It's summer break again, so I took a few days off from deskwarming to visit the east coast for the first time. Most people travel down south to the beach town of Busan for their summer vacations, so I've heard that Busan beaches get really crowded. I was looking for something more quiet and less touristy, so I went to Naksan beach. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time I was there, so all of my pictures look bleak and grey because it was.

I stayed right on Seorak beach at a pension which was run by a kind older gentleman. After getting checked into my room, I walked over to Naksan temple which overlooks Naksan beach. I ended up staying there for a while because it started raining and I didn't take an umbrella so I had to wait it out.

On my second day there, I had planned on going to Seoraksan National Park to do some hiking, but the weather forecast wasn't looking good so I decided to spend the day at the beach instead. It rained off and on all day, but that didn't stop anyone from swimming and I still managed to get a tan.

I've found that when you go to a beach town in Korea, it can be difficult to find restaurants that serve anything other than seafood. I don't eat seafood, so it's a struggle. I ended up stopping at a 7-Eleven to buy some ramen and when I put it on the counter the cashier guy looked at it and was like, "Ah..." as in, "Ah, what a sad meal" lol! He seemed surprised when he realized I could understand Korean and had a bunch of questions for me, so I ended up talking to him for a few minutes.

There was still rain in the forecast for Friday, but it was my last day there so I got up early and caught the bus to Seoraksan. I arrived at the park by 8am and there was hardly anyone there. I set off for Ulsanbawi, a mountain famous for its rocky fence-like appearance. I made a huge mistake - I needed to buy a bottle of water for the hike, and there were a bunch of shops along the way, so I was like, I'll just stop at the last shop along the trail to buy water. I kept walking and then eventually realized that there were no more shops, but I didn't want to turn around, so I just continued on without water and suffered.

The couple in the picture above were hiking ahead of me for a while - I acted like I was walking slow to take pictures, but really it was to not die. Part way up the mountain they stopped for a break and called me over as I walked by. I've found that older Korean people are super nice, but it doesn't always seem that way because they have coarse mannerisms, if that makes sense? Like, the way they called me over was almost rude, they were like, "Hey, you! Get over here!" but then they gave me peaches to eat together and were so kind. I talked to them for a while and ended up meeting up with them a few times along the way. They had a speaker with them and were rocking out to the Backstreet Boys.

This temple that's along the way, called Gyejoam, is actually built into the rocks and was established in 652. The boulder out front is named Heundeulbawi, which translates to something like "shaking rock." If you push on it it will rock back and forth, but no one has ever been able to push it off.

There's an area partway through the hike that gives a great view of Ulsanbawi, but with how cloudy it was this is all I saw. I literally climbed this mountain and never actually saw the mountain.

When I was about 0.4km from the top, I was hating my life and was ready to turn around and walk right back down the mountain, but this grandma was passing me and I ended up hiking the rest of the way with her. She was visiting from Jeju, where she and her husband retired to and took up orange farming. I said that sounds like a difficult job, especially to be doing it in retirement, and she told me that it's getting more difficult these days because the weather is so hot. I asked her if she's hiked Mt. Halla, and she said she does it every week.

When we finally reached the top it was like a party with everyone I had seen hiking along the way. There was a group that had a mini grill and were cooking food. The couple that gave me peaches were sitting with another couple that I had been hiking with for a little while, and they were talking about me. They were talking to each other about how "good" my Korean is. My Korean confidence is at like an all-time high right now.

As I got higher on the mountain it got misty from being in the clouds, but after I was at the top for maybe 10 minutes it started actually raining. Which was really fun for the walk down on wet rocks.

Here's some pictures of the mountain that I pulled from the internet, so we can all see the views I was missing out on:

The rest of the day was spent hanging out in air conditioned coffee shops until it was time to catch my bus home. The bus terminal was right next to the 7-Eleven I had stopped at the day before, and the cashier guy saw me and came out to talk again lol I had my luggage with me and he was like, "Are you leaving?!" I was only there for 3 days and people around town were recognizing me so it was definitely time to leave.