#여행

I walked the entire Seoul City Wall in a day. It all started when a friend posted on Instagram that they’d completed the circuit. My heart raced as soon as I saw it. As a Seoulite, I couldn’t not do it. The weather was good, and I wanted to go right away, so I found someone to join me. Five days later—yesterday—I completed it. A few friends were interested, but most couldn’t come because our schedules didn’t line up or they weren’t confident they could do the whole circuit in one go. That left one friend. But even they dropped out about halfway through. I understand—they had to leave for work early this morning. I hope you get to finish the rest when you have time. Thanks for sticking around through lunch So I walked the remaining half alone. I set off from Sungnyemun Gate at 9 a.m. and went clockwise. I forgot to get my stamp at the Donuimun site, though, so I paid the price for my mistake by doing the Sungnyemun–Donuimun stretch twice. That meant I finally finished at Donuimun. At first, I’d planned to start at Sungnyemun and go counterclockwise. I’d be taking photos toward the city center, so passing Heunginjimun in the morning and Donuimun in the afternoon would keep me from shooting into the sun. But I decided it would be better to tackle the steepest stretch, between Inwangsan and Baegaksan, early on, and changed my plan to clockwise. In hindsight, that was a sensible choice. Another bonus was getting to look out from Namsan near the end of the journey and see both the route I’d traveled and the northern half of Seoul it encircles. Since the place to pick up your completion badge is at the Donuimun site, I’d also recommend starting there and going counterclockwise. Hid my face because I looked a wreck after running out of energy The map and completion badge Pick up a map at one of the stamp stations at the four main gates (or, for Sukjeongmun, at the nearby Malbawi Information Center), collect all the stamps, and show proof photos taken at four spots—Inwangsan, Baegaksan (Cheongundae), Naksan, and Namsan (the beacon mound)—and you’re done. At Donuimun Museum Village, they gave me the badge after looking at just the map. I’m going to the Hanyangdoseong Historic Site Museum tomorrow to get my certificate, so I imagine they’ll check the photos there. I walked for eight hours and over 40,000 steps that day, and climbed the equivalent of nearly 300 floors. I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve passed 40,000 steps. Luckily, aside from some tightness in my calves, I don’t have any other symptoms today. How do I feel about it? Incredibly accomplished! I feel like I’ve finally become a true Seoulite. There’s the physical achievement, of course, but I’m also delighted to know the city I live in better. Knowing an area’s place names and landmarks, and which way to go to reach them, gives me a quiet sense of security and satisfaction. This might sound obvious or silly, but when thoughts like “Ttukseom. I could take an express train to Seonjeongneung, then the Suin–Bundang Line up there. Or I’ve got plenty of time—should I just ride halfway around Line 2?” or “The certificate pickup is at Namsan Park... The National Museum of Korea isn’t that far. I’ll knock out the National Gallery exhibition while I’m at it.” (That’s my plan for tomorrow.) come together effortlessly in my head, I feel like a true Seoulite. But even though I moved here over ten years ago, I spent most of that time in a dorm or in Daejeon, so I knew surprisingly few Seoul place names for someone who’d been here that long. Since graduating and living in Seoul full-time, I’ve learned many more, but I rarely had reason to go north of the river, so much of that area was still a blur. That made this circuit of Hanyang all the more helpful. One new discovery: I’d only ever seen Jangchung Arena on Infinite Challenge , but I finally walked right past it. Now I can enjoy the telepathy special even more! Of course, I’d already been to some of the places I passed. In fact, I’d been to most of them. But I got to see them from an entirely new perspective. I’d visited Inwangsan, Namsan, and Naksan before, and the walls there are still plainly intact. Yet I’d mostly seen them as just walls, not as fortifications. This was the first time I’d really thought of them as parts of one enormous wall encircling Hanyang. A surprising amount of the Seoul City Wall remains in the built-up parts of the city, too. Even on a bridge over Cheonggyecheon, the railings where it intersects the wall are made to look like ramparts. Lately I’ve been discovering north of the river the beauty of an old city center that European cities so often have and Gangnam doesn’t. Now I feel like I’ve found one more reason for it. ︙ It was dizzying to think that people built something this long when all they had to power the work was human and animal strength. My respects to those who were conscripted to build the Seoul City Wall... Apparently, if a section collapsed, people had to come all the way from the provinces to rebuild it 🥲 ︙ While talking with my parents over dinner about this kind of grueling adventure, I learned that my dad had once planned to cross the Nakdong River on a raft he built himself in college. He said he never actually did it, so I asked if he’d like to try it with me now. He just laughed... but I wasn’t joking. His own experience cycling around Jeju Island at about the same age also played a part in my decision to do the same thing, which I followed through on the year before last. Looks like going out of our way to make life hard for ourselves runs from father to son. From here on, it’s just a photo dump. Care to watch my party trick? I’d seen the 2222 bus at Konkuk University Station. Apparently there’s no 3333 or higher Not a care in the world, are you, kitty? You can live a fulfilling life with an attitude like this parking barrier’s <img src="

Continued from Solo in Jeju Again – The Main Story . I'm a P to begin with, but I become even more of one when I travel. I decided to take this trip three days before leaving, and didn't start looking into accommodations, transportation, and everything else until the day before. To be fair, I'd done the same thing on my last bike trip around the island without any problems, so I wasn't worried. But wouldn't you know it: there were no spots left in the Hallasan hiking reservation system. With a daily limit of 1,500 people, I never thought it would fill up. Apparently more people like mountains than I'd realized. I poked around for a few minutes, but there was no sign of a spot opening up. After a moment of wondering what to do... I ended up writing a macro. It repeatedly sent POST requests to retrieve the capacity and number of applicants. I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat, so I made sure it wouldn't put too much strain on the server. Whenever I felt like it, I'd run it once through every date–time–trail combination in my schedule, then let it stop. I also put a 0.5-second gap between requests. When the capacity and applicant count differ, it helpfully lets me know like this This does bring to mind a writing assignment from last semester's Computer Ethics and Social Issues class... But I didn't run it constantly, and I made the reservation manually, so please let me off just this once. And it worked! Before long, I found an open spot and snapped it up. I ran the macro a few more times in hopes of getting a better date or trail. From what I saw, cancellations seemed fairly common—the spots just filled up again in the blink of an eye. With my spot secured, the trip was on, and before I knew it, hiking day had arrived. Here's what I packed: Polyester T-shirt - hiking jacket - hiking windbreaker - lightweight puffer jacket Knee braces - Heattech leggings - hiking pants Hiking socks - hiking boots Crampons , trekking poles , gloves , sunglasses , hiking backpack , stick-on heat packs Long energy bars × 4, bite-size ones × 8 500 ml bottles of water × 4 I'm not a regular hiker, so I borrowed a lot of things from my dad . I rented the snow-mountain gear from a local shop , and some things were given to me by the older guys staying at the guesthouse the night before . Not that I'd asked them for anything... There were three middle-aged men in my room, and when I first arrived we just exchanged quick hellos. But as soon as I started packing, all eyes turned to me. It began with simple questions like, “Going up Hallasan tomorrow?” and “Did you make a reservation?” Then it became, “Have you packed this and that?” and “You'll be in trouble if you wear a cotton T-shirt underneath—it'll get soaked with sweat.” Eventually, we unpacked everything I'd already packed and started over together. When they gave me the T-shirt and energy bars, it felt less like “These might come in handy” and more like “You'll be in serious trouble without these.” They also gave me loads of advice about the hike—too much to list here without getting boring. Most of it was incredibly helpful, but some of it wasn't quite right. So throughout this post, I'll be testing their advice and marking it True or False . Surprise Mystery TV Cute --> The first piece of advice was... Your entry time doesn't matter! Sprint up like a ninja the moment the clock strikes six and claim your photo with the summit marker. My entry time in the reservation system was 8 a.m., but according to the guys, only the date mattered. Besides, if you arrived late, you'd face a long line for a photo in front of the summit marker, so getting to the top before everyone else was crucial. I found it strange that this wouldn't be a problem when they clearly scanned your QR code, but all three of them agreed... So I took their word for it and left the guesthouse at 5 a.m. It was before the first bus, so I paid a whopping 18,000 won for a taxi and reached the entrance to the Seongpanak Trail at 5:55. I got in line, and then it was my turn. I zoomed in on the QR code before showing it to the attendant—5% so it would scan properly, 95% to hide the entry time printed underneath. But the attendant promptly asked to see my entry time and turned me away with, “Come back at 7:50.” I'd had my doubts, but still... I ended up waiting at the information center for about two hours. So the very first piece of advice was False! While wondering how to pass the time, I remembered that <Love and Leashes> was coming out on Netflix that day, so I opened the app. It wasn't available yet. Turns out the release time was based on Pacific Standard Time. Two disappointments before the morning was even over—not a great start. I tried watching it back at the guesthouse that night, but this time I couldn't handle the cringe and gave up before the 30-minute mark. Still, time flew by while I watched YouTube. I gathered myself, and now it was time to actually set off! 7:50 a.m. Entered via Seongpanak I still wasn't sure whether I wanted to wait ages for a photo with the summit marker. But if I did, I figured new hikers would arrive faster than people finished taking their photos and left ( ṁ in > ṁ out haha... ), so I headed up quickly for now. The cold drains your phone battery fast. If you want to take photos at the summit, turn your phone off as soon as you start hiking. That was another piece of advice. So I didn't take any photos on the way up and focused solely on walking. The first time I switched my phone on and took a picture was in front of the Jindallaebat Shelter, about two-thirds of the way up. 9:47 a.m. Jindallaebat Shelter <

Work in progress Continued from Jeju Island Solo Again - The Main Story . I found Hallim Park while looking for things to do in Hallim. It was winter and there was an admission fee, but the reviews were so good that I decided to go. I was very glad I did. I should have known when they said it covered 100,000 pyeong Apparently, many of the park’s trees, including this palm, grew from seeds planted when the park first opened. The park was established in 1971, so this tree is the same age as my school. Mr. Buffett preaching the importance of long-term investing With someone who has such lovely hair,,,^^ All the signs are made of pottery with blue lettering written in permanent marker. They remind me of white porcelain and are really pretty. Next up, a cave. It’s surprising enough to find a cave inside a privately run park, but Hyopjae Cave is apparently of great academic value: shell powder blown in from the sea gives it features of both a lava tube and a limestone cave. Cave coral like I saw in <Survival in a Cave> when I was in elementary school 🌻🌻🌻 🌻🌻🌻 That’s just mean They even misspelled “bald.” They didn’t know how to spell it; they just wanted to make fun of him somehow.. bayum~

Back to Jeju. Since my first visit after COVID broke out last August, this was my third trip in six months—and my second solo trip. Like my last bike trip around the island , I had a clear goal this time: climbing Hallasan. But making a round trip to Jeju just for that seemed like too much trouble, so I made time to spend three days in Hyeopjae before the climb. Hallim Park , which I visited while staying in Hyeopjae, and Hallasan each have enough material for their own posts. This post covers the rest of the trip. Day 1 Let's go → Hallim Strange graffiti I spotted on the way to my accommodation Turns out it was a brand-new piece What a view from my room But the wind was absolutely wild... From the next day on, I had little choice but to skip the hair wax and layer up with a hoodie It was already 4 p.m. when I arrived, so I decided to just visit the Sinchang Windmill Coastal Road and rest at my accommodation on the first day. The timing was awkward, so my first meal was ramen I walked about 3 km to the Sinchang Windmill Coastal Road. I felt pressed for time with sunset approaching, but the evening light ended up giving me the best possible view. It's a strange feeling to realize I've already traveled most of the roads marked by that blue line at least once Bomal kalguksu on the way back Day 2 I had black pork noodle soup for brunch, looked around Hyeopjae Beach for a bit, then headed to Hallim Park. See the separate post for Hallim Park. Hallim Park preview 1 Hallim Park preview 2 A Geumneung Sandwich after leaving the park I grabbed my MacBook from my accommodation and headed straight back to Hyeopjae. I stopped at a café to enjoy the view somewhere warm and sort through my photos. I ordered a Udo peanut croffle . Just as I thought when I tried a croffle for the first time, it was insanely sweet. Which made it delicious. My last meal on day two was a salmon and avocado rice bowl at a place with great reviews . With an extra serving of rice, it was just the right amount, and the fresh salmon was delicious. The interior was very cozy too, but there were a lot of people, so I didn't take a photo. They also have a solo dining set with sashimi and drinks, so it might be worth another visit if I come to Hyeopjae alone again. I'd assumed the guesthouse had fixed rooms for men and women, but they switched between its two differently sized rooms depending on the guests. On the first night, I shared the larger room with three others. Several women were arriving the next day, so as the only guest staying a second night, I moved rooms. In the new room, I met a 31-year-old vocational high school architecture teacher and a 23-year-old university student. The student seemed distraught from the moment he walked in and soon admitted he'd had an accident in his rental car on the way over. I'd heard plenty of times that driving in Jeju was difficult, but I hadn't expected to meet someone who'd had an accident so soon. Fortunately, it was a minor one: he'd scraped a wheel against a landscaping stone by the road. It was his first driving trip since getting his license, and he must have been looking forward to it. I hope he didn't let it ruin the rest of his trip and managed to have fun... Day 3 Geumneung was every bit as beautiful as Hyeopjae Soy-marinated shrimp set meal Seven-layer ganache cake Yesterday I'd visited a café to try something new. Today, with my suitcase in tow after checking out, I went into a familiar Starbucks . With a sweet slice of cake, I breezed through <If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light>. Time to head into Jeju City.

Original: Uploaded to Instagram on August 18, 2019

Original: Uploaded to Instagram on July 14, 2019

Originally posted on Instagram on September 26, 2021

Last fall, after my exchange placement was confirmed, my friends and I made plans for our time abroad. We said we would visit a nearby town every weekend. But one week it rained, another week we couldn't be bothered, and we kept putting it off. Nearly two months later, the only place we'd been was Albi, about 70 km from Toulouse. Depending on the visitor, Albi might not seem like much of a travel destination. Its sights are a riverside view with an old bridge, a huge cathedral, and some strangely pruned, cube-shaped trees. I'm not religious, so even the cathedral didn't leave much of an impression on me. But I found Albi's appeal somewhere unexpected. Like many towns, Albi has a river, and it makes its sharpest bend around a lake. The park by that lake was the place for me. Calling it a park might be a stretch: the only signs of people were a path worn down by foot traffic and a few picnic tables. But that was exactly the point. It was hard to tell whether someone had made it into a park or simply left it as it was. Anyone who has seen the stories I post from time to time will know that I really like wandering around on my own. There are plenty of places to explore in a city—among the buildings, through markets, along the river—but parks are easily my favorite. Whenever I stay somewhere new, I tend to go from one park to the next, checking them off one by one. Along the way, I've developed my own ideas about what a park should be. Looking at parks in Korea, I sometimes get the feeling that the people in charge of city planning can't resist tearing out the grass and trees. They cover every flat surface with paving blocks or rubber flooring, add a few pieces of outdoor exercise equipment, and call it a park. Those facilities really can help older people, but we need parks full of greenery too. After spending my days at home or school, it's a joy to travel a little farther now and then and encounter all sorts of plants and insects in the woods. It makes me think, ‘These things exist in the world, and somehow I've been living as if I'd forgotten all about them.’ Growing up, I had a garden at home and a large lakeside park, so I had chances to learn about nature. When I think of people who haven't had those chances, living in a city where the only parks have rubber floors and perhaps not even knowing what they're missing, the feeling becomes more overwhelming. With all that on my mind, Albi's park felt like rain after a long drought. Thankfully, the friends who came with me felt much the same way, so we spread out a picnic mat by the lake and stayed for about an hour. We sat and watched the quiet things happening around us: a half-submerged log, dense shrubs with ducks gliding between them, and a dog that spent ages deciding whether to get in the water before finally plunging in, while its owner looked on. It was every bit as enjoyable as rushing from one tourist attraction to the next. The weather was still chilly then, so we talked about coming back near the end of the semester, when summer would be closer and everything would be greener. I'm a little sad we never did. Exchange Semester in France, Ep. 4 Originally posted on Instagram, June 3, 2020