My Ski and Beach Solo Trip through Gangwon-do (+ k-drama filming sites)

Saturday, January 23

I am literally so excited you have no idea. First thing, I head to the bus terminal to catch my 10:20 bus to Wonju. It takes about three hours to get there, but I have to wait two hours here before catching the train to Pyeongchang. I get to Jinbu Station at 5 and Yongpyong Resort at 5:30. It's snowing!! I get off the shuttle bus to tons of white stuff falling from the sky. Heck yes. I was so worried it wouldn't snow at all but success! Let the adventure begin! Or actually let it begin tomorrow. I have a killer headache so I quickly check into the hotel, grab a light dinner, and pass out.

Sunday, January 24

So this resort is so fancy and my wallet is crying, but I've heard it has the best skiing in Korea. It's also the site of some k-drama filming locations. There's plaques and photos scattered around the grounds as well as a pamphlet featuring all the places captured in the two most popular dramas, Winter Sonata and Goblin. Anyway, today's the day!! I haven't been snowboarding in around five years so I'm insanely pumped about getting back out on the slopes. Luckily I brought goggles from home, but almost everything else is available to rent (except waterproof gloves). I go downstairs at 9am when everything opens. First, I buy my lift ticket and rent a helmet. Next, I rent a snowboard and boots. Finally, I rent a ski jacket and pants. This sounds a lot easier than it was considering I had to run back and forth multiple times. First I give my credit card as collateral at the board rental place, then I need it to rent the clothes so I give my room key instead. Now I'm barred from entering my room until I return my board rental but it's the small price I'm willing to pay. Then I put all my stuff in a coin locker, lock it, forget to put my glasses in, open it, put my glasses in, and realize I don't have enough coins to lock it again. Oof. So now I'm hoping and praying nobody steals my crap while I'm gone all day (thank god no one did). Now I'm finally ready to go out! I take a lift to a green run and find that, though a bit scary, I fall back into snowboarding pretty easily. This resort has two really long blue runs so I spend most of my time there. We got a lot of snow the night before so the conditions are surprisingly really good. The highest run at the end of the gondola has a little walking path to a helicopter landing pad with views of the surrounding mountains. At the cafe up there I grab a hot cocoa and then take my last run down for the day. I'm so tired by the time 5pm rolls around but I still want to keep going. I return everything but the clothes, buy dinner, and head back up to my room. My knees are bruised from a fall and I'm already feeling sore. Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow.

Monday, January 25

My whole body hurts but I rush down at 10am to get a start to my last day of skiing. I've learnt my lesson and avoid the whole rental/locker debacle of yesterday. I immediately head to the gondola to beat the crowds. Being a Monday, there's significantly less people out today. The gondola is the longest in South Korea, taking 18 minutes to get to the top. I realize halfway through that you can connect your phone to the bluetooth speaker in your cable car. You best believe I'm blasting music from the drama that was filmed here all the way up. Well, actually that just makes me want to cry so I switch to Green Day halfway. Sadly, Gong Yoo is not waiting for me at the top nor do I get a back hug, but I do get to carve down a mountain so not a total loss. I spend the day much like yesterday, alternating between this run and the other blue run and generally having an amazing time. It's sad not being here with my skiing buddies, my brother and dad, but I'm sure we'll go together again soon. The conditions are more slushy today but still such a fun time. 5pm seems to come sooner than I'd like it to. I am pretty exhausted but so satisfied with my time here. Definitely worth some of the expensive purchases I had to make! I don't want to leave tomorrow but I'm excited to continue my trip!

Tuesday, January 26

Today I lay in bed a bit in the morning, hurting all over. I check out at 11am and chill in a cafe overlooking the bunny hill for a couple hours. It's nice to just lounge around. The shuttle bus comes at 2pm and I get the train at 2:45 and arrive in Gangneung in just fifteen minutes. I check into my new hotel and rest for an hour before walking to the beach! It's so strange going from snow and skiing in the morning to sand and the beach in the evening. The sun is beginning to set, casting the beach in beautiful pastel colors. I've really missed being by the beach and would love to sit down by it and never leave. But I'm hungry so I walk down the path to meet up with some friends. The place we want to eat at is closed so we get burgers at a place I'd seen recommended online. They're huge and delicious. After, we spend a lot of time walking up and down the beach. The restaurants all try to lure us and we see people lighting roman candles. It's such a peaceful night. We pass a bridge and a breakwater and end up sitting and chatting on a swing chair. It's nice to catch up, but cold so I head back to my place around 9pm.

Wednesday, January 27

Today I get up early and meet my friends at the bus stop. Buses here are really weird and don't have their times on the maps app like every other place I'd been. They come infrequently and have the times posted on the actual bus stop itself. Super inconvenient as a lot of today (and tomorrow) was spent waiting around for buses. We get to Jumunjin breakwater around 10am. The only reason this place is significant is the breakwater. It's the location of an iconic scene from the k-drama Goblin. We approach to find a photo of the scene by the road and a line of people taking photos. We wait our turn and of course have to have a full on photo shoot. While watching k-dramas back in the states, it seemed so far away and out of reach, so it's really cool getting to see some of these locations in real life. Now if only a handsome immortal would come around and grant my wishes. There's a gelato shop right there along the road so we stop in and chill on the second floor for a bit. I get tofu (a specialty of this city) and chocolate hazelnut. It's delicious (yes even the tofu, which has a very subtle flavor). The shopkeeper comes up and hands us a free cup of two trial flavors, banana bread and cheesecake. They're both delicious and we tell her that as best we can when we leave.

Next we take a short cab ride up to Jumunjin Beach proper. The cab driver knows exactly what we want and drops us off directly in front of the bus stop set used in the BTS album shoot for You Never Walk Alone. He even gets out of the cab, calls the phone number of the car that's slightly blocking it, and has them move. Best cab driver ever. He must do that a lot. Luckily there's no one else there when we arrive so we take our time. There's even a phone stand set up for optimal photo taking. After soaking in all the BTS vibes and trying to look cool, we walk along the beach a bit. Jumunjin Beach played a part as well. It's the same beach from Jimin's parts in the Spring Day music video. We then wait for another bus and head down to Anmok Coffee Street. Gangneung is the birthplace of hand-drip coffee shops in Korea and a coffee festival is held here every year. We get lunch (black???? pizza) and chat some more. We walk along the beach the whole way to our hotels, three miles total. At one point we walk through a weird sculpture park with a naked man who was placed upside-down on his head, humans whose pelvises morphed into chairs, and random horses. We part ways at the end of the beach just after sunset.

Thursday, January 28

I get up early to make the most of my last morning in Gangneung. I wait for the bus (and snap a photo of the schedule for later reference). My only stop this morning is Ojukheon. I grab breakfast and then head over to this historic place. It's freezing, windy, and there's hardly anyone here. So this place is one of the oldest remaining houses in Korea at about 500 years old. That's very significant in Korea given all the invading, pillaging, and destroying that's happened throughout the country's history. This is the birthplace of two very important Korean figures, Sin Saimdang and her son Yulgok Yi Yi who are on the 50,000 and 5,000 won bills respectively. Sin Saimdang was a talented painter, embroiderer, and poet. Yulgok Yi Yi was a famous philosopher, politician, and teacher. I walk slowly through the grounds, admiring the statues and portraits as well as the architecture and style of the old buildings. The complex also houses a book Yi Yi wrote on Confucian morals. Soon it begins to snow!! It's crazy just seeing it snow randomly like this so I enjoy walking around that much more, especially with the backdrop of old Korean architecture and the black bamboo surrounding it.

From what I'd gathered at the bus stop, the bus taking me back to my hotel to grab my bag would leave at 1:15, I'd get there in twenty minutes and have enough time to catch the bus to the bus terminal leaving at 2:06. Well the bus didn't arrive until 1:35 so I had ten minutes to literally run to the hotel, freak out that the door lock wasn't lighting up, then run back to the bus stop with all my stuff. But I even made it with a couple minutes to spare. It's snowing pretty heavily now but I have to wave goodbye to the snow as I journey ever northward on my 3pm bus to Sokcho! It only takes an hour to get there, so I get to my back-alley AirBnB, settle in, and meet up with a friend for dinner. We have hoe (hweh), Korea's version of sashimi or raw fish. The texture is super weird but it's actually not bad, especially in a lettuce wrap or some seaweed. We also get fried shrimp (whole, shell with the face and all) and fried potato slices. So good.

Friday, January 29

My first stop of the day is actually technically outside of Sokcho in Goseong-gun. The bus ride is really nice, right along the sea. I'm dropped off along a row of rainbow blocks and I'd love to sit out here more but it's so cold. It's just a short walk uphill to the cafe. Now, why come all the way here just to visit a cafe? Well you see this particular cafe was featured in a, you guessed it, k-drama. The hospital exterior and grounds in It's Okay to Not Be Okay were filmed here, the Secret Blue Bakery Cafe. I sit down with a hot chocolate, a pastry, and a lovely view of the back patio and beach down below. It's practically empty and very peaceful. Once I'm done I take some time to explore. There are some weirdly empty rooms, but then I make it to the hospital "front door" (technically the back door of the cafe). All the signage from it's time as 괜찮은 병원 (OK Hospital) is still set up. I take a lot of photos and hope a beautiful doctor will show up to treat my mental health problems. Sadly, I am alone. I walk around the front garden a bit and see the tree they planted and the family photo hung on it. Definitely not going to cry. It's actually really cool to feel like I'm in one of my favorite dramas. I sit outside in the cold chatting on the phone until I need to catch the bus back. I almost die by goose attack before I make it to the bus stop.

Back in Sokcho, my plan is to go to this lighthouse/observatory, but when I get there it's closed because of corona. Luckily it's not a wasted trip at all. There's a seawall here with an incredible vantage point of the next place I want to visit. Photographers are perched here, catching photos of the huge waves as they plow into the rocks. The sea is wild today so of course I'm in heaven. I even walk down onto the rocks to get a better view. I pull myself away and walk the short distance to the pavilion. What is now Sokcho Port used to be a stunning geographical feature said to make sounds like zither playing when battered by waves. Another local legend says fairies used to descend there at night to bathe and sing beautiful songs. It's still incredibly beautiful from up at this height. I then walk out on the bridge connecting to another pavilion perched up on rocks. I think I would live right here if I could. The sound of the waves is an all-encompassing roar and the spray mists onto my glasses. It's incredibly peaceful, so I stand and enjoy it for a minute.

My phone is now almost dead so I rush back to my nearby AirBnB for an hour to recharge. At 4pm I head out again. I could walk to my next location, but why would I do that when I can take a boat? The Gaetbae boat is an old-fashioned flat raft that functions fully on manpower. The operators (and sometimes curious kids) pull the boat on a cable across the small river. It only costs around 70 cents round-trip. Now I've made it to the Abai Village, a tiny island with a sad past. Most of the island's residents are first or second generation North Korean refugees who came here during the war. They sought a safe place and intended to return to their hometown in Hamgyeong Province once peace was regained. They didn't expect the borders to close indefinitely and are now separated from family. Abai means "old man" or "family leader" in the Hamgyeong dialect. It was really interesting reading about this village before coming and I wish I knew enough of the language to have a conversation with some locals. Coming here now it's a bit difficult to see past the cafes and restaurants lining the main alley. It's a small place and not much to see, but I've come for the food. Among other North Korean specialties, the most famous dish here is Abai and squid sundae. You might be thinking, a squid ice cream sundae?? Sundae (soonday) in Korea is actually a type of sausage, not a sweet treat. This one is unique though as the filling is stuffed into a whole squid instead of a normal sausage casing. It's also battered in egg and fried. I get it to go, take it to the beach, realize it's way too cold to eat outside, then head back to my place to eat in the heat. It's delicious and slightly spicy. My final trek for the day is up the bridge across the lake. I go just after sunset and the view is absolutely to die for. The blues and purples reflected in the lake, the small Sokcho skyline, the beautiful Seorak mountains rising in the distance. It feels so surreal, and euphoria is hitting me really hard for some reason. I realize that two years ago today I was touching down in Italy for the first time. Now I'm here in Korea exploring all these beautiful places and feeling like I'm truly living. I am so insanely happy right now and could not imagine my life turning out to be any more amazing than it is at this very moment.

Saturday, January 30

It's my last day of vacation! Time to muster up the fumes of energy I'm running on and go hiking. I guess it wouldn't be an Ali trip without hiking. I meet up with a friend at Seoraksan National Park at about noon. I wasn't sure I was going to be up for this, but I just had to do it. It must be the most popular national park in Korea for a reason. The first part of the trail is really easy, just paved road up a slight incline. Then it gets worse. The incline gets steeper and the trail turns to stone steps. Early on we arrive at some really cool rocks with a temple nestled in them, like literally in the rocks. There are Chinese characters carved on them all and it really seems like some sort of anime or video game. We sit and snack for a bit while listening to the temple sounds, then continue on. The higher we get, the harder it becomes. The stairs get steeper but there's a few snowflakes drifting around. The last stretch of stairs is up the side of a huge rock so it's more than slightly terrifying. The view is absolutely incredible though. Finally we make it to the top. There are a couple lookout points so we stop at all of them for pictures. The most iconic scene in this national park is the Ulsanbawi rock peak. To me it looks sort of like a dragon's or dinosaur's back. "According to old records, the name 'Ulsan' (meaning 'fence mountain') was derived from its fence-like appearance. On old maps it was marked as 'Cheonhusan,' which means 'wailing sky mountain, as the sound of the wind blowing from the mountain was compared to a wailing sky." Ulsan represent!

I was always worried about hiking in the winter and only getting bare trees and gray views, but this hike does not disappoint in the least. It's slightly snowy and just incredibly beautiful. It is, however, freezing, and my hands are numb from taking so many pictures. Despite being scarier, the trek down is significantly easier and we're back down by 3pm. We walk around a temple, get some free tea, and have some ramyeon. It's sad to pack up my stuff tonight knowing I have a long day of travel tomorrow and work again the day after.

Sunday, January 31

I'm up before dawn to catch my bus at 7am. I spend the 6-ish hour drive back down south sleeping and watching dramas. I'm in Ulsan around 1 or 2pm, unpack, do laundry, and lie in bed the rest of the day. This was surprisingly such a fulfilling trip. Really my only goal on this trip was to go snowboarding; Gangneung and Sokcho were completely secondary. However, every stop on this trip was completely worth it and made the trip that much better. I'm so sore it's insane but I wouldn't have done anything differently.

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