hikes in Korea
So yesterday I nearly killed myself climbing this mountain yesterday, a mountain near Seoul. It was supposed to be a hike, but it turned out to be a straight up climb. Stairs have nothing on this mountain. Hot, humid, sweaty... It took us 6 hours to travel up and back about 3 miles, the last of which involved ropes and cables and scrambling up wet rocks. I had to stop before the very top. And the sick thing is that there were grandmothers who were practically running up the thing.
Finished off the evening with some incredibly spicy chicken. It was so spicy that when they started making it, everyone in the restaurant started sneezing. I'm not kidding.
Today I slept in until noon and then promptly went out to hike another hill, with a bunch of temples and a piece of the city wall up top. But it was too hot to keep walking around, so I came back to the hostel and took a shower. Tomorrow, it's back to Japan for me. But this trip has been fantastic for me, a chance to get out on my own and stretch my legs. The fact that I don't speak any Korean hasn't significantly changed how much fun I've had, or how many interesting people I've met here.