Vacation in Jeju Day 5 & 6: Aqua Planet Jeju, DOMINOES PIZZA and getting lost in the Busan Subway
After an exhausting day of Hello Kitty and light sabers (see this post for more details on the light saber), the next day Chloe and I set off on our own to do something fairly less strenuous than the day before. We hopped the 700 bus to the stop that we needed only to be completely lost as to where to go. Chloe and I getting lost is not new, in fact, it’s strange if we ever get straight to our destination with no problems. What was strange this time around was the fact that there was actually a sign telling us where to, we were following it, and still couldn’t see where we needed to go.
We were on what looked like a road from the Zombie Apocalypse with all of our luggage since we were going to Jeju City immediately following the Aquarium and, worse yet, I was hungry. Luckily there’s always somewhere to get coffee and, therefore, food in Korea, so we plopped down in an empty cafe withthe super nice ahjussi who was working to come up with a new plan of action. In a last ditch effort to maybe figure out what we were doing I asked the nice ahjussi if he could tell us how to get the Aquarium. He pointed down the road and told us it was at least a 30 minute walk. Immediately dying at the prospect walking even 30 more seconds with all our bags down this Zombie Apocalypse road we thanked him, left and tried to catch a taxi. When he saw us going the wrong way he came after us to correct us (pretty sure no one believes Chloe and I are old enough to travel down the street by ourselves, let alone through Korea) we explained we needed a taxi and he called one for us.
Long story long, we were going the right way before but were too lazy to keep going as far as we needed to. In our defense, it was a fairly long walk though the taxi ride wasn’t long at all. I’m glad we didn’t give up though because the aquarium was well worth the insanity. Though a tad bit pricey (It was about $40 for each of us) it was HUGE, and with it being right on the water there was not only a stunning view outside, but the animals inside were exotic and different from the millions of other fish we’ve seen in aquariums everywhere else.
My absolute favorite were the random mermaids that rolled up in the ginormous fish tank.
That really was amazing.
After Aqua Planet it was time to say “Goodbye” to Seogwipo and we headed back to Jeju City. By the time we got there it was dinner time and we had no idea where to go for food. Then, suddenly, there was a beautiful beacon of red and blue light capable of curing all of our ailments: Dominoes. Ok, now on to us embarrassing ourselves thoroughly. Remember when I mentioned the locals on the island weren’t keen on listening to us speak Korean because of all the tourists? Yeah, when we went to Dominoes it was kind of the same thing.
They saw us walk in, handed us an English menu and then we all adorably mimed out our order because by then I was so hungry I had given up on speaking at all and the young man taking our order had the “Please don’t speak to me in English” face. Once we ordered and found the price was much less than we expected (It was 30% off day! SCORE!) we took our prize home and opened the box to check out our treasure…
Not going to lie this pizza may have been one of the best moments of our whole vacation. Well, that and making this video while we ate it…
Nonetheless, it was a great evening because not only did we have Dominoes but also had dessert, and the next afternoon we flew out to Busan. The process of flying was similar, if not easier than, flying to Jeju and cost roughly $80 USD. If you know anything about how much flights cost anywhere else, you’ll know that this is amazing. The flight was a quick 40 minute ride (made longer only by the baby who screamed the last 20 minutes of the flight) and then we landed at Gimhae International Airport.
This was our first visit to Busan since arriving in Korea so I was super excited to check it out. Busan is an extremely chill city with a very Austin-y feel to it, which is probably why I took to it like a fish to water. There are a lot more foreigners there than I’ve seen in a while, but we all kind of blended into the wall which, in Korea, is a very rare and magical occurrence. Especially the younger generation is super used to seeing us around so it was nice to not be stared at for any other reason than that I was dancing in the street.
We had a great time out, and we only got lost in the subway once the next day! For two hours though…*whoops* We just managed to hop a bus and made it back to Chungju by Saturday night. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation, but it was definitely exhausting. Our next trip out will definitely need to be limited to just the basics!
