I had a nice brunch in Seogwipo and hiked up a nearby hill by the sea. On the way to the airport I found a great seaside cafe. This was a trip in two parts; solo for three days, then four days with Romana.

Day 3 of 7 winter days on Jeju

On the last solo part of my trip, I visited two cafes; one for breakfast and one for late lunch. The trip in between was quite surreal since I travelled from a sunny place through the remains of a snow storm, rain and cold, and a HUGE traffic jam (fortunately, going in the opposite direction to me), to a windy overcast place!

For breakfast, I did a little map-app search and found a place that showed eggs Benedict in the photos! Off I went. Not all locations on the map-apps are as open as they indicate (it can be quite seasonal) but I was fortunate in this case. It was called Cafe Blossom in a modern building with interesting interior and great views from the roof spaces. After ordering, I spent some time wandering around. Most the indoor seating was on a terraced step. It was very bright inside but I would have preferred some better windows and views from inside considering the location.

The outdoor areas and terrace were nice and big, but a bit chilly to sit on today. A nice thing about the terrace was a cool ‘window’ which gave the impression of a picture frame when looking at the village houses behind it. The eggs Benedict and coffee were good and set me up for the day!

Nearby was a small hill or oreum, Sammaebong (삼매봉). There were nice views of the sea and the surrounding lowlands behind. The skies were looking dramatic with some strong sunlight piercing the clouds. Hallasan in the north was completely obscured with low cloud now.

When I got back to the hostel, I went up to the roof for a last look around and noticed a huge wedge of white in the distance that seemed to be slipping eastward from Hallasan; the mountain wasn’t visible and there was perfectly clear, blue sky above it. It looked really cool and quite strange! I guessed this was some kind of fog or snow storm.

Reluctantly, I left and started driving to Jeju. I’d planned to make a stop at an amusement park that featured sculptures made of junk, but the closer I got, the snowier,windier and wetter it got. Perhaps on another trip! There were snowploughs going in the opposite directions, and a tow truck which, with the snow, seemed to have caused a VERY long tailback. I’m glad I wasn’t heading south at this point. Fortunately, the road was clear enough I didn’t need to put on the snow chains in the back. The weather wasn’t snowy by the time I got to Jeju city and I looked for a place to eat.

I went to Antoinette, (앙뚜아네트 용담점, the Yongdam branch) a bakery cafe I’d noticed on my way out of Jeju city. It turns out they have a few locations. It’s located right on the edge of the rocky coast and I got lucky with the last available parking spot! Its interior is a mixture of European cafe and Japanese temple, with tatami floors! In the basement was a casual wine bar area with more windows looking to the sea. The sea was rough with waves splashing the windows sometimes. I went for a pulled pork burger and coffee, both nice. While sitting here, I wished I could bring Romana; spoiler alert, we in part two of this trip.

With not much time left, I headed out to gas up, drop the car off, get the shuttle bus to the airport and browse the duty free; Christmas is coming after all.

Click the ‘door’ icon on the top left of the map to open the list of places for this trip: