Since when is summer vacation only 1 week?

Well to answer that question, since I moved to South Korea. Summer vacation has long came and gone but I have yet to post on my blog about it. So, here is how I spent the beloved one week I get off the entire summer~ About 2-3 hours east of Seoul, right on the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, depending if you are Korean or Japanese - confusing, I know. Besides the name of the sea, they also fight over a rock island where 20 people live... ok?) anyway, out this way lies a beautiful national park (Seoraksan), home to the 3rd highest mountain in all of South Korea, Mount Seorak. We, Taylor, Elyse, and myself, decided to check this area out.

(At the East Sea)

For the first part of break, we stayed in the town of Sokcho right on the sea.

Sokcho had a beautiful, but very busy beach where Koreans go swimming in clothing instead of bathing suits. Very entertaining. I find myself asking on a daily basis, Why? WHY? WHY? And have found no answers to many things. :-) I have decided it is just part of living in a foreign country. Besides the beach, Sokcho is famous for fresh sashimi -yum. These few days were spent in total relaxation, eating fresh fish, laying on the beach, and checking out Sokcho.

We stayed in a lovely little motel called The Black Box. Pretty sure it was a love motel (these motels are where Koreans go to have a secret meeting, if you know what I mean). Our room came with a black light, a circular bed, and a awesome picture that lit up with the black light. Great experience. How many people can say they stayed in a motel with a black light??

Our sashimi meal was quite interesting. We walked down a road with many, many restaurants. All had a couple fish tanks outside with different fish in them, I even saw a sting ray! Not sure how that would taste. Anyway, we eventually chose a restaurant, even though they were all looking the same to me, and sat down for one of the most unique meals ever. After we ordered, we watched out the window as our meal was literally plucked from the tank in front of the restaurant. I tried many different types of fish, including octopus, clams, sea urchins, and others I couldn't recognize. Our entire table was covered in fish in little dishes!! (See picture) Sadly, there was no tuna or salmon, my two favorites.

Lunch BEFORE Lunch AFTER

After a couple days in Sokcho, we headed to Seoraksan, the national park. SO SO GORGEOUS. We spent two days in the park area, one night sleeping in a hostel, Korean style. This means mats on the ground. I definitely prefer Western style. Our first day we just explored a couple different trails. We hiked for about 4-5 hours in total, seeing a couple waterfalls, a Buddhist temple, breathtaking views, and a cave. I do need to explain this cave though. It was in the center of a rockface. To get to it, we needed to climb extremely steep stairs. It was so steep that I am not scared of heights and I was a bit scared with this climb. When we reached the top, there was a very small space where you could crawl into this little worship area. You would kneel on the wood floor and there were candles lit all around with a Buddha staring back at you. Very interesting. The weather this day was nice, not too hot. However, the next day was beautiful. The sun was shining and it turned out to be a hot day. We decided before we even left Seoul that we would hike to the peak of the 3rd tallest mountain in Korea so that was our mission for a second day at Seoraksan. The 14 mile round trip hike took us only 11 hours! We were all very tired and sweaty. Most Koreans do this hike in two days, one up and one down. Us CRAZY Americans did it all in one day, 11 hours at that! All the work was worth it when we reached the top. The feeling of accomplishment was wonderful! The peak called Daecheongbong Peak is 1,708 meters (5,603.7 feet) tall and was above the clouds when we arrived there.

I took so many beautiful pictures that I cannot even decide what ones to share with you all on the blog~

I'm now back at school wishing I had another summer vacation to look forward to. I would have August 15th off because it is Independence Day here, however it is a SATURDAY! Just my luck.