Advertisement
Published: March 30th 2015
Edit Blog Post
The group in Seoul
Stuart always looks so happy to be with all these women.... :) Lunar New Year, which falls some where between mid-January to mid-February, is a national holiday in Korea. The holiday itself lasts three days - the day before, day of, and day after the new year - and pretty much the entire country has vacation. A group of us from Yangsan decided to take a trip to Seoul for the Lunar New Year as we had five days off. On Wednesday morning we headed to the KTX station in Busan and boarded one of the world's fastest trains to go to the capital of South Korea. (There's something to say about getting to see the capital of a country... in many cases, it is the center of not only their government but oftentimes is a great representation of the culture itself. I've loved most of the capital cities I've been to... Paris, Rome, Washington DC, London, Madrid, Manila...).
The KTX ride was quick and fairly uneventful. I love when the travel between destinations is uneventful. So much better than eventful as that usually means there's a problem. And a lot of stress involved. No stress here though... sit back and enjoy the ride! After we got to Seoul we headed towards
the stop we needed for our hostel. Well, we thought we did. About 5 stops later we realized that there were two stops with almost identical names, only one letter difference. We were going to the wrong one. (Korea seems to do this a lot... there is a Jangsan and a Yangsan and a Yongsan, etc. Not very foreigner-friendly!). So, back to the other side of the tracks and to our starting point. At this point we decided to stop at Pizza Hut for lunch... and found a deal with basically unlimited pizza and salad bar where they bring you a variety of different slices of pizza one slice at a time. DELICIOUS!
The hostel (more like a hotel really) we stayed in was really nice... rooms with two beds each, a sink / cabinets, nice bathroom, and good wireless... good wifi can make or break a place on a trip 😊 That first evening we explored the Hongdae area and stumbled on the Trickeye Museum. I had never heard of this before but, after a little nudging, decided to give it a shot. This might have turned out to be one of the most fun I had in
Seoul. If you've never been to a Trickeye Museum, find one. Bring a good group of friends and be ready for a good laugh.
On Thursday we decided to go to a folk village / museum outside of the city. We didn't realize how long it would take us to get there, and traffic was horrendous (lesson learned: don't try to travel by bus during Lunar New Year as you're not likely to get any where very fast), and we had to transfer from subway to bus to another bus. On the second bus an older couple managed to communicate to us that we should follow them. After getting off the second bus we waited at the stop for what was apparently the third bus we would need to take. After a few minutes the bus / shuttle we needed came into view but made no move to stop where we are. The old woman, apparently not willing to take no for an answer, starts to walk towards the bus past oncoming traffic. Our group looked on in a mixture of horror and admiration while she tried to get the bus to stop. We eventually decided to walk the
rest of the way to the folk village since we were close.
The five of us spent the next several hours walking around the village. People were dressed in traditional Korean clothing (the kids looked especially cute in their outfits) and we got to see examples of what Koreans used to live in. There was one woman who was weaving silk and many others selling snacks and little souvenirs. After a couple of hours Kendra and I headed back into Seoul and had dinner. That night I went out in Hongdae with some friends and got to experience some of the night life in Seoul. To say the least, I'd definitely love to go back and explore some more!
The next day involved some exploring of Itaewon, one of the bigger foreigner areas of Seoul. The four of us found the Lotte shopping center and stumbled on a parade of characters (Alice in Wonderland) going throughout the mall. We stopped and watched the parade for a few minutes (and had a few characters try to get us to take photos with them) before moving on to explore a bit more. For a long time, I've collected Hard Rock
pins from places I visit so I wanted to be sure to get one from here as well. The four of us decided to eat dinner at Hard Rock - haven't actually eaten at one in a long time! - and were lucky enough to watch a pretty cool performance by the bartender. I got my pin on our way out and spent another night exploring Itaewon. One of the fun things about this area is how many foreigners there are. We met a couple of guys from Germany (they were TALL!!) and chatted with them while sitting on the rooftop of a bar and watching people in the street.
My last full day I spent exploring some places on my own. One thing I've learned in my time overseas is how peaceful it can be to do my own thing and not worry about 'pleasing' some one else. My first stop was the Seoul World Cup Stadium - very cool! I walked around for a few minutes before heading back to the subway and to the Korean War Memorial. I spent probably 2-3 hours in here. There are some statues and displays outside - some planes and tanks
and such - and a couple of corridors with plaques to pay tribute to soldiers killed during the war. Inside, there were many rooms dedicated to the Korean War but also other wars in their history as well.
After the Memorial I had dinner with Kendra and then went out for a few drinks with Stuart, Charmaine, and Julia for the last night in Seoul. Our last day was spent mostly at the spa. We went to a place that has small fish that eat the dead flesh from your feet. For those of you who know me well, I'm not a big fan of people (or animals apparently) touching my feet so this was a bit of a struggle for me. After this, we got a massage (more feet.... ugh!) before heading to get our baggage and to catch the KTX back to Busan. We stopped for lunch before the train (Kendra and I had Pizza Hut again... yum!) then boarded the 3 hour train back.
Overall, I loved Seoul. Only question is: When do I go back?? 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 40; dbt: 0.0458s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb