Kyle came back with us from the Philippines and spent some time here in Korea. After seeing lots of Seoul, he said he wanted to see some of the other parts of Korea, so we took a trip out to Naksan Beach on the Eastern Sea. This was easy to to accomplish because of the fabulous public transportation system here. A few buses, a few subway transfers, and a few hours later we were in our hotel room in Naksan, standing on our balcony and looking out at the beach.
This carriage was decked out with LED lights for the holidays, but the blaring K-Pop didn't seem to fit.
The town was practically deserted. It reminded me of winter surfing sessions at Wrightsville Beach back in my college days in Wilmington, NC. There was hardly anyone on the streets, but the stores were all open and hoping for patrons. We were hungry after our trip, but all the restaurants were the kind they have here with aquariums out front filled with the weirdest sea creatures imaginable. I am and openminded and adventurous eater, but when you're really hungry, a bulging-eyed fish with suction cups on its belly isn't all that appetizing. So what did we do? We ate something even more disgusting...
Behold: the bulgolgi burger wth mozzarlla, sweet chilli sauce, barbeque sauce, and a whole head of lettus. I am ashamed to admit that we ate two of them, but we had to use forks.
After lunch it was on to Naksansa - our favorite Buddhist temple.
We noticed that lots of lanterns had been set up, so we decided to walk the beach and come back after dark.
We walked out to a light house. Isn't that a cool seawall?
It's prettier at night
The next morning we got up and headed out to Seoraksan National Park. It was way less busy than in the summer, but there were still plenty of people there to enjoy a beautiful day in a beautiful place. The first thing we did was take the cablecar to the top of Mt. Seorak.
Then we decided to hike to the top of Ulsanbawi - an imposing granite spine that runs along the top of a mountain.
Ulsanbawi as seen from the temple at the base
Halfway up the mountain there is a Buddhist temple with ancient calligraphy carved into the granite.
I had read that the hike ended in a set of 800 steps.... it is true!
Jen said she was scared byt he heights, but glad she stuck with it and got to the top.
The view from was totally worth every step!
Then it was time to catch our buses and trains back to home. It was a great couple of days.
