Our next stop, just off the ferry, was Seongsan Ilchubong, also known as Sunrise Peak. It is a tuff cone formed by a volcano and is said to be a similar shape as a castle. It's 182 meters high and the crater at the top is 600 meters in diameter. We hiked to the top of the crater and back down in about an hour or so.
Here are Grant and Adrienne anticipating the hike.
Adrienne and I before the hike. Afterwards, we looked less happy.
Adrienne preparing for the hike.
The view is lovely around the cone.
Jeju is really as beautiful as I'd been told!
This looks like a strange face.
Here is Grant, hiking happily.
So happily.
Alien Grant.
Adrienne and I hiking unhappily. Clearly someone was annoying me.
Even the garbage cans were pretty.
I believe Adrienne's direct quote around this time was, "I hate exerting myself!"
Here is some of the beautiful rock.
The hike wasn't really that bad, it was just quite vertical. However, I have witnessed other hikes in Korea that require you to pull yourself up using ropes, which I will not be doing at any point in my life.
This is at about the halfway point. Around this time, Adrienne announced she was never hiking again. She and I share a love-hate relationship with hiking. She because she hates it completely. I hate the process of getting up the mountain, but love the view once I get there.
Grant and I halfway up.
Adrienne and Grant.
We finally made it to the top. Adrienne immediately sat down and refused to move for about 10 minutes.
Here is the view of the crater, which was bright green a few weeks later.
Here's Grant.
And Adrienne has heaved herself off the seats.
Unhappily.
Adrienne cut Grant off.
Grant is a weirdo.
Grant being mildly incompetent in regards to actually getting the view in the background. But that's ok, because we look nice.
I'm not sure if Adrienne is making a face or talking to Grant.
Grant protecting Adrienne, unnecessarily.
We then walked down the stairs, which killed everyone's knees, but we made it.
There were a lot of stairs and they were quite steep.
Our first day in Jeju was great! We headed back to our hostel and got dinner. Then, we chatted for quite a long time in a cafe.
At said cafe, we heard "Let it Go" approximately 30 times during our 2 hours hanging out. At one point, they played the Idina Menzel, Demi Lovato and Hyo-Rin versions back to back. Three. Times. It was ridiculous. Korea had "Frozen" fever way longer than anywhere else. I am convinced.
The next day, we explored the southern parts of the island, but that will be in the next blog.
