On Wednesday, we rented a big van and 10 of took a 3 hour road trip to Sokcho, a small city on the east coast of Korea. This was our 4th time visiting this city; it's just so beautiful with the ocean on one side and rugged mountains on the other.
Upon getting into town, we went to our favorite restaurant that serves a pork and veggie mix (we've only been able to find this restaurant in Sokcho). After lunch, we found a hotel that would take all 10 of us for a reasonable price. Then we loaded back in the van and took off for Seorak Mountain (a 20 minute drive outside of the city). the park was pretty crowded; we bought our tickets for the cable car knowing that there was an hour long wait. To pass the time, we walked to the 15 foot high Buddha statue and checked out a temple surrounded by mountains.
At 4:30pm we took the cable car to the top of the mountain. We were surprised to hear a lot of Thai and Chinese being spoken-we weren't the only foreigners on the top of the mountain! The wind was pretty chilly but the views were so amazing. The sun was just setting so we the skyline was really colorful.
When we got down from the mountain it was dark so we headed back into Sokcho for some dinner. We went to a decent all you can eat Korean buffet; fast and simple. Then we headed back to the hotel and we all piled into our room for drinks and games. Soon it was almost midnight so we bundled up and went outside to count down to 2009. Just after we finished counting down, we were surprised to see some fireworks in the sky (we didn't know that there would be any).
The next morning (Jan 1) we woke up before 7am so that we could walk down to the beach and catch the 1st sunrise of 2009. Koreans do this every year, and we had even heard that there would be a few sunrise festivals (we went to Sokcho because we thought there would be no festival). But we were wrong: there were hundreds of people on the beach at 7am. So we tried to get a decent place to stand and waited. There was a small patch of clouds that was blocking the sun, so we waited until almost 8am to see it peak out from behind the clouds. Everyone was celebrating and they released hundreds of balloons to say Happy New Year.
After a quick nap, we took the scenic route back to Wonju, and got in at about 3pm, just in time to return the van before its deadline. We had a wonderful time bringing in 2009~ and wish everyone a very Happy New Year~
Our road-trip friends along the east coast of Korea.
Eating at our fave restaurant.
Snow-capped temple with Mt. Seorak in the background.
The view from the cable car.
Jenga~~
So many people waiting for the sunrise...
Happy New Year Sunrise, complete with balloons.
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