Adventures in Jeju!

At a certain point of the semester, once everyone is settled and well adjusted to being in the city, many students begin to desire adventuring far out of Seoul, to see what other gems lie within South Korea. I really enjoy travel, and was also curious about the different regions around the country. This led me to visit the island of Jeju in early May with my friends!

The second weekend of May, six of us flew into Jeju, full of excitement for our next few days there exploring. One of the first things I remembered about being there was how clear and nice the air was! I smiled upon exiting the airport and seeing the large “HELLO JEJU” sign in big block letters outside. Three of us flew down in the morning, and three of us flew in later that night. I went with the first group, due to us lucking out and not having Friday classes in our busy schedules.

They also had this "Hello Jeju" sign inside the airport as well!

We took a bus to our airbnb, a nice one that our frien Jaden had picked out, and let ourselves relax after a long afternoon of traveling. It had such a cute little woodsy cabin feel, with an excellent view of the outside, and some of the comfiest blankets I’ve ever slept with!

After a delicious dinner near the beach, and securing food for our friends arriving later, we settled in for the night, and began exploring bright and early the next day!

It was my first time really visiting an island, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I really ended up having a blast! We walked around to several cute spots taking pictures, (some of which my friend Martina and I posted for our instagram takeover!) then traveled to Seongsan Ilchulbong to see the gorgeous views and witness the Haenyeo Diving Women perform an incredible show that involved them catching and preparing seafood in real time for everyone to see! It was raining this day though, so we made a pit-stop at a CU and got a bunch of super cute Moomin-themed raincoats to keep us dry. I got to try fresh seafood for the first time and I was surprised to find that I liked it! I’m not really a seafood person, so this was a happy discovery.

After that, we went to a really cute little rainbow path by the beach, and took more photos! Finishing the night off with a dinner of black pork (a Jeju specialty), we headed back to get much needed rest! It was a lovely day.

The next day, we set out to find local Jeju oranges, knowing that this is something Jeju is known for. After possibly the cutest brunch known to mankind, we started our journey! We followed this with a trip to the Jeongbang Waterfall, completely in awe by the gorgeous view. And then we headed to one of the local foodmarkets, and ooooh, this was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip! There was such good food, and freshly squeezed Jeju orange juice!

After settling by the beach for the night with friends we made during our stay, we returned and went to sleep to prepare for our return to Seoul the next morning. I have to say, this was a really unforgettable trip, and I had an incredible time! I really hope to go on more journeys like this one day.

Definitely visit Jeju Island one day if you haven’t! There’s so much more I hope to do on a return visit, as I was so overjoyed with my stay there.