Day 8, Leg 8

I'm in a seaside pension once again, but this one is simple, humble, and cheap: Full House Pension in Samcheok, just south of Donghae. Before I go on, some stats:

Distance: about 20-22 km (will explain below)

Time: from about 5:40 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. to cert center

Steps: 33,660

Calories Burned: 3,744

Calories Consumed: 2,551 (deficit = 1,193)

Rainy day today. Kind of depressing. Not the cold, miserable, morale-sapping rain I've spoken of in the past, but still not enjoyable. The rain varied from a light, constant drizzle to nearly nothing to an earnest downpour before finally petering out this afternoon. It's still cloudy. 

A side effect of the rain is that I probably walked a bit faster because I wasn't stopping to take pictures every 100 meters, which in turn was good because I got turned around twice when the trail veered inland, and instead of walking the plotted 20.5 kilometers, I may have done as many as 22. Walking faster, I was able to spend less time with course corrections.

I don't have too many photos to upload today because I could take pictures only when the rain would let up some. That said, I think some of today's pics are among the best I've taken thus far. Check 'em out. 

Weather in the Samcheok area is supposed to be good from tomorrow through Tuesday, then they're forecasting more rain. I'll be close to 60 kilometers south of Samcheok by Wednesday, so I don’t know whether I'll be affected by the forecast. I check the weather every day, though, so I'll be prepared if there's bad news.

When I arrived at the cert center, got my stamp, and proceeded into town, the word "hamburger" caught my eye as I was passing a café/restaurant. Probably a bad move, as it turned out. I went in, ordered a double burger and got a single instead. To add insult to injury, the burger was one of those old-school Korean interpretations of a Western hamburger: mystery-meat patty, shredded cabbage, a fried egg, and too much sauce. I ate the thing in thirty seconds all the same, but I'll never go back to that café for a burger ever again. The burger came with no sides. I ordered a blueberry smoothie to go along with the burger, and while the smoothie was good, it wasn't like the one I'd had at Café Clam in Donghae. 

I'm not a café aficionado, but I'm learning that there's a hierarchy of cafés. Some are simple, offering very few food choices and drinks in paper cups. Others are full-service bakeries with a very high level of quality control, and this is reflected in how much they overcharge you (when you buy the expensive food and drinks, you're also basically paying rent for the space where you sit down to chill because there's effectively no time limit).

The pension I'm at was a second-choice alternative. I had originally aimed for Hae Beach Pension (해비치펜션), but when I arrived and called the proprietor, no one answered. It was raining, and I was in a fuck it sort of mood, so I simply moved on. The proprietor of Full House Pension, by contrast, answered right away; he said he was in a café at the moment, but that I could go right into Room 203, which was unlocked. I did so; the manager showed up a few minutes later, and I paid him W60,000 (cheap for a seaside pension). 

It's a relief to be inside and relatively dry. I say "relatively" because there's a bit of humidity, which is bad since I'm trying to dry out all my soaked clothing. I have the wall-mounted fan going, and while there's an A/C, which would dehumidify the place, I don't want to freeze right now. So: moving air via fan it is.

Today's 20-some kilometers felt a lot longer thanks to the rain. I'm hoping tomorrow is much better. My shoes won't be dry by morning, but I suspect they'll dry out with use once I put them on and start walking. Most problems can be solved by just continuing to walk. Foot pain? Keep walking; it'll go away. Twinge in your ankle? Keep walking; it'll fade. Not at the top of that hill yet? Keep walking; nothing goes on forever.

Eight days into the journey and not feeling any lighter. My belt hasn't gone down any notches. Maybe I'll try all-out fasting for two days to see what happens. You can exercise while fasting; all the experts I watch on YouTube have addressed this issue, and they all agree that feeling faint and losing muscle aren't nearly the concerns that some people think they are. I wouldn't go beyond 48 hours' fasting while hiking, though. That could be dangerous. I've fasted for five days before, and that was without exercising. Miserable experience; not recommended. But maybe a fast is just what I need to kickstart the metabolism. If I try this, I'll let you know.

So that leaves us with the day's photos. I've been trying to write a few captions, here and there, for the photo dumps for Days 1 through 5, and I've been putting captions under select photos since then. Along with uploading pics to the blog, I'd also like to store my photos in Google Drive, but when I was at that second café the other day, the WiFi proved to be molasses-slow, so I'm thinking I may simply upload my photos to the blog and then just delete them from my phone. But I'll test the speed of the WiFi in my pension tonight, and if the WiFi is fast, I'll upload my photos to Drive before deleting them from my phone. 

ADDENDUM: WiFi here is super slow, so I won't be uploading to Drive. From now on, I'll simply upload to the blog, then delete the photos from my phone to save memory.

PHOTO ESSAY

just after sunrise

I automatically love any octopus sculpture I see.

the endless waves

high perch

no-pressure sashimi

the face

aggressive advertising

Le Petit Prince

dilapidation

How often do you have the chance to stand on train tracks and take pictures?

misleading: the arrow says go right, but Naver says go straight, and I follow Naver

guess what I want for lunch

nearing the end

The goal has been reached.

dapper fellow

my pension