Beach Adventures

I went to the beach this weekend. We left by barely making the 6 a.m. bus, crowded by a bunch of teenagers also heading to the beach. After staying up all night because I thought I would sleep on the bus and at the beach, I wasn't tired, and got no sleep on the bus, but stared at the gorgeous view instead. Mountains, rice fields, and small towns...

After two hours our bus suddenly stops, and the bus driver points to us three girls and says "Wando, you get off here". Wando is an island, and that's the beach we were headed to. Only we weren't at a beach. We were at a "bus terminal" which consisted of a small metal shed with some soda and popsicles, the most disgusting bathrooms I've ever seen in my life, and 4 old people staring at us like we were foreigners.... which we were. We're slightly confused at this point, because this sure doesn't look like a beach, and all the kids are staring at us as the bus pulls away like "Are you crazy?" So here we are, in the middle of nowhere, with no English speaking person in sight, being stared at because, well, we're three white girls in the Korean countryside. The guy at the bus terminal was nice enough to find us an English speaking cabbie driving through, who kindly explained to us that yes, we had gotten off at the wrong stop. We now needed to take the village bus into town. After ten minutes the townie bus came, and we hop on, the only people on the bus. This quickly changes, as apparently this is market day. Every ten minutes the bus stops and tiny old wrinkled people get on the bus, tugging bags of corn, vegetables, and other goods they're going to sell. We get pushed to the back of the bus slowly by little old ladies, and after getting out of our seats to let old people sit, are standing squished in with the elderly, hot bags of corn, and a mix of plaid and flowered clothing, crazy visors, and hot sticky humidity.

We finally pulled into the bus terminal in Wando, where we were originally supposed to go, and take a cab to the beach. We drive onto this island via bridge, and veer around cliffs, winding little roads, and small towns. It's sunny, hot, beautiful, and the view is absolutely breathtaking. We get to the beach, and it's the perfect day for it. It was only 9 at this point, so the beach wasn't too crowded. On this really long wide beach, all the Koreans are crowded into one small area, so we truck it about a 20 minute walk down the sand, and set up camp. As we didn't see a single person all day wearing a bikini, we thought it'd be better to NOT run around the beach in our bikinis in wide view of 1,000 Koreans. So we put out our towels, busted out the cold water, books, and sunscreen, and made camp.

We spent a good part of the day on the beach, swimming in the water, watching fish jump into the air, small Korean kids playing in the water, and old Koreans pushing each other on inner tubes. It was gorgeous, relaxing, and fun. On a downside, apparently the sun is MUCH hotter in Korea than it is in Ohio, so Jasmin walked away that day with a HUGE and horrible sunburn. I got chills, sick, and spent the majority of the next day in bed.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures, try no to be too jealous that I was on the beach while you all were at work. :) Miss everyone!