Last weekend was exhausting. From Saturday morning until very early Tuesday morning, I rode twelve buses, took two taxis, hiked, swam, fell in a rocky river three times, slept on two hard floors, and walked until my feet were ready to mutiny. In other words, I had a great time.The whole thing started a few weeks ago when my friend Nina learned about an island called Jin-do, which has a "mysterious sea road" that is only accessible at low tide. Apparently, one can then walk across the Aegean sea to a second, much smaller island. A festival was being held on Monday in which the island of Jin-do was attempting to set a new Guinness world record for the most people on a land bridge at one time. Lizzi and I agreed with Nina that it sounded like fun. Then I found out about Jiri-san, a national park on the way there, and a journey was born.
Our adventure commenced at 6:15 Saturday morning, when the three of us met up together at the Gyeongju bus station. We took a bus to Daegu, and then caught a bus from there to Jinju, a really neat little city in the western part of the southern province of Gyeongsangnam-do. Jinju is a very pretty, pleasant place that closely resembles Gyeonju in many ways. After a tasty breakfast at an adorable coffee shop, we caught another bus, this time to Daewon-sa, which is one of the easiest places to enter Jiri-san National Park from.
At Jiri-san, we originally planned to hike to the top of Cheonwang-bong, a mountain renowned for its sunrises, where we would then stay the night in a mountain hut. As soon as we spotted the river, however, our plans changed. Nina and I were seized with a passionate need to hike on the rocks in the river, so we decided to see how far we could go. Then we felt an even more passionate need to swim. So, I found a nice tall set of rocks to use as a changing room, and we changed into our suits. It was a hot, sunny day, so the cold water felt simply delicious. We had a marvelous time swimming, climbing, and exploring.
Afterwards, we changed back into our clothes at our "changing room." Lizzi had twisted her foot just prior to our swim, so she decided to go hike on dry land for awhile, where she felt a bit more secure in her footing. Nina and I opted to stay in the river, hiking on the rocks. It was then, fully clothed, that I managed to fall not once, but three times. I bruised my tailbone and upper right thigh, banged up both shins, scraped both hands and both knees, and turned my baby toe into hamburger. I figured another swim would be therapeutic, so Nina and I found another rock to change behind and went swimming again. Then we dressed and headed up the mountain to rejoin Lizzi, who had found a Buddhist temple to explore.
Nina and I were highly amused to discover a sign forbidding swimming once we had hiked for awhile. Oops! By the time we made it up to the temple, it had closed, and we were all rather hungry. We found the cutest scenic restaurant right on the river (we actually sat on a little deck overlooking it) and ate a tasty meal there. I had an octopus noodle soup that I enjoyed, despite the fact that I do not fancy octopus. After dinner, I purchased a box of ricecakes for us to enjoy once we got to our lodging for the night.
It was quite dark by this time, and I must confess, none of us relished the thought of hunting down a mountain hut in the dark. So we were ecstatic when the owner of the restaurant offered to drive us to a place to spend the night. He drove us to a pleasant, inexpensive place. It was traditional Korean, in that one sleeps on thin mats on the floor there. It was still a bit early for bed, so we sat outside by a small creek and played cards, while happily munching on the tastiest, softest ricecakes I have ever had. At around 10:30, we went to bed (or rather, to floor). I have to say, my bruised body had plenty of complaints about my choice of sleeping accommodation!
In the morning, we slept in quite late, being exhausted from our traveling and hiking the day before. After paying for the room, we hiked down to the restaurant and had brunch there (I had wonderful bibimbap - rice, various vegetables, sweet potato noodles, meat, and spicy pepper sauce mixed together). The restaurant owner was thrilled to see us again and gave us a pack of postcards. We played "rock, paper, scissors" (the ultimate method for decision-making) in order to fairly divide the postcards (the winner of each round got first choice of a postcard).
After browsing a little shop by the restaurant, we headed over to explore the Buddhist temple, which was beautiful. I love how colorful the temples and palaces are over here. The mountain scenery made the temple remarkably serene. It was truly a special, wonderful place.
After that, it was time to hike back down the mountain to the bus stop. On the way down, we met up with the restaurant owner again, and he insisted on driving us down the mountain. We thanked him profusely (Korean hospitality is amazing!), and purchased tickets back to Jinju. Unfortunately, the next bus was not for an hour, and the sun decided to yield to rain during that time. So, we sat under the cover of a tree for an hour, playing cards and munching on Korean ice cream treats. We got quite cold, but it was worth it. I have no recollection of the hour and a half ride back to Jinju, as I slept the entire way. I'm getting quite adept at falling asleep just about anywhere now. All in all, the three of us agree that Jiri-san was the best part of the entire weekend. In fact, Lizzi and I plan to return there with more friends in the fall, and actually make it to the top of the peak.
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