Day Three
Today is the first day of Chuseok, a 3-day holiday where people celebrate a good harvest. Traditionally people would return to their villages to celebrate the holiday with family.
It's kind of tricky to determine what is open and what isn't, so I decided to play it safe and visit a park in the center of Seoul: Namsan Mountain Park.
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As the park is right in the center of the city, you can reach it by several subway lines.
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It's quite a walk to the top from the Seoul station subway stop and it's once again a 30-degree day.
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At the top stands the Seoul tower, which I've visited a couple of years ago (We took the cable-car up back then).
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After spending a while at the top I made my way down the other side, and while most of the paths are paved due to the amount of people visiting every day, there are some trails down.
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At the bottom lies a botanical garden.
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Having plenty of daylight left, I wanted to make my way to the Han River for a nice walk, which meant crossing the Itaewon neighbourhood, mostly known for it's foreign residents as it's close to an American base.
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As the neighbourhood is on a hill, there are lots of little alleyways down. Eventually I managed to get to a "main road" leading to the river.
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There was a flood recently and near the river you can still see signs of it.
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As dusk began to set in I made my way to Yongsan station where I took the subway back to "my" neighbourhood.
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Most shops and restaurants were closed due to the holiday, but luckily the local neighbourhood bar was still open.
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I ordered a Kimchi Pajeon and a Chive and pepper Pajeon (Pajeon = pancake) and the locals were slowly shifting their attention from the tv to me, wondering how I would cope with the peppers. Luckily I'm already a bit accustomed to the Korean palette and after a nod of approval their attention shifted back to the TV.
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