An unforgettable weekend trip to Masan

It has been almost three months since I came to South Korea now. Time goes by really fast when you're having a good time. During these past few months I've made some amazing and valuable friends that I've become really close with. It has come to a point where I'm scared that time will go by too fast and that I have to say goodbye to them eventually.

One of my close friends, Soyoon, invited us to her hometown Masan and I, of course, gladly accepted her invitation. Masan is a district of Changwon which is a city approximately 2 hours away from Busan. We traveled there by bus, which took us about 4 hours. Luckily we chose the premium type as it was really comfortable, I think I slept all the way there haha.

After arriving, we went for a delicious lunch and then visited Dotseom Island (돝섬). The island was rather small and there were some art pieces scattered around the island. The nature and landscape were beautiful though. According to Soyoon, the island is called 'Golden Pig Island', although I never got to know the full story behind why they call it 'Golden Pig' haha.

After the island, we went to the flower festival called 'Masan Gagopa Chrysanthemum Festival' (마산가고파 국화축제) which is held every year during late October to early November. At the festival, there were booths filled with street food, snacks, candies and also games like catching gold fish and so on. And of course, there were flowers, a lot of flowers! The flowers were beautifully decorated in different shapes, including Soju bottles 😉 (see picture below).

After the festival, we went back to Soyoon's house which was one hour away by bus. We got to meet her parents and they were such nice and kind people 😊. I'm really grateful that they welcomed us into their home and let us stay the night. We ate delicious homemade dinner made by her parents and I got so full. I especially really enjoyed the porridge.

We then played a Korean Card game called "Go-Stop". It was difficult to understand at first but I got a grasp of it later on. It didn't go well for my roommate, Jasmine, though. She really didn't understand the game at all haha 😂.

After the card game, we went to drink with Soyoon's parents which was pretty awesome tbh. I was so bumped that I couldn't speak Korean with them because I really wanted to get to know them and ask them many questions. Anyway, I drank a bit too much that night... and got really drunk. And somehow, I ended up holding Soyoon's dad's hand... Yeah definitely an unforgettable night, alright hahaha. We went to bed at 3AM that night, everyone were pretty much drunk at some point so we all slept really well that night.

After a well rested night (not really), we got up and had breakfast with Soyoon's family. After that, we went to a cafe with Soyoon's parents. The cafe was near the ocean and had beautiful views, and the coffee was really good. That, and the breakfast was a great way to start the day off. After that, her parents took us to a park called 입곡산림욕장. It was a beautiful park near a small lake. It was filled with trees of golden and red leaves which looked so romantic like in a movie.

Us at the flower festival :)

Little did we know, these soju bottles would become our enemy that night...

Swinging bridge at Dotseom Island

Go-Stop card game ^^

One of my fav pictures of me and Soyoon :)

Doesn't the scenery look so romantic?

Delicious breakfast at family Jeong ^^

This trip was definitely one of the highlights of my stay in South Korea. It will definitely stay in my memories forever. Thank you so much, Soyoon, for having us!! 💛💛💛💛