This is my first trip with Dad and I’m really excited for a great week ahead. Why South Korea? I’ve been asked that today by locals and by friends before I left. I’ll give the same answer I would for just about anywhere - “why not!” - I find the places I know the least about the most intriguing.
We left home about 9.30am on Sunday and went and saw Grandma and Grandpa on the way to the airport. Our flights were fairly good. Our first flight was a daytime one and we were fed well. We were even treated with a clear nighttime view of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur as we approached the airport which was pretty cool!
After a three hour layover, we boarded our second and final flight. We didn’t expect to see any other English speaking tourists as South Korea isn’t exactly a tourist haven, but unbelievably there was a father from Melbourne with his three daughters in the boarding lounge - and he was wearing a Richmond jumper! We boarded and incredibly, they were sitting in front of us. Of all the seats!! Unfortunately we didn’t get much sleep though because the flight attendants didn’t give us much chance. There was always something going on or someone talking at top volume!
Queuing at immigration we were already impressed with South Koreans. Some people tried to queue jump and a man appeared and told them off, making them join the back of the queue. This is my kind of country!
We got the airport train for 50 minutes to Hongik University station. It was very foggy most of the way, but cleared as we approached the city. After getting a little lost, we managed to find the place to pickup our SIM card from, and then our guest house. We were told our room wasn’t ready, and the guesthouse has no communal bathroom so we had to get changed in the stairwell. The girl must have thought we were total nutcases. But after 24 hours on the go in the same clothes, we needed to get changed!
We left our cases at the guesthouse and then caught the metro. Seoul has an extensive subway system much like London, New York etc with lots of interconnecting lines. With the help of city mapper on my phone, we were pros in no time. We were immediately surprised at how friendly people were, as anyone that spoke English would come up and welcome us or chat to us. We also noticed a fair few people selling things on the metro (not in a dodgy way, but I couldn’t imagine it happening at home!).
Our first stop was Gangnam. You’ve probably heard of Gangnam thanks to Korean singer Psy’s 2012 smash hit 'Gangnam Style' - which broke YouTube’s number of views counter as over 2 billion people watched it due to the crazy film clip. If you’re not aware of the song, basically it pokes fun at the ritzy, designer shop neighbourhood. Psy along with many other K Pop (Korean Pop) artists is worshipped here. In general though, Gangnam is the large area south of the Hangang River.
We strolled along K Star Road, Seoul’s K Pop equivalent to the Hollywood walk of fame. Seventeen gangnamdols were each dedicated to artists and groups from the K Pop genre. Again we had a laugh because one of them was pretty much a Richmond gangnamdol! Although I got my revenge by finding a black and white one. The area was very posh. The streets were clean, designer shops and plastic surgery clinics abound (it's a big craze here). We walked and took it all in until we reached Bongeunsa Temple.
Coincidentally, today was the 1125th anniversary of the Bongeunsa Foundation, so there was a lot going on at the Buddhist temple today. Chants, prayers and even some events like tea tasting which we took part in. The people were lovely - we had a good laugh when we said we were from Australia though and one lady said “ohhh ‘Sound of Music’!" and we said "er, no...". I particularly liked the rainbow banners and beautiful paintings on the wooden structures in the temple. The surroundings were also very leafy and green. We really enjoyed it. As well, there is a 23m “future Buddha” here. It was very impressive. The temple overall made an interesting contrast with the modern buildings surrounding it.
By this stage we were getting very warm and sweaty. When I booked this trip about eight weeks ago, the internet told me October in Seoul would be low 20s. Luckily we checked the forecast before we left, because the temperatures this week range between 26 and 30 degrees. Today the sun was out as well - it was hotttt! A nice change to the cold at home, but it gets to you when you have had only two hours of sleep.
So luckily, our next stop was the air conditioned Coex Mall. We had some fun reenacting the Gangnam Style dance outside underneath the golden sculpture of Psy’s hands, and then went in and enjoyed the wonderful Starfield Library inside the mall. In a double storey foyer filled with natural light, the library has bookshelves stretching from floor to ceiling and is very picturesque. Another great feature was the coloured glass sculpture in the middle that reflected pretty coloured light. We walked around and Dad even took some photos of me “reading” my guide book on one of the seats. It was a great place, and I’m jealous of all the people working and studying there that they have such a lovely place to do so.
Then we caught the train three stations west to ‘Samseong’. In Korean, this is pronounced ‘Samsung’, so it’s no surprise that from this station you can easily access the flagship store of the Korean company Samsung, as well as the museum in its headquarters. We went to the shop first and had fun using the virtual reality goggles to “ride a roller coaster”. It was very clever, even making you feel you were going upside down using the movements, even though you were really just sitting in a chair. I laughed a lot here because dad kept talking so loud about how cool it was when it was his turn!!
Then it was upstairs to the ‘Samsung D’Light’ Museum, which was quirky to say the least. You got a wristband and your name and photo were digitally attached to a chip inside it. We went around choosing various patterns, colours etc and the machines around the place would describe us based on the answers we gave. Mine summarised me in the end as a ‘martian navigator’ - “finding a way anywhere and under any circumstances”. Given the nature of this blog, I would say that’s pretty true!!
Next, we headed to the 1988 Olympic precinct. Anyone that knows me well knows that I love checking out Olympics precincts. Now that I’ve seen the 1988 one, I’ve visited every complex from 1988-2016 inclusive except for Atlanta. I love seeing the thought put into the area, and how it was designed based on its purpose. I also find it very interesting how the city or country that hosted the Olympics then makes use of the facilities afterwards.
The first striking feature of the ‘88 complex was the World Peace Gate. A huge 24m high structure with a 62m by 37m roof depicting beautiful murals. It cost 4800 million won ($6 million Australian) to build in the 80s, so I hate to think what that would equate to today. However - it was beautiful! There was an eternal flame underneath as well. We managed to get a nice photo of it despite stages being set up for the national holiday this Thursday right in front of it.
Then we just strolled around the park. The park was actually the site of the Mongchontoseon Fortress which was built in the 3rd or 4th century, and the lake in the park used to be the fortress’ moat. We enjoyed the lake, and then also saw the Olympic buildings including the gymnastics hall, the velodrome and the huge indoor swimming pool building. We couldn’t go into any, but appreciated their exteriors as well as some quirky sculptures in the park and military planes flying overhead. We wondered how often these facilities are used now, as they were very spread apart in the park.
On our way out of the park, we read the inscriptions beneath the display of flags of the nations that competed in the 1988 Olympics here. Then we walked our tired legs to the metro again and caught the train all the way back to Hongdae to checkin properly to our guesthouse.
We left our things and headed out again, this time walking part of the Gyeongui Line Forest Park - a converted old railroad track. It reminded me of the High Line in New York, but I actually loved it even more. It was peaceful, quiet and the perfect place for an evening stroll. We had that lovely dusky glow sort of light and thought it was fantastic that features like the tracks, previous stations buildings and even boom gates have been left in the park and adorned with sculptures and plaques explaining their history. The street with the boom gate is called 'ttaeng-ttaeng Street' after the noise the boom gates use to make there. Even though Seoul has twice the population density of New York City, we have really noticed here how many lovely green spaces have been created. It's obviously important to the Korean people to get outside and have somewhere beautiful and natural to spend your time.
Our last stop for the day was Ddobagi Chicken. Korean Fried Chicken is very famous, and this little hole in the wall restaurant helped us to see why. We scoffed down almost two plates of it - one the classic 'flavour' and one sweet and sticky sauce. The batter was delicious and the chicken was too.
We walked back to the guesthouse through the lively Hongdae neighbourhood. We plan to explore it more later in the week. Now we are resting before we finally get our first proper sleep in two days. I've done 27 000 steps today. We have had a fantastic day, and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the week here has to offer!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
