So Seongbuk has a cute little friendship park
that I stumbled on near the start of our hiking
today. They had flags from a number of countries,
and I took a photo of myself with my favorite one.
This was behind someone's house on the path up to the mountain.
They had a beautiful garden including a dog and fish swimming
in a little pond. You can see the woman's growing rice here. It
was approximately my dream house.
This place was another interesting spot we passed on the way up.
It used to be the place where the Korean version of geishas worked.
They were very intelligent and very beautiful, and rich men would
come to enjoy their company. It's been turned into some sort of
museum and event space since the profession is no longer practiced
in Korea (the fancy geisha-esque version anyway). Oh BTW, there's
another name for these women in Korean, but I don't remember
what it is. It sounds sort of like geisha, but a little different.
This is me with my access pass. The route we hiked
is really well guarded because it was through this
area that a group of close to 30 North Korean
infiltrators attempted to reach and kill the president
of South Korea in 1968. There was a battle in the
mountains here and the attackers were almost all killed,
though with large losses on the South Korean side.
We were required to bring ID and fill out a form in
order to get the passes. They use them to keep track
of everyone going in and out of the area. These hiking
routes were just recently reopened to the public.
A lot of the route was along the Seoul fortress wall. As I was hiking
with an expert in Korean history, I learned that the wall was damaged
and repaired a number of times over the course of its history, and that
you can tell the age of sections based on the appearance and size of
the rock used. The old looking large rocks are the oldest, followed by
the smaller ones, and more recently by the large, but less ancient
looking stones. You can also see some fencing with barbed wire
running along the length of the wall here.
This is a famous tree, because it has bullet holes
in it from the aforementioned battle. They've been
filled with cork to help keep the tree healthy.
Many people were interested in seeing and touching
the corked spots because of the history connected to it.
A couple of deer that live in the area. The soldiers that guard the
area feed them. There were others close by too. These were definitely
the first deer I've seen in the country outside of the zoo.
I returned home after the hiking and had a bit of a nap.
I puttered about my place for a while, and watched some
TV (loving my cable!) before heading out to find food.
I didn't get really far though, because there was a big
crowd at the Seongbukdong Gallery that's just a minute
away from my place. The artists sell works including
pottery and ceramics. I stopped in and looked around,
and I asked to see some bowls since I only had one in
my apartment. I was introduced to a massively cute artist
(check out her webpage!), who showed me around at the
things that were for sale. She showed me all the bowls
they had, including some she made which were massively
cute as well. They reminded me of some little cereal bowls
we used to have when I was a kid. I wasn't really interested
in them though, because I saw a really nice plain bowl. I
couldn't help but buy one of the teacups she made though,
because it was so cute! It has a teabag painted on the inside,
with a cord leading out of the cup to a tag on the outside with
her nickname on it. I also met a cute little dog that someone
brought to the gallery, whose name means "bean dog" in
Korean, because he was so tiny.
The outside of the teacup described above.
The inside of the teacup. So cute.
The bowl I bought, it's a nice plain green and brown. I'm glad to
have doubled the bowl count of my place.
So I brought the dishes back to my apartment, and then headed back
out to find food. I went down to Hyehwa, and wandered through some
of the smaller streets. I found a little (and I mean really little, like 5
tables and a mini-kitchen little) place called 88 Deokbokki. I ordered
sundae bokeum, which is blood sausage fried with veggies, noodles
and liver. It was pretty good, though not something I'd eat often.
After supper, I wandered the area for a while in the hopes of finding
a quiet coffe shop. I was dismayed but not overly surprised that
almost all the shops I passed were filled with people. I decided to
head home instead of having coffee, but then I passed this place. It's
called Sally Salon I believe. It is quite a bit off the beaten path, but I
pass it a lot because it's on my way back from Hyehwa. I decided
to stop in and I was glad I did. It is a really nice little place, and they
make a good cappuccino. I got free raisin and nut bread that was pretty
good along with it too. The woman was super friendly. I sat and drank
and read for a while. It was a nice end to a good day.
So that was my Saturday. I returned home after all that and I've spent the rest of my evening fixing Gowalla name spots (when you make a spot while out in the field with korean letters, they seem to consistently mess up, moving final consonants into their own syllable blocks in a way that is illegal and nonsensical in the language) and blogging. I hope you all enjoy/enjoyed your Saturday as much as I did!
Bye for now!
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