Yeosu is on the very southern coast of ol' SoKo, and it's pocked with islands. From the Gwangju bus terminal, it's a 9,400 won ticket and takes about an hour and 40 minutes, though the signs at the terminal tell you it's two hours. After a nice bus nap, we hit up the Yeosu terminal for some drinks, and get an extra bottle of water thrown in for free. (This will become more pertinent, promise!)
We were heading for Odongdo, which is one of the islands of Yeosu connected to the mainland by a bridge. We were going to take a taxi, but the signs were easy to follow and we decided to walk. About a kilometer in, we see another sign that says Odongdo is 4 km away. We tried to calculate how long it would take to walk, and figured we'd do it. Despite the horrible overcast sky and the humidity, it was actually a nice day.
As we were getting closer, we saw signs for the 2012 Yeosu Expo, which is advertised all over the city on everything from high-rise apartment buildings to the pedestrian bridges.
They've constructed a really nice exhibition hall showing everyone what the plans are for the expo. Yeosu has this goal to create a sustainable marine environment by 2050, complete with underwater aquarium tubes and floating patches of different marine environments. It looks pretty bad ass, and I figure I can come back when I'm 60 to see it fully completed.
I had to take a picture with their adorb mascots, and then we trekked on down to Odongdo.
The forecast had said there was a chance of rain and we were holding out hope that we'd missed it so far. After all, we finally made it to the island.
And then as we crossed the bridge, the downpour began. By the time we got on the island, my shoes were filled with water and Andrew's pants were soaked. Luckily, we just bought little travel umbrellas and got to use them!
The island was gorgeous, and we walked through the forest taking pictures of all the frogs hopping across the path. We ventured down to the Cave of Dragon, where we met a nice guy whom we exchanged photo-taking responsibilities with.
There's also a footpath on the island that was famous enough to make it into our guidebook. You're supposed to walk on it barefoot, and it alternates between small, pointy stones, big rocks, triangle stones, and wood blocks. It's supposed to help your pressure points or something, but I did it with only one foot and was in terrible pain. Ouch!
We got some snacks, caught a taxi where the driver asked us questions about our lives and then gave us Brazilian coffee candy, and journeyed on to find lunch. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant, which wasn't the best in the world, but it certainly was filling. There were also two men in there that I think were from either Greece or Russia.
When we got back to Gwangju, we picked up another bottle of water, and got another free bottle. I don't know if the associates thought we were poor or something because we were paying with change and thought we couldn't afford two, but two times in one day??? Very curious.
Now it's back to another tiring week at work!
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