Time to jump on yet another bus, this time to Gwangju, easier said than done as I went to the bus station to buy my ticket to be told it was the other bus station, which is where?! After trying to ask a few people whilst aimlessly walking around, I think a bus depot car park, I was pointed in the direction of another bus that was the correct bus station. Grabbed my ticket and boarded the bus. We stopped off at a service station and I got ‘chatting’ to a very friendly Korean woman who was really sweet. Once I got back on the bus, she came running down to bus to where I was sat to give me a bag of red bean filled batter balls to ‘sample Korea’. Was a lovely gesture and I felt bad so gave her a couple of my Kinder Bueno bars in return. The batter balls were bloody tasty and heavy but I scoffed them down in no time.

For my stay in Gwangju I had booked my first AirBnB accommodation (on my own). I found the apartment in the town centre really easily and met my host, Iris, a Danish student. Instantly, she made me feel so at home and showed me around the apartment and gave me some advice on where to go etc. I had come to Gwangju only to visit the Boseong Green Tea fields which were still a couple of hours south of Gwangju, so it was good to get some travel advice on that. Making the most of chilling out in a flat, I made the most of having some space to myself to just chill out and read and plan my next few days. Having slumped on the sofa for a good while, I thought I best make the most of my time here and go and explore the town. It was a surprisingly big and busy town centre and Nike trainers seemed pretty cheap (and I don’t think they were fakes!) so treated myself to a pair and went to find some cheap Korean food. That evening, I met the over two girls living in the apartment and a few of us went out that evening for some beers and a Korean food. Definitely a good AirBnB experience so far.

The following day, I tried to get up early and jumped on the metro to the nearest stop to the bus station and bought a ticket to Boseong. On the bus, it must have been a less up market one than we paid for, as everyone got a bit of money back which I wasn’t complaining about! It was a nice drive through the country down to Boseong but the town, once there, is rather sparse and uninspiring. I saw that it was 8/9km to the green tea fields and with it being a lovely day decided to walk it (thank god for Google maps and the maps with me app!!!). Hmmm, after a few KM’s the walk took me on to a main road with no foot path and the road seemed a not too busy dual carriageway, so sod it I walked down the edge of the road the last 5km to the green tea fields. I was pretty nervous and thought it would probably be best to get the bus back later. But in saying that, the walk was really nice with mountains all round, paddy and other farm fields and it was a lovely sunny day. Not like I do any other exercise! Once I got to the site, I treated myself to a green tea ice cream and not being a fan of either green tea or ice cream I was surprised at how much I liked it. Once I paid the entrance fee and got in, the actual green tea fields were a great maze of tea hedges to amble around for ages. It was a pleasant visit walking around the green tea fields and there was also a museum to visit but I decided against that. At the top of the hill of the fields, it was a surprise to see the sea over the hill, as I had been mostly away from the coast and Gwangju is also in the middle and not near the coast. After spending a couple of hours walking around the attraction, I grabbed another green tea ice cream before deciding to walk back to Boseong. This time I only walked down the road for a kilometre, which scared me so luckily I was able to jump down a banking and walk through the farm fields. Glad I did this as I saw a police car up on the road pass by; hopefully they weren’t looking for a crazy western girl strolling down dual carriageways. I think it surprised a few locals to see me walking through the random network of paths through their fields. Back in Boseong, I jumped on the bus back to Daegu and fell asleep for the journey back. Shattered from the umpteen kilometers I walked, I grabbed food and chilled with two of the girls at the apartment before passing out.