I caught up with two Busan friends and their mother/mother-in-law on Day Two, where the cable car climbs 670 meters up Seorak Mountain. Once you exit, it’s a simple walk to Gwongeumseong Fortress. Website after website mentions “fortress ruins,” which must cause confusion. If there are ruins of the 13th century Onggeumsan Castle, they must be in spirit I thought, or in the intentional way some of the rock formations are placed. (Afterwards online, I saw photos of very obvious sections of snaking stone wall, perhaps taken from the cable car.) What I did see were skyscraping views of treed valleys and distant Sokcho, atmospheric ravines and dozens of visitors playing the angles for their own homegrown photo-of-the-year. More than one complete stranger became the subject of some of my own pictures.