In keeping with the idea this was a cultural visit rather than a holiday, wet days offered an opportunity to go and see some museums whilst also exploring other neighbourhoods. This post briefly covers museums visited. I don't try and provided huge detail because that's all available on line for those interested. Rather I touch on some small or other notable points that caught my attention for whatever reason. Palaces Museum Having ventured out in spite of what turned out to be 3 days of pretty constant rain, The Palaces Museum, adjacent to Gyeongbokgung, was my first museum stop. Sadly an entire floor of permanent exhibits was closed. However, amongst other things, I came across an excellent digital immersive rendition of a very famous exploratory narrative from the 16th Century, captured in a folding screen landscape painting of the 19th Century. Follow the link to look at the picture more closely. Of interest, although I may be making a connection that doesn't exist, ...
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Planned Itinerary
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Schedule
A week on a beach and a week sightseeing? A road trip? Guided tours plus some unscheduled time? The schedule is firming up (it doesn't include a week on a beach).
I fly out a few days earlier than Manu, taking the time to familiarise myself with the location, transport, times to get around etc. Manu joins a few days later; we then have a week in Seoul and 5 days of road trip before Manu has to fly back to UK, and I have 10 days more to get lost in Seoul, basing myself in Gangnam. That's going to be the longest time I've ever spent living in a city! This post touches on some of the things we're looking forward to. In the meantime, noting the Gangnam reference (which, incidentally, translates as South (nam) of the river (gang), itself the mighty Han river, here's a YouTube video of Psy's 'Gangnam Style', a song which helped put South Korea on the international map.
Highlights (all pictures courtesy of online searches)
Seoul Sightseeing
Allowing for some jet lag recovery time, or maybe grabbing some nightscapes, an early exploration of my immediate vicinity, pretty much in the heart of the preserved Bukchon Hanok village (a hanok being the traditional Korean style house), which remains a residential area. This iconic 'tourist' image will likely be impossible to recreate given the location's popularity:
Bukchon Village
Of course the palaces, or at least some of them, must be seen. A popular adjunct amongst tourists, both local and international, is hiring period costume to support the experience as well as leading to free entry to these historic attractions. This may not be unique but inviting foreigners to adopt such an iconic cultural image and seeing it as something respectful I find refreshing, as well as adding to the vibrant photogenic nature of photos:
Geongbokgung Palace
From
ancient to modern, Seoul, like all great cities, has its grand pieces of modern
architecture. Dongdaemun Design Plaza is one such piece. For me, the building
is less an objective in its own right than it provides a landmark location to
aim for as a means to explore widely across this city of 26 million plus
inhabitants; as well as recognising it often features as a backdrop in drama
scenes.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Lotte Tower, at 555m tall, is the tallest tower in an OECD country and the 6th tallest in the world. Whilst getting to the top is not a high (no pun intended) priority, I'm looking forward to a well positioned view of it from our 2nd weekend's apartment. Lotte Corp (Lotte) is a business conglomerate that conducts several businesses through its subsidiaries and affiliates. The company has presence in food, retail, tourism, service, chemicals, construction, and finance sectors. It's said, in Korea, you can go from cradle to grave and never step outside a Lotte provided service.
Lotte Tower
Essential Korean Day Tours
If you've browsed my previous posts you will have seen that Essential Korean, since last August, has been my language goto resource. The EK enterprise, led by Teacher Kay, is running its first day tours this April. The full day tours cover a range of immersive cultural experiences, in combination with language related challenges and engagement opportunities, from main tourist attractions, to more day to day Korean life in Seoul. I've signed up for one of the latter examples before Manu comes out:
Korea is described as a country which is 70% mountainous; and hiking is considered a national pastime. So trying to hike a few trails and climb a couple of peaks is also on the plan. The first peak is actually within the Seoul city limits. Bukhansan (san / 산, being mountain), at 836m, weather permitting, should afford views over Seoul even better than those from the sky platform at the top of Lotte Tower.
A view along the Bukhansan hike
The second peak aimed for is Daecheongbong (1708m) which sits within Seoraksan National Park, described as the most beautiful national park within South Korea. Inland from the north east coast, it's the first stop on the planned road trip.
Seoraksan National Park
Vouchers
And I still have the delightful set of Korean vouchers, a Christmas present from my daughter, Sophie, to put towards an activity event. Carving a personal stone seal; a calligraphy class; visit a traditional sauna............................... my mind is not yet made up.
After two weeks sailing instructing I've rather taken my eye off my trip in order to earn some money to help fund the trip! And with one week to go I'm aware I've not posted anything here for a while. When in Korea I hope to make more regular posts based on actual experiences and activities. In the meantime, here are a few extracts from my activities on Essential Korean from the last few months, where the range of interests and learning resources could keep me engaged pretty much full time. K Drama Club online meeting Having the fun task of leading / curating the EK K-Drama Club, the series Welcome to Samdalri was the subject of our inaugural K Drama Club meeting. A series selection process considered a range of options, followed, in the lead up, by some further notification and publicising of the event. Something of a new experience for me, I spent time scripting discussion points to ensure we could maintain momentum. In the end n umbers were modest, but since i...
Namsan Tower by night Still very much awake after overconsuming sugar (sticking with the sweet shop idiom from the previous post), I decided I should set off to Namsan park and tower via the major bright lights of this part of Seoul, to get a night picture or two. This was a brisk walk and climb, followed by a late supper of spicy beef soup, at a sitting on the floor place, accompanied by an EK colleague who agreed to meet up as she was on her way back from the southern side of Seoul. EK Tour in Jeongja-dong This tour provided an opportunity to 'Immerse in the bustling, everyday rhythm of Jeongja-dong and the vibrant Jeongja 'Cafe Street', where the essence of middle-class Korean life unfolds.' We explored and considered such things as: the difference between pure high rise residential blocks, mixed commercial (office and retail) and residential, and office blocks with single studio accommodation for office workers; the meaning of the many boardings on the outsides of ...
Accommodation My Solo 10 days were based in Gangnam. I used my 1 bed studio apartment on the 5th floor of a high rise, about 3 minutes walk from Gangnam Subway Station (당남역), as a base to explore parts of Seoul not yet explored and also revisit some of those with which I was beginning to feel a little bit more familiar. Doorstep Shopping Rather than post in a chronological order, from hereon I'm going to post on more functional aspects, beginning with the Gangnam area itself. The subway station has a transfer between 2 lines, a north south and an east west. I suppose I'd walked between the lines and the exit nearest my apartment (Exit No 6), about a dozen times before appreciating, whilst following the signs to the exit or the platforms, that I'd never actually covered the same ground twice. By chance I came across a map that explained the reason. The montage below shows two views of Naver Map (like Google Maps but Korean, with some very clever bells and whistles). You can...
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