Seoraksan!

            Kalie and I made it to Seoraksan last weekend. It was very cool and quite a site to see. We got a head start on the day and arrived to Sokcho (the town that is next to the mountain) around 10am. We however being the idiots we are didn’t dress properly for a cool fall day. You’d think being from MN we’d know how to dress warm by now. It was very windy and cold; we both thought we’d be fine in long sleeves. Let’s just say we ended up buying hats and Kalie invested in a winter coat as well… Haha. We were walking to the trailheads when we realized we both had no clue which route to take. We missed the info booth so we had to walk back towards the entrance and that’s when we saw it: the cable car. We walked into the building thinking they’d have a map that we can get and then decided why get a map and hike up when we can just take this cable car to the top with all the Koreans and go hiking the tourist Korean way. So that’s what we did! We were both feeling lazy as usual and enjoyed every second of that ride up to the top of the mountain. It was fun. We go out walked around a bit to see the top of the mountain where the wind almost pushed both of us over the edge. We didn’t last long up there, only long enough to enjoy the pb&j sandwiches I prepared for us. 

The statue of buddah near the entrance

Kalie and I with our new hats! 

Umm.. where is this water coming from?

The cable car that looked way too appealing for us to resist. 

From the top of the mountain overlooking Sokcho (a city on the Eastern sea in Korea)

At the top overlooking the other mountain tops in the national park. 

I love leaves! 

Some Koreans were watching as I had Kalie throw up leaves for this pic. They thought we were sooo strange. It was pretty entertaining.

After our time at the mountain we headed back into town (Sokcho) and walked around downtown for a bit looking for a coffee shop or somewhere to go relax for a bit and spend the afternoon. The coffee shop venture turned into a pasta and beer type place. It was a cute little place right by the ocean. We ordered some a kimchi fried rice dish and beers. It felt so good to just sit down and relax for a few hours and chat.

That evening when we got back to Hongcheon we met up with some of the foreigners in my town. They were having a boy’s poker night. Kalie and I just so happened to run into a few of them and joined them for a few hours just to sit, chat, drink, and enjoy watching the game. It was yet another great successful day with Kalie. I only get to see her about once a month and when I do we always have such a great time together. 

Kalie at the restaurant we hung out at that afternoon.

Sunday morning Kalie left early for Daegu. She had some stuff she needed to do back at home. I had a soccer game. We ended up playing an old men’s team. When I say old, I mean old. One guy who happened to be the same number as me (15) came up to me and told me he was 80 years old. Clearly, one of my teammates translated because he told me in Korean. Anyways, the old guy was playing and almost scored a goal. It is so incredible to me how they can actually play and how well they play. They did a good job. We had to go super easy on them because if we didn’t we’d probably break one or two of them but still. They ended up winning the game. The goalie on our team who was playing sucks, just sayin. It was pretty entertaining playing them though. 

Random thought about Korea: I still can’t believe how they do construction here. They have, what appears to be, no regulations on safety here it’s so crazy to me. You will be walking down the street or in the subway or anywhere and there can be sparks flying at you. You have to be careful where you walk at times. I guess it’s just another one of those cultural differences but it’s definitely not always safe at construction sites here!