Sites in Seoul
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For better AND for worse: What’s the price of peace in Ihwa Mural Village?
One of my favorite sites in Seoul is Ihwa Mural Village. This neighborhood of tiny steep streets adjacent to Naksan Park is decorated with lots of amusing and imaginative street art. Add to that the area’s 180 degree views of the city, and you have a tourist attraction that I will run to see. With Seoul being entirely devoid of short-term visitors, we had the place basically to ourselves. We wound our way up the tiny streets and took our time posing for silly photos. In 2010 a Korean reality-TV show was filmed in the village and created the “wings mural.” It and subsequent versions of it have attracted many…
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How to Have a Cheap Date Night: Street Food for the Win!
My favorite thing in basically every city is to see it at night. The colors and the lights make everything so vivid, and I love the nighttime energy. Seoul’s neon vibe and large shopping districts lend themselves to evening strolls and people-watching. Added bonus: avoid the scorching sun and terrible August humidity! Over a couple of nights, we enjoyed an evening stroll to one of Seoul’s largest shopping districts, enjoyed several of Seoul’s many riverside parks, and most importantly – found some famous street food. As soon as we saw Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) during the day, we knew we wanted to see it at night. We were not disappointed!…
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Seoul from the middle ages to the space age
On August 15, Gwanghwamun Square was the site of a political rally estimated to have included 20,000 participants or more. Discussing all the politics connected to that event would take a separate post, so suffice it to say it was a very controversial gathering, particularly in the context of coronavirus concerns. Any gathering of over 100 people currently is banned in Seoul and the surrounding areas, so the city seems to have been very unhappy about the rally. By Monday – August 17 – Gwanghwamun was back to being deserted, and all we saw were some of the remnants of Saturday’s political action. We walked through the (extremely large) square…
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Is there anybody out there? Traveling through quiet Seoul.
Liberation Day, also called Gwangbokjeol in South Korea, literally means ‘Restoration of Light’ day. It is celebrated each year on August 15 and commemorates the Allied Forces’ prevailing at the end of WW II, which subsequently liberated the Korean peninsula from decades of Japanese occupation. It is the only Korean public holiday celebrated by both South and North Korea. Ordinarily, we might have looked for some public celebrations over the weekend, but with COVID circumstances being what they are, it seemed like the city of Seoul was really discouraging any event that might draw a big crowd. There was a huge political rally downtown despite the warnings, but we stayed…
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How to spend your first ‘real’ weekend in Seoul
If you saw Peter’s recent Facebook post, you already know we made the most of our first days out of quarantine. After 15 days of feeling like our muscles were wasting away from disuse, we proceeded to walk about 35 miles over Friday-Monday. Our legs no longer feel disused! Friday We were released from quarantine on Friday at noon and decided we didn’t want to take any transit or go inside at all. We just wanted to walk! This was a good opportunity to explore Itaewon, the international neighborhood next door. We can walk there in about 15 minutes from our apartment. Itaewon is known for its great diversity, making…
