After a very long flight (I still don't fare well on airplanes, since sleeping upright is just impossible for me), and then a 1 hour train ride, I was back in Hongdae, Seoul, South Korea. This was were I left 3 months ago, and everything immideately felt familiar again. I quickly found my hostel, went to eat something, and got to bed at 9. The jetlag wasnt very cooperative, and I woke at 2 a.m. again.
Since I already explored Seoul quite a bit the last time I was here, and I was on a fairly tight schedule, I wanted to get out of Seoul as soon as possible. But the jetlag made me decide to stay at least one more day. An expat hostel worker recommended me to visit Bukhansan[북한산], a mountain in the middle of Seoul. Although beautiful, it proved to be quite an intense 'hike' (often requiring more climbing than walking). Going up and down one peak unfortunately was al I could really handle. That evening I had Korean BBQ with a Japanese guest, and managed to stay up to a more decent hour :)
Daegu
I planned on crossing through the country to Daegu[데구] first, and then make my way back up via the east coast, ultimately returning to Seoul.
On the faitful morning, I slept in to 11 however and didnt make it to the bus terminal before 1. To make matters worse, taking the bus at 2 pm would be twice as cheap. In the end, I didn't get to Daegu until 5.30. In Daegu I quickly found my new hostel, and had some great Bibimbap for dinner. The hostel staff, Kenny, berated my love for Bibimbap, as it is essentially rice with leftovers. For westerners however, it is full of new flavours! (Also, I love rice :) ).
The next day, I tried to tackle another mountain trail, this time with greater success! Palgongsan is about 40 minutes by bus, northwest of Daegu, and it might be the most beautiful trail I have walked so far. (Zhangjiajie might have better views, but the trail itself is just endless stairs). I took the cable car up, hiked up and down several peaks, and walked back down. Autumn is starting and Korea, and some trees have bright red leaves while others are still a crisp green. It is quite the sight.
That evening I went out for more BBQ with the staff, Amie, Kenny and Hans (young Koreans usually 'adopt' a western name, except for Hans who is (obviously) from California). Afterwards we went for some drinks and a friend of the staff joined us. A more apt description would be that we moved from restaurant to restaurant, but never really ate enough. Apparently thats the way to go in Korea! (It did eventually devolve into a pub crawl though).
The next day, I went to see Haeinsa[해인서], a temple known for housing an error free copy of the entirety of the Buddhist Scriptures. This means 4 buildings filled with 81350 wooden blocks on which the scriptures are engraved. Matthieu, a new guest whom I met the night before at 3 a.m. (He came in while we were out and was still up by the time we came back) also went to Haeinsa, but he had no trouble getting up at 8. So by the time I got to Haeinsa, he was already heading back to the city. The evening was a repetition of the one before (with the exception that this time we went to a BBQ place famous for its pork rather than famous for its beef).
Unfortunately, because I gave myself such a tight schedule, on friday morning I had to leave what might be one of the most fun hostels I stayed at so far. Two new guests had arrived early in the morning. These guys were from the Netherlands as well. Even more specifically, we did the same study at the same university (Although they were 2 years ahead of me and I quit after half a year). They had just come from North Korea (via Beijing), looking to experience both sides of the famous border. This was the second time I met people who had been to North Korea now, and those odds are quite low considering only 1500 western tourists visit the Hermit Kingdom each year.
What followed was an ad-hoc journey by the eastern coast of Korea, but that's another story for another time :)