April 29th, 2013-DAY 1 of my trip around the Peninsula!

So my plan was to leave at 6am on Monday morning and drive towards Seolak Mountain. 
(Seolak Mountain is the highest mountain of the Taebaek Mountain range located in the Gangwon province.)

It kind of didn't work out because first, it was raining awfully bad with thunder and lightening.. and I had some unfinished business to take care of. But we - my mum, our dog, Nari, and I - were on the road around 7:40.

The reason for heading to Seolak Mountain was to visit the Ulsanbawi, which  I had climbed to the very top when I was 5 years old. And I have a medal to proof it!

Ulsanbawi is in a rock formation and tor climb it you have to go up these incredible steel staircases. The original path up the mountain was taken down because it was too old and getting rusty here and there so, they have a new and better and safer path up to the top. I remember this particular climb even though I was only 5 because it was slightly drizzling and when I was on the top I remember reaching up and being able to touch the clouds (or so I thought . It was the most amazing thing and it still is one of the most amazing memories that I have of my childhood. Also, the fact that I was only 5, and yes I have a medal to prove this, and climbed the whole 808 steps all by myself was very self-satisfying. So, I wanted to go down that memory lane and experience it again.

It did give me a fright and I was half worried and half daring when the rain kept pouring. Plus, we took the wrong highway, the longer one, and went around because I forgot to check the map and print it out before I left.. Though it was a  big relief to see the sun peeking out when we reached the east coast and finally headed to the mountain. The beach was just so marvelous that I had to stop and take a moment. So we parked and took pictures and breathed in as much as we could. I was worried at first because it wasn't what I had planned but I figured I'm not really in any tight schedule and this is what road trips are about.. So started enjoying the delays and detours. 

Since this was my very first time driving somewhere besides the vicinity of where I live AND without a map... we got lost again.. yes my fault.. but  no biggy...

When we finally reached the parking lot of the mountain, we were so glad that it wasn't raining anymore. However it was very windy and the park rangers and the shop keepers kept telling us we might not be able to make it to the top....NO! I told myself I came all this way and I'm going to the top. AND I did!

The wind was really strong. You could hear it howling and it also sounded like huge waves crashing in. You could also feel it push you this way and that..but after an hour and half we finally made it to the top with a few rest in between. 

And on our way down..

We settled on spending the night in Seokcho so found a nice motel overlooking the East Sea. Had dinner at the beach fish market and I finished my work that I still had to wrap up. 

I guess because of all the excitement I couldn't fall asleep so started writing this blog but didn't finish it because I started to feel drowsy around 1am. So.. here I am finishing it up. ^^*

Movie with MOM!

Yes that was on September 21st.. I'm "a little bit" behind on uploading pics and writing on my blog.. but that's nothing new now is it :(

Well, that was the week of Chuseok(추석). I was going to explain but I think wiki does a better job than me so there's the link for those of you who aren't used to Korean holidays.

Well, usually for Chuseok, which lasts for three days, family and relatives gather around at the eldest son's house but since our family is a bit of here and there and we don't really get together Mom and I went to see a movie and my sister was somewhere in Gangnam studying for her graduate school exam.. The movie was great. It was a Korean movie, which I'd go into details but not really feeling like it so I'll skip the details..

Anyways, when we came out it was rainning, no that's not the correct term, it was POURING and it was really hard to drive. See the picture on the left that's my car's windshield, you can practically see the water flowing down.

After the movie, since we had to wait for my sister to finish up her studies, we went to the bookstore and just spent some time browsing around, killing time.. And like always, I just couldn't resist the temptation. Yes, I laid my eyes on some books and I had to get them. This time they were cooking books. I've been wanting to make some real nice yummy breads and I saw these books, I just couldn't resist.

Drive home was just horrendous, I think it was the longest drive ever. Usually it takes about an hour or less to drive home from Gangnam area but because of the rain some of the roads were blocked because it  was flooded. I think we've made the most u-turns in one trip and when we finally got home it felt like we've been on the road for days and just got back from a long road trip. Lesson learned, NEVER drive in a weather like that.. EVER!

a new place

[Sept. 11, 2010]
So, a friend of our family invited us out to dinner and I got to find another great place to eat.
It's always great to find new places and try different food.. I particularly liked this place because on the roof of the restaurant they had a little patio where you can just hang around and have coffee.. ;)
Great place I tell you..

AND the food was excellent...

Their specialty was the ribs.. of course Korean style.. and  Korean Cold noodles (냉면: Naengmyeon, both 물냉면mul-naengmyeon and 비빔냉면 bibim-naengmyeon) Too bad I don't have pictures of them. I'll have to take one when I go next time ;)

 so This is the little patio, you'll see some benches and chairs and tables. It was drizzling a little bit but not a biggie since we were under a little pavilion..

Bolshoi on Ice

As a parents' day present to Mom, my sister bought tickets for the Bolshoi ice ballet show (May 9, though there were some complications so our tickets got moved to the May 2). Our seatings were excellent since we were front row center, right on the ice! The rink was ice cold but luckly we had our jackets and a blanket to share.. I think the show was almost 2 hours long started with 'Snow white' for the first part and some various short pieces then the second part ended with 'The Nutcracker'.

For me, the most memorable part was seeing the sad 7 dwarfs changing into happy-go-lucky dwarfs.. so goofy and cute. Also, the director of the show, Igor Bobrin, was amazing! Natalkia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin were great, too. Oh, and can't leave out Dmitri Dmitrenko. Well, they were all good!

More pictures here!