The Visitor

This story is about a really lucky girl who was ever so delighted to have her absolutely wonderful friend visit her while living abroad.

Yes, I am the lucky girl. I'm also really cheesy, but you probably already know that.

So here I am living in South Korea for almost 2 years now and as much as I like it here, I never expected that someone would come visit me. I mean, the flight itself is enough to turn one away. However, I underestimated my loved ones and I have had a visit from my parents and now from the lovely Bronwyn.

I kept having moments of thinking "I can't believe I am looking at Bronwyn and talking to her and hanging out with her, and I'm not dreaming." It was really great to just hang out and tour around the country a little bit.

Her first stop was Seoul. I was able to head up there on the weekend, but she was on her own for the most part. Seoul was a lot of fun just hanging out and seeing the sights. One thing I have now realized is that I have become this insane planner when I go on trips and I like to have everything mapped out and instructions on how to get from A to B all prepared. So, of course I made big plans for the Saturday and Sunday that I would be with Bw. Not nearly all of them were accomplished, but I'd rather be over prepared than under, right? Many of the places we went to I had already been to, but I never get tired of them. Even Gyeongbokgung palace. I have been there 4 times now and I am still not sick of it. We did however, go somewhere new for me, which was City Hall. The old city hall has been turned into a library and the new one has walls of greenery on the inside. It was really neat. We also went to a neat pub called the Sherlock Holmes Pub. It had a bunch of paraphernalia and delicious beverages. Unfortunately I had to go back to work on Monday morning so I left Bronwyn in Seoul for a few days where she saw some more sights and toured the DMZ. Wednesday evening she arrived in the very country town of Namchang. On Thursday she headed to Busan while I worked, and Friday she visited my school and took a bit of a rest.

The following weekend was a special one in Korea. It was Korean thanksgiving or "Chuseok". That meant a 5 day holiday for most people living here. We took advantage of this and went on a trip to the south-western end of Korea. We started in Boseong and made our way east. In Boseong we visited the very famous and wonderful Green Tea Plantation. The plantation was humungous and such a great sight to see. We almost skipped going here because of time constraints, but I am really glad we made it there. We even sampled some green tea beverages after wandering through the fields. We then headed to Suncheon, where our accommodations were located and where we would spend the following day.
Getting to the traditional Korean guesthouse wasn't a difficult feat, but trying to find the entrance to it was. Unfortunately it was rather dark by now. First we spotted the house gate that had "guesthouse" written on it, but it was locked. I was able to flag someone down, but they said that it was the house
behind them. We did find the rooms, with a sign that said "Welcome Emma Hurst" so we knew we were in the right place. However, we couldn't find the office where we should check in. So, we checked the door to our room and it wasn't locked so we let ourselves in. A few moments later, the owner found us and I was somewhat able to explain what had happened, though I think she just thought I was a little cooky. The guesthouse was nice, and we slept well after a long day of travelling.

Our day in Suncheon was spent at the Ecological Park and at the EXPO Garden. Both were quite beautiful. It still amazes me how small South Korea is on the map, but how many beautiful and amazing places there are to see in it. I think I've travelled around quite a bit in the last couple years, but there is still so much more out there. It really is an amazing country to see. Anyways, back to Suncheon. We had to do some hiking and a lot of sweating, but making it to the top to really see the wetlands was worth it. It was even worth the tumble I took on the way down, scraping my knee up a little bit. Battle wounds I guess. The garden was huge and also a great sight, but different from the eco-park. Everything was pristine and well maintained. There were a ton of themed gardens from a range of different countries.



Our last destination for a couple days was Yeosu. It was a bit of a relief to be staying somewhere for two consecutive nights, so that we wouldn't have to carry our backpacks with us everywhere. We did have lots of luck with lockers being available though thus far. Our first day in Yeosu was pretty busy and jam-packed. We saw a lot of the main sights and even ventured to the island of Odong. We also made it to Dolsan Park as the sun was setting and saw a nice view of the bridge. Our second day was a lot more relaxed as we just took a walk around the area of our hotel and tried some Bing-su (shaved ice dessert). The we headed to the train station to get ready to return to Ulsan.

Our trip was really fun and great to be away from city life. The next day was some more travelling, but this time it was back to Seoul to send Bronwyn on her way back home. The hotel we stayed at was pretty nice and the beds were amazingly comfortable. I really didn't want to get out of bed the next morning, but I had to take the KTX back to Ulsan and actually work haha. The night before was fun, ho

wever, we grabbed some dinner, sang in a karaoke room, and ate ice cream.

It was really difficult to see Bw off at Seoul Station knowing she was going back home to Canada. I wanted to ditch everything and go with her. But, it is nice to know that I will see her and my home soon. Thank you for visiting me and having such fun together :)