Hiking

I went hiking with the people from work this weekend. We went to Gwanak mountain which is just on the outskirts of Seoul by Seoul National University. Hiking is popular in Korea and the mountain was full of Koreans of every age, shape and size making the trek to the top. It was the weekend so sometimes the paths were fairly crowded. There is nothing like climbing a mountain with 3000 of your closest friends. Not the peaceful and serene picture we usually associate with mountains but there were still some fairly beautiful views to be had.

We made it to the top of the mountain in about 2 hours. The path was fairly easy with not too many steep parts. It got a little sketchy at the top but all of us (except one Korean) ventured to the peak and touched the Korean flag at the top. As you can see from the picture below, there was a lot of people just hanging out at the top of the mountain. Most of them bring food and if they were old enough they would do a shot of soju (Korean rice vodka) at the top.

We took a different path to the bottom, which was not nearly as crowded so that was good. Afterwards we went out for a late lunch and since we did not have any soju on the mountain, we made up for it in the restaurant. Notice all the plates on the table in the picture below? That is typical for a Korean meal. Each plate has a different side dish in it. In the centre is the main course of the meal - galbi (Korean BBQ'd pork). (Cathy-my boss, me, Eric, Jeremy and Andy.)