day two started off a little foggy after a late night out (by my standards, not seoul’s, where “second round” dance clubs go until four am and it’s not unusual to keep the party going until the subways lines re-open at 5:30) and jetlag giving me an early wake up call. fortunately my first stop was flexible on time.
the ihwa mural village is not the easiest thing to find, but it is magical and absolutely worth the effort. directions will lead you to something that looks like a museum (gated, beautiful old buildings inside) and i think was originally a governor’s house. this is not what you came for. behind you, off in the corner is a set of stairs – start climbing. the mural village is a collective of previous slum houses, nestled on the side of mt. namsan. the story is that local residents, in order to improve the appearance, began painting the houses. the result is a magical maze of art where you find beautiful/fun/quirky paintings down every alley and some of the cutest coffee shops. also ice cream good enough that it’s totally acceptable to eat in lieu of breakfast.
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the next item on my itinerary was to go shopping in myeongdong. the lack of sleep i’d had over the last three days was catching up to me and i’m heading back to myeongdong on monday, so i decided to grab some kimbap (it’s not sushi!) at the train station and head home to recharge both my batteries and the phone’s.
after a little downtime i walked up just a couple of blocks from my apartment to catch the bus for mt namsan and boom! there was a trail to the park right there! (google maps is almost always right, but there have been a few times where some extra research would have helped make better transit decisions) i took the trail up to namsan park, which had beautiful monuments and statues of influential figures in seoul and korea’s history in addition to a section of the wall that previously surrounded the city. i had about an hour and a half until i needed to be back to my apartment, so i wasn’t sure if i’d have time to climb to the top of namsan, but i thought i’d see how far i got. the stairs leading on the excursion trail make hood river’s stairs seem short – and everyone is out doing them! i saw little kids and people with canes the whole way up the mountain, out for a sunday afternoon hike! and while i had my patagonia work out gear on, most of these folks were wearing slacks and button down shirts! nice work, seoulites! i had seen pictures of the love locks at the top of mt. namsan but it’s one of those things you can’t appreciate the scale of until you see it all – the “trees” and “bushes” were especially fun to see. there is a lot of love in seoul!
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i had three more items on my itinerary and was so tired i almost didn’t do them, but i pushed on, got two out of three and was so glad i did!
the gwangjang market is everything a night food market should be: loud, lively, bright. something i thought was really interesting is that the different “arms” or alleys of the market hosted the same foods. so, all of the beef tartar/raw beef restaurants were in one area, all of the seafood pancake vendors were on another row, all of the ginseng and present vendors were elsewhere. the result is that if you’re looking for some specific food, you go to an area… but then you have to decide who makes that best! i picked a long that was long but fast moving, because that’s always a good sign, not really knowing what i was getting. it turned out to be a millet cake stuffed with red bean – sauces added whether you want it sweet or savory. my second stop was another popular place that served kimbap and spicy rice cakes. after i sat down i saw they had been featured on a gordon ramsay show for their kimbap. i wasn’t sure about having kimbap for two meals, but if gordon ramsey loves it… it was, in fact, amazing and i’m spoiled from normal kimbap forever!
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the chonggyecheon is a man made river that flows through seoul. when we first got married, there was a ditch that ran in front of our house that john put a bunch of rocks in so you would get a flowing water sound. the chonggyecheon is the same concept. they’ve added rocks and river bank vegetation to give you the feel of walking next to a natural river. it is beautiful and at eight pm there were a lot of couples and groups of friends walking down both sides, enjoying the “escape” from the city.
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in 48 hours, i got through quite a bit of the list. other than a couple restaurants, i missed the following:
- secret garden tour
- jogyesa temple
- night in gangnam
- myeongdong
- take the ride up namsan tower
- drinks at donjak gureum cafe
i’ve got two more days to tackle these in addition to a couple of my own itinerary items (facial and bike ride!) so we’ll see if i can get through them all!
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don’t miss the facial! 🙂
So fun to read about your Korean adventure, Jen! It’s all about eating the local food and enjoying what each province/city has to offer. Looks like you’re experiencing everything you need to experience while in the land of the morning calm!