pros! We were so proud, we got to the island, and, as suggested, were going to take a boat ride to the the island of Oedo (pronounced Way-doe). Park the car, find a launch, find the ticket counter, 2 tickets at 16:10 purchased. Now to wait for 3 hours until departure, look for a restaurant, feed ourselves, but, as we walked away from the ticket booth I say to Bill, the man at the counter kept saying this is a ticket to Busan, we don't want to go to Busan. Off to the car, forget food for now, check the map, we're not anywhere near close to where we were headed. Back to the ticket booth, show the attendants the map, where we are, where we want to go, they indicate not from where we are, I remember Ana's words from the night before and say, chang-ee, the man says chang-ee, takes the purchased pair of tickets, returns a credit in a flash. Chang-ee, good word to know.

Off again, beautiful drive down a winding coast, green water, mountains on the coast and rising from the water. We arrive in Haegeumgang (we can't pronounce it either) and now need accommodations, check in rather uneventfully, go for a walk. We've recovered from our earlier debacle, and are again more confident about surviving South Korea on our own, yay!

Alas, our feeling of accomplishment is soon shattered as we realize we need to eat. Ah, to be less picky, I'm trying, but to no avail, I'm struggling to find food that I'll put in my mouth, and Bill's not faring much better since Koreans like their food Spi-i-cy. The hotel has a restaurant, we walk in, and, as prepped, ask for, in Hangul no less, vegetables and rice, but I'm defeated since the cook still doesn't understand what we want, do you think it's my Hangul? But, as the Koreans are ever friendly, and oh so helpful, she leads us to the check-in desk where one of the young ladies on duty finally tells us they serve, remember we're on an island, Fresh Fish. I then take out my handy dandy little English/Korean for dummies dictionary and show them vegetables, which is not getting us very far, when suddenly, the same fluently english speaking young clerk says, EGGS, we smile and nod, follow the cook back into the restaurant, and are served one fried egg each, a bowl of salad vegetables, a basket of red leaf lettuce, a plate of another type of lettuce, a side of spinach, a plate of little salted, dried fish, and a salad dressing of mayonnaise and ketchup. Go us, thank you nice people, not full, but at least fed.

We finish our evening in our room with a bottle of beer for Bill and a glass of wine for Jude, arise early the next morning, miss the first ferry to Oedo, wait forty minutes for the next one, packed, and I mean packed, with 100s of middle schoolers, oh, to be multi-lingual, a little late now, but a nice thought anyway.

Oedo was beautiful, we did not miss our ferry back to the island and the security of our rental car, although I thought we had and got quite upset, but calmed down within a minute when we figured out that we had not missed the boat, no pun intended, and landed safely back at the hotel. We ate the rest of the food packed by Ana, still hungry since she had packed a lunch and snack for one day and we were now on our third meal with what we had, and headed back to Jinju. I'll let Bill tell you about the ride back when he does his post.

Off to continue my education in "How not to travel" an unknown land, but here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Annyonghi kyeseyo,

Jude