Back to Seoul . . . Happy Birthday Scot!
July 25th-31st, 2023
We arrived back to Seoul just in time to celebrate Scot's birthday on July 26th. He wanted to eat Mexican food and watch the Barbie movie in Korea. Not an easy feat. My cousin, Jong Yoon wasn't sure about the Mexican food, but I told him that I'm a great finder. I found an "Authentic" Mexican restaurant called "TheMan Taco," which was pretty good! A little Korea-fied but did the trick for Scot. Seoul has plenty of movie theaters, so we found a place to watch Barbie close to our Airbnb - no problem. . . . It's a Barbie world!
This time around in Seoul was a little more relaxed and slow, which was nice. We met with some relatives again and even did some rock climbing! My cousin, Jong Yoo and his wife, Soo Hee are into rock climbing and they were able to get us some gear and show us the ropes, literally! I was surprised at how well all of the kids did! They were able to climb all the way up several times! We visited a climbing wall in a public park by the Han River in Seoul. The river is lined with parks that have areas for walking and biking, exercise circuits, tennis and pickleball and rock climbing walls! It's all free to the public. Even though it was pretty hot and muggy that day, we took turns climbing for 2 hours. By the end of it we were exhausted!
After the climbing, we went to my grandmother's grave with my aunt and cousins. She is buried in a Paju cemetary, which is close to the DMZ. My other relatives on my mom's side of the family are also buried there. What was interesting is that the tombstones in Korea list the names of all the children and grandchildren, so my name was on my grandmother's tombstone! It was kind of cool. . . I miss my grandmother and I felt happy that my name was on her tombstone - can't explain why exactly. I guess it made me feel closer to her in some way.
While hanging in Seoul, we took a trip to the Gangnam district, which was made famous by PSY's "Gangnam Style" song. Gangnam is a neighborhood in Seoul that used to be really hip and trendy. Some native Koreans told me that it's not that trendy any more and other parts of the city have become the new "it" spot. We decided to go anyway. There is a huge mall called COEX Mall in Gangnam, so we went there. In the back of the mall, there is a statue that pays homage to PSY, a big golden statue of his horse dance hands and a kiosk that plays the video of his song over and over and over again and again and again! Of course we got pictures in front of the hands as well as a photo in front of the Trade Tower, that was also in the video. That was really the highlight of visiting Gangnam .
Sunday, July 30th, was our last full day in Korea, so we decided to rent a car and drive to Nami Sum (Island). It's a small island in the middle of a river called Bok Han River (North Han River). It's well known for its locale in many Korean dramas, the most famous being "Winter Sonata." The island has many paths lined with trees and flowers and has random statues and art. After ziplining to the island (about 1km in length), we rented bikes and went all around the whole island in under an hour. An interesting fact is that the island is a self declared micronation called Naminara Republic. It even has its own currency! It's a very sweet island for families and couples to visit. Even in one pamphlet I read that the Island's "main export is imagination and fairy tales." Too cute.
