Seven Days in Seoul

After a painless layover in SFO, we boarded our points-funded (thanks Chase Sapphire Preferred!) United flight to Seoul. The flight was just under 12 hours long and thankfully not notable except for two items. First, that we were required to wear masks on the plane. This in keeping with mask rules in Korea, where they still wear masks all the time, including outside, hiking, by themselves--impressive and a bar we struggle to comply with in humidity. But I digress.

Second, was that unbeknownst to us, a typhoon was hurdling toward Korea, as we flew toward it over the Pacific. We only came in the know when the captain calmly told us midflight, that as the typhoon was nearby, we might experience some turbulence and needed to put our seatbelts on. Typhoon Hinnamnor was unfortunately very destructive in the south of the country, including where we are now in Busan. Luckily for us, though, it had little effect on our flight and we landed safe and sound. The only impact was a rain-soaked walk from the subway to our hotel after we finally arrived that Monday afternoon.

Anyway, enough logistics! Let's get to the good stuff. Because Seoul has lots of good stuff. Aside from the rain (as previously mentioned) and the uber good transit (which I dedicated a whole blog post --Navigating Seoul--to), the first thing I noticed was the tall buildings. Seoul is a very dense city, with the vast majority of buildings seeming to be at least 10 stories. We had chosen to stay at a hotel in the Myeongdong neighborhood, an area pretty central to old Seoul, north of Hangang River.

Shadie has been to Seoul before, so his first impression was slightly different--in that the touristy part of town we were in was very full of shopping options. In fact, Myeongdong is one of several well-known districts people come to Seoul for specifically to shop. In general, I would say there is an enormous amount of retail all over, in Seoul, and other parts of the country. That evening, we had our first experience with Lotte stores as we blearily searched for dinner, but more on that later.

On our first full day, expecting rain from the last dregs of the typhoon, we hit the museums full steam. First, we went to the Seoul Museum of History, which included great exhibits on life through Korea, but with a special focus on the capital city, from when it was established as a capital by the Joseon Dynasty (~1400AD) on to present day. There were some great 3D and interactive maps of Seoul over time. This museum helped me realize both how old and how young a nation Korea is. With a rich history going back a long time, but also many long periods of outside control by Japan and China. Korea only became its own country again after WWII, and this modern era seems to define much of culture and identity of South Korea. Then on we went, to the Korea Folk Museum, which had wonderful grounds, architecture, and beautiful crafts displays inside. One exhibit displayed Onggi pot(1) styles from various parts of the country; onggi making would be the subject of my ceramics course the following week and was therefore very exciting to see!

Finally, we left behind the museums to see another piece of history, the Bukchan Hanuk village. Hanuks can found in various parts of Korea, and generally refer to old neighborhoods with traditional wood-frame houses, arched gabled roofs covered in black clay tiles.(2) Bukchan is nearly 600 years old, and is especially striking surrounded by all the new, shiny, high-density development of central Seoul. Korea encourages people to also wear traditional garb, hanbok, when visiting them by offering free entry in palaces and museums. We spotted several people wearing these and wandered the beautiful and quaint neighborhood.

After all this sightseeing we took a well-deserved break at what has turned out to be the best teahouse we have visited thus far. They served Osulloc tea, a brand based out of and grown on Jeju Island to the south of mainland Korea. Later that evening we also enjoyed dinner at Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese-based chain known for its scrumptious dumplings.

On our second day, we tackled a hike in Bukansan National Park. As I mentioned in a previous post, the proximity of the park to Seoul was a pleasure! In fact, Bukansan is the “most-visited national park per unit area” in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I think this is both because of the aforementioned proximity to populations, but also because hiking seems to be a major national past-time here, more than any other country I've ever visited. There certainly were a number of other hikers on the trail, many of them older retirees (we got a good look at their greying heads as they smoked past us up the steep parts). That being said, on our mid-week hike, it was far from the hordes and lines present on Colorado 14ers in the summer. Our aim was the top of Baegundae Peak, in appearance somewhat reminiscent of Half-Dome IMO. We had some steep climbs, thankfullly aided by ropes, but the views of, and from the top. We still had a lot of miles to cover, and as we struggled along, one older gentleman took us under his wing, hiking just behind us the whole way and calling ahead every time we took a wrong turn on to side pathways. Ultimately, we made it back down to a bus stop, exhausted but satisfied.

We took a week interlude from Seoul proper after this to stay in Icheon for my ceramics (more on that in another blog post), but returned the following Wednesday, to seek out another famous open space in town: Namsan Park. IMO, Namsan Park easily rivals several of the US' great urban parks like Golden Gate and Central Park. With an amazing network of trails, manicured and wild foliage areas, fountains and gurgling streams, work-out stations and quiet clearings. And atop the great hill, an iconic tower and amazing views of the city sprawling out below. We greatly enjoyed jogs here and walks through many times on return, not to mention bibimbop at a very cute spot halfway up the hill.

.We arrived in Seoul airport, exhausted but in good spirits. Noticed the wall behind us, featuring painted images of Kpop stars.

This couple contributed to the ambience of Bukchan Hanuk in their traditional garb (likely rented down the street)

Above: Dana mimicking entry guardians at the Folk Museum. Below: Dana mimicking happy dumplings at Din Tai Fung.

Above: Shadie posing in-front of Baegundae Peak. Below: A jog through the incomparable Namsan Park

It was fantastic to be joined on our last day Seoul, by Brandon, a childhood friend of Shadie's, who is currently on base in Korea. We had a full day wandering all over Seoul via train to visit such sites as the Namdaemun Market Food Street. Namdaemun is partly known for Kalguksu Alley. Kalguksu is a type of "knife-cut" noodle soup, and it is indeed, found on alley; one very narrow alley, with every available space taken up my noodle vendors, with tiny plastic stool lining closely together near each counter. We were hastily nudged into these seats at one stall, where we watched the ladies prepare our kalguksu and bibimbap, stuffed ourselves, and then were promptly ushered on so others could fill the precious real-estate.

We then went on to explore the world of Lotte. Walk more than five minutes in any major city in Korea and you will spot something with the Lotte name on it from fast-food joints and supermarkets to malls and department store to office buildings and skyscrapers and even amusement parks. While we didn't go into Lotte World--essentially the Disney World of Korea--we did stop in next-door to the enormous Lotte Tower (6th tallest building in the world) and the attached mall. Ultimately, we chose to spend our tight activities budget on the Lotte Aquarium and it didn't disappoint. Favorite sightings of mine included a beluga whale and whole bevy of happy river otters.

The next day, we packed up and headed for the Seoul Train station to catch our bullet train to Busan (PS everyone should watch Train to Busan). Thanks Seoul, catch you on the flip side!

Baby beluga in the Lotte Mall,

Compared to the tower you are quite small.

Brandon, Shadie, and I squeeze in for some tasty alley noodles.