This past week was the Chuseok Holiday in Korea. It is very much like the American Thanksgiving which celebrates the end of the harvest. It also coincides with the full moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival that is celebrated in China and Vietnam. I'm sure it is celebrated in other countries too, but those are the ones I know of.
Anyways, we had Wednesday-Friday off and people typically leave Seoul to go back to their hometowns to visit the graves of their ancestors. We left Seoul to go to the East Coast of Korea to a town called Sokcho. James' aunt and uncle have a time share on this coastal/beach city and it was a very cool experiences. Right next to Sokcho is a national park called Seoraksan. It is a huuuuge park with tons of hiking trails and a Buddhist temple. I haven't been to too many national parks in the US, but this one was waaay different than the American ones I've been to.
1) There was wifi and service (of course)
2) There were great maps which showed information about the trails. The maps included elevation and the estimated amount of time it would take, among other things
3) Along the trail they had numbered markers with phone numbers that you could call in case you were in need of help. Seriously, I think the Koreans are very thoughtful when they plan.
After hiking in the park for a few hours, we went to the timeshare condo which is next to a huge lake. The timeshare was owned by Shinsegae which is one of the top conglomerate companies in Korea. It was very homey but there was only one room with an actual bed. I guess it's more common for people to sleep on sleeping mats! Another thing I liked was that the floors were heated, but they are heated in all buildings!
For dinner we went to a seafood restaurant that even came to pick up the entire gang so no one would have to drive drunk. The first "course" was about 10 small plates with different types of seafood (shrimp, fish, seafood balls, etc.). The second course was at least 6 different types of sashimi. The third course was a stew that was made out of the fish bones. It was so much food I was ready to burst!
The next morning we woke up bright and early to walk around the lake. James' aunt is super active so she was determined to walk around the lake (~7 km). It was luckily flat but took us several hours. Thank goodness we worked up an appetite because we proceeded to go to two different restaurants for "lunch". The first was known for it's naeung myun (cold buckwheat noodles). They came in a spicy sauce and the noodles were nice and chewy. My favorite dish there was actually the mandoo soup. They made rice cakes out of brown rice and the mandoo skin was perfect!
Then we headed to the beach to walk off our first lunch. It was very interesting because there were plenty of Koreans on the beach but only section where all the foreigners happened to be. It was only in that section that there was any skin shown. Everywhere else, the Koreans were very covered up in their rash guards, hats and long sleeves.
For our second lunch we went to a seafood restaurant which specializes in sashimi served in a cold spicy sauce. It was about 3 pm when we arrived and there was an hour wait....freaking crazy! Only James' uncle got the specialty dish and everyone else ordered a variety of other dishes. James had the crab bibimbap and I had the uni bibimbap. I'm still thinking of now because it is so simple, but so delicious. I need to recreate it!
After second lunch, James and I went to the bus station to board our bus back to Seoul. The drive that should have taken 2.5 hours ended up taking closer to 4.5 because of traffic. It still boggles my mind that we drove from coast to coast in such a short time!
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