Weekend 39 of 52.

Inwang Mountain (Inwangsan)

I am no great hiker. Even more am I no great mountain climber. Lo, Dan likes to do these things, and we got an email from another Dan at Justice for North Korea to go with a group of North Korean refugees, some South Koreans, and some foreigners to climb up Inwangsan. I had already promised my Dan that I would hike with him this weekend, so it was all very serendipitous.

So we huffed and we puffed our way up a mountain, and, yes, you will see that there are stairs carved out of rock, but that's still some serious solid inclining. We went out for barbecue after the altitudinal adventure, and we met the runner of this blog and chatted about the runner of this blog, both of which I read on the regular, and it was like there was no such thing as the fourth wall.

Weekend 10 of 52.

Rugby League Game at Tony's Aussie Bar, Hiking in Gupabal, Namdaemun Market, Lotte World Shopping Center

Fridays, for us, are for foreign foods. Korrine found out that Tony's Aussie Bar in Itaewon was showing the Australia vs. New Zealand Rugby League game, so Dan and I had our first taste of Australian food and football. If America would have rugby, I would watch it. We also ate some pavlova, which is like a meringuey marshmallowy fruit pie thing. It was good.

Marius invited us to go hiking with him on Saturday morning, so we met at the subway at 8 and followed the hiking gear costumed Koreans all the way to Gupabal to find a mountain to climb. Of the two paths, we chose the steeper one that peaked instead of the longer, easier trail. Of our group of six, Dan and I were the only two who didn't go all the way up. We made it to a decent cliff and we sat and enjoyed the quiet view. Also, an especially concerned Korean man told Dan that his shoes were really inappropriate for mountain climbing, that he didn't think it was safe to continue. We didn't put much stock in that admonition, as we'd made it halfway there with no hiking gear at all, but Korrine said that getting to the peak involved rock and rope climbing, so I think that fellow was probably right.

After lunch on the Shinsegae Department Store food floor, Chinese dim sum and various desserts, we walked through Namdaemun Market. I think it is my favorite of the markets so far. It was mostly clothing and street food, and it was really fun for browsing. We found the only jar of dill pickles in all of Seoul, but we had to pass it up for lack of cash.

On Sunday, we were really looking forward to going to a baseball game. We took the green line for almost an hour only to find that the game had been sold out! We were so sad, but we decided we should at least do something in the area, so we walked around the Lotte World Shopping Center for a while, and I bought a jacket decorated with a patch of Florida and the words "Redneck Riviera" emblazoned over top. What? Amazing. It is too small, but I am from that Riviera, so I obviously had to have it for my life.