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| dawn-wefie |
We came to Mokpo for a simple purpose: to see Korea's southwestern tip because pergi ke paling ujung sounds cool. We did not have concrete plan and it was still dark at 4 AMish. All I know about Mokpo was there is this mountain called Yudalsan near the station where we can see pretty much everything of Mokpo. So there we go - Yudalsan.
None of us knew how to get there so we had to ask people around. This time Tugce did it. I need to highlight this part because strangely, Tugce was VERY energized that morning. Should we not stop her, she must have run to Yudalsan.
Along the way to Yudalsan, we met a guy with camera that wanted to climb the mountain too. We followed him and reached the first stop. We met 2 interesting uncles at the first stop that speak fluent English and one even knows where Trinidad and Tobago is. (of course, Abby loved him!)
The sunrise time of the day was 6.02 AM. We waited for half an hour until the camera guy said that we should climb higher. Iso and Abby were already exhausted so they decided to wait at the first stop while Tugce was determined to climb to the peak. I was divided. Hiking is certainly not my thing and it was 5 in the morning! Like... I could reject but I'd miss a big experience in my trip and it was certainly a bad option to send Tugce to hike alone. With hesitation, I decided to follow them.
Only 228m high, Yudalsan is not even a 'real' mountain. But I struggled in the dark to walk on the steep walkway up to the top. On the other hand, Tugce was attacked by mosquitoes from the bush hahaha. But overall, the camera guy and Tugce looked all fine while I could feel my leg almost gave up halfway. Yes you guys can question my fitness hahaha.
Long story short, we reached the final 'safe' spot! We could climb higher but it was strongly not recommended as it was kinda dangerous. We met the 2 uncles there and they shared us some Korean snack while waiting for sunrise. Unfortunately, it was really foggy that day and the sunrise never came hahahaha.
It's okay. Tugce and I were happy enough of the fact that we finally did Korea's national sport: Hiking.
We never expected we would (willingly) do it for the first time with no prep and no sleep. :)))
We went down at almost 7, trying to catch 8 AM train to Daejeon. Iso and Abby already called us for several times, asking us to leave quickly since it was too cold for them hahaha.
BY THE WAY... Tugce and I could not feel our legs when we walked down. Our thighs were really hurt too. OMG so this is the effect of unprepared hike... It was the worst feeling ever throughout the trip.
We caught our train to Daejeon and arrived at 11 AMish, being all grumpy and bloody exhausted. No one was even in the mood to take pictures.
We only went to a huge art complex and it was waaaaay too hot.
It was pretty but we just couldn't stand the heat. and the fatigue.
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| 'please let us sleep' |
After a very quick visit, we went to City Hall area for Thai food. Yay feast!
We ate like a pig, without even care about the bill because we all just too tired and upset hahaha. We still had room for dessert so we completed our fancy lunch with frozen yogurt from nearby store too.
Although I already wasted a huge chunk of my traveling budget for the lunch, I hadn't give up with my love from Daejeon, Sungsimdang's cream bread!
Sungsimdang is a very famous bakery in Daejeon and its very cheap. The only thing I have to complain about is that they do not have branch in Seoul huhuhu.
When I went there for the first time, it was really crowded that we couldn't even move inside. But this time, it was not too packed that I could even grab some testers.
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| what I bought |
I was still choosing my breads when Tugce reminded us about the time. We had less than 20 minutes to get to the station. We checked out our breads and then we ran (again) to the station. It was not that far, like 15 minutes on foot but crossing the road was a bit complicated. It felt like a moment of life and death.
FYI, there are trains every hour from Daejeon to Seoul but we could not afford to waste our time to wait for another hour since we gonna have another loooong journey in the midnight.
We arrived at the platform just when the train was coming. But this time, not only that there was no seats to sit, there was no space to even squat or put our bags! I was like "Okay.... we have no choice, its only 2 hours"
I was lucky to sit in front of the toilet, considering that Iso and Tugce needed to stay awake and stand up at every station since they were sitting at the train door's steps (di tangga pintu kereta banget loh!). Literally the worst train experience ever.
We reached Seoul at 4 PMish and ran (again) from Ewha station to catch the shuttle bus to our dorm. Being exhausted and sleep deprived, we did not want to waste any minute to sleep and prepare ourselves for the long journey to Korea's second largest city: Busan
