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| Entering Seoraksan National Park |
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| Starting our way up Seorak Mountain |
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| Buddhist Temples decorated with colorful lanterns |
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| First viewpoint -- with fellow foreign language teachers in Yanggu (from left to right: Canadian, American, Japanese, Chinese) |
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| Gaining elevation, losing leg strength |
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| Summit! That's the ocean below the sky. |
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| The cameraman told us to do this... He climbs up here every day and sells cups of juice for $5 a piece... I wasn't quite that thirsty. |
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| Back down, it's "giant bacon" for dinner. Cook it yourself, then cut it with scissors and put a piece on a fresh lettuce leaf. Add a little rice and some red pepper "sauce." Roll it up and eat it all in one bite. That red stuff in the front is kimchi, and no, it's not bad grilled. |
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| The beach that we saw from up top |
And this is what happens when you get home and realize that you booked the car for two days but it's only been one.
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| Late breakfast, early lunch -- Buckwheat green onion "pancake" with red and white kimchi as sides |
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| The main dish was these buckwheat noodles with red pepper "sauce," cucumbers, boiled egg, and a bit of dried seaweed. Pour in some cold "broth," stir it up, and find yourself full until dinner. |
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| Just below North Korea, in the very north-easternmost corner of South Korea lies this less travelled, bright blue beach. |
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| We soon realized we were the only ones in the tide pools not looking for food. |
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| See there in the center? A blue and orange starfish! |
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| And he thinks he's the one catching things... |
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| Rock, sea, sky |
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| Rock, tree, me |
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| Who needs a shade umbrella when you could have a whole shade tent? I guess that's what people's logic is anyway! |
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| Left the ocean in the afternoon and went to this shady river valley. |
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| We drove out when evening fell and saw fish jumping -- their silver bellies sparkling specks all over the place. |
* * *
Put your toes
in the ocean,
Rinse your legs
in a river,
Let your soul awaken
to rest.
* * *
Thanks for reading :)
