5.5.-11.5.2023
The weather forecast for Busan (and the whole of South Korea) predicted heavy rains, so we expected some kind of flooding would hit the streets in the morning. But there was not a drop of rain in the morning. We walked the short distance to Busan train station, and hopped on a Korean bullet train. This KTX bullet train covered the 417km distance in just under three hours. We had thought we would see some scenery out of the train window, but as South Korea is apparently a very mountainous country, we spent a big part of the journey in various tunnels. The first and longest tunnel was right after we left Busan. It was 20km long.
When we arrived at Seoul station, it had started to rain. Fortunately, we were able to get directly on the subway from the station. After changing lines once, we were at Jungnang station. Even though it was only maybe half a kilometre from the station to our hotel, we all got really wet on the way. Since it was already dinner time, we braved the rain one more time and went to the Pizza Hut across the road for dinner. For some reason the place only had takeaway, so we ran quickly back to the hotel carrying our pizzas.
The next morning it was still raining. We were supposed to change to another hotel, as Lacozi Stay, where we had stayed this one night, was not only obscenely expensive, but also a bit too far from the city centre and all the sights. We had to stay at Lacozi for one night, as we had arrived in Seoul at the end of their holiday week, and all the places were completely booked out. For the next day onwards, we found a slightly more affordable hotel right in the centre.
Around 2pm we threw our backpacks on our backs again, and took the metro to the City Hall stop, near where our Stay Classic hotel was located. Once we got up on the street, we saw a large number of police officers. Apparently there was a demonstration in the area and that’s why there were police officers in yellow raincoats standing everywhere, side by side.
We never found out what the demonstration was about. Nor did we ever see a large crowd of demonstrators. We saw one small group of people marching, and in another place a man on a podium talking. There seemed to be more police than demonstrators. Some of the police were just standing around watching people walk by, but many had video cameras with them. Apparently they were videoing everyone who was involved in the demonstration in some way.
After we got our things back to the hotel room, we went to search for something to eat. This turned out to be surprisingly difficult, even though we were right in the city centre. We had a quick visit to Namdaemun Market, where they sold all sorts of necessary and unnecessary goods. We had imagined that there would be restaurants too, but there were no actual restaurants in the area. Just small stalls. So we walked back to the direction of our hotel, and ended up eating at a small Korean restaurant. This time everyone got a portion they liked.
In the evening the children had their Saturday sweets and celebrated the fact that they had now finished all their schoolwork for the spring term. Ronja, however, said that she would like to do a few extra things the following week, even though her teacher in Finland did not ask her to do them. Both children will move on to the next grade in the autumn. We have received this in black and white in the form of an email. The children will receive their certificates later when they return to Finland. So we just started our summer holidays, YES!
On Sunday, we set off to walk towards Gyeonbok Palace. It is the largest of Seoul’s five palaces. However, we didn’t even make it to the palace before we spotted an event for children in front of Seoul Public Library. There were various tracks, craft stations, books to read (in Korean, of course), a performance stage, and small ball pits and bouncy castles for the little ones in front of the library. We stayed there for a while, and then moved on.
Again, we didn’t get many hundred metres further before we arrived at the next event. Sunday was the last day of the Seoul Cultural Event, and this was a part of the festival. The kids went to get a Seoul Fest tattoo (the kind that washes off), and the whole gang posed for a photo with a giant Bellygom teddy bear. (It is a character from some YouTube channel, which is apparently popular here in South Korea.) We then stopped at a stall where Jaana and the children were given Korean names. Marko didn’t want to join in the fun.
It wasn’t a quick naming process at all. We sat down in front of a man who studied our facial features very carefully. As for the children, he said that he didn’t like to read their faces yet, as facial features change with age. Nevertheless, he eventually interpreted the children’s facial features and gave them Korean names too. Jaana was named Lee Kyoung Jin, which means someone who is surrounded by others and leads the troops forward. (Well, that’s what teachers do.) Ronja’s name Lee Ji Su means intelligent. Risto was named Lee In ho, which means kind. (It’s kind of funny, though, since the word “inho” means disgust in English.) We sat with the man for a good while, and he told us about our personalities based on our facial features. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not, but the guy could tell a lot of things about us that were accurate. Of course, with the kids, some of it was more of a prediction, so we’ll see in the future if he was right or not.
Ronja will get married young, get a job for which she will have to study for a long time, and as an adult she will spend a lot of money on her parents. Risto, on the other hand, will marry at older age, will work in a more practical field, perhaps in engineering. The man added, laughing, that Risto will not spend a penny of his money on his parents, but will make a clear distinction between his and his parents money. Both children are doing well, according to the man. Ronja would only have to pay attention to her eating. He said that the children have good friends, but that Risto should be careful of some who might treat him badly in the future. With her friends Ronja is the “leader” of the group, the one who suggests things to do, while Risto is the one who goes along with the others.
After all this face-reading and naming was over, a local TV channel came to do an interview with us. We were asked how did we like Seoul and what things we were interested in here. We were also asked to say our Korean names out loud. We could do that, but then they asked us to say “I love Seoul” in Korean and put our hands above our heads forming a heart. We had to ask them quite a few times to repeat “I love Seoul” back to us in Korean before we could say it correctly. Korean is a pretty tricky language! It would be fun to know what kind of story it turned out to be in the end.
We finally got as far as the palace, and we got there at just the right time, because after only twenty minutes of waiting, a changing of the guard began at the palace gates. After seeing the changing of the guards we decided to return to the palace again the next day, as it was getting so late that it was time for dinner. We found a nice pasta restaurant nearby, where we ended up eating. After dinner, we returned to the hotel. On the way back we saw lots of police officers that had been harnessed to guard the children’s event in front of the library. Apparently they take security very seriously here. But more likely the reason for many police officers around the city is that the Prime minister of Japan is visiting the president of South Korea today.
On Monday we went again to Gyeonbok Palace. But first we went to a costume rental shop near the palace to rent the local national costumes, hanbok, for all of us. In the past, Koreans used to wear these outfits just for everyday life, but nowadays hanboks are mainly worn on special occasions. There were many costume rental shops next to the palace. The price range was quite wide. At the first one, Risto’s outfit alone would have cost 45 000won/hour, but at the next one, the whole outfit including women’s bags, men’s hats, Risto’s sword and Ronja’s hairdo cost only 80 000won/hour for all four of us.
Once we were dressed up in our best, we headed to the palace to take photos. We weren’t the only ones in the palace courtyard, but there were considerably less people there compared to the day before anyway. We walked around the palace grounds and took lots of pictures. Since we were dressed in hanbok, we got in for free. So it was pure savings to rent them!
After returning the hanboks, we went for lunch in what must have been the smallest restaurant we’ve ever eaten in. At first we thought that there were no proper tables at all, but on the second floor there were four narrow tables for four people each, closely packed together. At first we were the only customers there, but by the end of our meal the place was full. Well, on the other hand, it doesn’t take that many customers to fill the place.
In the afternoon, Jaana and the kids went shopping in the shopping street on the other side of the hotel. There would have been a lot of necessary and unnecessary stuff for sale, but we bought only some clothes and craft supplies for the kids. Everything in the market was very cheap, Ronja’s trousers for example cost only 5000won (about 4€).
On Tuesday we visited Seoul Tower, a 236m high communication and observation tower. It was located right next to our hotel at the top of Nam Mountain. You could have gotten there by car, but we walked to the funicular’s lower station first, and went up the hill to the gondola station. The funicular was free, but we paid 49 000won (€35) for the gondola lift. The lift took us to the top of the mountain, where we could buy our next tickets for the tower itself. These tickets cost 56 000won (40€). There was a bit of a price to pay for this scenic view, but it was worth it.
There happened to be a show in front of the tower, presenting ancient Korean weapons and techniques used in wars. Risto in particular was very interested in all the swords and spears. Before the show started, we saw the men practicing cutting thick bamboo sticks with their swords. Risto went to ask if he could have one of the cut pieces for himself. At first the answer was “no”, because apparently the man Risto asked didn’t speak English. When Risto returned to his seat in the grandstand, the other men started waving to Risto to come back. Risto went back and got a piece of cut bamboo for himself. The show also included a section where volunteers from the audience were asked to try out the long spear. The aim was to pierce, or at least succeed in knocking down, a bamboo stick attached to a scaffold. The spear was very heavy, so although Risto was keen to volunteer, he was not selected. Only one older man managed to pierce the bamboo with the spear. Another guy managed to knock it down, but the rest of them missed all their attempts. When the adults returned to their seats, one of the performers waved Risto on stage. He placed the spear on the bamboo, and Risto got to try out how heavy the spear really was. After that, we had one very happy little man.
When we returned from the tower back to the hotel, we went grocery shopping at a nearby department store. The upper floors of the department store were out of the question, as only luxury brands are sold there from Patek Philippe watches to Louis Vuitton. The food section in the basement is the equivalent of Stocka’s Herkku, but of a much more upmarket variety. This is the first grocery store since New Zealand from which we have found real cheese or proper ham slices. Being a quality conscious grocery store, they also sold Fazer products. We didn’t buy them, though, as they cost twice as much as in Finland. We don’t miss Fazer chocolate quite so much yet.
Risto in particular is missing sauna, though. We happened to find one near our hotel, but after a closer look, we realized that it was not the equivalent of a Finnish sauna. At least the pictures show that there are “beds” with towels and pillows spread out in the room, apparently to be used for lounging in a warm room. Jaana and Marko have been in this type of “sauna” once in a Japanese spa in Oslo. It’s nice, but we’ll wait for a proper Sauna experience.
We decided to spend our last full day in Seoul “Gagnam Style”, so we took the subway to Gagnam station to see what life is like in one of South Korea’s richest neighbourhoods. When we arrived, there was a musical performance going on at the station. This time it wasn’t K-pop, even though we were in Gagnam. Two of the women were apparently playing gayageum, a Korean traditional instrument that resembled a Finnish zither, but could be played with a bow. The third woman may have had an instrument called a haegum, which is a violin-like instrument, but only with two strings.
We started walking down one of the streets, which we assumed based on its size, to be one of the main streets in the area. Along it there were a lot of different beauty and cosmetics shops. Of course, there were also clothes shops and restaurants. For lunch we had a really delicious burger and fries from a fast food place called Shake Shack. We didn’t know it was a fast food restaurant when we walked in. Luckily we didn’t turn away as the food was really good quality and tasty! Risto was particularly pleased that there was also a special menu item for dogs. We had to check this with the cashier, as at first we thought it was some kind of joke. But no. This place will feed both dogs and their owners for a reasonable price.
After lunch, we first walked to Gagnam Square. There was a stage where you could do the Gagnam Style moves and take photos, without music unfortunately. We took a few photos there, and continued three stops on the metro to Samseong station. Next to it was a huge shopping mall, the Starfield COEX Mall. If you can’t find what you are looking for at this mall, you can’t find it anywhere. The whole area is one block in size and houses a library, cinema, aquarium and exhibition centre. We didn’t do much shopping, however, but just browsed and wandered around the area.
After the retail therapy at the shopping centre, we crossed the road to a more spiritual atmosphere, as we decided to take a peek at the nearby Bongeunsa Buddhist temple. We have visited quite a few temples and shrines during this trip already, but this one was still interesting. In one of the buildings on the temple grounds there was some kind of a lesson going on. There were two monks sitting and reciting some kind of text and a crowd of people had gathered in front of them, listening obediently to the recitation with open books in their hands. Jaana managed to video the monks’ recitation for a little while before we were told that it was not appropriate.
As we left the temple and headed back towards the metro station, we went to the back of the mall, where there was a “Gagnam Style” statue in honour of South Korean rap artist PSY. This time there was also music available, so Risto and especially Ronja took great pleasure in dancing to “Gagnam Style” while passers-by watched them.
On our way back to our hotel rush hour was apparently about to start, as we had to stand practically the whole metro journey. Kids also gave their seats to the elderly people. However, giving your seat to an old person isn’t as easy as it might seem. There was always a bit of an argument because the old folks always insisted that the children should be allowed to sit. One old man even pulled Risto by the arm and tried to force him to sit down again, but Risto, being the stronger one, won this arm wrestle and the grandpa ended up on the bench.