Days 8 and 9: Loving Busan

This is a long one, sorry in advance! We flew to Busan (on a $17 flight!) first thing Tuesday morning. From the moment we stepped off the airport bus to Haeundae Beach, the area our hotel was in, we loved it. If Seoul is the Manhattan of Korea, Busan is the L.A. The vibe and style are much more laid back, there are a ton of resort-style hotels, and the streets were decked out with lights for New Years celebrations.

We got a great deal on a really nice hotel since it's off-season, which was a very welcome relief after 2 nights in a shared-room guesthouse. We didn't have very much time in Busan, but packed our days there with as much activities as possible to get the most out of our time there.

Day 7: 24 Hours on Jeju Island

We only had one full day on Jeju Island before heading to Busan, so tried to cram as much in as we could in 24 hours. Jeju is a small island off the Southern coast of Korea marketed as the "Hawaii of Korea". Its the #1 honeymoon destination for Korean newlyweds, and we were met at the airport with rows of palm trees. In keeping with our trip theme, we visited both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a tacky museum.

Our main goal was to make it Mt. Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea with a volcanic lake on top. We understood that there would be some snow on top of the mountain, so rented cramp-ons for our shoes from the hostel.

Days 5 and 6: Seoul Fails

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Seoul with Ryan and although we had a great time together, some of our plans didn't quite turn out as expected.

Our main plan for Saturday was to take a trip to Dragonhill Spa, a well-known bathhouse with multiple floors of baths and saunas. There was even an exercise room complete with a mechanical horseback riding exercise machine shaped like a real horse! Kim and I were excited to go and even got Ryan pumped for the adventure, but when we arrived it was closed for renovations.

We were a little bummed out, but we (mostly me) decided to take advantage of being in the Inchon neighborhood and visit the nearby National Museum of Korea. Maybe a bit overambitious, we tried to walk the 3/4 mile to the museum. After wandering aimlessly for a while, we gave up and rode the subway one stop to the site. What did we ever do without Google maps?

Day 4: Happy Christmas!!

Yesterday was Christmas - my first away from home and definitely not traditional but was still a fun time!

We started the morning off with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for some Christmas-themed doughnuts before opening the collection of cards and presents we had in the hotel room from our families. We spent the entire morning just relaxing in the room before heading to Itaewon for lunch.

Day 3: Christmas Eve in the City of Seoul

We met up with Ryan on Christmas Eve to spend the holiday weekend with him in Seoul. We took the subway from Suwon to Seoul and checked in to our super swanky hotel - complete with a super high tech toilet.

We're in the Myen-dong neighborhood, which is the high-end shopping district. It's starting to feel like Christmas with Christmas pastries and American holiday music blasting everywhere. Michael Buble anyone?

Day 2: All Around Suwon

Our second full day in Korea was a healthy balance of cultured and touristy - we visited both the World Toilet Museum and the Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We weren't able to meet up with Ryan today so spent the day exploring around Suwon.

First stop was the Toilet Museum, and we had the most difficult time getting there. We misunderstood the guy at the front desk so took the bus line in the opposite direction and ended up at a bus depot at the end of the line. When we finally turned around and got to the right stop, we had no idea where the museum was. But a nice barista at a nearby coffee shop directed us and we finally made it.

Day 1: Insadong and Suwon

Our hostel in Seoul was in Insadong, one of the main shopping districts. We took a walk down the main strip before checking out, but almost all of the shops were still closed at 10 am! I did stop by Starbucks for a Toffee Nut Latte, and we passed a Dunkin' Donuts, Subway and Clark Shoes outlet too.

We wandered through a park with some elderly people exercising and lots of cool statues- but we couldn't really tell what they were because all the signs were in Korean. We stopped by Jogyesa temple and accidentally walked into some type of ceremony, but the architecture was awesome.

Made it to the ROK!

Kim and I officially made it to South Korea! 18 hours of flying, a bus-ride, and over 24 hours since leaving the house, we're in our hostel in Insadong.

We cut our San Francisco-Seoul connection extremely close because, well, sometimes food is more important :) Misreading the boarding time on our tickets didn't help much either.

The plane ride was as enjoyable as sitting in one spot for 12+ hours can be, and customs was a little crazy but the bus ride and checking in were relatively painless. I just need to get used to taking my shoes off inside. Off to Suwon tomorrow morning to meet up with Ryan!

All You Need is Ecuador

At the beginning of 2015, CJ and I sat down in a coffee shop and mapped out our school schedules for the year. Turns out we had one full week where neither of us had in-person class obligations (CJ still had online classes but you can't win 'em all, right?).

 

We wanted to go somewhere exotic, new, and most importantly cheap. After a few minutes of Googling Ecuador seemed to fit the bill. We took the jump, bought the plane tickets (the most expensive part of our trip), and started brushing up on our Spanish.

  

With the hassle of school and work (and some fun summer weekends), we didn't have a ton of time to plan. Which ended up being a blessing in disguise - we spent more time wandering and exploring instead of following a jam-packed itinerary. Here are some highlights:

Hawaii: Paradise Found

One of the perks of having a brother who lives on the opposite side of the world? The halfway point is Hawaii. Which meant meeting in the middle for a family vacation led us to a week in paradise.

We spent 5 days on Hawaii, the big island, and before flying to Maui. I was only able to stay in Maui for one night before heading back to work, but my family stayed about 4 days. I'd seen plenty of pictures of Hawaii and in some ways it was exactly what I imagined - beautiful beaches with palm trees blowing in the wind. But there was also a ton of history, hiking, and unique ecosystems that I didn't anticipate. My family isn't the best at sitting around at a beach or pool for more than a few hours, and Hawaii was the perfect mix of activities and relaxation.

We flew into Kona on the big island and drove by fields and fields of volcanic rock before arriving at our condo. Hawaii still has active volcanos that  completely change the island's landscape every hundred years or so.