Ready...Set...Climb

Well I'm a little late again but its been a tiresome few days.
So, this week was pretty uneventful for the most part. Ash has gone home and I took the first few days of the week to just relax around the house and catch up on the sleep I missed while she was here. At work things were the same, we were still covering classes for Andy which meant longer days and more running around for everyone. There were a few nights that we did go out for drinks after work to take the edge off and to take Jameson's girlfriend, who came to visit, out to some of our favorite places. But all in all the week went by like any other, a little working out and a lot of crazy school business.
The big adventure we were waiting for was the weekend excursion to Sokcho, to hangout at the beach and climb Seoraksan, Seorak Mountain. Sokcho is a beach city located just North East of Seoul on the Sea of Japan coast. We were able to get bus tickets for the last bus of the evening leaving Seoul's East Bus terminal at 11 Friday night. This meant that Jameson, Tyler (Jameson's gf), Brian, and myself had to go from work but with plenty of time to spare. The only concern was for Margaret, since she doesn't get off work until 1030. Luckily they let her go early since she has been bending over backwards for them these past few weeks. We all got to the bus station and got on the bus in time and it felt great.
The bus ride there was only 2.5 hours with a stop along the way to get some food. Where might I add Margaret and I got ripped off for some mandu, because the lady working the food both had an inability to remember that she had already been paid and made us pay again. And by made us pay again, I mean made Margaret pay again and drag me away while I was mildly freaking out. Either way it wasn't a big loss and we did get some food in us.
We got to Sokcho and found a hotel for the night near the bus station to drop our things at before going out for a walk and a beer. On Saturday morning we got up and headed further in to the city to the other bus terminal by the beach, where we got another hotel and then caught a bus to Seoraksan from. We got to Seoraksan around 1130 and headed into Korea's third largest and highest mountain range. We chose a route that took us away form the interior of the park but promised to be a decent hike.
We climbed for nearly 3 hours, up past a couple different temples and beautiful scenery before coming to what was the wildest set of stairs I have ever seen. They guide book set there were 880, but I'm sure there were over 1000 in the end. The stairs covered the last 1/3 of the trail, which is the only way you could get to the peak without being wither a mountain goat or a rock climber (which we also saw people doing). The were metal old and unreliable looking in some spots, and even went straight up like a ladder in others. We took our time and worked our way to the peak and boy was it worth it. The view was amazing, and the sense of accomplishment was pretty nice. We were standing around 850 m above sea level and figured it out to be about a 10 -12 km hike from where we started.
The decent was much easier and only took about 2 hours. We were all pretty tired and sore after resting at the top but we made it back down and rewarded ourselves with corndogs. I got one that was dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, because there is nothing better than eating a doughnut with a hotdog in the middle. Also, while we were eating we were approached by a group of middle school girls who were working on a projects and asked us if they could film us saying "Bea-ti-ful Sok-cho", and since there was five of us it worked out perfectly.
After that we got back on the bus and headed into town, where I took a nap to work off a headache I got form not drinking enough water during the day. Saturday night we headed out to find some sea food since we were on the coast. We found a place and ended up having not exactly what we wanted, but delicious anyways, fish soup complete with heads and all. After that we went back to the area our hotel was in and hit a bar for a few beers. Eventually another group of foreigners showed up, most of which were from Southwestern Ontario, and we talked to them off and on for an hour or so before heading to the beach to light off some fireworks. Then it was on to the norae bang. Some of them eventually came to norae bang with us which was great, because the more the merrier. After that we headed to the hotel to get some sleep because we were hoping to get some beach time in on Sunday.
Unfortunately it was over cast and crappy on Sunday so instead of going to the beach we packed up and headed home to Seoul around 230. the bus ride home was excruciatingly long, and took a solid 5 hours. We were all glad to be home and each went our separate ways to rest up for the week to come.
Well that is another blog down and anther adventure had. Hope you are all dong well back home and I will see you all soon.