Initially they said three weeks, then six. Six weeks turned into three months and eventually I ended up staying in South Korea for half a year. An exciting time and in some ways for sure eye-opening – which in my opinion holds true for whenever you live as a stranger in a strange land for a while. I’m now going to try and shed some light on my personal experience with the country and its people as well as provide some general information. (weiterlesen …)

Searching the web for weekend destinations in Korea I stumbled upon a few weblogs that described a camping trip to an uninhabited island off the west coast. The information was very sparse, especially regarding the exact whereabouts and how to organise a trip but that only made it sound even more adventureous and we snapped at the first chance and literally set sail towards Sa Seungbong-Do from Incheon.
(weiterlesen …)

A little while ago Christina and I took a day trip to a town called Danyang near Chungju. Photos are already up but here’s now a little report about the trip. (weiterlesen …)

There are new photos in the gallery from my recent trip to Danyang | View album

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 (weiterlesen …)

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.

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. (weiterlesen …)

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). (weiterlesen …)

On 1st September I boarded the aircraft at Zurich Airport, heading for Incheon International Airport in Korea, stopping in Dubai. Roughly 15 hours aboard the plane, followed by a three hours Bus ride to Chungju and another five minutes by taxi. Final destination: Grand Hotel Chungju. That was the plan, and despite some communication issues it worked quite well – there I went straight to bed just before midnight, exhausted but excited. (weiterlesen …)

When we’d got the van in Cairns there had only been a three seater available. So we gave Karin a lift down to Brisbane, stopping at Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay on the way where we watched some dolphins having breakfast at the beach. We spent one night in Brisbane in a dark back alley and caught up with the Belgians from Fraser Island before driving on to Byron Bay the next day. A relaxed little town with a nice atmosphere. We also visitied Nimbin, a town full of hippies and drug dealers. Quite a trip! We almost got totally lost on windy roads through dark forest. But we eventually managed to arrive at this quite different place …
The next day we dropped the car off in Brisbane and caught a plain to Sydney – or we rather tried I should say. First the inbound flight was late and then the whole airport ceased operation due to heavy thunderstorms – I wonder how they’d survive snow!
But we made it to Sydney in the end and met my friend Tom who let us stay at his place in Bondi Beach for a night. After that we moved to a hostel nearby where we lucky enough to find two beds – really every place is fully booked around this time of the year!
One day I went climbing in the blue Mountains, where I met up with a local for the day. And while Claudia stayed in Sydney I took a train down to Melbourne to prepare my journey back to Germany …