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Bella Sardegna
After five months of Kimchi and Korea, my vacation was more than welcome (don’t get me wrong, though, I had and I’m still having a great time in Korea, it can just be, well, exhausting at times). Luckily Thorsten and Alex were able to join in for some climbing and it didn’t take much to convince us that Sardinia would be the perfect place to go. However the trip started with a moment of shock when we discovered that Alex’ VW leaked some oil and a mechanic advised us not to use the car as there was immediate danger of fire. As you can imagine we weren’t too impressed at gave it a shot anyway. And in order to come to the point – the car was just fine and never caught fire! | View gallery Continue reading
Korea, 2nd stint
Some weeks have passed already since my short trip back to Germany. Not much has been happening since then, for the last couple of days I’m trying to get rid of a nasty flu (without swine), other than that work is keeping me busy and doesn’t allow much action during the week. On weekends I usually play some pool or foosball at Road King. The weather changed from sunny blue sky to gray and cold, sometimes it rains so I haven’t really been outside of Cheongju lately.
But I finally managed to go climbing! There is a bouldering gym only a five minute walk from Ramada Hotel with polished holds and strong climbers. Although communicating is rather tough they are all really nice and helpful.
Back home
Unlike the previous days the sky was clear and blue this morning. A shame that I had to return to Seoul to catch my flight back home. But the trip form Sokcho to Dong-Seoul was really stunning: Leaving the houses behind there were only hills, covered with this amazing patchwork of red and green and yellow forest. And above it all the granite towers of Seoraksan. I had this Idea of asking the driver to stop for a little while but quickly dismissed the thought because a: he wouldn’t have been able to do so and b: there was no way I could have made him understand me anyway.
Only two hours later I was back in Seoul, hidden in thick mist. I dropped some postcards off at the post office and went on to Incheon International Airport where I’m preparing some blog posts that I’m going to upload later in Dubai – unlike here they have working WiFi over there.
Seoraksan National Park
From Sokcho Intercity Bus terminal I took bus number 7-1 to Seorak-Dong. This small place is the gateway to the National Park and offers accomodation and basic supply – assuming you have cash, international ATM’s don’t exist up here. I checked into Han Gang Park Motel and fell asleep after a long day. Continue reading
Northbound
Before leaving Korea for a short visit to Germany I wanted to squeeze in some travelling. It came in handy that I still had a free day due to my volunteer work last Saturday and my flight leaving late Tuesday. That basically gave me more than three days, enough time to visit Seoraksan National Park up north, supposingly the most stunning in whole Korea (North and South). Continue reading
Cheongju: Sangdangsanseong
[just found this unpublished post] … or Sangdang Mountain Fortress is a stone wall high up on a hill just outside Cheongju. It’s girth is about 4 km and it took us just little more than one hour to walk around it. Take bus number 862 or a cab – but make sure you know how to call it when you want to get back down. The easiest way is to call your hotel and let them do the talking. If you’re really keen you can walk back to town which probably takes another hour or so, haven’t done it myself though. Hint: if you choose to walk anti-clockwise you’ll have to ascend some steeper hills but the good thing about it is that almost all Koreans decide to walk the other way so you don’t feel like a herd animal – and on a sunny day it can get really crowded up there!
Cheongju: The Ramada Hotel
As mentioned earlier we eventually moved to the Ramada Hotel which offers the comfort of large rooms, gym, pool and sauna and a great breakfast buffet. The helpful staff is very friendly and generally speaks some English, too. Located at the northern end of town it’s a 20 40 minute walk downtown or a taxi ride of less than 5 minutes. If you don’t wanna go that far then there’s a supermarket right below the hotel, a cinema in the same building and a few Korean restaurants nearby. Apparently there’s even a bouldering close but I haven’t been able to find it – yet. And if you want to go bouldering, there’s a gym just a block away.
Cheongju: Garden of carnivorous plants
Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought anyway when I found this alleged gem while browsing a map of Cheongju the other day. Paolo and I took a cab to the other side of town to pay the garden a visit and not even the ignorance of the usually omniscient Ramada staff could hold us back. When the taxi driver dropped us off we realized why no-one knew about this place: Instead of a garden we entered a shady shed where hundreds of tiny and even tinier plants were grown – at least they were really carnivorous. So I wouldn’t call it a highlight but they’re still pretty to look at.
A new home
Originally the whole team stayed at Grand Hotel in Chungju. But then a few incidents concerning the sanitary facilities were reported … for example, this one toilet that stopped working – and got “fixed” in the wrong room which from then on had problmes with leakage. Continue reading
