I started my day meeting up with the Seoulmate team for a bike tour of Haneul Park! The Seoulmates are a group of university students who run free tours for foreigners -just like that, out of the goodness of their own hearts, no catch. I've been to the War Memorial and Bukchon Hanok village with them. And next weekend I'll be going to see the Shrine in Hongdae with Seoulmate!
There were about 8 foreigners and 8 guides. I actually thought I would be late, but almost everyone was, so that makes me kind of early. Everyone was really keen to get on our bikes and ride. Usually they make the bike part optional but for us we did a little extra biking.
We took the bikes from an office building that lets their staff use the bikes for free, but since the staff don't work on weekends they have given Seoulmate the means to use them! There were 20 relatively new orange cruiser bikes all lined up for us.
Biking down the sidewalk was its own adventure, but the foreigners got the hang of it quickly. We weaved through huge crowds of people who flooded the streets for a big festival in the park. Our first stop was these beautiful flower fields that one of our guides had discovered her second time doing the tour where she had gone the wrong way.
After stopping for a few pictures we headed over to the central location of the park and the garden festival that was going on. This is the main stage were you could listen to country renditions of country-folk music underneath a cotton candy tent.
From here we climbed 291 stairs to the top. Haneul park went from landfill to symbolic park in 1993. It literally was a pile of garbage that was stabilized, covered with soil and plants, landscaped and completely beautified. The gas from the garbage underneath, along with wind power from turbines on the top of the 'mountain' help to power the park and the world cup stadium you can see here.
We ventured around the top of the mountain which is covered with these beautiful reeds of cat whiskers and cute photo spots. At the other side there is a lookout over the Han River where a big stage is visible for more celebrations! Seoul loves to party on weekends, there seems to always be something on, and this weekend it was a free concert and fireworks show.
After we returned to lower section of the park we set up for a picnic. To make a great day even better we had my favourite: Korean fried chicken! An amazing experience.
Finally we returned the bikes and went to part ways. I had to fill up my transit card so I said goodbye while the others wondered to their stations.
I'm so lucky I accidentally wound up at the same platform. A group of the foreigners were coordinating going to see the fireworks and invited me to join. I had to accept, you just can't pass up spontaneous adventures while abroad.
So we rode a couple different trains and it spat us out pretty far from the Han River by a large multistory seafood market. Some friends of the foreigners joined up with us including a Korean who informed us that we could see the fireworks from the second floor parking lot!
Of course when we got there we found many other people had this same idea.
The parameter of the parking lot had an evelated grass garden with a few trees. In anticipation of the event the security guards had fenced on the garden, thinking of course that someone might fall over the edge if it gets to crowded. Seeing the warning tape guarding a spot that could easily fit us all, we decided to play dumb tourists until the security guard came to kick us out.
The Koreans picnicking next to us (in a spot technically outside of the warning tape) told us leave that spot. BUT, take it back when the fireworks start because the security guard won't be back, and if he is he won't care. Then this group of middle-aged Korean business folk started to offer us some 막걸리, or makkoli, a fermented rice liquor. One of the foreigners, who speaks Korean and has lived here for 8 months, looks at me and says "You can't refuse!" with a smile on her face. It would be very rude to decline, but also pretty foolish. They were so kind to us throughout the whole fireworks show. They gave us things to sit on because the grass was sharp and dry, they gave us seaweed snacks, dried fish, mandarin oranges, tomatoes (that must have been home grown), puffed rice, and fresh grapes -and a lot of makkoli.
The fireworks show was three parts, Japan, Spain, and South Korea. I had never seen anything like it. Perhaps Brisbane's River Fire had more fireworks, but these were seriously good quality! My videos do no do it justice, but perhaps you can hear the excitement from the crowd -and me over a Korean version of Pocahontas' Paint With All The Colours Of The Wind.
After the fireworks finished up our random international band of young folk did what all random international bands of young folk do: go to a bar. We actually had been trying to find a specific bar, but finding that it had turned into a Chinese restaurant we opted for the one next door. At first it didn't look like it would fit all eight of us, but then we went to the cheerful cozy downstairs area where there was a circular table to fit all of us.
We ate some spicy seafood soup, a sweet omelette, and some dried seafood -all incredible. A real cultural experience was learning the format for Korean drinking games! There's a little song that indicates who will select the next game, then each game is played like a mini game. If there are two losers they must drink together. Cheers is a level one. If you should be paired up to drink again you must link arms to take the shot -level two. The levels get progressively more intimate. I've learned at least 6 of these little mini games, and they are far too weird to try and explain over a blog, so we'll just have to try in person!
My night concluded catching the second to last possible train back home! What I night! Because I came in after midnight, this blog post is late, but I had to do justice to a fantastic day!
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