Hiking in Korea

The English couple that I work with, Karla and Josh, invited me to go on a short hiking trip this Saturday in Ilsan. Since I had wanted to try hiking in Korea, I took them up on their offer. Hiking is probably one of the most popular hobbies that Koreans have (besides drinking massive amounts of soju). We went on a short hiking trail in Ilsan which took us about 20 minutes. My first thought was “Oh wow, hiking is a piece of cake.” Then the couple suggested going to a bigger hiking mountain in Seoul. Thinking that I had this in the bag, I was proven wrong as I stood their heaving and panting after about 5 minutes going up the second mountain. The hiking at this mountain consisted basically of an hour worth of going up semi-vertical steps.

Josh and Karla had gone hiking plenty of times before, so needless to say, I was lagging behind most of the time. Besides the never ending burning sensation in my butt and legs, I was enjoying the beautiful scenery! This was a picture of Seoul just halfway up the mountain.

Luckily, the weather was nice and not Korea’s normal 90 percent humidity! Once we finally reached the top, the scenery was all worth the pain and struggle. Once you get to the top you can see all of Seoul all around the mountain. They have a HUGE boulder at the tippy top of the mountain so you can stand on it to get even more of a better view. The first picture is of me enjoying my success. Karla told me it was only necessary to scream “I AM THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD!”. Haha!

Karla and Josh have told me that there are other mountains that are 7 hours hikes and ones that even have ropes for climbing. I told them…baby steps first. The experience was definitely all worth it and am kind of looking forward on claiming my next mountain!

After hiking, we decided to go to Itaewon. Itaewon is one of the most popular foreigner tourist sites in Korea and also has a military base. I loved Itaewon! Itaewon is known for the best western (American) food in Korea. I saw more foreigners in this city than Koreans—which is a rare thing to see! The city seemed so exciting and it was just nice to be surrounded by things I could read. We chose to eat at a Mexican restaurant for the night called Los Amigos. The food was DELICIOUS. I got a baja burrito smothered in cheese. Yum! The restaurant had live music and at one point I almost felt like I was at home in the states just having dinner at Don Pablo’s or somewhere like that! Korean food in Korea is generally pretty cheap, but when you are craving for more food found in the states, you are generally going to pay more for it. I didn’t mind because I felt like it really hit the spot! After dinner we hit up a local bar called Woodstock. We were still dressed in our hiking clothes so we felt a little out of place and self conscious that we smelled of sweat but we still wanted to have a drink. The bar had a live band that was made of 3 Korean men but they sang good American rock’n’ roll. I was impressed. It had been a long day for us so we didn’t stay long. There is still so much in Itaewon that I wanted to explore so I am anxious to go back.