Island Adventure (The Beginning)

Heard a rumor from our friend Alia about some amazing islands within just 2-3 hours of Busan. We had a 4-day weekend thanks to the celebration of Korea's independence from Japan, so Jesi, Brandon, our new friend Brad, and I decided to check it out for ourselves. Rode the Busan subway for about an hour, jumped on a tourist bus for 2 hours, and arrived in TongYeong City, where we planned to board a ferry to get to one of the islands. Problem was, we failed to realize that just about every Korean family in the country was planning the same vacation during the holiday weekend. In not so good English, every single teller at the ferry terminal ticket office politely informed us that all tickets were sold out so we would have to stay the night in Tongjeong City and try again in the morning. At 5:55pm (5 minutes before the last available ferry left the terminal) Brad had an idea. He decided to call Korean Charles, a middle-aged man who is known throughout Busan as a foreigner's best friend. As the story goes, Charles took a trip to Europe several years ago, where he met a nice older gentlemen who took him sight-seeing all over the continent free of charge. Charles decided to do the same for tourists & foreigners in his home country, Korea. So, a couple times a month Charles takes foreigners on various trips throughout the country just so they can get a taste of all Korea has to offer. Anyway, during Brad's 8 months in the country he has gone on several of these trips and formed a friendship with Korean Charles. Charles asked to speak with one of the ferry terminal tellers and within 2 minutes we were handed four tickets aboard the last ferry of the day headed for Bijindo Island. Relieved and thankful, we climbed aboard the ferry with enough camping gear and supplies to last a couple days.