South Korea

We spent a week overall in South Korea - half in Seoul, half in Jeju -, and we met up with our friends (hi Frandy!) while we were there. We visited a number of the main sights in Seoul, including Changgyeonggung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, and Namdaemun Market. We ate some good korean food (bibimbap, buchimgae) but we also drank beer and watched rugby. Seoul is a huge city, though, and it did feel like we needed a lot more time to explore the city properly.

Nonetheless, on our third day in Seoul, we took the subway out to the outskirts of town and went for a beautiful hike in Bukhansan National Park. The autumn colours were great, as were the views back over Seoul. Unfortunately, my camera was in its death throes at this point, and the pictures I took never made it off of the camera.

Mid-week, we took a short trip on the most popular flight route in the world down to Jeju for a couple of days of hiking. We spent one day on the large volcano at the centre of the island (Hallasan) where I got these swansong images out of a 15-year-old camera:

On our other full day on Jeju, we walked a section of the Jeju Olle Trail (a route around the circumference of the island), which was gentle compared to the climbing of the previous day. The views here were the sea and, when the haze permitted, back to the main volcano.

When we got back to Seoul I bought a slightly less old second hand camera, which seemed to work fine and had the added bonus of not having any spots in the top-left of the image. It took me a while to get used to it, but I at least I got something out of this nice sunset over the city: