South Korea Trip, August 23

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!

South Korea Trip, August 22

Good morning Gangnam! Today will be mostly cloudy with rain likely in the evening.  The temperature will be cooler than yesterday, reaching a high of 31°C (87°F).

Today's Agenda

I have been looking forward to today because I get to spend time with one of my new friends.  For dinner, we are going to eat at a very special restaurant.  We are both excited.  Dinner isn't until later in the day, so I will find other activities for the meantime.

• Work on LEGGO News fansite.
• Enjoy a stroll around a park.
• Eat dinner with 수진.

Today's Experiences

After working on the fansite this morning and publishing an article about Solji's new song, it was time to go out on the town and explore!

I looked up the park that I saw from Namsan Tower last night only to find out that I had explored that park already.  I looked up more parks that were interesting, but I have explored many of them in the many times that I have gotten pleasantly lost in the city.  After a few hours, I got sleepy and took a nap.

When I awoke from my nap, I still had a few hours until my dinner with 수진 (Soojin).  I decided to take a walk around the block.

Walking Around the Block

I exited my apartment and went left.  In my mind, I thought I would stop at a dessert place for a snack if I found a new one.  I would walk entirely around the block.

My plans did not pan out.  I got very much lost after I took a wrong turn onto a back alley.  I did not circle the block like I had planned.  I have no idea where I went.  It was fun.  :)

Eventually, the time got late.  I finally had to pull out a map and get home.

Cucciolo with 수진

I met 수진 my first week in South Korea when we went to volunteer at a daycare center in honor of Hyelin's birthday.  Her phone background was almost exactly like mine.  It was the same scene but from a different year.  We were instant friends, and it was awesome!

수진's favorite EXID member is 솔지 (Solji).  I just happened to want to eat at the restaurant that Solji's brother owns, and I thought that my new friend 수진 would also enjoy it.  So I asked her!

We met at the metro station close to the restaurant.  I am still kicking myself for not greeting her enthusiastically enough.  I was taken off guard by her sudden appearance, so the greeting was awkward.  Maybe it wasn't so bad, maybe it was just important to me to greet my friend well.

We left together to find the restaurant.  We had a little trouble finding it, but eventually we did find it.  Reservations are required, but they made an exception since they were not busy.

We ordered a pasta and a steak from the menu.  I normally drink wine with a steak, but we decided not to go overboard with the pricetag.  We had lemon water to drink.

I think that the food was really good, and I felt happy supporting the 허 family.

I paid the bill for dinner, and 수진 agreed to pay the bill for the dessert.  We went to Paris Baguette to have coffee and bread.  I was surprised by the garlic bread with sugar instead of salt, which was unexpectedly good.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye after dessert.  I never like saying goodbye.

South Korea Trip, August 21

Good morning Gangnam!  It is 6:30am, and I am excited to start the day!  The weather will be mostly cloudy with a high of 33°C (91°F).

Today's Agenda

Tonight, I will be eating at n.GRILL at the top of Namsan Tower.  Right after dinner, Solji is releasing a new song.  To pass the time until then, I will explore Seoul.  (At first, I wanted to climb a mountain, but I would be too pressed for time.)  Today will be a full day.

• Explore Seoul and a museum.
• Eat at n.GRILL.
• Enjoy Solji's new song and write about it for LEGGO News.

Today's Experiences

Today was a very good day.  I explored a museum and had a delicious meal.

As good as today was, tomorrow will be even better.  However, let's not dwell on the future yet, and let's appreciate the very good present.

Hangul Museum

To pass the time until my special dinner, I decided to visit a special museum that I unfortunately missed out on earlier this month.

Readers of my blog may recognize the building as the National National Museum of Korea.  I visited this museum recently.

While I did see the buliding of the National Museum of Korea, that was not my destination.  My destination was the Hangul Museum just next to it.  I missed this very special museum during my last visit because it closes at 6:00pm, and I was too late to enjoy it.  This time, I found the museum during open hours.

Hangul is especially interesting to me because it is such a brilliant alphabet.  It was designed specifically to improve literacy in Korea, and it is by far the easiest alphabet to learn.  It is said, "a wise person can comprehend Hangul in one morning, and even an unwise person can learn it in ten days."  It took me just one day to learn it.

The invention of Hangul is attributed to King Sejong in 1443.  This past king is very revered in South Korea, and it makes sense why.  Sejong's efforts not only improved literacy but also helped to define South Korea's identity and promote the flow of the culture.  I am in awe after learning more about him.

I explored the Hangul museum, read every didactic label, and appreciated the beauty of every exhibit.

I should have taken more pictures of the exhibits, the many scrolls and books, but I became too focused on the interesting experience to remember to snap a few more photos.  This is definitely a museum to visit if one visits South Korea.

On an unrelated note, I have seen letters on the sidewalk that I could not read: "ㄱㅏㅇㄴㅏㅁ".  After touring the museum and learning about how Hangul has been styled in different ways, I was able to read the text as "강남", or Gangnam.

I was surprised and happy when I encountered this different way of writing the district name and was able to read it for the first time with my new knowledge.

Back to the topic of the museum, there is another section of the Hangul museum that is targeted more towards children.  I was especially intrigued by the cube theater and the exhibit room styled after the classroom.  Both of these rooms were really cool to me.

There were of course more rooms than these, but the rest were too childish for me.  Maybe someday I will have a kid and can take them to enjoy those rooms; then I will be more fulfilled by the other rooms.  :)

Museum Park

After leaving the Hangul Museum, I walked around the park next to it.  I still had about an hour before I had to head home, and exploring parks has become one of my favorite hobbies here.

How is anything so beautiful?  I especially like the mix of urban and nature.  It is metaphorically symbiotic, an example of humans and nature coexisting.  Especially in such a large city, it is reassuring that tomorrow will not be just cities of concrete.  There will be nature too.

Another reassuring sight are these free exercise areas.

These areas are scattered throughout Seoul and are numerous!  If you go to any park, you can use these park gyms to stretch and exercise.  It really shows care and love for the people.

Namsan Tower, n.GRILL

I had a reservation at n.GRILL for 5pm, and they recommended that I arrive at 3pm so that I have plenty of time to get to the top of the mountain.  Because of the reservation, I had to leave the park earlier in the day and go home to get cleaned up for my trip to this nice restaurant.

The trip to n.GRILL was really cool.  I rode a cable car to the top, then I walked through really cool digital hallways, finally I arrived at the observation deck to hang out until my reservation time.

The really cool rooms on the way to the top were unnecessary but appreciated.

The views from the observation deck were impressive, but I only give that 4 out of 5 stars.  The viewable distance was limited to about 30km (19mi) due to pollution, which was disappointing but still good.

After enjoying these views for an hour, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was a seven course meal.  There were two cool appetizers followed by a warm appetizer, then a soup, then the main course; after the main course, two desserts were served.

This is objectively the best meal that I have had in my life.  It checked all the boxes.  The food was perfect in every category.  The service and environment were splendid on top of that.

The only meal that is better is my grandmother's pancakes.  I say that n.GRILL was objectively the best, but subjectively it was not.  My grandmother's pancakes are made with love, and n.GRILL can never get close. ❤

For those who are curious, the price tag for the n.GRILL meal was 355,000완 ($266.00 USD).

Seoul at Night

I would have docked n.GRILL and Namsan Tower a point for the polluted view, but it turned very beautiful when the sun set.  On my hike down the mountain, I glanced over the railing at the city and was captivated by its beauty.  I stayed and watched the sun set.  Almost an hour passed, and I still did not want to leave.

Further down the mountain were additional stops to enjoy the view.

Some say that there are no stars in the skies of Seoul.  I say to look towards the ground.  The city lights are the stars, and they twinkle just the same.  Maybe they are even more beautiful, because every one of these stars supports life.