today we had nothing planned. yea! we slept in until 7:30 today. this was a welcome change from the 5:20am schedule we'd been keeping.

koreans don't seem to wake up until noon, so we'd been eating nothing but bread and pastries for breakfast. not bad, just monotonous. we did, however, find a cafe with free internet service and 4 live trees growing through the floor to the ceiling. kickazz.

after a leisurely morning, we took a train to dongogae for a little mountain climbing. this was not our *best* idea.

after leaving the station, we blindly attempted to make our way to soraksan (the mt.). unfortunately, our lonely planet guidebook did not mention which way to go. we figured "up" was a good direction, so up we went.

after climbing up steep brick roads fo 10 minutes, we reached a dead end dirt road. some guy came out of his house to quiet his barking dog and saw the "duh, which way do we go?" looks on our faces. he mumbled something and pointed and suddenl we saw a break in the trees.

we clawed out way up the steep, narrow path on all fours, straining and panting in our youthful eagerness. at the top, we triumphantly raised our faces to the sky!!!...and then noticed the stairway a few feet to the left. dangit.

we hiked blindly for a while until we noticed the mountain going down. to the best of our limited cuty-kknowledge, mountaintops are not generally located in a "downwardly" direction. just to make sure, we continued going down.

yup, we were right. peaks are up. streams, trash heaps, and chicken-filled backyards are down. jamie and i gave up, ran past the chickens, and found a road.

on the road we came across 2 ladies in middle-aged-korean-lady-walking gear (complete with bookie visor). they looked at us like we were martians.

i asked one which way the station was. she said something that sounded like "too far." then she kept talking. i said i didn't speak korean very well. she offered me a sip of her coffee. i love this country.

we reached a coffee shop and aske for directions to the nearest station. they actually understood me the first time. we were heading there when jamie and i spied a sign for mt. soraksan. hadn't we just climbed that?

up we went. this time we reached what loked to be the top beore descending again. as we reached solid ground we saw two grannies sitting on a park bench. sticky, sweating, sore, and itching from mosquito bites, i asked where the nearest train station was. at that moment, a train passed right over our heads. the old ladies laughed. that being answered, we headed to the train.

jamie and i headed to the miranda spa next. after a lovely 1.5 hour bus ride we arrived. the spa was $10, bu worth every penny. there were:

1) hot baths 2) herbal baths 3) charcoal baths 4) cold baths 5) cold showers 6) sonic baths 7) outdoor baths 8) yellow mud baths 9) wooden baths 10) rice wine baths 11) foot bath 12) fruit baths

good times. we came home feelin good.

we decided to go shopping next. we headed to the legendary dongdaemun shopping district and had a ball. the market is miles and miles long. who knew? they had alllll kind of knock-offs.

there was even the new victoria secret ipex bra. it was only $10 buck instead of $46. nice. so my chest is looking hot, if i may say so. we rested in a little park and then went home.