In 24 hours, Nicole and I did an 8.39km hike at sunrise and an approximately 7km hike at sunset with the day’s distance totaling 19.32km (or perhaps more accurately 28,730 steps). My new phone has a pedometer that tracks such information and we find it fun to know these little details 😛
This whole crazy hiking thing started Friday night with two bottles of wine, some snacks, and a lot of conversation. While the wine didn’t last until 5am, the conversation absolutely did. Anyone who knows me shouldn’t be surprised that I can spend a whole night talking, especially if I have someone good to talk to. Nicole and I bounced around, covering numerous conversations and rarely ever finishing them, but we enjoyed chat filled night. Upon realizing it was 5am, Nicole became quite sleepy and decided to head back to her place.
A mere 20 minutes later, I messaged her asking if she wanted to walk to Lake Park and watch the sunrise with me. We had 25 minutes to get there and I knew a spot where we could take pictures. She, of course, said yes 😀 because if you’re already up, why not go see the sunrise. We met a couple minutes later and began our walk on the street before climbing up to the path in the trees. I had so much fun taking pictures and playing with the camera on my new phone!
Sunrise, sunrise!!
After leaving the woods, we walked by the amphitheater and around the far side of the lake. Nicole showed me areas of the park I hadn’t explored yet. At this time of the morning, it was very quiet and serene; I liked being the only ones in the park with just the cool, damp air for company. I was surprised by how many people were out once the sun was fully up. Koreans are the early birds who catch the worms! (Speaking of creepy crawlies, I saw my first Korean spider in a bathroom on this morning.) We walked the full length of the main lake before crossing the bridge and walking on the road instead. On this part of our walk, we discovered a neat orange bridge and a creek I plan to explore again at a later date 🙂
See, a little spider!
Adjacent to this creek was an adorable street filled with shops and cafés. The earliest most coffee shops open in South Korea is 9am and sadly it was nowhere near 9am. However, we paused at a Tom n Tom’s to check the hours which happened to say 8am instead 🙂 and the woman inside kindly opened early for us. Koreans really are some of the kindest people on this planet! I ordered a hot choco and plugged my phone in while I drank. Despite carrying on conversation for 5+ hours all through the night, Nicole and I still found topics to discuss during our two hour walk around the lake. The quietest our conversation became was in this coffee shop while we warmed up from the cool morning air and rested in big, comfy armchair 🙂
An empty little creek bed
So as not to intrude and take advantage of the hospitality, when I finished my hot chocolate, we thanked the woman again and continued walking this lovely street. As we neared the end of the street, I started recognizing businesses and realized we were on Café Street 🙂
Nicole is one of those people who has to have breakfast and really like protein at breakfast. The only place meeting her requirements at 8am on a Saturday morning in Gwanggyo was…McDonald’s. Nicole got to have her eggs, bacon, pancakes, hashbrowns, etc while I nibbled on soft-serve ice cream. What can I say; I need a sugar kick in the morning 🙂 I did help Nicole eat her hashbrowns through, but that’s all the grease I can handle so early in the morning.
Nicole then went back to her apartment to sleep while I ended up Skyping with my younger sisters for a while. I also watched Supernatural and The Daily Show, ate more breakfast, ate a light lunch, and took a brief nap before meeting Nicole again to go on a legitimate hike.
This hike started by taking the bus to Gwanggyosan (‘san’ meaning mountain). From there, we began our hike by crossing a stream that flows down the mountain and briefly admiring the fish swimming about. From here, we followed a path past trees with exposed roots and hiked up the mountain. The path we took was mostly stairs, so really we climbed stairs ¾ the way up the mountain. At the peak, we found a small pagoda to rest at and a fantastic view of Suwon. We had a snack, drank some water, took pictures of the view, and took selfies.
Selfie from the Pagoda Atop Gwanggyosan 🙂
As we started our walk along the top of the mountain, we took a Disney inspired photo, in which I stood on the edge of a rock holding my water bottle to the sky for all to see. For any non-Disney fans, this is similar to Rafiki presenting Simba to the animals during “The Circle of Life” song…in The Lion King.
“The circle of life, it moves us all”
We chased the setting sun as we continued along the ridge to another path. Going down felt harder on my muscles which I haven’t worked out in three or more months. A muscle in my quad just above my knee hurt the worst and made climbing down somewhat painful. Hopefully, this doesn’t become a persistent problem.
The End of Our Hike
Eventually, we made it to the base of the mountain again. In the dark with the moon as our guiding light, we followed the path along the stream to where we got off the bus. Here was also a restaurant that Nicole and I gladly indulged in. We ate barbecued meat, kimchi, pajeon (Korean pancake), vegetables, and drank makgeolli (rice wine). Makgeolli (pronounced like ‘mock-gully’) is traditionally drank upon reaching the peak of a mountain, but we were so excited for our second hike that we forgot to buy some. The makgeolli was refreshing, but not nearly as satisfying as meat and vegetables after a good hike 🙂
Feast Time!!!
The next day, Nicole and I went to Seoul together to check out the Seoul Museum of Art. She showed me where to catch the express bus and which one to take for Seoul Station. This was much faster than when Brandi and I would take the subway; I’ll be sticking to this option 🙂
The entrance to the museum is hidden and tucked away on the backside of a building which complicated finding it. Once we found it, we lightened our load by putting our purses and jackets into a conveniently located locker. The main exhibit to see was a collection of works by Yun Suknam; this included a wide array of art work from intricately cut paper snowflakes and flowers to life-like painted wood cutouts of dogs (titled “1,025: With or Without Person”) to painted planks of wood. She seems to have done most of her work with wood. I enjoyed seeing a different, non-traditional style of painting; also much of her work was arranged and 3-dimensional.
“1,025: With or Without Person”
Upstairs contained several smaller exhibits, notably one with multimedia artworks. A section of the floor was transformed into a theater and playing a film about racism and ethnicity; elsewhere, suspended from the ceiling was a crate with a hole in the bottom, so people could poke their heads into the artwork and watch the video playing inside (cleverly titled “Trapped Words”); and yet another area included metal bars dressed as a person falling (or maybe dancing) and appearing almost suspended in midair. I found it fascinating gaze at. This art museum was different from most other art museums I’ve visited simply because the focus was on these non-conventional forms of art. As much as I love paintings and sculptures, it’s refreshing to see something new and thoughtful 🙂
Kind of Creepy, but Fascinating
Admiring so much intriguing artwork left Nicole and me both very hungry. We left the building only to discover more art outside. Surrounding a few trees was a flower garden, and scattered amongst the flowers were humanoid statues (all titled “Thinking” by Bae Hyung Kyung). Some of these statues were standing with their heads down while others appeared to be gardening. Then as we walked a little more, we discovered a giant orb made of flowers.
Giant Flower Orb
We moved on to find lunch in Itaewon. While feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, we came to an Indian restaurant named Agra that looked very unique and inviting. The interior is decorated in a gothic way that left me wondering if the theme was Indian food during the British colonization. The chairs, table, utensils, plates, bowls, cups, and wall fixtures were all very heavy and contained a lot of iron-looking metal.
Our Indian Lunch Spread 😀
We both got a lunch combo which started with a chana dal salad, followed by your choice of curry (I chose the Chicken Rogan Vindaloo) served with naan and rice, and to drink I selected the classic lassi. Everything was scrumptious! The salad was made of cabbage, spinach, Egyptian chickpeas, and lentils with a lemon olive dressing. They chickpeas were particularly tasty and delightful to eat. Looking at them, I expected them to be hard and crunchy but no. My curry had potatoes cooked into it and it was spicy, so I was happy with that 🙂 Plus I don’t know if I’ve ever complained about the naan or rice while eating out, especially not at an Indian restaurant. These are always simply delicious. I was cautious with my first drink of lassi, but I didn’t have any reason to be. It turned out to be a lightly flavored, yogurty drink 🙂 My anticipation is high for the next opportunity to eat at Agra!
With full, happy stomachs, it was time to quench my thirst for books. Nearby Nicole showed me What the Book, an English language bookstore with new and used books 🙂 I couldn’t have been happier! I spent more than an hour browsing the shelves, looking at titles while Nicole had to leave for choir practice. Of course, I bought a couple: I finally bought a set of His Dark Materials as well as an elementary Korean book (to teach myself).
With my backpack weighed down with reading material, I set off for Noksapyeong Station. This extraordinarily cylindrical station surprised me with its simplicity. I’m accustomed to subway stations being filled with shops, but this one didn’t. I took the Brown Line one stop over to Samgakji where I intended to check out the Korean War Memorial Museum. I was unprepared for how big this museum is; I read online that there are indoor and outdoor sections, but I they were both huge.
Since it was a beautiful day, I started with the outside section. First, I walked through a dome memorial with a statue of a soldier hugging his younger brother on top. This was easily the most emotional part of the museum for me. Inside is a mosaic depiction of war and suffering; the last part of the mosaic that I saw was a gun sticking out of the ground with a helmet resting on top of it. To make the image even stronger, a skull and crossbones is painted on the helmet. This serves as a powerful reminder that “freedom is not free.” It costs the lives and suffering of millions. I saw this only seconds after realizing that the Korean War was a global effort for in the middle of this memorial is a map of the world with the number of soldiers each country sent to Korea. This means the entire world felt lose and suffering at the hands of another country’s fight for freedom; a freedom that shouldn’t have been taken away in the first place.
“Freedom isn’t free” 😦
As I continued walking, I found another memorial. On either side of the erected center piece are statues of soldiers. One side is Korean soldiers backed by women and children while the other side is foreign soldiers who left home to help. The dynamic between these two sides interested me and left me wondering how much effect the Korean War had on other nations. I only know this answer and perspective from an American point-of-view; however, that was only on country to play a role in the Korean War.
The remainder of the outside area included an array of planes (all of which you could look inside), tanks (which you could climb inside), machine guns (with scopes to look through), missiles (that make for artistic pictures), a North Korean submarine, and a big boat (which I thoroughly explored). I also saw signs pointing behind the main building for a children’s area.
Artistic Use of a Missile
I lost track of time wandering through the weapons of war outside and had very little time to explore inside, so I’ll have to go back and see more on another day. I saw less than half of the indoor portion. I quickly walked through the exhibit about war in the Three Kingdoms Period through the Joseon Dynasty. I saw an amazing arrow catapult from the Three Kingdoms Period that probably did a lot more damage than individual archers, unless you wanted accuracy.
Across the hall was the exhibit about the Korean War that contained three very emotional pieces. The first was a depiction of soldiers who, according to the description are Heroes of Songaksan Battle: they attempted a suicide mission to help South Korea regain a vital position overtaken by North Korea. They were successful in their mission though. The next emotional piece was due to how startlingly life-like this portion was. I walked into a dark room where I could only make out shadows, but before my brain pieced together what the shadows represented, I set off the motion detector for gun fire and flashing lights. The flashes aligned with the sound of guns firing—as well as men yelling—and these flashes lit the room enough to see I’d walked into the middle of a battle. Shortly thereafter, I came across a poster telling the story of a school teacher who slipped past North Korean soldiers to report their position to the South Korean Army. With her help, the South Koreans were able to “achieve brilliant victory” as the poster read in English. It’s incredible how one person can have such an effect.
Heroes of Songaksan
I hope to return in the next couple of weeks to finish exploring the museum. There seems to have so much more knowledge to offer me 🙂
Main building for the War Memorial Museum
With the museum closed and my phone practically dead, I popped into a café. I enjoyed a strawberry-ade while my phone charged. Shortly after I finished my drink, Nicole finished choir practice, so I set off to meet her and continue to our last stop of the night: a movie theater in Myeongdong. Here we met two other foreign teachers and settled in to see Avengers: Age of Ultron. I didn’t realize, but the parts of the film that take place in Seoul were actually shot here.
Seeing an English movie with a Korean audience was an interesting experience for one reason because it’s completely backwards from how I usually watch foreign movies. Often I’m the one reading subtitles because I don’t know enough of the language to just listen to the dialogue; this means that I understood all the humor and laughed with a select few in an otherwise silent theater.
When the movie finished, we took the crowded elevator down from the 8th floor and caught the bus back. I love how much Nicole and I were able to do and explore this weekend! More weekends like this will hopefully be in the immediate future 🙂
Hiked Twice in One Day: 2015.04.25
“Cut away every safety net, Live your life so you won’t regret the road” -We Are Giants by Lindsey Stirling and Dia Frampton
Bethany Blount 