From Busan, the group flew northeast on Korean Air to Yang Yang International Airport. It was an eery airport because nobody was there—at all. Cars were even part in the circle drive with no sign of people except for one worker and one bus driver. It was a ghost-town airport, and apparently it is a white elephant for the town. Read about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8055957.stm

From Yang Yang, we took a bus then cab to Sokcho. It is a smaller city than the ones we’ve been used to visiting, and it has a nice setting on the ocean.  We found our hostel, and it was a really cool one. The owner of House Hostel welcomed us, sat us down, and pulled out a map and drew notes all over it. The four of us (Mom, Jacob, Adam, and I) were able to get a room together with no other people. $15 a night per person with WiFi, laundry, and free breakfast is a pretty good deal! Sokcho is known for it’s snow crab, so we walked towards the pier and had fresh crab. It was delicious but kind of sad (his crab friends were staring at me while I ate). A local sat down with us for awhile, and the group had fun with him using Google Translate. It’s an awesome app. Check it out.

We woke early the next morning and made our way via bus to Seoraksan National Park. The next Winter Olymics will be in South Korea, and are taking place near this region in Pyeongchang.

We hiked to the top of the mountain, and it was strenuous journey to Ulsanbawi Rock. 888 steps later (straight up!), we reached the top. The round trip was 4.7 miles and took four hours. On the way down, I was babying my knee because I was tired and ended up twisting my ankle. I’ve twisted it worse in basketball before, but it still hurt and was annoying.

A bit later down the trail, we took the cable car up to another viewpoint. Adam and Jacob went on passed us to check out the top. They came back down to get us because they said it was better than the other point we’d just visited. So I hobbled up the trail and climbed some rocks. They were right! It was absolutely beautiful! It was called Gwongeumseong Fortress (altitude of 1,200 meters). On the way back, we stopped to wade/swim in the river. The water was cold and felt nice for my ankle.

We headed back to the hostel, and Adam and Jacob went out for a snack. Mom and I stayed back. The area has squid sundaes (not a dessert), so we tried them. Wikipedia gives a nice description of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundae_%28Korean_food%29. It’s essentially a sausage with a casing of squid. They were delicious.