Korea has many mountains which you see in the backdrop almost everywhere you go. They’re very beautiful as they rise up from behind the buildings. Some even call Hanyang University a mountain. After two months of school, I’ve mastered the “dinky” hills of Hanyang, so my friend and I decided to climb a real mountain. We decided to go to Bukhansan, or Bukhan Mountain, which is not too far from the convenience of the subway. I simply wore a tshirt and sneakers, and I only brought along my bookbag and camera. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries at the very beginning of the hike.
After getting off the subway, we followed the crowd and hoped they were heading in the direction of the hiking trails. Along the way, we had to pass through many food vendors and restaurants, as well as hiking gear stores. None of my friends had breakfast yet, so we decided to have our meal before embarking on the mountain since the trail would take about 3 hours to get to the top. We chose a random restaurant that was somewhat crowded (which meant it was good), and inside, there were already people drinking at 2pm in the afternoon . We got Korean pancakes, tofu, and this brown thing that was mixed with salad and chili, and had the same texture as jelly. It was all delicious.
After eating our meal, we continued onward, but before going any higher, there was a nice stream and a small festival at the beginning of the trail. Little kids were playing in the water while the older folks were enjoying the traditional drum and dance performance.
The beginning of the hiking trail was not too bad, but it was tiring. As we got higher, it became steeper and more difficult to know where to place your foot. As we were going up, many people were going down since we started later in the day. After 3 hours, we finally got close to the top where it was really steep. We had to use the railing to hoist ourselves up to the top. For some reason, I was not afraid of the height until I got to the top, but the view was beautiful. The sweat and 3 hours it took to get there was worth the view. On one side, you can see the rest of the mountain and on the other side, you can see the city of Seoul. After staying a few minutes to snap pictures of our accomplishment, we had to head down.
The trip down was a lot harder than the trip up. It was so much scarier — one wrong footstep could cause you to fall. As I was going down, I had to stop frequently and go slowly. Even an ahjussi started to laugh at me because he saw how scared I looked. It took about 2 hours to go down, but the whole trip was worth it for the experience and the view.
An interesting thing I noticed on the trip was the age gap of the hikers. There were some really young kids, but most of the people on the mountain were much older. The old people in Korea are really active and seem more fit that the younger generations. As I was going up, I was sweaty and beat red while the ahjussis and ahjummas passed me like it was nothing.
I guess I am the real ahjumma.