Regardless of age, people are excited and vaguely looking forward to something auspicious when the first snow comes, to which I am no exception. All the more so because I was born and raised in the countryside. I am always lost in my old childhood memories by white flakes of snow that I played with childhood buddies in the snow-covered fields more than sixty years ago.

Yesterday on November 26, 2016) I went hiking together with old work colleagues in their late sixties and seventies to an old castle situated at the top of a mountain(460m) in the southern outskirts of Seoul.

As soon as we arrived at the top after about two hours walking, big flakes of snow had started falling in the early afternoon. Each of us expressed a great deal of joy and was amused at watching the snow falling as simple as a child. The first snow added a matchless beauty to the old castle surrounded by hundreds of the old pine trees. After descending through a snow covered path, as usual, we cracked some bottles of Soju in a cozy restaurant. It will be surely remembered by each of us as an unforgettable hiking for long. �

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