We often find ourselves in Seoul on the weekends and this time we ended up in an unexpected place. We have been watching a series on Netflix, called Korea From Above (most of the footage is shot from a drone) and it is about places to go in Korea. It said a pleasant and beautiful place to visit is the Seoul National Cemetery. We were skeptical at first but we decided to give it a try and we are sure glad we did! We took the Seoul Subway 9 to Dongjak Station and took exit four, which brought us straight to the entrance of the National Cemetery. The cemetery is huge and absolutely stunning. The cemetery itself started out as a military cemetery but in 1965 it was decided the status of the cemetery would be elevated and it became a national cemetery. It currently has laid to rest 165,000 people. Just that figure in itself speaks to how large this cemetery is. We started out at the Memorial Tower, which houses the memorial tablets. These tablets name 104,000 people who died during the Korean War. The entire Memorial Hall had flowers laid throughout it and was quite astounding to take in. We weaved through the rest of the cemetery and found out the cemetery was laid out in plots. One section was dedicated to the military, another to civilians, another to public service members etc. The cemetery is also a little above Seoul so the view into Seoul is very pretty on a clear day. There were also a handful of statues throughout the park. We made sure to check them all out. We were not disappointed to say the least. There was also a really neat temple in the park that was lined with a wall of Buddhas. There really wasn't much information we could get on the temple. Earlier in the day, we visited an interesting island in Seoul. The island we visited was named Seonyudo Park. Seonyudo Park was actually the first ecological water park in Korea and it was repurposed from on old water treatment plant. There is a long pedestrian bridge connecting Seonyudo Park to the Yanghwa Area in Seoul, so it is really easy to get to. We ended up getting off at Seonyudo Station and taking Exit 2. The botanical gardens hadn’t bloomed yet, but it was still a relaxing spot to walk around and eat our picnic lunch. The following weekend we ended up on the outskirts of a city called Yongin. It is a city just north of Cheonan. There was a temple we wanted to check out which ended up being gorgeous. The temple was a Buddhist temple. The name is impossible to pronounce, but all the same, we will supply it so you can look it up yourself on a future trip to Korea ;). The temple is called Wawoojeongsa Temple and is the neatest temple we have seen in Korea (and possibly the neatest temple we have seen from our other travels as well). There are so many interesting things going on at this temple, but here are the highlights we noted from our trip. First off, there are over 3,000 Buddhas located within the temple. Next, the world’s largest wooden Buddha statue is located here (who would have known?). Also, there is a Unification Pagoda, which is a pagoda built from stones brought by visitors from holy sites from around the world. One of the coolest things we saw at this temple was essentially a small arena filled with Buddha statues. It was breathtaking. Every single Buddha carving was different. And to add more to this, each carving was made out of a single rock. One half of the rock was completely carved, while the other half still resembled the outside of the stone. Mind blown! There were so many other pagodas and statues to see, it’s hard to mention them all, but it was so worth the trip to go out there. We ended the day at the Samsung Transportation Museum in Yongin. So, you would think if you were going to a museum, it would be on a main street for all to see. Nope, not the case in Korea. We literally walked through farmland to find this museum. A few months ago, I would have been convinced we were going the wrong way, but now it seems normal to go to things in the most random, obscure locations. Anyway, this museum was pretty awesome, especially if you are into old cars. There were cars from everywhere but it was interesting to see the way the automobile was shaped in Korea. The museum had everything from old Korean cars; Old classic cars; Old motorcycles; and cars that we thought were cool. We ended the weekend with a nice hike up Taehwa (again) and we can finally see signs that spring is coming (AKA there are green trees). YIPPEE! Another weekend we ended up in a city named Ansan, specifically an Island called Daebudo. It’s closer to Incheon (which is where the major airport for Korea is located). The Island has an easy 74 kilometer hiking trial around it. The 74 kilometer course is divided into seven segments, so you can pick certain segments to do during different times. When we first arrived in Daebudo, the tide was out so we could see the mud flats. There were quite a few people out clamming. I had never seen anything like it. On our walk around the island we stumbled onto a park (and we love parks) so we decided to detour a little to walk through it. We stumbled upon a man who was renting scooters to ride around the park. It was pretty freaking awesome to tell you the truth. We had a blast scooting around the park and taking pictures. I have to say, we looked pretty cool riding around on our British decaled decorated scooter. The final segment of the trail took us to the Gubongdo Sunset Observatory. This observatory is a popular place to take pictures during sunset. There is a cool sculpture and the view of the Yellow Sea is gorgeous. On our way back to Cheonan we stopped by the Ansan Multicultural Street. This area is a cool spot in Ansan that has little local ethnic restaurants from around the world. We weren’t that hungry, but we still walked through it to check it out.
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