고맙습니다. 사랑합니다.

"We thank you and we love you"

Those were the words of the Jeju Air flight attendants as we took off to Jeju and came back. Quite funny how the line "we love you" sounds so silly when translated to English, but we got the feeling ^^.

So Jeju was quite more than the adventure Simon, Elliy, and I bargained for! We stayed only two days and a half, with day one being intense enough to be a story for the grandkids! Once we landed in Jeju around 9AM, we made our way to the Guesthouse and settled down a bit and planned. Not really knowing what we'd do (our only sure plan was to go to 성산일출봉 Seongsan Ilchulbong--known as Sunrise Peak), we decided why not hike the Yeongsil Trail at Hallasan (the tallest mountain in Korea)? We figured it'd be low enough on the mountain to not be as intense as heading all the way to the peak. Taking a taxi, we arrived just before noon, when the trail would close. On the way, we were driving through fog that was so thick we couldn't even see the immediate road in front of us, but we were excited for the trail ahead!

After eating a meal, we bundled up and got ready to tackle the trail. Little did we know that we were already quite far up and that we would be heading up to at least 1500 meters, so although Simon was fairly prepared, I was not so, with my ratty sneakers and jeans, lack of hat and gloves (luckily Simon had extra for me to borrow), and neither was Elliy, with her skirt with long socks left her thighs exposed. How naive we were as we hiked that trail that we thought would not be difficult haha.
The beginning of Yeongsil Trail.
The trail itself wasn't horrible, but involved a lot of slipperiness and hanging on to the ropes on the side seeing as the stairs were completely blanketed by snow. The snow was pretty light at first and as we got up to about 1500 meters, the snow cleared up and we beheld an amazing view of one part of Hallasan. My pictures don't do it justice!
Unfortunately, about twenty minutes after, we saw a humongous cloud of snow coming in from our right and before we knew it we were enveloped by a blizzard!
So of course, as common sense told us, we made our way down, holding on to the rope to keep us from sliding off a cliff on the side (if only I had a picture of how perilous it looked...). Of course, we inevitably fell a few times, but there was nothing serious, except when Elliy's camera screen cracked from falling on it! We thought we'd be okay once we got to the base, but from the restaurant we had eaten at, there was still another half an hour to hour (closer to an hour because of us being slowed down by the slippery snow) of walking to get to shelter, where the bus stop would be. Quite an experience, as we were laughing and joking about how we might die, Elliy not able to feel her thighs from the numbness of the cold (if only we had planned better and actually known we were going to Hallasan and that we'd be going through so much snow...), my ears freezing to the point of being red as a beet, and Simon just slipping every few meters!

Eventually, we finally made it, where there was no bus, but some taxi drivers lined up to take people who had just gotten down from the mountain home. While drying up though, I opened my camera lens only to have it all completely shatter from the frigid cold (the outer lens, which was the filter...which unfortunately leads my lens to collect dust easily :( sorry in advance for the pictures) but luckily the camera was all in all okay (the inner lens is still there!). In taking the taxi back to our guesthouse, it was quite interesting to see how different the climate was up in Hallasan and in Jeju, where it was still cold, but not freezing or snowing--of course that's a given with any mountain, but still.

Quite a different adventure from last summer, if you read my post about how Becky, Ryan, and I walked for about an hour and a half to find a bus stop that didn't exist! Definitely the craziest winter adventure I've had!
The next day, which was much less intense, we went to explore Manjanggul 만장굴, the longest lava tube system in the world. Unfortunately, caves are not very good places for my camera to take pictures, but enjoy the one picture of the cool lava roof! As for Jeju transportation--in a single phrase--it sucks, as you can see from how long the trip from the base of Hallasan to a bus stop is. Our walk to Manjanggul took about 15 minutes--not bad at all, but imagine if it were snowing...
After Manjanggul, we took a bus to Seongsan Port, where we arrived by 4PM. We wanted to take a boat to Udo Island. Unfortunately, we were too late as little did we know that in the winter, the last boat back was 4:30. Sadly, we didn't get to see the island that's shaped like an upside down cow and has pretty coral beaches, but we made up for it by just climbing Sunrise Peak (very nearby) to see the sunset (a sight blocked by the clouds, but regardless it was quite pretty). Not to mention, on the way we incidentally ran into my language partner! What luck! I told her we were planning to come back for the sunrise the next day, so we planned to meet in the morning.
Seongsan in the background (a view from the port).
Doesn't this look like a painting?
Yay for heavenly light!
Another painting-like picture.
The plateau at the top of Seongsan.
Simon and me at the top.
The little sun I could see at sunset.
Out comes the moon.
The little town of Seongsan at sunset.

That night we had 흑돼지--black pig--a specialty of Jeju Island and headed to bed early to wake up early for Sunrise Peak. In the morning, we awoke at 5 and our roommates Won Bong and Injoon, who were really cool guys and we continued to meet when we all were back in Seoul, joined us for the trip. We made it about an hour before sunrise and climbed up to the top where everyone awaited the sunrise. Unfortunately, there were clouds JUST at the horizon, preventing us from seeing the sun in a spot that would have shone beautifully on the plateau we beheld. Alas, we were able to eventually see the sun rise above the clouds and it was still a beautiful sight :), made all the more beautiful by being with our roommates and my language partner and her friend!
Break of dawn
The plateau at dawn.
The sunrise begins to peek out.
And it gets higher
Funny story here. A halmoni (elderly woman/grandma) offered to take our picture. I began to explain to her how to use the camera but she said (in Korean) "Don't worry don't worry! I know how to use it." After taking the picture, she said "잘 나왔지?" (It came out good, didn't it?) with a proud smile on her face ^_^.
Left to right: Minnie, Mun Jeong (my language partner), Injoon, Me, Elliy, Simon, and Won Bong.

Our final site was back in Jeju City, where we saw 삼성혈 Samseonghyeol, the three holes from which three brothers emerged and founded the Tamna Kingdom of Jeju Island. I wonder, though, what those holes actually are...
Samseonghyeol Shrine was pretty nice for just a walk too. Unfortunately we were in a rush to get to the airport so we didn't get to fully appreciate it!
One of the three holes--the other two are there too, but I couldn't get high enough to see them.
Simon with one of the original 45 hareubang of the island. Hareubang is the Jeju dialect word for harabeoji--grandpa. In the past, if women wanted to become pregnant, they would pray and rub the nose of a hareubang spirit.

So sorry for the late post! I've been quite busy hosting friends who've been visiting but I'll add a post soon about our adventures back in Seoul! Happy New Year everyone ^_^!