A year has come and gone since I've come to Seoul. It passed by me in the blink of an eye. While I only got to experience complete, unrestricted freedom in Seoul for about 3 months until the pandemic hit, I've still managed to encounter so many beautiful things and places that will remain with me. Here are just some of my favorite places/things that I've seen so far in Seoul:
1. Autumn foliage (단풍)
I come from a city where the autumn foliage is really beautiful. Chicago in the autumn is my favorite time of the year, the deep reds and bright yellows glistening in the sun and bursting out for all to see. While I’d been told before coming to Korea that the best time of the year is the cherry blossom (벚꽃) season in early April, after now experiencing both, I’d like to state that Seoul is arguably more beautiful in the autumn than it is in the spring.
While I didn’t get to experience the cherry blossom festival in the neighborhood of Yeoido due to the pandemic, I did get to see the foliage there. While places like Yeoido and Olympic Park have many more trees grouped together, making the sight even more breathtaking, there’s trees all around Seoul that shed their summer green for autumn reds, yellows, oranges, and browns. This makes viewing it much more accessible than the cherry blossoms, which are only specific trees in specific areas of Seoul.
Even though the air is getting crisp and the wind seems to blow right through your bones, there’s no better time than sweater weather in Seoul.
2. Hiking Achasan
I’m not a huge hiking fan to be quite honest. After I arrived in Korea, I heard from many people that one of the best things to do in Korea, particularly in Seoul, was to go hiking. Because of the abundance of mountains surrounding the city, I was told it was a must do. Despite this, it wasn’t on my top list of things to do while in the city, so throughout the year when coworkers asked about going on hiking trips, I was reluctant and I dragged my feet.
Finally, after about 11 months of living in Seoul and the weather cooling down from the summer heat, I decided to bite the bullet and go hiking with a friend. We got up early one morning before work and went to hike Mt. Achasan in East Seoul. I was worried that I’d be cold because of the early morning frost still lingering on the plants, but actually the weather turned out to be perfect hiking weather.
Achasan isn’t a long hike. It’s probably one of the easiest in Seoul to do. After about 40 minutes of hiking up, we reached the top and were greeted with a gorgeous view of the Han River, Lotte Tower, and the rest of Seoul seated down below. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to go hiking and to be honest, I was regretting it.
I plan to go hiking more in Seoul going forward. I’m not sure if I’m mentally prepared to hike mountains like Bukhansan in North Seoul or Hallasan on Jeju Island, both boast over 4 hour hiking times, but perhaps I’ll be persuaded to in the future.
3. Gangneung
Due to the pandemic and my work schedule, travel has been difficult to sort over this past year. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to travel as much as I wanted to. But when the pandemic had improved and conditions had become safer in July, my friends and I decided to take a short weekend trip over to the coastal town of Gangneung in Eastern Korea.
I didn’t know too much about the town. I pretty much knew it was a beach town that many Koreans went to for holiday and it was known for it’s soft tofu stews. After a quick 2 hour ride on the KTX, we reached it. The weather upon arrival was pretty cloudy, but after a few hours, the sun parted through and pushed the clouds away, leaving a beautiful clear blue sky.
The beach was beautiful; so breathtakingly blue splattered with white sea foam at the edges that kissed the sand. I didn’t expect Korea to have such pretty beaches but I was very pleasantly surprised. While there’s not too much to do in Gangneung besides lounge at the beach and eat seafood, it was a very relaxing two days that left my friends and I very refreshed.
4. Lantern Festival
A few weeks after arriving in Korea, blissfully unaware of the storm about to ravage the world in just a few months, I had heard that there was a lantern festival taking place down by the Cheonggyechun Stream near Gyeongbukkung Palace in Northern Seoul. My Korean friend and I decided to go one evening a few days before it ended.
Now, while I’m used to the cold in Chicago, it was very cold this day. Because I hadn’t yet bought the Korean winter essential “long padding” coat, I was pretty cold in my wind breaker. Yet I pushed on and wandered down the path of the stream gripping my pouch hand warmers and teeth chattering. There were lanterns of Disney characters, figures from Korean history and folktales, and animals as well.
We came across a table that let us make a small boat with a light inside to float down the river. After paying about 5 dollars each and struggling to figure out how exactly to construct the boats, we wrote our wishes on the sides of the boat and gently pushed them down the stream. I don’t remember what my friend wrote on her boat, but I like to think my wish is still floating down the stream on the boat, not yet fulfilled nor reached it’s destination yet.
5. Myeongdong
This was also pre-pandemic. My friend and I had heard that Myeongdong was known for it’s amazing street food, as well as it’s shopping. In early December we travelled there on a Saturday afternoon and decided to wander through the crowds of people. While I knew it was known to have good street food, I didn’t expect just how much there was.
Egg bread, ddukbokki (spicy rice cakes), odeng (fish cakes), hodduk (sweet pancakes), corndogs, spiral cut and fried potatoes, fruit, fried chicken, the list goes on and on. I ate a fair amount of things and honestly didn’t do hardly any shopping. The street food is incredibly cheap and so delicious. But there are many vendors selling the same products so choosing which stand to buy from can be difficult. Just because there are many people at one stand, doesn’t always mean it is the best.
If you’re looking for some cheap eats then this is definitely the place. Myeongdong also has a ton of skincare shops to get your fill of mask packs and cleansing products.
Going forward, I can't wait to see more of Seoul and explore more places and hidden gems that I haven't uncovered yet. While winter is coming to push people back inside, hopefully I'll be able to crawl out and see the city.
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