This past week and weekend have been filled with a bunch of activities. Last week was the week of Akaraka, a big school festival in Yonsei University. Tents were set up on Wednesday and Thursday night and there was a concert with famous artists like Psy and Exo on Friday night. I headed to the tents, which were set up on the university's soccer field, on Thursday night after my KLI class. I went with my friend from class, Nika, and then met up with Marisa and Lea. The field was filled with a ton of tents selling food and drinks; some were run by student clubs and some were run by private vendors. I ended up eating tteobokki, sausage, potatoes, and Kahlua ice cream, and I ordered a passion fruit mojito all from various tents. We walked around the tents and listened and watched the various performances that were going on.
The tents at Akaraka.
Friday was interesting because only 3 people showed up to my KLI class, including me, because the rest were at the Akaraka festival even though the concert didn't start until 6. A lot of people showed up as early as 3 just to get seats. I didn't buy a ticket to the concert and was originally not going to go because I already went to Yeongojeon last semester, but people told me Psy was coming. After a friend confirmed it, I figured after class I'll head to the concert to check it out. I remember seeing that the amphitheater that held the concert had a hill in the back that if you stood on it, you could still see in the back. So I headed to the hill after class and I ended up getting a pretty darn good view for not having to pay for a ticket or wait in the stadium for hours just to get a decent seat. Psy didn't come out until 7, and after several songs I didn't know, he performed Gangnam Style! It was so neat seeing the one K-pop artist I know and care about perform such a famous song live. I left after Psy stopped performing and headed back to my place to get some rest before a busy weekend.
Psy at the Akaraka concert.
Lea and I were originally going to travel to the south this weekend, but after looking at the transportation information, we saw that we would be in the bus or train more than the actual location. The websites for the bus information also kept telling us different things and had missing information, so we decided to scrap that trip idea and go on day trips from Seoul instead. On Saturday we took a 1.5 hour subway ride and 20 minute bus ride to the Garden of Morning Calm in Cheongpyeong. The garden was created by a Korean professor and is the oldest private garden in Korea. It took us 2 hours to walk through the huge garden, which was nestled in between mountains. We saw a plethora of beautiful flowers, trees, and walkways.
The Garden of Morning Calm nestled in a valley.
Bonsai trees.
The weirdest flower I've ever seen.
A pond and pagoda in the garden.
We then took the bus back to Cheongpyeong to grab some lunch before going back on the subway towards Seoul. Before heading to the garden earlier, we stopped in a nearby 7-11 to grab some snacks and a bag of the famous honey butter chips caught my eye. These chips are a HUGE fad here, so much so that I haven't been able to find a single bag of chips in Seoul because they're always sold out. Instead, I've only been able to find a bunch of knock-off brands that are a result of the fad. We decided to wait until we came back from the garden to buy the chips so we didn't have to drag them around with us. After eating lunch, we stopped by the 7-11 again to buy the chips and when we made our way to the subway station, I finally had the opportunity to taste the chips for myself. They were pretty good and tasted exactly what I thought they would taste like. The sweetness threw me off only because whenever I eat chips they usually aren't sweet, so I could only eat a couple. I'm glad I was finally able to partake in this crazy Korean obsession over these chips.
We found the elusive honey butter chips!
We made our way to Seoul to head to the Seoul Lantern Festival that was held that Saturday and Sunday to celebrate the upcoming Buddha's Birthday holiday. We first got off at Gwanghwamun to head toward the Cheonggyecheon to see the lanterns. The lanterns took on all shapes and sizes, from standing ones of kings and dragons to spherical hanging ones. After walking down the stream, we walked towards Insadong to visit the Jogyesa temple. The temple was filled with a TON of lanterns and we even got one for free!
Lanterns at the Jogyesa temple.
More lanterns.
A lantern given to Lea and I. It's the year of the sheep hence the sheep on the lantern.
We then headed back to the main road to get a good spot to watch the parade. The parade started at 7 and went until 9:30, but we only stayed until 8 because by then we were exhausted from the day. The parade was massive and just kept going on and on with a huge number of participants. There were people dressed in traditional Korean clothes holding lanterns, people playing instruments, monks from the many temples in Seoul, and huge lanterns that were pulled by a group of people. After the parade, we visited the stream again to see the lanterns at night, grabbed dinner, and went back to our apartments to get some rest for another long day tomorrow.
Parade participants.
Lanterns in the parade.
My favorite lantern: a cute dragon.
Lanterns in the Cheonggyecheon.
On Sunday morning we caught a bus from Hapjeong station and took a 40-minute ride to the Heyri Art Village in Paju, an area right by the DMZ. Heyri was created by a group of artists and consists of a ton of museums, residences, art galleries, restaurants, sculptures, and cafes. Each building is unique in its architecture, which made it very different from the normally boring buildings in Seoul. This was probably the most different and unique day trip I've taken. The village hasn't been well kept so it has sort of an abandoned feeling to it, and you can just spend the whole day exploring and discovering cool buildings and art. The village was also quite large; we were there from 11 to 4 and we still didn't even walk all the roads. The buildings were also very spaced out and it was very quiet in comparison to Seoul, so it gave me a sense of being back in Michigan.
A taste of the cool architecture in the Heyri Art Village.
Another building.
Art like this was found throughout the village.
We happened to go to the village on the day of a festival, so while we were one of the only people walking around the village on arrival, as the day progressed, more and more people showed up. People were selling and making art at various tents in the festival and there were also musical performances.
Tents in the festival.
Sitting on top of a giant chair, one of the pieces of art found throughout the village.
The coffee museum!
Grinders from around the world.
Coffee trees.
We ended our trip in the Museum of Modern Korean History. Similar to the Coffee Museum, I was also very impressed with the museum. The museum focused on life in Korea from the 1960s to 1980s and included a ton of items and relics from that era. The museum was also laid out into a street/town format, so you could see what the buildings looked like and what the inside of those buildings looked like. The museum was very well planned and crafted. I could've gone in there multiple times and still discovered new things to look at. For history buffs like me, it was a perfect end to a perfect weekend of trips.
Inside the Museum of Modern Korean History.
One of the displays in the museum.
I took a ton more photos of the village and posted them on my Facebook, so I recommend checking out my profile because the ones I posted here only give a taste of what it's like. When we got back to Seoul, Lea and I grabbed our passports in our apartments and met with Marisa to head to Seoul Station to buy our KTX train tickets to Busan. I want to explain the process of buying HappyRail passes in case someone reading this blog finds out they are in the same boat.
HappyRail passes allow foreigners who have been in Korea for more than 6 months to buy discounted train tickets. When you use your pass, you can take an unlimited number of train rides within the duration of the pass. For us, we want to travel to Busan for the weekend so we purchased a two-day pass for around 76,000 won, and since we bought our train tickets so early, we also got seats. To go to Busan and back from Seoul on a seat on the KTX, the cost is around 120,000. So we saved 44,000 won!
Here's what we did. We arrived at Seoul Station and went to the information counter to ask what to do. The lady said we must reserve our HappyRail passes online, print the e-ticket, and then bring the e-ticket, our passports, and the credit card we used to purchase the tickets to her so she could issue our passes. She said that two floors down there was an office that we could use the computers and printers. So we headed there, made our reservations, and printed out the e-tickets. Keep in mind that you'll also need to have your ARC number to prove that you've been in Korea for more than 6 months. After printing out the e-tickets, we headed back upstairs, gave the lady the required items, and we got our passes. We then headed to the ticket counter to buy our tickets for the weekend after Jeju because we wanted to make sure we had seats. If we were to buy them the day of, we run the risk of not getting seats or even standing room, so we wanted to play it safe. We bought our tickets for the exact time and dates we wanted, got seats, and now we've kept our tickets and passes to use when the time arrives. The process sounds complicated but if you go in person, they make it very easy. I highly recommend buying HappyRail passes, especially if want to make multiple trips, because you save a ton of money. And if you buy the tickets in advance, you get a seat and you don't have to worry about traffic like if you were to take a bus.
While my weekend didn't go as previously planned, I still had a blast with the other trips I took. On Thursday I fly out to Jeju, which I'm beyond excited about, and I come back Wednesday. I then head to Busan on Saturday and Sunday. I won't be able to write my next blog post until I come back from Busan, so I will see you then!
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