winter hike, sunshine, and minefields…oh my

Umyeonsan (san=mountain) is located in the southern edge of Seoul. A relatively small mountain that has a nice view of the city from above. We had our first freeze the other day and its cold cold cold in Seoul now, and this was the day we decided to go hiking! So we bundled up and met up with Ryan and Ida for the sunny afternoon hike.

 It was beautiful. The fresh air always feels nice after weeks of city smog, the sun was bright, the air crisp and cold. We stumbled upon a temple and a steep trail leading us to a lookout. We took a new way down, knowing that all paths down would eventually lead us to our destination.

 On our way down we saw several areas that were very securely barricaded off with elaborate layers of coiled barbed wire and gates, signs and posts, and even a system of speakers ready to alarm those who crossed. What was all this we wondered? Here on the side of the peaceful mountain. It became clear as we looked further and added up our collective knowledge. This mountain was a minefield.  Scores of years have passed since the battles were being fought in Seoul, but those mines are still there.

A few months ago there was a serious flash flood and a few deadly landslides in Southern Seoul (read here for my post on that), Umyeonsan collapsed in a few areas, closing roads and destroying homes and businesses. With the landslides was a major fear that the unknown location of these mines had changed, that they were washed down the mountain to new locations or even into the city. We all talked about this and kind of creeped ourselves out as we continued to carefully descend the mountain. We made light of the situation by saying “tread lightly, you tread on my dreams…” and other adages about walking lightly, but it was actually a tense experience! War is stupid. “Oops, there are leftover bombs lying around, hope you don’t just step on it and lose your legs!”

 Once we had a steaming pan of dakgalbi with rice cooking in front of us we forgot about the horrors of living in a recently war torn country and moved on to more amazing topics like traveling in Europe and making new concoctions with food and drink.