A breath of fresh air...

Sunday we went to Seorak San, which is a really tall, beautiful mountain north of Donghae. Our GPS took us to a entrance into Seorak San and we didn't realize it was the wrong one until we had payed for parking and hiked up the path a ways and then talked to some women who said the place we wanted to go was really far away. Although it put us back a little, I enjoyed taking the detour because the air was so fresh and the trees were so colourful, and we had been hiking next to a river that was really clear and very pretty.

So we walked back down, got in the car, and by that time we decided we should stop for lunch. We went to a really cool vegetarian restaurant that served lots of mountain vegetables found in the region. Everything was really fresh and very beautiful. There were lots of different mushrooms, leaves, and roots. One thing that I've really found interesting about Korea is how resourceful the people are. Korea was a really poor country for a while and so they had to live off of anything edible they could find. There are also gardens in every spare space of land, and you see people on tarps drying different beans, seeds, and fruit. So this meal was very traditional. The gave us lots of different vegetables that they had prepared, and some rice and some soup, and with the rice and vegetables we made our own bi bim bap.

After lunch we drove to the place we had originally been meaning to go, which was at the bottom of Seorak San, and it had a giant buddha statue, a couple of trailheads, and a gondola to get to the top of Seorak San. We walked around at the base and I took lots of pictures of the trees and of the buddha statue, and of small children that were really cute. Here, it isn't odd for people to just go up and pat kids' heads, or take pictures of them. They aren't in any danger of being kidnapped or anything, and everybody is very friendly. The parents like seeing that other people think their kids are cute, too. Then we got our gondola tickets, and since there was two more hours until the gondola we were scheduled for was going to go up (there were gondola's going up every five minutes- that is just an example about how many people there were there, wanting to go up to the top), Miya and I decided to go up a ways on one of the trails. Uncle Jamie decided to read his book by the river while we did that. I can't believe how pretty all of the trees were, and since trees are one of my favourite things to take pictures of, it's needless to say I took lots of pictures.

When Miya and I had came back down and met up with Uncle Jamie, we got on the gondola and headed up. It was so cool. By this time my camera had died and so I could only take a few at the top unfortunately.

We walked around the building which had different levels that people could look off of, and I noticed a sign that went down a pathway off of one side of the building. It was for a buddhist temple, and I really wanted to see it because I couldn't believe how beautiful it would be to live on the side of a mountain! I didn't realize it was going to be down a really long, steep, rock staircase, and I felt bad for dragging Uncle Jamie and Miya down with me, because I don't think they were as excited about it as I was. It was very pretty though, and very small. Uncle Jamie said there might only be one monk living there. I walked down a little further to look off the edge of a cliff, (that path was even steeper and so I went on my own) but it was so nice looking off the edge into the valley covered in orange and green, and hearing nothing but a waterfall in the distance. The weather was perfect too, I forgot to mention. We were worried it was going to be too foggy because it was in the morning, but by then it had cleared up and it was so nice and crisp, which reminded me so much of home.
Anyways, after we had headed back up the trail and gotten a Hodduk (Honey Pancake- it was a fried pancake that the center was filled with a kind of caramelized syrup and almonds. It wasn't exactly honey.), we took the gondola back down, walked back to our car and head home. We were all really tired and we stopped for Budae Jjigae, which is translated to Army Soup. It was from the Korean War when the Americans came over and brought with them all of their kinds of army food- spam, hot dogs, canned beans and peas and corn- and the Koreans took it and made a soup out of it by mixing all of those up in a fish broth with ramen and onions and gochu jang and rice cakes. It was kind of spicy as all Korean food is, but really yummy after hiking and exploring in autumn weather for a day.