Alright, so why am I going to Seoul? I am meeting friends in Tokyo on a Tuesday. So rather than fly out on a Monday, I chose to fly out on Saturday in order to squeeze in a weekend trip somewhere else. Thus, the routing to Seoul was born. Also, Koreans like to hike, and I like to hike, so it seemed like a win-win situation!

However, in the end, I didn’t really get to appreciate the city for various reasons involving transit and jetlag…

The flight arrived in Seoul in the evening, and I went to the bus terminal to get an Airport Bus ticket. The hotel told me which bus number to take, and when I bought my ticket, the folks told me to get off at the second stop. I did that, and I quickly realized that it was the wrong stop… I found a coffee shop, hopped onto their WiFi, and found that my hotel was over a mile away from where I was. Thus, I tried to hail some taxis, however none of them knew where the hotel was, despite me having the address written down. After trying to negotiate with the 5th or 7th taxi, I decided to walk.

This was both crappy, and useful… crappy cuz I was tired and it was hot, but useful because I got to see the neighborhood, and decided I didn’t want to spend much time in the ‘hood (it was a lot of retail). I got to my hotel at 10pm, unpacked a bit, and fell asleep.

The next morning, I found breakfast at a bakery and made my way to Bukhansan National Park. The walk from the bus stop to the park’s entrance was lined tons of local gear shops, and high-end shops:

One could also buy some trail snacks…

The hike was pretty solid when compared to WA hikes, There were nicely maintained trails and good tree cover for most of it, but it was in the 90’s that day, and the humidity was at 100%. Thus, I was much slower than usual…

The first half mile or so was just a road, and then it started climbing!

It was a slog to the top… Along the way, the trail ran next to a nice creek that provided some nice breaks and some opportunities to cool down. Overall, I’d compare it to Half Dome, in that you’re pulling yourself up a granite dome via some chains to reach the summit. Grippy shoes would help here! I had a snack at the top, took some photos of the marvelous views, and then descended fairly quickly (it was wayyyy too hot).

When I got to the bottom, it was traffic hour, and the buses were skipping the park’s stop (they were full of soldiers from the neighboring army base). It took over an hour to find a bus that had space…

I eventually got back to the hotel at around 6pm, and the plan was to clean up and find dinner. However, I promptly fell asleep and woke up at 3am… thus eliminating the opportunity to get any sort of dinner in Korea… UGH. Oh well, Tokyo is next, and I’ll feast there! I did find a favorite new chip flavor in Seoul though!