an unexpected hike

This Saturday, we took the train to Taebek. Its a beautiful little town hidden in the mountains west of us. The trains here are incredible. Cheap, wonderful, convenient. We could have just taken the 1.5 hour train there and back and I would have been happy. I love trains. The route was beautiful and when we arrives we found the town just as great. We planned to have a relaxing day, exploring this town. But after asking for some advice from the tourist center, they directed us to the mountain to see a beautiful shaman altar. So we took the bus and started our hike just in time for a downpour. Matt wanted to keep walking, I did not! By the time we found shelter in a coal museum, we were soaked! Boo... We looked around the museum for about an hour while the storm passed. Once we headed back to the hiking trail, Matt realized that there were two paths to the altar. We were on the path that took 7.4 kms to get there and there as another sign saying to took 4.3 kms.. Oh man! We almost made such a mistake! Great job Matt!! We got on the right path and started walking again. And we kept walking, and walking, and walking, and walking....for what seemed like forever. Straight up the mountain. No zig-zagging business here. We were exhausted. We almost didn't make it. But 3 hours later we did. It was worth it. On the top of the mountain there was the shaman altar and a Buddhist temple. Sitting there listening to their prayers and chants while looking out over the mountain range incredible.

We had done all this walking and climbing business on no food. So we were starving and excited to eat! We got down the mountain and saw our bus (that comes only once an hour) pulling into the lot. Oh no. We were going to miss the bus, then we wouldn't eat, then we would miss our train....this was not going to happen. So I started sprinting down the hill to catch the bus. I have never ran so fast in my life. Hahaha, Matt said he thought my legs were going to fall off. They didn't but I looked like a lunatic because as the empty bus was pulling out to leave I was screaming "WAIT, WAIT!!!" and waving my arms frantically. He saw me. He stopped. We made it. Thank God. We would have been deserted if not. Then we went to a beef restaurant. We were so excited to eat and so excited to eat beef because Taebek is know for cheap, delicious beef - something that is super expensive in the rest of Korea. So we order and enjoyed. It was so good. They even brought us this raw beef and pear side dish for free (we looked hungry, haha). So we go to pay for what we thought would be a 29,000 won meal (something more expensive than we usually eat) and she gave us a bill for 53,000 won -------NOOOOOOOO! Duped again but the Korean meal system! We thought that the meal was 25,000 for two -- nope, its was 25,000 for one! Terrible. Nothing we could do about it and it was delicious. We'll know better for next time. All in all, it was a great day