Autumn 2022 in South Korea! Day 2 – The Long Train Rides Around Seoul

It was our first full day under the glorious autumn sun. We slept almost 3:00 am, yet we had to wake-up at 7:00 AM. We were told that the breakfast would be available only until 10:00 am, and we had to make sure we had our fill as it’d be a long day.

The first thing I did as soon as we woke up: open the curtains. Our hotel was located right across Lotte Department Store, and I could already see the morning rush brewing from up above.

We were not sure what we’d see at the breakfast buffet, but it was more than what we expected. (I’ll post my thoughts on the hotel on our ‘last’ day post). After a quick 30-minute breakfast, we went back to our room to prepare for the day.

The temperature was at 7° Celsius, which was of course cold. I was not sure if it was cold enough to wear a leather jacket. On the other hand, I packed lean and had planned everything ahead of time, including what I’d have for the day.

I had a history of packing more than I need, only not to use at least a third of what I brought along with me. Nevertheless, I believe I am getting better at this, as I only have a couple of extra clothes ready, so as to save precious luggage space.

At exactly 9:45 AM, we were already headed downstairs. It was cold. The temperature, however, was forecasted to climb up until 17, thus I was hoping my jacket won’t be too much.

Our first stop for the day was Haneul Park. It was our fourth time in South Korea, yet we never had the chance to visit it. We have seen enough videos of it on various Seoul gimbal walkers to pique our interest. Besides, there was also Seoul Silver Grass Festival, thus it was a perfect time to drop by.

From our nearest stop at Euljiro(1) to World Cup Stadium, it took us 1 whole hour. Yes, it would have been faster had we not attempted to look for TMoney (and found none), bought some adhesive bandages, and missed our transfer.

Upon reaching World Cup Stadium station, these trees were the first things that we saw:

We had to take photos of course, as we figure out how to go to Haneul Park. I had a look at the printed map and the map on our phones, and somehow, I got disoriented. That was very uncharacteristic of me, since I’m mostly adept at reading maps.

One thing I enjoyed and sank in as we were in the Seoul World Cup Stadium was one of the many stadiums during the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by South Korea with Japan.

I am frankly not a big football fan but, somehow I have memories of watching televised football matches during that World Cup to the point that one player’s name was stuck in my head: South Korean football hero Ahn Jung-hwan with his shoulder length wavy hair.

Crazy how 20 years after, I’d be there, huh? It was also the my earliest memory of South Korea in the media, followed by the Joint Security Area (2000) movie I’ve watched in 2013 for film class.

I then left the navigating to Mon, which means a couple of seconds bickering as I wasted pushing for the longer route, instead of the shorter one which almost got us back where we started around the stadium.

One thing that I missed was how most obviously non-Korean tourists in that area would likely be on their way to Haneul Park. We might as well follow them as they surely had the directions figured out.

We eventually managed to arrive where the tourist buses converge, and a group of elderly people who looked ready to climb up several flights of stairs.

As we approached the stairs, I was busy Google-ing how many steps it would be to go up. It was 291. There was a paid tram that could take us up, but thought, hey, we won’t be humiliated by our elders on the way there. It was also cold, so we won’t feel the effort at all, right? Wrong.

Barely 1/3 of it, I already felt the temperature rising.LOL I was already sweating hard. Yes, it was cold, but I could feel my skin sticking on the lining of my leather jacket. I also had to loosen the silk scarf snugly tied around my neck.

It took us 15 minutes going up, as we had to stop at least twice to catch our breath, while the elderly tourist whiz past us. >o< We had to catch our breath on a stump of log for about 5 minutes, and dry ourselves off.

A running joke I see online from most Filipino tourists is the talahib-ness of it all. Yes, the perennial weed that grows in neglected areas, especially on vacant lots, often homes to snakes. I have a serious case of ophidiophobia, but somehow I managed to not think about any snakes at all. Hello, we are in Seoul?! Snap out of it.

Aside from the groups of elderly people, there were also a lot of school-aged kids at Haneul Park. Some of them were pre-schoolers, while others were obviously teenagers whiling their time. Made me wonder if they had no classes, but who I am to judge? =D

By the time we reached the silver grass, it was almost noon. It was a big area, but it was also difficult to get decent photos as most of us, if not all, had the same thing in mind: take a good shot of ourselves. We had to transfer to at least 3 areas before we got a good shot.

We brought a remote-controlled tripod with us, so we won’t have to ask people to take our photos. It was also usually difficult to instruct people the type of shot I had in mind, that I’d rather prop the tripod on the ground, ask Mon to step on the frame, as I run to position.

By the time we have reached the pink muhly grass, I had the unfortunate decision of absentmindedly closing the tripod. One of the feet got destroyed. Great. Barely the first half of our first day, and our tripod was already useless.

I was quite bummed as I did not want to spend again for something we supposedly already had. We thought that we can just buy another one on our next stop at COEX.

We travelled from Mapo-gu all the way to Gangnam area, which took us a little over an hour. By the team we reached COEX, it was already almost 2:00 pm, and way past lunch time.

We did not even bother looking for any restaurant to eat from. We saw California Pizza Kitchen, ordered food, and called it a day. As much as we wanted to stay away from the usual food we see from home, it was already 2:00 pm.

I also had to look for a place where I can buy a tripod. A quick Naver search yielded Daiso. I begrudgingly disposed the first tripod after buying this second KRW 5,000 tripod.

I, however, could have read closely, as I only noticed after stepping out of the store that the tripod was not the height I was looking for. It barely reached my things full length. I was hoping for those almost reaching chest/chin height.

We did not go to COEX just for CPK, but to see the Starfield Library. It was opened only on May 2017, thus we did not have the chance to see it back in December 2016. It was undeniably Instagram-mable, but you would have to be clever enough to take a decent shot without a dozen others getting on your shot.

It took us a couple of tries and 10 minutes before we were happy with the shots we had taken. Looking back, it was a loooooong ride from Mapo-gu to Gangnam just to take these photos.

After taking those photos, we realized it was already about 3:00 PM. We still had to get some coffee for that one last boost for the afternoon. There was a Starbucks after stepping out of COEX, and we had to get our quick caffeine fix.

From COEX, we then had to travel all the way to Jamsil Station for Seokchon Lake.

The Rubber Duck Project was again available, and we were lucky that it was in Seoul. This giant rubber duck usually on a body of water in well-known cities, was a creation of Dutch visual artist Florentijn Hofman.

The last time it was in Seoul was way back in 2014. We were lucky that it was there during our vacation, thus I wanted for us to drop by Seokchon Lake.

It was almost 4:30 PM when we reached the lake, and there were also other tourists there. The I could tell, though, that Mon was not that enthusiastic to be there, and he’d rather be somewhere else.LOL

We also had the opportunity to just walk around the area for a couple of minutes, and remarked some of the places we have seen in those Seoul walking videos we usually watch on YouTube.

For the last stop of the day, we had to go back to Myeongdong for Seoul Tower. Again, it took us another hour of train rides. It was already 6:00 PM when we got back, and the weather was a lot colder.

We originally planned to walk all the way up to the Seoul Tower from the 7/11 near Myeongdong Station. It was poor planning, on the other hand, that got the better of us, as I did not pay much attention to the instructions online.

We were basically winging it, trying to make sense of the information of those guides we have seen. Funnily, we always go there and it was our fourth time. We somehow forget how we got there the last 3 times, as I only recall we had to take a bus from somewhere.

We even passed by the area we used to stay at back in 2012 during our first winter. We then successfully reached where the cable cars were, and walked ahead only to find ourselves lost where to go to next.

It was another round of bickering in front of a long flight of stairs that we were hoping not to climb, before we decided that it may be best to go back and ride the cable car instead. Hey, we have not tried that before, so it was the opportunity to do so.

After buying our tickets, we had to queue for the next 15 minutes as there was a big group of school kids who got ahead of us.

After we reached the cable car station, it would be another couple of minutes walk before we reach Seoul Tower.

I just felt bad having to see this poor duck vandalized hard. I thought it must be a thing to profess your undying love there? I may have been missing something relevant.

Some people hate Seoul Tower. We don’t. We just felt it was something we should always see whenever we are in Seoul. I just loved how some things changed a lot, while others did not. Haechi, for instance, was no longer there for years.

We had better cameras on our phones this time around, allowing us to get relatively better photos at night than our last visits.

We took the opportunity to just go around the perimeter, look at the Seoul skyline dotted with a thousand lights, and observed people.

We did not also even bother going up Seoul Tower, as it is something we hope to do on our next visit with Mon’s sister. It would be, hopefully, her first time and we thought it would be worth going up the tower again with her than just the two of us.

We decided to leave Seoul Tower at around 7:30 PM, as the queue for the cable car would be very long. True enough, it took us more time at 20 minutes just to ride the cable car back to the stop below.

From there, the walk back to Myeongdong was a breeze. Chilly yet easy with the downward slope. Even on a Tuesday evening, there were already a lot of people on the streets. I was so happy to see it bustling.

We have seen photos and videos of Myeongdong at the height of the pandemic looking desolate. It was heartbreaking to see the closed shops, and some of them really did not open again. The small hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant we always frequent was also no longer there. =(

Still, we were looking forward to eat at Yoogane as we had been craving for their galbi since the previous night.

There was a long line at this branch, yet it took us only around 10 minutes to get a table. It was enough for us to decide what to eat. Unluckily in our haste, we forgot to order rice for our galbi. While the haemul pajeon was good, it would have been better to have it paired with galbi with mozzarella cheese sticking on rice.

Again, we promised to make an exception to eat carbs whenever on vacation, as it would be very limiting to remove everything good that a place could offer.

After dinner, it was honestly the part I dread: shopping. I know Mon very well that, whenever it is shopping time, trust that he would visit all stores his tired feet could possibly visit. Always looking for the best deal, he would diligently be running his list.

I, on the other hand, would be picking the first thing that comes along. If not that, I would just be keeping tab I’d be buying the following day, praying I’d have the energy to do that.

Still, I had the time to drop by Innisfree to get a bottle Jeju Volcanic Toner and the Green Tea Serumthat I usually get as freebies whenever I buy an eye cream from them at home.LOL

After Mon was done buying what he needed to buy, we had a quick coffee at past 10pm at A Twosome Place. Unsurprisingly, the place was still packed with customers, that we chose to just order and drink coffee outside. Mon also wanted to drop by the street where they sell the desserts anyway.

After that, we walked all the way back to the hotel. We just realized that a couple of streets away were restaurants open to those who needed their alcohol food.

They also serve food. Had we only walked by this area, we would have gotten a decent late dinner and not be reduced to eating street food the night before.LOL

There was also a 7/11 where we had to buy a couple of bottled waters to bring back to the hotel. It had been a long first full day, but we were happy. I can never say no to the cold weather, no matter how freezing it may be. =)