march/april 2023

n seoul tower on namsan mountain is the iconic building of seoul. even in my previous post on some of the more historic sites we visited, it’s often visible due to its height. there is the option to hike up or down the mountain, as well as take the cable car. seoul is already very hilly, so we opted to take the cable car up, but walk back down.

it’s one of those places where people (and lovers) like to leave locks (or cell phone cases?! we saw a ton of those). they are everywhere and stacked high. they even have lock vending machines. we didn’t leave our own, but we did go up into the tower so we could get 360 views of the cities to help orient us. it was very cool to see even though it was an overcast day.

of course we also had to stop by the zaha hadid designed dongdaemun design plaza (or DDP). we didn’t go inside to check out any of the stores or exhibits, but simply walked the grounds. it’s so large and sculptural that photos really can’t do it justice, but a fun contrast to the boxy high-rises that surround it.

walking around central seoul was full of contrasts. from the very business-y with manicured parks, to winding streets and tiny alleyways with spiderwebbing powerlines everywhere, to cheonggyecheon stream which runs through the city and is also a park and walking path.

two areas that were quite lively and fun to walk around were hongdae (a university area) and itaewon (an international/expat-y area). they seemed to have a pretty high concentration of pubs and bars, and were the only parts of the city where we saw any sort of street art.

on our last day in seoul, it was cold and wet. technically, this was our last day in south korea after we had made our rounds to a few other cities. since it was too wet to do much exploring, we stopped by coex mall to see the instagram-famous starfield library and do a little shopping.

and of course, i simply had to go to a korean baseball game! jamsil baseball stadium is in the same sports complex as the olympic stadium that was built for the 1988 summer olympic games. we attended a doosan bears game against the nc dinos.

in addition to it being cold and rainy, it was also early in the season, so the stadium never really filled up, and i got too cold to even stay for the whole thing, but it was fun to see some of the entertainment and fandom and how it compared to japanese baseball.