South Korea, PT 3

Throwback Thursday!

After spending almost 7 months studying abroad, I had a special visitor. My dad! I was so excited to share to culture I was so passionate about with him. I created a jam packed 5 day itinerary to see all of the highlights in Seoul and then some. In this post, I'll write about our adventures back in Summer of 2019.

The schedule was as follows:

Day 1 - Plane lands at noon

Stay in Seoul

Day 2 - Stay in Seoul

Day 3 - Stay in Seoul

Day 4 - KTX to and from Gyeongju

Day 5 - DMZ

Day 6 - Morning in Seoul

Noon - Flight to ??? (Keep reading to find out where)

I will walk through the activities that are an absolute must, as well as some nice to see sights. If you believe I've left something out by the time you finish reading this post, leave a comment!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 1 - Stay in Seoul~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: A Wash and Waiting

Of course when you plan everything to the minute, something isn't going to go as planned. Starting off strong - my dad's flight was delayed. Meaning instead of landing around noon, he didn't get to me until almost 5am the next day. This definitely cut out some time that we could have spent touring the city. But it all worked out in the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 2 - Stay in Seoul~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Palaces and Prisons

As soon as he arrived in the hotel, we were leaving again. We were staying in the Lotte World south of the river. But we needed to get to the Sinchon area. Specifically, the Seodaemun Prison. Arguably, not the best way to start the trip. I would recommend starting off with a walk through Sinchon, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jongmyo Shrine, Changgyeonggung Palace, or even something like the National Museum of Korea or King Sejong the Great Museum. But alas, we were working on limited time.

To put some food in our bellies, and check off one of my bucket list items, we went to a shop that's open 24/7 and sells Kimbap (kinda like sushi but not). I did my best to order in Korean, but fear that I offended the worker taking my order by saying "no" a little too confidently when they were trying to understand what I was saying.

Below you can see us sitting on a bench by Seodaemun Prison. Kimbap unwrapped and ready to eat. We had also swung through a 7-11 to get some OJ and coffee.

Seodaemun Prison is a museum and former prison in Seoul. It was used under Japanese colonial period to imprison Korean independence activists. I would not put this place high on the list of places to visit unless you want to learn more about Korean independence activists under the Japanese regime.

We didn't take many photos within the prison out of respect, so enjoy this picture of my dad in front of the South Korean flag.

Directly outside of the prison is Seodaemun Independence Park. Below I have pictured the Dongnimmun Arch (Independence Gate). Within the park are several memorials of independence, the Memorial Monument to Patriotic Martyrs, and Independence Hall. After

After the heavy hitter that was Seodaemun Prison, we took a bus over to Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The iconic Gwanghwamun Gate (not pictured in this post) marks the entrance to the area. The gate, and the palace within it's walls, were the most important royal place during the Joseon Dynasty from 1395 until the Japanese invasion in 1592. In its more recent history (very late 19th century) it was the site of the assassination of Empress Myeongseong by the Japanese. After that, the Imperial Family never returned to the Palace and in the following years, it was converted into much of what we know today and is one of the most popular tourist attractions within the city.

In this palace today, it is very common to see people dressed up in "hanbok" which translates to Korean clothes. It is traditional Korean garments for both men and women. Many locals dress up and do photo shoots within the palace walls. Below you can see pictures of one of the gates within the palace, people dressed in hanbok, some of the fine detailing that goes into the buildings, one of my favorite pictures of a building on the water, and a scenic view of the mountains in the background and some buildings within the palace.

Below is another popular tourist and local destination - the Bukchon Hanok Village. Houses (which are still occupied by locals) have been preserved in the design of that from centuries ago. There are several streets to wander up and down and feel as though you've been transported back in time. It's only a short walk from the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Next, we did one of my absolute favorite activities - eating. Open air markets are very common and popular throughout the city. Whether it's a pop up, or an established market, you can find one easily almost anywhere north of the Han River. For this particular meal, we went to the Tongin Traditional Market. This is located very close to the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Upon entry and payment, you receive coins and a lunchbox tray to explore the market with. The next three pictures are of the market and food that we got in our exploration of it. One honest review I must give is that this is not my favorite market that I went to in my time in Seoul. Several foods were cold and just did not meet expectations. I'll give better recommendations of places to go later in this post.

The next place we went, also close to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, was the Jongmyo Shrine. I feel as though this is a lesser known place to visit. However, I think it's an interesting shrine. You'll learn history of deceased Kings and Queens of the country. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is important to know not to walk on the path leading around the shrine - as this is where it was believed that the spirits of deceased would walk next to you.

An honorable mention is the Rice Frappuccinos we got from a local starbucks as a mid-day pick-me-up. While I do not believe that this menu item is offered anymore, but if you find it still, let me know! Some other menu items I've seen offered in Korea include strawberry cold foam strawberry latte, Jeju black sesame cream frappuccino, Jeju mugwort rice cake cream frappuccino, citrus espresso, white taro latte, and several other unique items that are a must try.

With the day winding down, we wandered the city for a bit before heading over to the Han River. Specifically the Ttukseom Hangang Park. Korean culture is fairly active - walking around the city, hiking mountains, working the fields, and the Han River is the perfect place to go for a bike ride, meet with friends, or go for a long walk. There are extensive parks and paths along it and residents take full advantage of this. The following pictures are of the Park we were at.

If you must know why I chose this location, it's because there is a 7-11 (yes I know what I said) on a raft on the water. I wanted my dad to experience an authentic Korean experience of eating a meal at 7-11. Below you can see us using the ramen cooker machines provided just outside of the store. We also bought mini sausages to put in the ramen as well as sliced cheese to put on top. As a side, we had soju, beer, and my favorite Turtle Chips.

126-1 Jayang-dong, Gwangjin District, Seoul, South Korea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 3 - Stay in Seoul~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Museums and Markets

To start our next day in Seoul, we would be visiting a ton of museums. Both the Korean Contemporary History Museum and the National Museum of Korea. I do not believe that I included any images of the Korean Contemporary History Museum. In fact, we may have skipped it because it was closed the day we went. Enjoy the pictures below of the National Museum of Korea. The first is an exhibit with artifacts and the second is in the main foyer of the museum.

Shortly after the museum, we went to the GwangJang Market. One of the most popular street and open air markets in Korea - Seoul. We walked around and ate plenty of good foods. I'll write a breif blurb about each picture. Directly below you can see there are plenty of cloth, sheet, and clothing vendors in the market. Sometimes locals come here to buy stuff to make their own clothing.

What market would be complete without snacks and street food. There's plenty of places to sit down and grab a quick bite and plenty of options to make a meal of it! Some partiularly popular ones are fish cakes, tteokbokki, noodles of various varieties, chicken, heotteok, and mung bean - or other varieties of - pancakes.

This particular market stall sells various forms of kimchi. Behind the counter they make various other foods for your meal.

One place we absolutely had to stop by was Sunhui-ne Bindaetteok. Arguably the best Bindaetteok (Mung Bean Pancake) in the market. We, of course, had to pair our meal with some Meokgoli (Korean wine). And some soju, too. As you can see in the picture, the wine is milky. It has a very unique taste and I haven't been able to find anything else similar to it. It's traditionally drunk out of golden bowls.

Enjoy some bonus pictures of the National Museum of Korea. This is the building from the outside. It's massive.

And some pictures of artifacts and exhibits from the inside of the museum.

Next, we went to Myeongdong. A popular place within Seoul filled with busking, street food, shops, street vendors, and definitely a lot of people. We stopped for a bite to eat and got some bulgogi.

Even after dinner, there was still room for street food! Check out these little egg buns.

After dinner and some shopping, we made our way to Namsan Tower. This is a famous spot and often a landmark used to orient oneself within the city. I had already seen the views during the day, so I wanted to see the city from above at night. It's important to note that you will want to go when the smog levels are lower as it will greatly impact visibility otherwise. Luckily, we had great views when we were there!

You have an option of walking down/up the mountain to the base of the tower and then taking the elevator up, or taking a cable car up the mountain. At the base of the tower, there are places along the railings that couples leave locks to signify their love and relationship, so be sure to bring a lock if you want to join the tradition!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 4 - KTX to and from Gyeongju~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Trains, Tombs, and Temples

Now today was going to be a little different. I don't necessarily recommend this day's itinerary to the average individual, as I believe it takes a certain level of comfort with the transportation systems of the country - bus, high speed train, subway. And if you're going to make this work, you should wake up super duper early. Before I get into what we did for the day, enjoy this picture of our hotel from the base. And also the subsequent photo of the Han River as we subwayed to the train station to catch our 6:30am train

Where were we going? You may ask. The answer is Gyeong-ju. Now, you may be wondering why I would choose to take us there, of all the cities in the country that we could go - Busan, Daegu, Jeju - but I had actually been to Gyeong-ju during my Maymeseter, if you remember from my South Korea Pt1 post. I wanted to escape the city hustle and bustle and see some sights that I felt held cultural significance and aren't readily accessible within Seoul.

Directly below you can see that we bought some of the famous gyeongjubbang - or "gyeong-ju bread." They are small red bean paste filled pastries well known throughout the country.

First up on our cultural list of things to do was the Royal Tombs in Tumuli Park Daereungwon Royal Tomb Complex. Gyeongju is actually the ancient capital city of the country and is home to this large tomb complex, where kings and nobles of the Silla Kingdom are buried. That's almost 1,500 years of history recently unearthed.

Below is the Cheomseongdae Observatory, which is the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in Asia, potentially the world. It was constructed in the 7th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Gyeongju is full of nature and it was refreshing to walk along the streets and parks as we moved from site to site.

Our next spot was in Gyeongju National Park - the Seokguram Grotto. This is the location of an 8th century Buddhist Temple. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's a bit of a trek to reach the Grotto, and the attached temple, but it's well worth the visit. It is said that those who drink the water receive a special blessing. It's been a while since I've been that I've forgotten what that blessing is - be it long life, youth, or wealth, or spiritual nirvana. The water is cold, and very clean/drinkable. Communal cups are provided but may not be the experience you'd like to have.

You're not allowed to take pictures inside the Temple attached to the Grotto.

But something else you can take pictures of is the journey to and inside of the Bulguksa Temple. Bulguksa is yet another Buddhist temple in South Korea. It contains several stone pagodas and statues of Buddha. It is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We stopped at the below place for food. If I could read the font on the Korean lettering, I would tell you what it's called. The first part stumps me, but it's Jangmonim Sikdang as the last two parts. It's on Jinhyeon-ro 2-gil which is a street by the Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.

I got one of my favorite dishes - Naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles) and my dad got bibimbap. There were plenty of side dishes for us to share. We even ordered (in the next picture) a local form of alcohol that translated roughly to poop something. I know that does not sound the least bit appetizing, but it was similar to meokgoli.

Next, while you're there, it's worth a visit to Donggung Palace & Wolji Pond. This is simply a scenic area and had some relics and gave us something to do to pass time before the KTX ride back to Seoul. I wouldn't be heartbroken if we hadn't seen it. It was more like buffer optional extra planned time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 5 - DMZ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Buses and Binoculars

All aboard the bus! Next stop? The DMZ. World famous, the DMZ stands for De-Militaarized Zone. It is an, ironically, heavily militarized section of land between North and South Korea. It is on the 38th parallel and acts as a border between the two countries. Peace talks and other communications by foreign leaders and North Korea are often held in the JSA, or Joint Security Area, located within the DMZ.

We boarded the bus as part of a Viator tour with about 50 other people and took the ride up the boarder. I was most surprised that much of the DMZ was simply a chain link fence. Nothing fancy, not even seemily much guard along the way.

There is, however a rooad block that all buses must pass through where soldiers check the identity of those entering the DMZ area.

Our first stop on our tour was the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel. Since the late 1900s, South Korea has discovered a handful of tunnels that cross the DMZ underground which were dug by North Korea. The tunnels were claimed by North Korea to be mining tunnels for coal; however, no coal was found in the tunnels. The tunnels are believed to have been built to allow North Korean military forces to invade South Korea. While our tour visited the 3rd infiltration tunnel, the second and fourth tunnels are also open to guided tours.

Unfortunately, we are not able to bring our phones down with us into the tunnel, so I will briefly describe the experience to you. First, you lock up your phone and other smart devices in lockers. Next, you don a hard hat. After that, you follow your group and guide down an at least 11 degree incline that is about 200 to 300 feet in length down into the earth. Going down is certainly the easy part. They do have accessibility to those who can't complete the journey without help.

Once you reach the bottom, it's cold, damp, and dark. Lights have been installed to illuminate the way. The aesthetic is very much that of a coal mine. The ceiling of the shaft is a bit too small for most people to walk comfortably (hence the hard hatas). You have to walk roughly 100 more feet in a straight, flat path dodging wooden beams and rock protrusions to the giant 5ish feet thick slabs of concrete that have been erected in the middle of the tunnel. Three sets of them, preventing a straight line of sight into North Korea's side of the tunnel. That's about as close as most of us will ever get to the mysterious country in our lifetime. And then begins the long, painful trek back up the steep incline.

Next up on the list of things to do on our DMZ tour was the Dora Observatory. This observatory allows people to view North Koea through binoculars. It's kinda messed up, the strange feeling of watching seemingly strange, foreign people work the fields in a country who is probably blissfully unaware of most things happening in the world around them. On a clear day, you can see the North Korean flag flying over the closest North Korean City to the DMZ.

Below is an image I took of North Korea.

The next stop on our tour is the unification train station. Most of South Korea holds the belief, hope, and dream that one day North and South Korea will be re-united. This would re-unite families who were split after the Korean War, relatives who don't know each other, and make the country whole again. South Korea built the unification station with the dream that one day, North Korea will allow them to finish the train tracks directly between Seoul and Pyeongchang.

While there are several tourist areas on the southern side of the DMZ, there is also space for South Korean tolkens of hope. Movements and messages sent over to the north.

After our day trip to the DMZ, we returned to Seoul to visit the place where I studied abroad for a little over 6 months - Yonsei University. Directly below is my dorm room location. Enjoy the pictures of the campus below. I already posted some in my South Korea Pt1 and Pt2 posts.

This was the site of my International Internship. I worked in a Nanotechnology Lab with fellow students who were studying the thermal properties of metals and the impact that they could have on heating and cooling perception of the human body.

This was the site of Akaraka, if you remember from my South Korea Pt2 post.

One of the best parts of living on campus in Yonsei was the easy access to Sinchon. Arguably one of the best places to go for food, drink, and entertainment after classes.

We actually took out Kim Hoon, one of the graduate students working with me in the lab, to dinner - and then dinner part 2, 3, and 4 - as a thank you for making my time in Korea and transition to the culture, classes, and country so seemless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Day 6 - Morning in Seoul~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Where to next?

Of course you may be wondering - what did you do after 7 months in South Korea? Surely you must be home sick by then? The answer is yes, yes I was. I was craving a good mac-and-cheese for the better part of my final 4 months in the country. However, I didn't fly halfway across the world to not do some additional sightseeing while there.

Unlike my European study abroad counterparts, I didn't have copious amounts of time and easy destinations to travel to. Most places were about a 2+ hour plane ride away and the airport was an hour subway ride away. That and not being allowed more than X amount of days missed in class, and I didn't get to travel much during the school year. But I made huge plans for travels afterwards.

So where did we go next? Keep reading to find out. But first, enjoy these pictures of me in the Seoul Olympic Park. For some reason, I really like visiting Olympic sites. This is what we did on our last day in the city before we had to catch our flight.

Some honorable mentions of food that weren't described anywhere in any of my Korean posts thus far (I don't think) include the below image of a pasty/jelly snack. Also, Korean fried chicken. Not literally KFC, but any fried chicken Korean restaurant that you can find. Trust me, it's nothing like you've ever had before. The below picture is what we had in the airport waiting for our flight to our next location.

Some other honorable mentions that didn't quite make it into our itinerary either due to time constraints with the missed flight or me just not thinking that they were as important to include this visit (there's always time for another trip!) include:

Hongdae

King Sejong Museum

Korean Contemporary History Museum

Korean War Museum

JSA (When we were going to the DMZ, Trump was in the JSA and they shut it down to visitors)

Gangnam

And - drumroll please - the next destination is......

TOKYO, JAPAN

Stay tuned for one of my subsequent Throwback Thursday of my travels with my Dad in Tokyo, Japan! Although, who knows what my next post will be of. There are so many adventures left in my long list to catch up on.

~Wishing all the Wanderlust~

-Maddie