South Korea Trip, August 16

 Good morning Gangnam!  Today's weather is expected to be partly cloudy with a high of 29°C (84°F).

The weather this morning looks nice!

Today's Agenda

Today, I will be wearing myself out climbing 검단산 (Geomdansan Mountain).  The visibility should be good, and I hope to capture lots of beautiful pictures!

• Climb 검단산 (inspiration)

I am very excited for today.  I hope that it is as rewarding as I expect it to be.  :)

Today's Experiences

I am writing this as I am getting drunk on very expensive wine.  This was not my intended ending for today but rather an... unintended ending.  One might even say that today's ending was accidental.  I'll come back to this.  First let's start with this morning.

Traveling to 검단산

I got started early in the morning to try to beat the heat and the crowd.

Outside the sidewalk was being repaired.  I have noticed more trash in Seoul recently, and I suspect the reason is that their resources are dedicated to repairing the city after last week's floods.  I'm impressed and surprised at how they are working to make even the little details perfect again.

I did fail at beating the rush hour crowd like I had hoped to do.  However, I still got lucky.  Not many people were leaving Seoul, so my bus to the mountain was nearly empty.

It was a very long bus ride.  I really like that these intra-city buses have charging ports for devices.  I was able to recharge my phone to a full battery on the hour-long ride.

I was uncertain about when to press the "stop" button, so I pressed it early and had to walk a good distance more to my destination.  I am okay with this, because I got an up-close look at those cute farms that I saw last week on the SRT.

I guess that they don't look as pretty up close, but they are just as interesting.  Compared to farms in the USA, these are drastically different.

Climbing 검단산

Climbing 감단산 was inspired by Hyelin.  The theme of my trip is EXID, and it seems that Hyelin's updates are the most useful for tourists!  I am very grateful to her for giving me adventure ideas.  This specific adventure was inspired by Hyelin's Instagram post <here>.

This is the map of paths for climbing the mountain:

I expected the climb to be a challenge.  I severely underestimated how much of a challenge it would be.

At the halfway mark, I reached my limit.  I was sweating buckets of water!  It was so hot, and it was so exhausting this mountain in the summer time!

As I was climbing, I felt like there was a metaphor in these mountain paths.  The path is clear, but that does not mean that it is easy.  My path in life seems clear to me, but it does not seem easy.  I focused on this metaphor as I climbed.

The climb grew steeper the further up I went.

Three kilometers ago (two miles), I reached my limit, yet here I am.  I pushed myself, I admit that I even crawled some of the way!  I had to reach the top no matter what.  My shoes were muddy, my shorts were muddy, and I could barely stand, but I made it!

I stayed at the top for a while.  I felt the cool breeze atop the mountain.  I heard the wind through the trees, the bugs and birds, and the hikers making their way up the mountain.  There was a faint sound of cars honking at the bottom of the mountain.  The air smelled clear with hints of flower's fragrances.  And the view, looking down onto the city that I have loved exploring, was the most special part.

I stayed at the top just gazing out and enjoying the moment for so long that I got sunburns on my face.

Traversing down the mountain was much easier, of course.  I was filled with happiness, and I even stopped to enjoy nature a few times.  When I reached the bottom and looked up at the peak that I had reached, I had a profound realization: I did this!

I climbed the mountain because of Hyelin, for Hyelin.  I was motivated to complete it for Hyelin.  But now, looking back at this peak, I am in awe of my accomplishment!  I did this.  I reached that peak!  It was very hard, but I did it!  I was very proud of myself and very impressed with myself.  Maybe, in some ways, I did it for me.

Supper!

When I arrived home, it was too late for more adventures, but it was early enough to plan a good supper.

I decided that I wanted to eat Steak for supper.  I picked a restaurant... let's call it "Steak Place" for privacy reasons (which will become apparent).

Coincidentally, "Steak Place" is just a few doors down from Shinsadong Tiger's home!  (I know his address because he told it to me last year.)  He has been the producer for EXID since their debut in 2012.  I did not plan to eat next to his home, but I recognized the address when I looked up the directions to the restaurant.

Sadly, "Steak Place" was closed.  The hours posted on the door showed that the restaurant should have been open.  I am not sure why they were closed.

I searched for another steak restaurant, this one just across the road.  Let's call it "Steak Place 2".  I was stopped on my way in and told that it was closed.  Annoyed, I asked (in Korean) for a suggestion for where to get steak: "where is steak?".  The person who stopped me misunderstood and showed me the "Steak Place 2" sign.  I gave up, thanked the man, then went on my way.

I had exhausted the steak restaurants nearby, so I found one a little farther away but still within walking distance:  Wolfgang's Steakhouse.

First of all, the prices are insane!  I really did not intend to spend 306,300원 ($234) on a steak dinner!

Because I have eaten at a fancy restaurant, let me give my review!

The food?  I can cook a far better meal at home.  Three stars.

The service?  Perfect!  Five stars!

The price?  Insane!  Why would anyone pay this much for a meal???

And now I'm drunk on an overly-expensive bottle of wine.  I will have to resist the urge to text my crush tonight.  Or friends.  Or anyone really.  This was not planned at all.