Jin-do (Monday, May 5)

To be honest, Jin-do was a bit of a letdown. While going to Jin-do was the point of the whole crazy, bus-filled trip, we all agreed that Jiri-san was really the best part.

For one thing, Jin-do was unbelievably crowded. Which, granted, should have occurred to us, since they were trying to set a Guinness world record, after all. Also, we had a hard time finding somewhere to eat, and finally had to settle for some overpriced noodles in a tent. It was very noisy, as may well be expected; in addition to the vast crowds, there was also a show going on with Korean drummers and a singer. As much as I love Korea and Koreans, I do not enjoy listening to Korean singers. At least not the ones I have heard so far.

After all our hours of traveling, we only spent about two and a half hours on Jin-do. When we first got to the beach area, we ate dinner in a tent (the previously mentioned over-priced noodles). Then we went to sit by a stage that had been set up, and watched the drummers and singer. Part of the show was unintentionally amusing - two really drunk guys apparently decided that this was their chance for stardom, so they ran up on stage and joined the dancers. Both drunk guys were in at least their seventies, so it was quite funny to see two old men dancing their hearts out, wobbly from too much alcohol.
Finally the low tide came, and the land bridge (the "mysterious sea road") appeared. We noticed that people were wearing brightly colored wading boots, which we assumed were necessary for crossing. So, we went off in search of the elusive boots. We soon learned an astonishing fact: while almost everyone was wearing the boots, no one knew where to purchase them. We walked for at least a few miles before decided we were on a fool's errand. To keep it from being a completely wasted walk, we bought ice cream cones. As soon as I tasted my pistachio ice cream, I decided that the long walk was worth it.

We walked back to the beach, and decided to cross the Aegean sea without waders. It was a little muddy, but basically solid land. When we had gotten less than halfway across, the tide came in. Soon water was almost to our knees, and we made a hasty retreat. Somehow we wound up in the middle of a parade. When we tried to get out of the parade, those in it beckoned us to stay. So, we smiled and proudly marched with a bunch of costumed men carrying tall flags.
After we finally left the parade, we wound up behind a reenactment of a Buddhist funeral procession, which was quite interesting to follow. Then, it was time to leave. Since thousands of people would be leaving the island, we made the wise decision not to wait for the last bus off the island. As it was, we barely made the second-to-last one.
We took a bus to Gwangju, which is a fascinating and thriving city. Considering how nice their bus station is, it was a shame that we didn't have time to check out the city. I plan to return sometime to explore Gwangju. In the bus station, which was more like an airport in layout, we searched desperately until we found a restaurant that was open. I had pork rib soup, which was delicious and spicy. After dinner, we managed to find a coffee and ice cream shop that was still open, so we got our dessert there. There, I had some fantastic kiwi frozen yogurt.
We took the midnight bus to Busan, getting in at about 3:00 am. Since the morning buses weren't running yet, we went to a PC bang at the bus station. A PC bang is a place where you can pay-as-you-go to use computers for games, Internet, etc. We surfed the Internet until 5:00 am, then bought our tickets for the 5:30 bus. We finally arrived back in Gyeongju at 6:30 Tuesday morning. Exhausted, I returned to my apartment, called home for the first time in awhile, and then went to work. Needless to say, I was quite tired for the entire day, and was delighted to sink into my bed (rather than a floor or a bus) that night.