The Island of Real Mermaids - Day 1

I started this blog post nearly two weeks ago but have had trouble finding time to finally just sit and breathe. We're currently in Ha Noi, Vietnam but that travel tale is for another day. Bear with me as I take you through the past couple of weeks. Today, we start on Jeju Island, South Korea. Well... right before that actually.

Another 5 days has already came and went! So much has happened in these past few days and I'm excited to finally take a breather and catch up with you. Calvin and I left Tokyo on Sunday morning, bright and early. We had to take an hour long bullet train ride from the city to the airport so we thought why not just spend the day at Narita Airport and put our lounge passes to work? Sure, our flight didn't leave until 4pm but we weren't all that excited to haul our luggage around Tokyo's narrow streets so... we left at 9am instead.

One perk of being 16 hours ahead of the US is that I could watch the Coachella streams all weekend during the day. I was so excited to listen to some of my favorite artists while we got to chill at the airport. Sipping unlimited melon soda while watching PinkPantheress perform was something I didn't think I needed until this trip.

Our flight left right on time, landing us in Jeju a little after 7pm. Even though the flight was only two hours long, they had an entire meal service. Unfortunately for Calvin and I, we slept right through it. We tried to sleep the whole time since the plane didn't have any wifi or seat entertainment. We're so used to Delta and Sun Country barely offering a soda for a 4hr flight that a meal service just seemed out of the question.

Once we landed, my Mom and her husband Mark were already waiting for us. They had landed a bit earlier with Mark's birth mother and brother. Mark's other brother and daughter flew in the day before and met us at the airport.

We stayed in a little surfer town called Woljeong Beach which is about a 45 minute drive from Jeju's airport. The AirBNB was so amazing, I can't even put into words how cool it was. There was two different buildings, Building A and Building B. Calvin, Mom, Marky, and I stayed in Building B while Marky's family stayed in Building A. We shared a cute stone path and sat our houses right next to each other. It was perfect. You could tell that the architecture was well thought out and had many inspirations from traditional Korean homes.

By the time we got to the AirBNB, it was already past 9:00pm. We were all so very hungry so it was a miracle that the restaurant down the street from us was still open for dinner. A 30 second walk down the road led us to this cute little black pork grilling spot. Jeju Island is known for their black pork so Calvin was already salivating at the mouth when we entered. For some reason, the pork here looks and tastes like beef. It's the craziest thing!

Definitely a must try if you're ever on Jeju Island. So glad we were able to get this meal right as we landed. Instant hangry cure for me.