Dobongsan Mountain,

The only thing we had on our minds this Sunday was hiking. Yeob, Samu, Diana and our new korean friend, who is one of the new IFCC staff, headed to the Dobongsan station, where Bukhansan National Park is located. We had our hiking lunch, sea shell noodle soup, before we started to climb up the mountain. The Koreans won’t call it a mountain because it’s not ”high”, but since I am from a flat country, the Dobongsan Mountain is definitely a high mountain. The mountain is only 20 minutes away from where I live in Seoul, which makes is very accessible to spontaneously go for hiking. The highest point we reached was 725m, but there was also mountains in the area that were even higher. 

The funny thing is, that Koreans are experts when it comes to hiking. They have all the equipment in matching colors, great picnic and they are fast. The old grandmas and grandpas were basically running up, resting a little, and then ran down. What I figured out, it seems like there is no korean hiking without seafood and makgeolli (rice wine)

Walking up made me realize that I haven’t had enough of hard working exercise for a long time. Hiking in mountains is not really possible in Finland (right?). I assume that there are some kind of hiking places, but not with views like this.

Going up was okay, tough since the group I wen’t hiking with were basically running up too, while I wanted to enjoy the view swell. But we made it, up and down, and it was totally worth it! I will definitely go hiking again, as soon as possible.