One of our favorite things about Seoul is that it has a dozen or so very large parks right in the city. Nearly all of these parks are within a 5-10 minute walk from a subway line exit and they cost $0 to get into. Once you’re at the park, you can simply follow one of several walking paths that wind through the trees and hills and escape the city noise. These large parks can take anywhere from 1-2.5 hours to explore and stroll through. There are always beautiful sculptures to see, places to enjoy views of the city, and places to sit and have a picnic lunch. In mid-March (2018), we found our way to one of the largest park areas in Seoul. There are 3 parks all connected together: World Cup Park, Haneul Park, and Noeul Park. World Cup park was built back in the late 1980’s when Korea hosted the world cup soccer tournament. To get there, just take line 8 (brown line) to World Cup Stadium stop and go out exit 1. The park is on the south side of the stadium. There is large man-made pond to walk around and you’ll probably see kids on skate boards and scooters playing. You’ll also probably see people flying kites and driving RC cars. Haneul Park is built on top of an old landfill, so you can get amazing city views once you’ve climbing the almost 300 step zig-zag stairs to get up the hill. This park shows Korea’s ingenuity for modern urban living and reuse of space. Once on top, the walking paths criss-cross making large diamond shapes areas where Eulalia grass (silver grass) grows. During the winter the grass stalks have been chopped pretty low and are golden wheat color. We’ll be going back here in the late-spring to capture some pictures of the fully growth grass. There is a large sculpture of a wooden bowl that you can walk around inside and stand on top of to see the whole park from above. You can meander along the criss-cross trails from one end to the other or walk the 2-3km perimeter trail. Either way, you’ll find the calming quiet and slow Seoul breezes wisp away your stress. Noeul Park is next too Haneul park and they are separated by some sort of trash recycling, eco-cleansing facility. Neoul Park was once just an unused chunk of land since it was located next to the once land-fill chunk of land. Now, both chunks of land are beautiful public parks. Noeul park is bit more diverse than Haneul park. Noeul Park has a small wet-lands area that has a large fire-fly viewing deck, many large open grass areas for playing and lounging, and more specific walking path network of trails. It has an outer perimeter loop and an inner loop that winds and twists around the grass areas and wet-lands area. This park was mostly golden wheat color during the winter and we will be going back in the spring to see the fire-flies and trees in bloom. We ended this wonderful relaxing day by watching our first Korean Soccer League match. It was between Seoul and Gwangju. We had no prior plans to attend the game when set out for the morning. When we first arrived to the World Stadium stop earlier that morning, we came up out of the subway and were walking close to the soccer stadium. We saw may large banners promoting the Seoul team and heard loud music playing from inside the stadium. It only took us about 10 minutes to find the Korean Soccer League schedule online and find out that the match started at 4pm that afternoon. So, after walking the parks, our picnic lunch, and many tripod selfies, we made our way to the stadium. We got 10th row, mid-field seats for $20 each. It was just a great price for the quality of the seats. We were so close, we could smell the fresh cut grass. There easily over 30,000 people at the match, which according to most local people and blog site, is not a very big turnout. Apparently, the Korean Baseball League games attract many more fans. We were rooting for Seoul since they were the home team, but they ended up loosing 3-1. Still, being able to watch 4 goals in 1 game was a treat on its own, regardless if Seoul lost. After the game, we took the trains back home and had a pleasant Sunday evening to ourselves. The next weekend we ended up going rock climbing with a guy we met in Pyeongtaek. This guy (Mark, whose wife is in the US military) had seen us at a food court and Casey happened to be wearing a climbing shirt. He came over and asked if we actually climbed. When we told him we did, we exchanged information and before we knew it, we were out on the crags with him. We ended climbing at a place called Jobisan and it was pure awesomeness. There are at least 30 - 40 routes and everything is really well marked. We climbed Jobisan twice with Mark, and enjoyed every second of it! Mark and his family will be moving to Hawaii in April, so we won’t be able to climb with Mark anymore L, but we do wish him, his wife, and his two kids the best in Hawaii! This week's song will be by Red Velvet. This group is actually heading to Pyongyang, North Korea to perform (I believe the weekend of March 31, April 1) so you should probably know who they are. It's been thirteen years since a South Korean band has performed in Pyongyang. Here is an article that can give you a little more details. Here are three of their songs. The first song is called Red Flavor and is their most "poppy " song of the three. Their next song is called Russian Roulette. The last song is called Bad Boy and is their newest and probably most catchy song for most people. Enjoy!
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