Well, we're new here - so we're still trying out the Ten Top Tourist Trips (or Traps) around Seoul. The Visitors Bureau is promoting Seoul as "a Clean and Attractive Global City," (not as catchy as our home-gu mission statement: "World Best City! World Happiest City!") so their Top Ten doesn't get us down and dirty, but here's some stuff we've done so far (in reverse chronological order due to uploading quirks):
Here we are at Namsangol Hanok Villiage. For FREE you can visit 5 furnished traditional houses and learn about crafts, costumes, games, and food and folkways. We enjoyed the purpose-designed baskets like the one on the left just for eggs. Brian learned to roll a hoop and do a bouncy teeter-totter jumping sort of thing, and I got to pose with some fuzzy Traditional Koreans. According to the guide book I would meet people designated as "Seoul Tangible Cultural Property" who would assist me to "enhance understanding of the daily life of the past." These were probably not them.
Trouble is that the village was very hard to find. We thought it was on the top of the mountain - it was at the bottom. There were many finger posts, some in Korean, some in Braille, but only about a third pointed the way to the village, and the directions and distances were pretty random. We saw many things on the way; some nice purple berries, a time capsule designed to be opened 400 years after sealing, a big village complex we thought might be the museum, but was merely a performance space, and many many steep stairways to descend carrying a stroller.
The reason it was a long way down, is because we were a long way up. We started our descent at the top of N Seoul Tower. Panoramic views of the city remind you of just how big Seoul really is. A combination of walking, climbing and cable car got us here, but it turns out the walking and climbing could have been replaced by shuttle bus and inclined railway. We saw more this way though. As they said in Olde Korea "Salted and dried knifefish is good to eat and cheap in price."
Mt. Namsan also has a pleasure ground where you may enjoy sky sculptures, royal guard antics, "unforgettable moment in life" restaurants, souvenir-stands selling angry ethnic baby dolls, and a place where you can leave a lock. We don't know why. I guess when the mullet leaps, the goby leaps too.
Here is Iris, "a springwind to everybody." She is my ticket in, or the red pepper sauce on my lettuce-wrapped rice, the watermelon on my eggplant vine or something. When we crashed (sort of) a BBQ in an upscale neighbourhood teeming with the sailing, shopping, horsey set, although I couldn't speak about the last time I chartered a private yacht for my family vacation, Iris was a hit. She was carried and coddled by the beautiful people and grabbed handfuls of their hair and jewels and got away with it (well, not right out the door and down the mountain, but you know what I mean.) Waitresses hold her while I eat; shop-keepers carry her about while I buy pastries. I can talk to people about Iris, people will forgive my trespasses if I am carrying Iris. People will help me because of Iris. When the batteries on my door-lock went dead and I was locked out of my house with no money/cell phone/ ability to speak Korean or know who my landlord was or what my husband's phone number was - It required only one Iris smile and a driver I found in the parking lot came (with cell phone and Korean language skills) to help me find a way back through my own front door. With a heart like fine brocade, she enjoys everything and everyone, and even when our tourist ways are riddled with potholes and detours - she still makes them fun. Though small, say the Olde Koreans, pepper is hot.
Here is one of those 'detours' in the back lanes of Itaewon, where you can get candy, beer, and Ladie's as well as Indian curry, hand-made big and tall suits (Brian was like pine-nut gruel to the street-hawking tailors), and English-language used books. It is very hilly and the winding narrow old streets often open to surprising vistas of new "Clean & Attractive, Global" Seoul down below.
Here is a bridge leading from Global Seoul back home to Seocho (World Happiest City!). Dancing Rainbow Fountain, complete with Disney soundtrack and coloured lights at night, makes our walk home even more spectacular. That's a yellow flood line tracker in the middle right - can't wait for monsoon season! We found a playground on our side of this bridge, so off the beaten track can have some advantages.
Drying peppers, pepper plants, market peppers everywhere we look. There are many sayings about peppers; black pepper is hotter than red pepper, small pepper is hotter than large peppers. Some pepper-maxims involve dogs, sorcerers or daughters-in-law. Some do not. Tiny Jamie, for example, is light enough to swing on a pepper plant and ride on a boat made from a pinenut shell. Keys to Korea (for when your keypad goes blank): bring a baby and understand hot peppers.
Here we are at Children's Grand Park - FREE and on our subway line. The educational aids and activities were all in Korean and it took me about an hour to get there after picking Jamie up from school, but the animals, playgrounds, fountains and shady walking paths were a welcome Wednesday break.
Also they had tiny and big pottys in the cubicles, and many private air-conditioned comfy-couched nursing rooms. For a giant city, Seoul seems to have many child-friendly green spaces - easily accessible and cost-efficient. Both on and off the beaten track we are slowly collecting for our own Top Ten, and even if, as fish out of water, we can't join the seance - we can still watch the sorceress dance and eat the feasting cake. We can paint chrysanthemums on our straw shoes? I'm sure this would make more sense if I actually learned Korean, though according to Olde Korea, "anywhere you live is your native country."
Here we are at Namsangol Hanok Villiage. For FREE you can visit 5 furnished traditional houses and learn about crafts, costumes, games, and food and folkways. We enjoyed the purpose-designed baskets like the one on the left just for eggs. Brian learned to roll a hoop and do a bouncy teeter-totter jumping sort of thing, and I got to pose with some fuzzy Traditional Koreans. According to the guide book I would meet people designated as "Seoul Tangible Cultural Property" who would assist me to "enhance understanding of the daily life of the past." These were probably not them. 
Trouble is that the village was very hard to find. We thought it was on the top of the mountain - it was at the bottom. There were many finger posts, some in Korean, some in Braille, but only about a third pointed the way to the village, and the directions and distances were pretty random. We saw many things on the way; some nice purple berries, a time capsule designed to be opened 400 years after sealing, a big village complex we thought might be the museum, but was merely a performance space, and many many steep stairways to descend carrying a stroller.
The reason it was a long way down, is because we were a long way up. We started our descent at the top of N Seoul Tower. Panoramic views of the city remind you of just how big Seoul really is. A combination of walking, climbing and cable car got us here, but it turns out the walking and climbing could have been replaced by shuttle bus and inclined railway. We saw more this way though. As they said in Olde Korea "Salted and dried knifefish is good to eat and cheap in price."
Mt. Namsan also has a pleasure ground where you may enjoy sky sculptures, royal guard antics, "unforgettable moment in life" restaurants, souvenir-stands selling angry ethnic baby dolls, and a place where you can leave a lock. We don't know why. I guess when the mullet leaps, the goby leaps too.
Here is Iris, "a springwind to everybody." She is my ticket in, or the red pepper sauce on my lettuce-wrapped rice, the watermelon on my eggplant vine or something. When we crashed (sort of) a BBQ in an upscale neighbourhood teeming with the sailing, shopping, horsey set, although I couldn't speak about the last time I chartered a private yacht for my family vacation, Iris was a hit. She was carried and coddled by the beautiful people and grabbed handfuls of their hair and jewels and got away with it (well, not right out the door and down the mountain, but you know what I mean.) Waitresses hold her while I eat; shop-keepers carry her about while I buy pastries. I can talk to people about Iris, people will forgive my trespasses if I am carrying Iris. People will help me because of Iris. When the batteries on my door-lock went dead and I was locked out of my house with no money/cell phone/ ability to speak Korean or know who my landlord was or what my husband's phone number was - It required only one Iris smile and a driver I found in the parking lot came (with cell phone and Korean language skills) to help me find a way back through my own front door. With a heart like fine brocade, she enjoys everything and everyone, and even when our tourist ways are riddled with potholes and detours - she still makes them fun. Though small, say the Olde Koreans, pepper is hot. 
Here is one of those 'detours' in the back lanes of Itaewon, where you can get candy, beer, and Ladie's as well as Indian curry, hand-made big and tall suits (Brian was like pine-nut gruel to the street-hawking tailors), and English-language used books. It is very hilly and the winding narrow old streets often open to surprising vistas of new "Clean & Attractive, Global" Seoul down below.
Here is a bridge leading from Global Seoul back home to Seocho (World Happiest City!). Dancing Rainbow Fountain, complete with Disney soundtrack and coloured lights at night, makes our walk home even more spectacular. That's a yellow flood line tracker in the middle right - can't wait for monsoon season! We found a playground on our side of this bridge, so off the beaten track can have some advantages.
Drying peppers, pepper plants, market peppers everywhere we look. There are many sayings about peppers; black pepper is hotter than red pepper, small pepper is hotter than large peppers. Some pepper-maxims involve dogs, sorcerers or daughters-in-law. Some do not. Tiny Jamie, for example, is light enough to swing on a pepper plant and ride on a boat made from a pinenut shell. Keys to Korea (for when your keypad goes blank): bring a baby and understand hot peppers.
Here we are at Children's Grand Park - FREE and on our subway line. The educational aids and activities were all in Korean and it took me about an hour to get there after picking Jamie up from school, but the animals, playgrounds, fountains and shady walking paths were a welcome Wednesday break.
Also they had tiny and big pottys in the cubicles, and many private air-conditioned comfy-couched nursing rooms. For a giant city, Seoul seems to have many child-friendly green spaces - easily accessible and cost-efficient. Both on and off the beaten track we are slowly collecting for our own Top Ten, and even if, as fish out of water, we can't join the seance - we can still watch the sorceress dance and eat the feasting cake. We can paint chrysanthemums on our straw shoes? I'm sure this would make more sense if I actually learned Korean, though according to Olde Korea, "anywhere you live is your native country."
