Nic Trips

Jejudo (제주도) or Jeju Island is South Korea's biggest and most famous island. It is home to a plethora of famous places to see and do, but is most famous for it's mouthain: Hallasan (한라산). It is Korea's tallest mountain, at 1,950m, and is actually a volcano. Many of the island's typical souveniers and popular tourist spots have to do with the abundance of volcanic rock. We spent 5 days and 4 nights on the island. The first two of which we spent at the large southern city of Seogwipo (서귀포). This area is famous for the bay, the longest walking bridge in Korea, 3 beautiful waterfalls, and a huge botanical garden. We started our first day by hiking aimlessly around in search for a way to reach the waterfall and ended up discovering some great views. The first waterfall we saw was Cheonjiyeon Falls (천지연 폭포). The following day, we continued our walk around the city of Seogwipo in search of the 2nd waterfall which is locaed on the cliff covered coast. Aft...

For the start of our summer vacation, a few friends and I booked a tour to go and see the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone) on the northern border of Korea. The tour left from Seoul early one Saturday morning and took us for a two hour bus ride to the JSA (Joint Security Area). To quote some information from wikipedia : "It was created as part of the Korean Armistice Agreement between North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the Unitied Nations Command forces in 1953. It is 250 kilometres (160 miles) long, approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) wide and, despite its name, is the most heavily militarized border in the world." The beginning of the tour started with an in-depth powerpoint presentation about the history of the war between North and South Korea, the agreements and terms of the DMZ, different events that have happened inside since its creation, and the current state of these countries. The presentation was very informative and inspiring to conduct further...

The Boryeong Mud Festival is one of the biggest and probably the most highly recommended festival in all of Korea. Although it's no longer "traditionally" focused and has been completely taken over by young adults (both Koreans AND foreigners), it is a crazy amount of fun. But, maybe I'm just saying that because I'm a young adult. The festival happens over 8 days and is filled with a plethora of activities surrounding mud: giant mud pools or baths, mud wrestling, the blow-up mud slides and obstacle courses that you see below, colored mud painting, parades, fireworks and music shows. This year, there was even a show of these jets, streaming colored smoke by the "Black Eagles". The festival attracts thousands of people, plenty of which are photographers participating in the annual contest of who can take the best photos to capture the action, excitement and fun. Of course the goal of the weekend for any participants is to get as muddy a...

One of the best parts about the city of Ulsan that makes it stand out from other cities is it's biking and walking paths. Along both sides of the Taehwa river and a few of it's tributaries,for the bulk part of the city, there are paved and lit paths for biking and walking. (green = walkers, red = bikers) It is complete with signs, water break and toilet stops and exercise park stops to stretch and work out. Even thought I live very far from the center city, since I bought a bike a month and a half ago, I've been exploring several parts of the 5 main routes and even using it for long distance transport: changing my hour bus ride to city hall into an hour bike ride instead. On the map below, you can see the colored bike routes. I have done all of A (I live at the northern most tip of it), a third of B, and a small part of D. This weekend, we are going to do all of C! One weekend in particular, Shane suggested that we ride to Ilsan Beach in Dong-gu (the East Di...