-
Artful Seoul: More Sites in the City and Around (Part 2)
In this winter season, many museums and similar sites are closed due to the current coronavirus restrictions. The South Korean government has been pretty organized about how it sets restrictions when COVID numbers start to rise. Consequently, as soon as business re-open, we know we’d better get our visits in before they may be closed again! Fortunately, I was able to visit several art exhibits with friends before the current closures began. You may have read about my visits to the very cool exhibits at Museum SAN (Space, Art, Nature) and teamLab: LIFE in Part 1 of this post. As promised, here is Part 2 of our artful adventures in…
-
The Ultimate Day Tourist: Gapyeong Rail Park, Nami Island, and The Garden of Morning Calm
Some tourist traps are so compulsory to visit that you have to fall in, even if you know it’s a trap! The Gapyeong area northeast of Seoul is filled with such attractions. For anyone visiting South Korea for a short vacation, there’s probably no reason to prioritize visiting this area. However, if you stay in Seoul for any length of time, you’re unlikely to escape going at least once. It is a very photogenic area to visit in the fall, and we wished we’d been able to visit in October when the leaves were at their peak. We decided to visit three of the top Gapyeong attractions in one day,…
-
Artful Seoul: Sites in the City and Around
It’s hard to believe that autumn is long gone and Christmas is upon us! In this season when we especially are missing family and friends back home, it is a comfort to realize that in a few short months, we have made friends in Seoul who are fellow explorers. We feel really grateful for the opportunity to meet and learn from this international community. As a bonus, it’s always great to have a network of people who know about places we otherwise would never have thought to visit! While Peter is at the lab during the week, I’ve had the privilege of sight-seeing with new friends. As it happens, for…
-
Seoraksan National Park: Best Adventures for the Whole Family
Seoraksan National Park is such a popular spot that we lost count of the number of people who recommended we visit there in the autumn. A Korean friend described the park to us as having “the most typical” mountains for a quintessential Korean hiking experience. Never ones for passing up a good travel recommendation, we took the 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul to South Korea’s northeast coast. Although the park covers more than 150 square miles, its most popular hikes have trailheads at the park’s main entrance, Sogongwon Park. Sokcho is the city closest to this entrance, and local buses from Sokcho drop passengers off at Sogongwon Park. There’s…
