Tour De Korea (Leg 1)

Unlike most of the EPIK teachers I decided not to take off for Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines. I stayed right here in Korea. I figured if I was going to save up the cash for a big trip later... stick it out here avoid the potential coups that were going on in various places and see what I could see here.
My first leg which was billed by all my co teachers as the "Hawaii of Korea" and I was told it would be warm and sunny and perfect to relax. Someone missed that it's still winter...
I landed at Jeju Airport around noon, where I was greeted as I stepped off the plane by snow. Yeah, let's just say... it wasn't very warm. I then took the limo bus over the the Hyatt and promptly took a hot shower... for the first time in months it felt like I was really warm all the way to my bones. (my bathroom in Daegu is an whole post of it's own.) Then I headed out. I'd gotten an English map of Jeju from the information booth in the airport which was handy. I just figured I'd wander up the street see a couple of the museums and then find a waterfall. My first stop was the Teddy Bear Museum. Anyone who has known me most of my life would know that I love teddy bears. I had a collection of over 60 diffrent ones at one point in my childhood. So as overwellmingly cute as it was it was also perfect for me.
I walked through the exhibits inside and stumbled upon a whole display case of Santa Bears! I had quite a few of these from Hudsons as I was growing up. I still have a few in storage back in Atlanta. Then I made it outside where it was bears gone wild. There were life size bears doing alsorts of crazy things. I spent probably a good two hours wandering and taking pictures.
Finally I left there and headed in the direction I figured I could find one of the many waterfalls that Jeju is famous for. I found it... and at probably one of the nicer times of day to find it. There were several ways you could aproach the waterfalls and I saw it from several angles.
Then I hiked back to my hotel and crashed after uploading a few pictures to flickr.

Day two dawned with a little more sun and a lot less wind. I consulted my trusty rusty map and figured that I could taxi it out to the far waterfall then hike to the closer one. After that cab it to E-mart where I could then see a few museums and the World cup stadium. I know not many people think hiking around an island getting lost is fun but I had fun doing it. I got a nice driver who spoke some english and between my lonely planet and the english map we made it to the first waterfall, jeongbang.
I then took a wandering hike following the coastline. I took some time to shoot some pictures along the harbor of the fishing boats. Eventually I found the other waterfall I was looking for.
Then it was off to emart... cause the taxi drivers didn't get world cup stadium.. but eh-martah they get.
The 3rd day I had a car... driving in korea will get it's own post and everything.. maybe tomorrow.
But for now I need to take a break and relax after a hecktic first day back.