Eat, pray, travel.

My Bible study group members took a weekend expedition to Ulleung-do, an island situated off the east coast of Korea in the middle of the East Sea. While the weekend was filled with far more time travelling than I anticipated, it was still great to get away and spend some time in a beautiful place with six good friends.


Friday my Bible study booked it out of school and jetted over to the bus station to catch a 3 hour bus ride to Pohang, a coastal city known for its steel and its seafood. We settled into our waterfront hotel and then ventured out to the fish market to experience the raw chaos of bartering vendors, brimming aquariums, and tubs crawling with crabs. We had a tasty meal of sashimi and king crab and reveled in the fresh seafood experience.


Early Saturday morning we boarded a ferry and rode for 4 tumultuous hours out to the tiny island of Ulleung-do. Nature did not grant us easy passage, and most of us were at least partially seasick by the time we made it to shore again. Thank goodness I had taken Dramamine to ease the symptoms! Some of my friends were not so lucky.


We had exactly 24 hours on the island before our return ferry. We probably slept for about 14 of those hours, all sandwiched together under blankets in our chilly cliff-side cottage. The remaining 10 hours we wandered the sunny coastline, pausing to take photographs besides scenic rock formations, to hike winding mountain paths up to ocean overlooks, and to marvel at the lines of squid drying EVERYWHERE. When, I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Parking lot? Let’s hang some squid! Rooftop? Perfect location! Stairwell? Street side? Rental car store? Dry that squid! Squid! Squid! Squid! We ate island specialties like garlic leaves, squid (duh!), and bibimbap made with mountain vegetables and soaked in the fresh sea breeze that glided through the tiny coastal villages. It was great.





I have to admit that I was secretly hoping the one daily ferry would be cancelled and we would be forced to stay on the island an extra day. Alas, no magical freak storms at sea detained us and we all made it back safely for Monday morning work. Oh well, we had fun while it lasted!