Okk's older sister lives in a neighboring city called Ulsan, which I had never been to, so she invited me to go with her to visit her sister and ride bikes around a huge park for the day! I of course was all for it, so yesterday we had a nice little mini girlfriend vacation!
We met at the subway and took line 1 to the very end: Nopodong station... then jumped on a city bus to Ulsan, for a total of 2 traveling hours, and about $3.00!
Luckily her sisters apartment was just a couple minutes from the bus stop, because it was REALLY hot and sticky and we were both in desperate need of some "air con!" We stopped in at a little grocery store to buy her some peaches, (a common thing to do when visiting someone's home - even family!) and spent about an hour hanging at her sister place, playing with her adorable 16 month old baby girl, Min Ju. Then, I, Okk, her sister, sisters husband, and MinJu all walked down to the local coffee shop and sipped on some yummy coffee before heading to the park!
When Okk and I got to the park, we stopped in at the bike rental counter, and for $3.00 an hour, rented a cute red bike with a basket for my purse! PERFECT!
First stop on our ride around the park was this little waterfall area, where tons of kids were playing and catching waterbugs in little plastic bags!
Okk and I
We jumped back on the bikes and headed further down the bike path to this part of the park with this!! AMAZING!
The park was gigantic and I don't think we could have riden around the whole thing if we tried... although we did ride for about an hour and a half, in the heat of the day! We were both sweaty messes by the end!
Okk borrowed her brother in laws tiny little foldable bike for the day! We laughed about how it was the perfect size for her, cuz she's so tiny!
We may, or may not, have done a little off roading into this field of wildflowers!
Did you know the blood supply to nearly every organ is connected to your feet?! I didn't! Okk explained it to me, how this part of your foot's (pointing) blood supply is connected to your heart, stomache, etc... She said Koreans are very concerned with their body's blood circulation, so if I look more closely, I'll notice these little pebble walkways all over the place! So, we walked the foot path, which is a path containing all sorts of different pebble formations, spikes, wood planks etc, to help your body's circulation!
This is actually really painful!
While we were riding our bikes in the park, Okk's sister called saying she wanted to take us out to dinner before we went back to Busan, which I thought was very thoughtful and generous! We went to a fantastic Indian curry restaurant and feasted on the most delicious chicken and shrimp curry! YUM!
After dinner, we went back to their house for some watermelon, and then said our goodbyes and headed back to Busan! We both had such a great time, and laughed more than usual, which is a lot! So glad she had the idea to go and invited me to come along!