In Seoraksan that is. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful mountains in my life. The many boulders and rock formations were mixed among lush green trees in the Seoraksan National Park. The hundreds of winding hiking trails led us to many various sites such as a Buddha temple, a giant Buddha statue, caves with monks inside, a rolling river bed, and of course different peaks and valleys where you could also get a glimpse of the ocean in the distance.
Our journey started on a Saturday morning where Andrew decided to oversleep and hold up the bus we rented just for our crew. Around 10am, 14 close friends set off to Seoraksan, which is located on the east coast for Jane's goodbye weekend celebration. We arrived four hours later to the National Park, a couple of soju bottles deep, paid our entrance fee, and headed straight for the cable cars heading up the mountain. We cheated our way up to the top, snapped what seemed like a million pictures of the breathtaking view, and took a two hour nature hike along the river bed. Some of us were a little disappointed the leaves had not transformed into their fall splendor, but we did manage to see a tree here and there with sprigs of red and orange beaming through the green.
As dusk grew near, we headed back to the park entrance to grab some dinner. We originally intended on cooking our own feast, but by the late hour, everyone was ready to be served. We set forth to the coast in search of a fresh raw fish restaurant. We found a little place right on the beach that served us their catch of the day. We had fresh, uncooked squid, octopus, and steamed prawns for the first course, two kinds of raw fish for the second course, and a spicy seafood soup with all of the leftover parts of the fish (like the head, tail, and fins) for the final course. It was all incredibly delicious and accompanied by many shots of soju and Cass beer.
After dinner, we stopped at a market next door and bought more beer and soju, as well as sparklers and fireworks, where we then headed to the ocean just a few feet away. After we had our fun, we called our driver to pick us up and we drove off to the pension we booked. The pension was beautiful and we had more than enough space. Everyone picked their room and the drinking and gaming began. We played jenga, dominoes, cards, kings, asshole (thanks to Jon for leaving them behind) and I introduced the infamous soju kettles to everyone. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to drink four bottles of soju, which is never smart, and I passed out early. Which apparently was the same time all the girls decided to go to bed as well. I heard the guys had a "bro-deo" until about 4am where Dan ended up puking and breaking bottles somewhere in the distance. So typical.
Most everyone woke up pretty hungover, some more than others (aka me winning the most hungover award) and we laid out by the pool with the mountains as our backdrop. Around 2pm, the bus arrived and took us to get lunch. Unfortunately for everyone else, I threw up on the bus almost as soon as it started moving.
After lunch, we went to the beach and relaxed all dressed in swim suits and hoodies. Some played chess, some played soccer and frisbee, and some even slept. No one went in the water and no one got a tan because it was far to cold and cloudy. However, some of the girls went on a quick speed boat ride through the waves. After a few hours, we hopped back on the bus and headed back to Bundang. It was so good to be home, but I'm going to miss that place!
You could say the hills were alive that weekend. Alive with drunken shouts from the Bundang crew. As for the sound of music, I imagine the locals were happy to see us go.
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