July 29, Hiking, the story of Survival

Hello, Darlings! Today is our last day! I know it's so sad. However, I thought I would take this moment to address an issue. Literally, no one has left a comment. Are we not comment-worthy? Please just choose your favorite day and leave something so we know that we are awesome. Today, you guessed it. 

We went hiking. We woke up and took an hour-long train to the mountain. Then we got to Starbucks, had some coffee and breakfast, and started walking to the hike. On the way to the entrance, we got lost like three times, but some people helped us. 

We got seven bottles of water (RL 1.75 liters for the four of us) and, in the first twenty minutes, drank them all. (RL: It's generally a really bad idea to take this little water with you on a hike anywhere, especially in a tropical country. We really should have carried 3-4 Liters each. But we do this all the time, so don't sweat the lack of water :)

 Our first stop was a temple. It was very pretty and peaceful. We then officially started the hike. It was a 2.5-kilometer hike almost directly up. It ran along a stream where people were getting in and bathing and washing their clothes. At about 0.8 kilometers in, we stopped on a rock by the stream and cooled off. 

With 0.8 of a kilometer left, we realized we were lost. We tried to go up in several different directions, but there were no signs and no signs of the trail. The grass and sand looked intact everywhere. We decided to bet on one particular direction and got ready to go. After all, it was a Worldwide Scout meet, and they were everywhere in town; we expected to see them on the mountain at any time and lead us in the right direction. To be fair, Google Maps is jammed in South Korea, and we had no way of orienting.  

Then we heard some people coming, so we immediately sat down on a rock, took out or dried strawberries, and waited (RL: to see where they would go so we don't look like complete losers). 

Two guys passed us by - a Korean guide and a Japanese tourist. We gave them some strawberries. When they walked away, we followed them. I think they suspected us of lying about not being lost cause they definitely slowed down when we started following them. 

We finally got to the top and realized that our destination was a bit farther. We briskly reached it and sat down to see the view. However, the pollution was making it hard to see anything. It was more of an accomplishment than the view. We started walking down to another temple. It turned out that the temple was all the way up to where we were before. We decided not to do it because we had no more water left. 

We kept walking down. Halfway down, I fell and twisted my ankle. I was sitting on the ground and crying when a hiker rushed past us. I managed to reach the ranger station when a group of hikers gathered around me. It turned out that the lady told them that I had fallen and asked them to help me. One lady wrapped my ankle up in a cooling bandage and told Papa to hold my hand all the way down. 

We finally finished the hike and went to eat a bunch of cookies. Then we called a taxi and got home. 

We all changed and then went to the market for our cooking class. Then the instructor met us there and showed us the purpose of some interesting unknown foods and the best street food. Then she took us to her studio, and we went to cook. After two hours and three dishes, we finished and went home. 

Geo and I went out and looked for souvenirs, but it was overwhelming, and we were tired. We went home to sleep. And that was our last day in Seoul, Korea.