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.
As the park is right in the center of the city, you can reach it by several subway lines.
It's quite a walk to the top from the Seoul station subway stop and it's once again a 30-degree day.
At the top stands the Seoul tower, which I've visited a couple of years ago (We took the cable-car up back then).
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.
At the bottom lies a botanical garden.
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.
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.
There was a flood recently and near the river you can still see signs of it.
As dusk began to set in I made my way to Yongsan station where I took the subway back to "my" neighbourhood.
Most shops and restaurants were closed due to the holiday, but luckily the local neighbourhood bar was still open.
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.
