One Day Trip to Jebu-Island
Enjoying some Quality-Time before Baby Arrives
Being 38weeks pregnant I had the urge to spend some quality time with my husband outside of the big city. So we decided to take a small one-day trip to a beautiful island near Seoul. Jebu Island or also known as Jebu-do, is a small island located on the west side of South Korea and it is most famous for its “parting sea” that visitors can witness twice a day during the low tide. But not only, being very close to South Korea’s capital Seoul (1 and a half hours drive by car) it is the best destination for a one-day family or couple trip. There are many varieties of seafood restaurants, you can observe Korean “ajummas” collecting crabs during the low tide and you can watch the beautiful sunset over the ocean.
We’re usually late sleepers, so we departed from Seoul only around 2:30 pm. Thus, we arrived around 4 pm. The drive was very comfortable and there was almost no traffic, which is very rare for a Sunday. Also, it was pretty exciting to experience the drive along the sea road that leads to the island and which is only open during low tide. However, thanks to the newly launched cable car (since Decebmer 2021) it is possible now to reach Jebu-do at any hour of the day.
There weren’t too many people so we decided to take a walk along the beach first. We parked the car right next to the beach entrance. I was positively surprised to see that the parking fee was only 1,000won for up to 5hours which compared to Seoul is absolutely nothing. We walked all the way towards the big sea stacks which are a characteristic showplace and popular photo spot of Jebu-do. Of course, also I wanted to take some pictures there.
As soon as I was satisfied with the pictures that my husband took of me, we made our way to look for a nice restaurant. There is a very nice road along the beach where you can find one restaurant next to the other, all offering local seafood dishes. In general, Korea is very popular for its Hoe (회), which can be translated into "raw sliced fish” or is generally referred to as Korean-style Sashimi. I absolutely love it however being pregnant I didn’t want to risk eating raw fish even though I could be sure that it was totally fresh. Luckily we discovered a very interesting dish that neither I nor my husband hasn’t tried before. It’s called 쭈꾸미 샤브샤브 (Jjukkumi Shabu Shabu). In English, I would translate this dish as "webfoot octopus hot pot”. The original Shabu Shabu is a hotpot of sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water. However, we never heard of the octopus version before, so we were eager to try that out. Usually, at Shabu Shabu restaurants they serve the hotpot with water and vegetables, and then you can add the slices of meat by yourself. Also in this case we were served with a hotpot of water, vegetables, clams, and prawns. The octopuses were served separately and oh my... they were still alive! It was a really fun experience for us to try this dish for the first time and we both loved it! Also the view while eating was amazing since you could exactly see the sunset from there.
After being stuffed with seafood we quickly grabbed a coffee at a newly opened Glamping place and we decided that next time we would love to come back here with our baby and spend the night with some friends or family.
