Jeju Island - Day 2

After that exciting Fan Death interlude, let's continue.

We woke up on Sunday and, after drinking the worst coffee in human history, walked south to the largest waterfall on the island with fellow soccer fans Lon and Lisa. En route we saw a little park with a number of Japanese statues which seemed odd given the troubled history between the two countries, but unfortunately we couldn't find an English explanation. We did get some great views of the water though and the waterfall itself was rather impressive.

We then decided to head to the Chocolate Museum, as Jeju is famous for its chocolate. However, I apparently misjudged the location of the museum, as it was about 30 minutes away by taxi (a $40 round trip fare). Mercifully the cab driver waited for us while we were in the museum. I have no idea how we'd have found another taxi out there. The museum itself was strange, with a kitschy assortment of old chocolate-making utensils, Christmas decorations, and McDonald's Happy Meal toys (inexplicably). On the plus side they did have a history of chocolate in English, admission included a free cup of coffee and a bon-bon, and the gift shop was predictably delightful. Brenda still hasn't brought herself to finish off the box of chocolate.

At that point, it was time to head to the main event: the Jeju United vs. Daejeon Citizen game. The 42,000 seat stadium was built for the 2002 World Cup, but given that the island itself only has about 500,000 residents, it's something of a White Elephant. Only a couple of thousand people were at the game, less than a dozen of them Daejeon supporters. We arrived about 10 minutes late, and at that point it was impossible to get to the visitors section, so we had to holler abuse from the Jeju section. The game finished 1-0 to Jeju, after Daejeon had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside. On the plus side, Jeju's mascots, based on the famous Jeju oranges, were perhaps the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

We met up with a number of foreigners who support Jeju and headed back to Gecko's for dinner. After that we met up again with Kate and James, who had been off touring a smaller island to the north all day. We managed to find a decent bar, but they kept the door open ensuring infestation by mosquitos. Lisa led in confirmed kills with at least a dozen. We had to be up by 7:00 for our flight, so we called it an early night.

On Monday morning we "enjoyed" a free breakfast at the hotel. Korean breakfast is pretty much the same thing as Korean lunch and dinner. I'm sorry, but rice and kimchi does not a breakfast make. We then hopped on the airport shuttle and caught our flight in time for the work day.

Pictures from day 1 and 2 below:

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