Jeju Island,

South Korea has been shown in the news a lot these past weeks. The Sewol Cruise ship was on its way to the romantic korean island, Jeju Island. Unfortunately, that day didn't go as expected and the ferry sank. Since then, Koreans have been afraid of even putting their feet on a ship, and it will probably stay like that for a while. Even speaking about ferry, cruise or anything that has to do with that, makes people terrified. This might be a reason, why there is not as many tourists on Jeju Island as usually these days. 

Jeju Island, is an island what Koreans are very proud of. Jeju Island is a volcanic island dominated by the Hallasan Mountain, a volcano which is 1950m high. Mt. Hallasan is the highest mountain in South Korea. The island itself is 73km from east to west, and 40km from north to south. When traveling around Jeju Island, you will be exposed to the most traditional and cultural aspects of the island. Examples of those are "dol hareubang (stone godfather). These can be seen in logos, but also sculptures around the island. Another example are the small, round towers made our of stones (Bangsatap). Jeju is also famous for the "sea women", which refers to the strong Jeju women who are diving and providing the food for the family. 

The weather in Jeju is mostly warm, even in the winter. That's what shocked me the most. South Korea has its own characteristics, but on the Island, you will see palm trees, sandy beaches and high mountains. The island is extremely famous for their tangerine or mandarine plantations. In every shop, you will find fresh juice, chocolate, basically anything that has a taste of Jejus tangerines. 

So, we arrived to Jeju Island Thursday morning. Me, my roommate Marita and our friend Nubdi decided to spend a long weekend on the island together. There are very affordable flights going from Gimpo Airport in Seoul all the way to the island, in just one hour. When we arrived to the airport, there were a lot of tourist information booths, with broschurs, which made it easy for us to find accommodation and activities for the whole weekend. The first day was spent in Jeju-Si, Jeju City, which is basically the "capital" of the island. We walked around the city, the harbor and the first evening was spent by celebrating Maritas birthday. Next morning, was a different story. It was the time to walk all the way up to Mt. Hallasan. We were all super excited, and we knew it would be a hard but lovely day. We ended up exhausted and with a lot of pain. Our goal was to go all the way up and down, so it felt great when it was over. In the mountains, we got some new friends, also from Seoul. They suggested a nice guesthouse for us, where we stayed the following night. We also visited Hallim Park, or the area located around. We paid a visit to the famous Sex&Health Museum. This is a strange attraction. Since talking, mentioning, watching or having sex is a little "taboo" or a sensitive topic in South Korea, exposing it all in a museum is kind of cool. We had many good laughs. Our last day was spent on the beach and we walked up the Seongsan Ilchulbong. The boys drew us to our guesthouse, where we also slept the first night. Tomorrow, we will fly back to Seoul, which means back to business and reality.