We woke up to cloudy skies and rain so naturally we decided to stay in Seoul one more day and night. We didn’t really get to do any tourist stuff here yesterday and it would probably have been a shame not to see the city to some degree.
We are staying in a part of Seoul called Itaewon, which is apparently one of the higher end neighborhoods in Seoul, and where the president of Samsung lives. Just north of Itaewon is Namsan Park, which is where North Seoul Tower rests on top of a mountain. It is the tallest point in Seoul and offers expansive views of the entire city. The tower is equivalent to the Space Needle in Seattle or the Eifell tower in Paris, and naturally attracts a lot of tourists. We have a good view of the tower from our hotel room window and it didn’t look that far so we decided to try and walk to it.
The area of Itaewon reminds me a lot of San Fransisco. Everything is smushed together and there are a lot of steep and curvy roads. The streets are packed with shops and bars and restaurants and small grocery stores, and the streets are full with people and cars and motor bikes and noise. It took us about 45 minutes to walk to Namsam park where we connected with a walking trail up to the tower. The trail was steep but pretty. It was mostly in a nice pine forest with trees I have never seen. Spring has not yet come here and the broadleaf trees are still barren and desolate. The rain decided to stop on our walk but the sky was still hazy and dark and looked like smog, or maybe that’s just what it was. Many people wore face masks over their noses and mouths and I wondered if the air quality was poor, like in Beijing or Los Angeles.
We eventually made it to the top of the mountain and arrived at the base of Seoul Tower. There was a bus station there and suddenly our quiet nature walk ended in a sea of tourists visiting the tower. Selfy sticks seem to be popular here and it appeared as if every other person had one. Posing for pictures seems to be a big thing as well, and we watched as people made poses in front of the tower, like peace signs and candid photos with their hands on their hips and chins and other strange postures.
Near the base of the tower there is a place where couples attach locks to a fence as some sort of good luck act to guarantee ever lasting love. People write something on the locks and then attach it to railings around the tower and take away the key. Hundreds of thousands of these brightly colored pink and orange and red locks are all over the place and people end up attaching locks to other locks because there is no more empty fence area left to attach new ones to. For 10,000 won we could have bought our own lock and gaurenteed everlasting love but we decided to take our chances. We ended up sitting in the love seat which apparently had the same effect as the locks so I think our love for each other will continue on for awhile.
We then bought a ticket for the tower and took the elevator up to the observation deck. Inside the elevator there is a TV on the ceiling which shows the sky and the tower and you moving up. It was strange because there is also Korean pop music blaring into your ears as you fictitiously soar beyond the tower and into outer space.
The observation deck was neat and the views were vast even though it was really hazy. Seoul is by far the biggest city I’ve ever been to. The amount of tall buildings and skyscrapers are just incredible. Over 10 million people live in Seoul and it definately looks and feels like it. It is impressive and expansive and crazy all at once, and I could never imagine myself living here.
On our way back down to Itaewon it started raining again and I was happy we decided to go to the tower early.
The weather looks good for the next several days and I’m looking forward to continuing the ride tommorrow.
D & C-
Looks fun….have a great trip!
Dean