Seoul: Good Food and A Stroll Up Namsan

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Since I never blog about what I do in Seoul, I thought I should start. Most of the touristy stuff I've done before, but never blogged about it. Anyway...

I met up with the others in Itaewon. I was very late. Evil traffic and insomnia the night before were to blame. They were already settled in in PLANT and had ordered my meal for me. I had nearly missed my subway stop as i was too engrossed in deciding what I wanted to eat. PLANT is an amazing vegetarian and vegan cafe run by two women, who make delicious food. I wish they could cook all my meals for me. I had ordered a mushroom burrito with corn soup and kettle chips. It was delicious, the soup was served cold and it was great after the rushing around I had been doing to get there, which had left me hot and flustered. We wolfed down our mains and then ordered some desserts. The two ladies, who run the cafe had originally intended for it to be a baking studio, so there are loads of lovely cakes to choose from. We had carrot cake, banana and apple cake, and chocolate cheesecake. All were amazing and not a crumb was left. I also stocked up on some goodies to take home.

After leaving the cafe, we headed off to start our easy hike for the afternoon. We walked down through Itaewon to Hangangjin Station. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining. Spring was definitely in air, and a welcome change after the long winter. It's always nice to stroll through Itaewon and see what new restaurants have opened up. We spied some good looking ones, our restaurant list is growing as fast as our travel list. We were a bit confused as we passed some signposts that seemed to indicate a nature walk, but weren't for the place we wanted, the name of which escapes me now. We didn't take the past and kept walking to the end of the street and turned up around the corner, the way the path goes. We crossed the little road and walked through the car park of the small outdoor wedding hall that was doing brisk business on this sunny Saturday. The start of the trail was hidden behind all the cars that were parked up. It feels like you are just wandering into the woods, but behind the cars are proper pathways.

It was a short walk through the trees and we were in the Namsan park, I don't know if that's its real name, but I'm taking an educated guess (I googled it, I was right). The park was pretty, but slightly underwhelming. There were different sections labelled on the signposts, but they were all a bit on the small side, I think we had expected a larger, slightly more grander park. However the flowers were out, so the park looked really pretty. It was busy with families, couples, and groups of friends walking around, chilling in the shade, and having picnics. We decided we should come back for a picnic one day, before it gets too hot. We had wandered through the main garden bit, not realising that was it, so went through it again. The little brooklet was cute and then we headed to the Lotus Pond. It was too early for the lotus flowers to be out, but the pond was quite pretty. We kept walking and we reached the end of the park.

There was a sign at the end of the trail, pointing out the wildlife that lived in the park, I'm glad we never saw any of the snakes or lizards. Me ad Malia had both discussed how when we've previously walked up to N Seoul Tower, we had taken the road, we were hoping to find a trail that went up through the park, but no luck, the park ends and it's onto the tarmac road. It would of been nice, to not have to walk on the road, as there are loads of regular buses and tour buses going up to the tower, so you've gotta be careful not to get run over. The views are great however, you can see Seoul sprawling out in all directions below. It was a pretty smoggy Saturday, so our views were ruined a bit by that. Damn you, Asia and your evil pollution. We spent a while taking in the view, chatting about life, and trying to find places we knew in the sprawl below, yeah we didn't get that many.

We continued up the road and reached the base of Seoul Tower. It was a hive of activity. I was surprised that the Peruvian pan pipers weren't there, but the area had been take over by an arts and craft market. We spent a while having a look around the stalls, but nothing really caught our eyes. We headed over to the huge viewing platform and looked out at the smoggy view. We could barely make out the mountains in the distance and there weren't visible on the photos we were taking. We spent some time looking at all the love locks. Couples come to N Seoul Tower, write their declarations of love or whatever, on a lock and padlock it to the railings. There must be well over a million there.

We were feeling too lazy to walk back down the hill, so we took one of the buses to HBC and picked up Chuck, before heading for some dinner. All that exercise had left us hungry. We walked down to Noksapyeong and to the start of Itaewon, where we decided to eat in Bhudda's Belly. We sat upstairs by the huge open windows and ordered up a feast. The food was amazing! We had appetizers, curries, noodles, and soup. It all tasted like heaven, I definitely don't eat enough Thai food. Then it was time to head home, before it got too late as we had an early start the next day. All in all, a lovely day in Seoul!

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