Seoraksan National Park

This past Saturday morning Fred, Josh, Steve, our co-teacher Ann and I headed to Sokcho, South Korea. Sokcho is largest northern most city on the eastern coast. Fred and I went to Sokcho in September 2009 and in February 2010. Even though this was our third visit, we were counting down the hours until our arrival. Out of all of the cities that I have visited since arriving in Korea in July 2009, Sokcho is still my favorite. It is on the ocean yet surrounded by a gorgeous mountain range and Seoraksan National Park. We took a bus at 7:20am on Saturday and arrived three hours later. Right away we bought our return tickets and headed to get lunch and find a hotel before heading to the park. We bought our park tickets and headed straight to the cable car. Unfortunately, the cable car, which goes every five minutes, was sold out for the entire day. We then hiked around the park, visited the large bronze Buddha and went to a temple. We then headed to Waterpia. Waterpia is an indoor and outdoor sauna and hot tub spa. Each tub is a different temperature or has added scents such as Jasmine.

Josh, me, Fred, Ann and Steve in front of the Buddha

After hours of relaxation we headed to Daepo Harbor. We went to our favorite restaurant that we have visited each time we go to Sokcho. The lady immediately recognized us and started chatting. Her restaurant was full so she started to run us around to other restaurants. We ran, literally ran, after her through the street of shops and restaurants as she dodged around people. Finally, we found place that had room for our group of seven. It was a little table outside of the restaurant, right on the main walking street. We had a front row view of all of the action and we sure felt like VIP's. After a delicious meal of stuffed squid and clams we headed to our hotel.

Seafood dinner

On Sunday we headed right back to the National Park. We again tried to get tickets but they were again sold out, for a cable car that goes EVERY FIVE MINUTES. We ended up doing a small 90 minute hike to a waterfall. The leaves were turning red and yellow and the mountain seemed to be gleaming with fall colors. After enjoying the view for a while, we hiked back down. We then headed for the bus to leave the park. I cannot explain how many people were at the park. We waited for a few bus loads before we got shoved on. Once the bus seemed full, the workers who were managing the bus lines, took wooden sticks and shoved us deeper onto the bus. Then they added a dozen people and repeated the process. Once we could not breather in deeply without pushing against another passenger, the bus left the park. We stopped for a snack then headed to the bus station. We got on the bus at 5:30 and arrived back at 10:30. It took us three hours to get to Sokcho and five hours to get back. The amount of people leaving the area were uncountable. The roads were literally stopped. Even though it took us a long time to get home, the trip was wonderful. It was very nice to get out of the city and to truly enjoy fall in all of its glory. I cannot wait to get back to Sokcho this winter!