Hi everyone!

I finished all my midterms finally! WHOOOHOOOO. These past two weeks were very long and challenging, but I did it. Some professors here like to trick you into thinking they are very easy and nice, but then BAM their exam hits the table and it is harder than expected.

Anyway, this post is going to be about hiking in Seoul. Here is a link I found to some great hiking trails in the city: http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=309631

My friend and I picked Mt. Inwangsang, http://san-shin.net/Inwangsan.html. It was a great day to go hiking, cloudy and cool, with all the autumn leaves changing color. We set off in the early afternoon. The great thing about this city is that you can do anything, and getting to a place is as easy as getting on the subway. So off we set!

Once we got to the mountain, we saw that it was closed. The official trail was being modified or improved, and it was blocked off. There was however, a detour trail, so we did not give up. We were there to hike, and we would find a way.

We set off on what we thought was the detour trail, but when we reached the top, it turned out we just hiked straight up the mountain. That is we hiked 'off piste' and made our own trail! It was very fun climbing up the steep slope, it felt like rock climbing in some places, when we were slipping and had to grab onto rocks and roots. The view, which you can see in the pictures, definitely was worth it. We stood and looked at the city, and then climbed back down. The path down was much easier since it was the 'official' detour.

Then as we got back to Anam, our neighborhood, we stopped by a local place which makes the absolute best kimbap ever, we got a giant role of tuna kimbap and a big cup of korean fried chicken. This washed down with some cold coke, was one of the best meals I've eaten here.

Hope you can squeeze in a mountain hike or two when you are in Korea, they are very fun and can be done at any level!