Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

So, how’d it go? The whole throwing-a-dart-at-a-map and going wherever it landed thing? Well, kinda bad. And kinda good. It was an overall bizarre experience.

The dart landed at the very furthest point from where we were, all the way at the south of South Korea, in Yeosu. Yeosu initially impressed us - it had a bullet train stop directly from Seoul, it was the site of a massive expo back in 2012, and had an incredible amount of infrastructure built up.

But, it was totally, concerningly empty.

Yeosu felt like an old World Cup city that was, at one time, filled with excitement and promise, but after the event ended, everyone just forgot about it. It held the 2012 World Expo - a massive event that brought 10,000,000+ people over the period of a few months - and to prepare for that they built up the infrastructure of the entire area, hoping that the investment would mean that more people would move here. However, South Koreans seem to really, really love Seoul - around 50% of the entire population in the country lives in the capital city - so after the Expo ended, and the excitement died down, seems that everyone went back home.

It left behind massive structures that now sit totally empty, like an ancient relic of a long-forgotten civilization. It felt a bit sad, abandoned, kind of like a promise unfulfilled.

Once we got past the old Expo grounds, we found that there was a surprising amount to do in Yeosu. We had to dig quite a bit further than we usually do to find it, though.

Yeosu is home to 300+ islands that surround it and are all connected via a shockingly complex ferry system (that was closed due to COVID and lack of tourists, but I’m sure it will be back to life soon), and an incredible downtown waterfront area.

Seafood was abundant here. As were cheap drinks. And beautiful sunsets.

It’s a beautiful town, with world-class infrastructure, that’s in dire, dire need of another Expo.

We had a great time, all said and done. We think, though, that we enjoyed the adventure of throwing the dart and getting there more than anything. :)

Today

After spending a wonderful few nights in Yeosu, we slowly made our way back up to Seoul, once again. It really does feel like the world of South Korea revolves around the city - on any given trip you’ll end here more than a few times. We did a whirlwind tour of Seoul by walking literally all around it.

There’s a trail that follows the entire ancient City Wall that used to encircle the entirety of Seoul. It’s about 12 miles around the whole thing, and is just the perfect sampler platter of this totally unique city.

You go over mountains, cross rivers, through busy cityscapes, slowly jaunt past temples, and meander through the smoke of countless KBBQ restaurants. I think it’s the best way to spend 3 days in Seoul, and that everyone should do it.

Right now we’re resting our weary bones from that grand adventure, and trying to not get a cramp every time we bend over slightly.

The (Near) Future

We’re going to spend the next week editing videos, trying to get ahead so that when our friends come to visit, we can actually be present with them and not thinking all the time about making a video. We’re going to try to take a break for a few days. We haven’t done that, really, since we started this YouTube channel 2+ years ago.

Crazy how time flies.

Then, it’s back to traveling, telling stories, and exploring this magnificent globe of ours.

Videos This Week

Our first impressions of Seoul were really, really, really good.

There is something about Seoul that makes us feel so incredibly comfortable and adventurous again. We couldn't quite figure out why we felt so safe, until we started to notice all the details of this day.

See you next Sunday…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs last year, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles. It’s been really taking off lately, but we still have a few uses of this link left for those of you who want to see the class for free. It comes with a free month of Skillshare, which is more than enough to watch our class and any of the other great courses on there!

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/lisaandjosh02221

Bonus Cat Content

On our train ride down to Yeosu, Lisa picked out our hostel solely based on the reviews mentioning “a cat.” Well, here she is.

Unsubscribe