Good morning Gangnam! Today will be hot and cloudy like most of the days here. The temperature will be around the usual with a maximum of 31°C (88°F).
It looks like I won't be rained on today, so I should be active!
Today's Agenda
I have plans tonight with a friend. Her name is 은재 (Eunjae). I redacted her name last week when I talked about her, but now I realize that wasn't necessary, and most people wouldn't know her under her real name anyways. Anyways, I have plans to eat Korean BBQ tonight with her.
Until dinner, I want to do something active and fun. I may not have time to visit the next mountain that I want to climb (which is 불곡산), so I think that I will settle for something simpler.
Here is my agenda:
- Visit the Rose Park in Seoul.
- Eat dinner with 은재.
Today's Experiences
Today is Hyelin's birthday, so my morning was spent on a project related to that. I woke up at 6am, but I was not ready to leave my apartment until 10:30 because I was busy.
I have been excited about climbing a specific mountain named 불곡산 today, but leaving my apartment late, I cannot do that. It takes two hours to get to that mountain, then the hike lasts over four hours. I had plans for dinner in Gangnam at 7pm, so I had to cancel my mountain climbing plans. Instead, I decided to visit a pretty park in Seoul.
Rose Park
The Rose Park is on the Southeastern side of Seoul. The bus trip is almost an hour, but the price is a cheap 1,950완 ($1.45), and the seats on the long-distance buses are comfortable. I really don't get why anybody drives in this city.
I arrive at Rose Park. I am quickly disappointed and underwhelmed.
I visited the park at the wrong time of year. There were almost no flowers.
I walked around the park anyways because I had come so far, and I did find a few pretty sights there. At least the long trip here was worth something now.
I especially enjoyed the cool breeze that flowed down the river with the water. Underneath the bridges were seats that would have been very nice to relax in if I had been tired.
I explored the Rose Park for a little while longer, but soon its pretty sights were exhausted, and it was time for me to move on to another adventure.
Seoul Children's Grand Park
I texted my friend 다인 (Da-In) about the Rose Park failure and asked for recommendations. She gave me a list of three special places, and I chose the Seoul Children's Grand Park from among them. I got on the metro and headed back towards the center of Seoul to find it.
Inside, I was quickly spoiled with green vegetation sprinkled with bright flowers! This was a definite improvement over the Rose Garden! :)
There was even an indoor botanical garden with sections of different climates. Some sections were closed for cleaning when I visited, but I did get to see about half of it. It was really neat.
I personally liked the outdoor flora better. This area was neat, but I felt happier when I went back outside.
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Inside the park is also a zoo! It isn't as great as most of the zoos that I have been to, but it is a neat little place that kids seem to really enjoy. It's a nice zoo to walk through if you only have an hour to spare.
I especially liked the Silvery Gibbon in the last picture. He came out of the shade to see me then followed me around the bend when I eventually had to say goodbye.
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I actually visited the zoo first then the botanical garden. (I wrote it in the reverse order just for the sake of flowing the topic from Rose Park flowers to Grand Park flowers.) Whatever the order that I visited the attractions, I was hungry after everything so far today. I saw a food stand outside of the botanical garden.
I don't know what this is called or even what it is exactly, but I have seen it at many street food places. It's pieces of hotdogs and mystery bread on a stick. The bread is sweet but not sugary sweet, filling but very light, and doughy. I enjoyed my lunch with a Pepsi to drink.
While I rested and ate my lunch, I discovered my favorite part of this park adventure:
It is a simple butterfly. And it's something more than a simple butterfly.
When I walked the Cheonggyecheon Stream, there was a white butterfly that followed me the seven miles to the end. When I climbed 검단산, there was a white butterfly that joined me on that hike. I never mentioned the butterfly before in my blog because I could never capture a clear picture of it. Today I could snap a picture as it rested with me at lunch.
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After lunch, I had seen almost all of the free areas of the park -- oh, have I mentioned that almost all museums, zoos, and parks in Seoul are free? The only non-free part of the park was the amusement rides, but those aren't really my thing anyways. So, I start meandering towards the exit.
I saw a really sweet sculpture on my way out of the park. It looks cool on its own, but its story made me love it even more. It is very sweet.
The stones inside the statue were contributed by citizens of Seoul who wrote their wishes on them. The stones were stacked inside the structure which lifts a golden egg. It symbolizes rising up and overcoming our challenges to make a better tomorrow. It feels very special because each of the stones represents a different person and their hopes.
Dinner with 은재
After our dinner last week, 은재 (Eunjae) and I decided to schedule another dinner tonight.
I forget the name of the place that we ate at. It was somehow related to EXID .
The menu was k-bbq.
I have had k-bbq in USA, but this is an entirely different (and authentic) experience.
This restaurant specializes in pork. The pork and other seasonings is wrapped in a perilla leaf or a lettuce leafe, and the entire thing is eaten at once. It's rather delicious.
My friend also introduced me to somaek, which is soju and beer mixed. It's actually really smooth and a really efficient way to get drunk.
Ah, it was such a great dinner! I'm very glad that I have this friend because she is very good at introducing me to delicious and authentic Korean dinners.
After dinner, I expressed an interest in having a little bit more to drink. We went to a nearby place that she recommended, and we had a couple more beers.
The "Jeju" beer was surprisingly good with a floral flavor. Based on this one beer, I extrapolate that Korean beer is better. I will need further investigation to confirm however. ;)
It was time to say goodbye after a couple of beers. I did not want to say goodbye because I was enjoying our outing so much, but my friend had to wake up to work tomorrow.
Now I am at home, and it is time for me to say "goodnight". Goodnight!
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