Best Chuseok Ever! part 1

Sorry I haven't really done a good job the last week or so with keeping up on the blog. Even though I tend to have a good amount of down time for some reason it still seems like I never find time to write and it doesn't help when most of my week is pretty repetitive with work. This week I have lots to talk about though because it was Chuseok. For those of you who aren't up to date on your Korean holidays, Chuseok is viewed as an equivalent to Thanksgiving. We got Monday-Thursday off and I made tried to make the most of it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to travel anywhere really exotic for the holiday, mostly because I had such a short window of opportunity to plan a trip and traveling during the holidays is a real pain. So I decided to get out of the city for a bit and took a weekend trip up to Seoraksan National Park. This was my first travelling experience in Korea and I did it solo. There were a few minor bumps along the road but everything worked out fine and I had an amazing time there. Seoraksan turned out to be even more exotic than I could have ever dreamed. It could very well be the most beautiful place I have ever seen, the mountains are outrageous and the valleys and streams just multiply it tenfold. On top of all that there are a few Buddhist temples and villages scattered throughout the park which made it that much more mesmerizing.

I even hiked up one of the peaks and crawled into a cave where Buddhist monks come to meditate. After almost dying from the hike and backing out due to some of the super sketchy trails that seemed to lead you to your death I reached my destination. Being up about 5,000 ft, sitting in a cave that has been used for centuries as a place of worship and looking over the mountain range can be pretty humbling and breathtaking. Even for someone who knows practically nothing about their religion it is not hard to see why they search for peace in these mountains.

I am so happy that I decided to go and push myself to make that journey to the top. It was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Hopefully I can make it out to Seoraksan again this winter and get another opportunity to have one of those moments that you will never forget or regret.