... picking up from where I left off, I woke up bright and early on my first weekday in Seoul to check out the views of Seoul atop Eungbong Mountain Park. I stopped in a Myeongdong 7-11 to pick up a custard bun and I was on my way.
I don't know if you've figured me out yet, but there are three main things that interest me when I visit a new place: the art, the food and the parks.
Eungbong Mountain Park is a bit of a trek outside of downtown Seoul, and I guess a lot of romantic scenes have been filmed there for Korean dramas. After somehow successfully navigating the transfer between Seoul's metro to a type of commuter line (successful in that I walked back and forth between the staircase to the eastward train and the westward train for about nine minutes, unable to figure out which one was which), I alighted at Eungbong Station and walked -- again, uphill through a residential neighborhood -- for about 15 minutes before I found myself at the base of Eungbong Mountain Park.
This is the sight I found before me:
It took me another three minutes to figure out where the start of the hike upwards was: a staircase hidden behind the restroom building off to the left of this rock climbing behemoth.
The hike was not easy but it wasn't particularly treacherous either. It was definitely sweaty. I encountered a number of older women along the way who seemed to live in the neighborhood, for whom the uphill climb seemed to be part of their daily exercise. They passed as I stopped for photos at each landing, though they would've passed me anyway, for they were in better shape than I.
Naturally, the views got progressively better as I climbed.
When I reached the top, I found a park bench beneath some trees and enjoyed my custard bun. The hike was well worth the serenity atop the park.
I'd wanted to see both Olympic Park and Songpa Naru Park next, but it was already about 10am and I was scheduled to meet my friend around 2pm back at my hostel. I had to make a choice, and Olympic Park -- about an hour away -- was the chosen park.
I originally thought the flame was from the Olympic torch dating back to the 1988 Seoul Games, but I couldn't find anything online to corroborate that belief. However, it appears to be something even cooler: an eternal flame that wishes peace, harmony and happiness for all the world's people. You can see the Seoul Peace Declaration inscription in my photo.
Olympic Park is massive. Among the structures that it contains (not a comprehensive list): Olympic Gymnastics Arena (also known as KSPO Dome, where none other than one Shawn Mendes was scheduled to perform just two days later), Olympic Velodrome, Korea National Sports University, a hotel, another music venue called Olympic Hall (which I'm pretty sure was labeled "K-Pop Museum" when I visited), Olympic Museum, an art music, a sculpture park, a rose park and a field of flowers.
From the rose garden, I left the park and headed towards Insa-dong for some of those quick street food bites the tourist sites mentioned, but again, after zig-zagging back and forth between four corners of an intersection, all I found was a couple of carts selling fish cakes, so I walked down Insadong-gil.
I spotted several "dragon's beard" confection sellers, and I ended up stopping at one that advertised pink, green and white candies. Alas, it was just a ploy because all of the dragon's beard candies he sold were white. Dragon's beard candy is sort of like cotton candy stuffed with various ingredients. After purchasing a box of nut-stuffed dragon's beard candies from the man, he showed me how he makes the candies. He first took a block of a frozen sugary substance which I believe he said was made partially of honey, and he molded it with some cornstarch until it became soft to the touch. At that point, he pulled and folded the sugar mass a number of times until strands began to appear. Surprisingly, the entire process took less than five minutes and I captured it on video, which will eventually go into a vlog.
From Insa-dong, I walked to the Cheonggyecheon Stream, where people were having picnic-style lunches along the "banks" of the stream.
I walked swiftly back to my hostel to wash up and prepare to meet my friend, but not before sampling Tiger Sugar's brown sugar milk tea which, incidentally, is Taiwanese and has three locations in New York City.
After some delays, my friend arrived and we met with her parents for a late lunch/early dinner at the "must eat" Myeongdong Kyoja, which is famous for its hand-cut noodles. They certainly did not disappoint. (Sadly no photos again, but there is video footage!)
My friend had her own itinerary she wanted to stick to, so we headed to the Samsung building in Gangnam, where the Samsung d'light ... showcase? exhibit? lived. We closed down the store and headed next to the famous COEX Mall to marvel at the famous and too oft Instagrammed library.
We tried to figure out how the lending process actually works, as we didn't see any checkout machines or kiosks. Does anyone know?
After roaming around the mall for a bit and deciding that we wanted to save our coins, we hopped on a bus towards the Banpo Bridge, which was on my itinerary.
On this 25 minute bus ride along one street, we spotted about 15 Olive Youngs and no fewer than 5 We Works. Business is booming.
I had no idea why Banpo Bridge had made it onto my list of must-sees, to be honest. When we stumbled off the bus, we just followed the small crowd and found ourselves in what may have been considered a seedy area in New York City, but was teeming with young people and lots of couples. A few minutes later, a water show began.
Nearby, the Floating Island with nighttime paddle boaters sailing by.
Then another bus ride back to Myeongdong, where we walked through the "night market" and stopped to sample an egg bread (not that great) before hitting the sack.
A full day awaited us in Suwon ... to be continued.
