National Park Hike on a National Holiday

Last Thursday was Independence Day in the ROK. March 1 marks the day Korea declared their Independence from Japanese occupation. Though I get precious few days off, I am lucky enough to score a holiday when the rest of the country does. To celebrate our Independence from work, Les and I did a bit of hiking and mountain scrambling in Bukhansan National Park (in Seoul), home to Samgaksan--Triangle mountains. There are three peaks in Bukhansan, and we climbed up a ridge in between two of the tallest peaks. Along the way we met two adjoshis. They asked us to join them for some gimbap and soju (gimbap is a rice and seaweed roll of delish-y goodness). So we plopped our butts down and enjoyed their company for a little. One was a climber (with 30 years experience!!), and the other was an aspiring climber--they got a kick out of finding out that we climb ourselves. The experienced climber even asked to inspect our climbing shoes. Anyway, it was a fantastic day....our only day off for another TWO MONTHS. Oh the agony of working eight straight five-day weeks!!!