Lots has been happening and, again, I've been negligent in maintaining sufficient informational flowage. I shall begin with our holiday.
Emily & I, after returning from our three week vacation in Canada, went for one week in Jeju (the Korean Hawaii). This was due to the wonderful gift of a timeshare from Emily's grandma. We flew down on Saturday morning and returned last Saturday. The weather was beautiful - only one half day of rain, and clear blue skies and warm weather for the remainder. We walked along the ocean, went on a tour, rented a car, took the bus and basically had a grand time.
The highlights:
This is a pork meal made from the famous black pig of Jeju. This particular pork (often called "crap pork" in Korean) is only found on Jeju. This pig has a particular story and reason why it has such a...familiar taste.
In past times (and present times too, I believe), a family would have a room in their house on Jeju island. Traditionally, this would be the bathroom but here is where the black pig would live. I'm unsure as to the actual arrangements, but you would basically go into the room, do your business and the pig would eat your...business. Once the pig was of age, you would eat it. The restaurants are everywhere and the meat is actually quite good.
I love it when food has a story.
We did a lot of walking along the ocean. It wasn't quite warm enough to swim in though, so we contented ourselves with sticking our feet in the water. Additionally, all Korean coast is still a protected border so they shut swimming down for the cooler months of the year.
We went on a tour one day and saw a ton of different things. Here's a freshwater waterfall going into saltwater, which is apparently rare. Who knew?
On the tour, actually, was one of the most hostile Korean people we've ever met. She was our tour guide who apparently resented the fact that we didn't speak enough Korean or pay enough attention to her. She was strange, and certainly not representative of the rest of the nation. We did meet a very nice couple from England, though, and that definitely made the tour worth it.
We rented a car on Friday and went to this big hedge maze. On our way out of the maze, these girls came up and asked to take a picture with us. We owe our public.
One of the things about going on holidays as a couple is that most of your pictures end up being either one of you or the two of you like this.
Our apartment room was great - it was a two bedroom with enough of a kitchen that we could do a bunch of our meals there. It looked out on the water and we were able to watch the sun set (one of my favorite things) and fall asleep seeing the stars (another of my favorite things).
Oh, yeah, we also made it to Italy. This is Emily at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
And America. This is me with the Statue of Liberty.
Actually, we didn't make it to those countries. We just went to Mini Land, which has a whole bunch of world wonder type things on about a 1/18 scale. We could have gone to Mini Mini Land, which has the same things but only smaller. (I'm not kidding.)
Here's a picture of our accommodations. "Jeju Tovice Condominium" was our home base for all of our Jejuian exploration.
Finally, on our last day at the airport, I accomplished the last thing I wanted to do in Jeju - pick an orange off of a tree. I'd never seen oranges growing on trees before, so it was wonderful to see them growing in mid-February. The trees were everywhere, especially on the north side of the island. (Over the course of the week, we drove the circumference of the island once, and the diameter three times.) Here is my crowning achievement.
It was a wonderful trip and an excellent way to end our winter vacation. Thanks a ton, Papa & Tutu!
No comments:
Post a Comment