And so it begins...

Here we are in Korea. I can't believe we've been here six weeks. There are many stories to share already but I will jump right into the best to start.

Last weekend Jesse and I decided to go to the coast to celebrate our one year anniversary (one week early) before it got to cold. We were planning to spend a romantic weekend on the beach. Of course we made no plans we just jumped on the train and were going to figure it all out once we got there. Unfortunately there were not seats left on the train so we had to sit on the floor in the refreshment/arcade/karaoke (yes they have karaoke on trains) car. Shortly after we departed two foreigners (Simon and Jose) walked past to get some drinks. On their return past us they stopped to chat. turns out they were heading to the same area for a friends birthday. the birthday girl however had missed the train but her dog hadn't (another long story).
Simon and Jose soon invited us to take the birthday girl and her boyfriend's seat on the train. After chatting with them for a while they invited us to join them on a small island of the coast that boasted great secluded beaches. It didn't take much to convince us.
We spent the first night in the Picaso Love Motel, sadly the hotel room was bigger and nicer than our entire apartment. The birthday eventually showed up making the group a total of 11 people.

There were 2 Canadians, 1 Kiwi, 1 Chilean, 1 Brit, 1 Brit/Italian, 1 Moroccan, 1 Greek, us American/Canadian and 1 Australian.

The next day we caught a 7:30 ferry ride to the island. A sweet Korean man met us at the ferry terminal to take us our hotel. Our hotel was seconds away from a virtually private beach.
We spent the weekend riding waves on blow-up whales, swimming, playing soccer, eating delicious BBQ and laughing. We even got to experience a very bizarre food collecting technique. There are these incredibly phallic shell fish/muscles hidden in the sand. If you poor salt over the whole they have dug in the sand they will pop up and if your quick you grab and pull. You can boil these and they taste delicious (like oysters) although the males in the group did like the appearance and were turned off.
On the way how we experienced on of the most crowded trains I have ever been on (topped only by a Tokyo train during rush hour). People were lined up down the isles of the seating area and crammed in every corner and space in the refreshment cart. A sharp return to the reality that we are still in Korea not some exotic island country.
All in all a great weekend. Not the romantic getaway we had planned but that just gives us an excuse to try again this weekend.