Tuesday, April 26, 2011

climbing the mountain

So this is how we began our hike - with thousands of other hikers. Crazy that when you go out into nature you are joined by such a crowd. Life in a big city I suppose.
Here is Netta and her tongue at the pond we passed on our way in. It was lovely with flowers and fish.
Here is John with Olive at the pond. John carried Olive the whole way and it wasn't an easy hike - at one point a Korean woman voiced her awe at John being strong enough to carry her the whole way.


Our cute hikers!
John and Netta next to the stream that we followed up the mountain. It was amazing - Netta said it reminded her of Silver Lake. There were lots of waterfalls and beautiful rocks.
Here is more of the stream!
This place is so close to our house - just a five minute bus ride from our house. The bus was packed with hikers in their Korean hiking gear. Required equipment Makgeolli (Korean rice wine), walking sticks, sitting pads, snacks, hats and special hiking clothes. There is a Family Mart ( like a 7-eleven) at the base of the trail and it was packed - there was barely room to move around.


John putting Olive down so we could have lunch in this lovely spot. We had kimbap (Korean style sushi) and eggs - lots of eggs. We were able to color eggs here thanks to Dahl and Pauline as they sent us a coloring kit. I was worried that the brown eggs we get here would not color well but with Netta at the helm the eggs came out beautiful.
More shots of the falls.
While we were having lunch these guys stopped on the falls took off their shoes and gave their feet a cool soak. Seemed like a good idea - the water was pretty cold though. We didn't indulge.
Flowers and stacked rocks.
Netta at the waterfall.
Checking out the stacked rocks.
Here is a lantern. At some point on the trail we began to see these lanterns. We learned last week that they are hung around the time of Buddha's birthday which is coming up in early May. Some people pay some money (about $30 at this temple - some temples are more expensive) and have their wishes hung from the lanterns during this season. They are really lovely with the flowers.
The girls on a rock.
Blossoms with some amazing stacks of rocks.
I like the shadows here.
So here we are at the temple at the top. We were pretty excited to get there as the last bit of the climb was pretty steep. Netta and John raced up the steps at the end to make the final stretch more fun - I just trudged up. We were all happy and headed straight for the bathrooms - there is not a lot of opportunity to pee in the woods when you are accompanied by such a large crowd.
Close-ups of the lanterns. Olive was happy as she was finally able to get down and walk -she needed to lightly tap each lantern she passed and make it swing.
Here is a shrine with strings of lanterns hung above it.
Looking up into the lanterns.
The temple.
Baby buddhas - some showing their tushes, some their belly buttons - cute huh?
More temple.
View - the photo just doesn't do it justice - it was so cool to see places we have been from so high up.
Netta and the view.

The lanterns with the temple painting - nice.

The trooper Netta. This is on the way home - the hike dragged on a bit when we took a different route home. She had a hard time for awhile but then we gave her this miraculous Korean energy bar. I think it may be made of honey and red beans. It worked like a charm.
I liked this tree root on this rock.
It got pretty windy up there, especially on the way home.
This picture is out of order but a nice shot of all of us near the amazing hermitage on the cliff. It was built in 677. Around the corner from this spot there was a guy with a big poster of this backdrop selling photos of people with it. Kind of strange as the actual shot was just a few feet away...

There was also a lot of venders up on the mountain. Netta got an ice cream when we were near the top and it was so cold it stuck to her tongue. Amazing that people can carry so much weight on their back. All that just to sell maybe $30 worth of ice cream in a day - I guess the work environment is beautiful. They jack the price up a little but not too much really.

So we made it home. We trudged into civilization on the Seoul National University campus with one daughter wet with pee, one with aching feet and two drained parents. We quickly hailed a cab to get home. Our friend Mac helped us order chinese food and had it delivered, that was a good meal.

We were all a bit sore the next day (except Olive) and we're still feeling it today. But it was worth it.....

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

By the sea

On Tuesday our friend Pauline and her friend Mr. Moon took us on a day trip to the seaside. Mr. Moon has a van so we all piled in along with our friend Mac and took a drive to the ocean. It was a bit cold because of the wind but we had a lovely walk out to the lighthouse.
This is the path that we walked on. We were surrounded by mud flats and it was amazing. They stretched far out into the harbor. There were people harvesting seaweed as we walked. Netta was enthralled by their work and wanted to don a pair of boots and join them.After our walk we went to a seafood restaurant. The restaurant was really the purpose of our trip. Downstairs there were loads of different stalls with tanks and fresh fish and other seafood. Pauline had a favorite stand so she showed it to us and then ordered some food. Then we went upstairs to eat. I was a bit nervous when I saw some of the strange items on display downstairs but I tried to stay open to the experience.
These are some of the more unusual items on offer. Some kind of worm that John really wanted to try. They look a lot like a penis when they are alive and eating them is believed to aid men in their stamina. I thought they seemed disgusting. They looked bloody inside when they were cut up on the plate. But John dove right in. He said they didn't have much of a taste just a really chewy texture.
OK, so I have not eaten much shellfish in my time. We never ate it when I was growing up and now it is kind of strange for me. I did try most of these dishes - I was trying hard not to insult our hostess. It was all kind of chewy and strange - thank goodness the sauce was amazing - spicy and yummy and kind of made up for the texture for me. The ones on the green plate were pretty tasty actually they were flavored with sesame oil and peppers and I liked them the best.
A stew of shellfish. There were two huge bowls like this one as well as a bunch of side dishes. After this two more courses arrived. One was sushi - just an enormous plate of raw fish and the next was a spicy seafood stew. There was also a hand made noodle soup - it was quite tasty.
So much food - too much really. We couldn't eat it all and felt really overfull afterwards. Everyone except the kids, me and the driver slept on the way home.
This is John eating raw octopus. It is famous in Korea as it is still wriggling when people eat it. John tried it - I did not. John said he has heard that people have died eating this because it attaches itself to the sides of your throat as you are eating it and makes it impossible to breathe. He made sure the pieces were cut up small before he tried some. Netta enjoyed putting her chopstick in the plate and watching the little legs try to grab it. That was about all that Netta liked about the meal. She wouldn't try anything and was pretty sad seeing all the critters in tanks waiting to be eaten. Thankfully I had anticipated such and brought some seaweed and rice for her to munch on. Olive usually tries anything but was woken up from a nap for this meal and wouldn't try anything so she ate with Netta.

Here is a shot of people harvesting sea weed on the mud flats. Later we saw some of this sea weed being prepared in the fish market.

Here we are on the walkway out to the lighthouse. The wind turbines were beautiful and it is nice to see alternative energy sources in use here. There certainly was a lot of wind to harvest out there.

This is the walkway we walked on before we went to lunch.
This is the ocean after we went to lunch. The tide came in while we ate. The walkway is under water now. Beautiful in a whole different way.

It was a fun day - adventurous and exciting to eat new foods and fun to be out of the city and walking around. Our friends were so generous to share this lovely day with us.

more cherry blossom photos

Found these photos when I updated the ipod touch. Weirdly enough seems like the ipod takes better photos than our camera - so I added these.... enjoy.....