Six Days of Art, History, Love and “Seoul” in Korea

The girls pose in traditional Korean dress

Day 1  

We arrived quite early and took the bus on an hour ride to reach our hotel.  Our day consisted of waffles, pretzels, udon, corn dogs, chicken on a stick, and Korean BBQ.  We played at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and walked around the Food Alleys.  Fun first day!

We arrived in Seoul quite early in the morning and took the shuttle about an hour into the city. We stayed in Dongdaemun and were early in our check-in so we headed over to Dongdaemun Design Plaza.  The kids let out a ton of energy in this large area. We were also able to go inside to see some of the exhibits, which at the time was a “History of K-Pop”.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a nice bowl of Korean Udon. We ended up at the hotel for some rest after our flight. The hotel was located at the top of a shopping center which allowed for some entertainment such as arcades and shopping. At the base of the hotel there was also an area set up for street food. We had a few stacks of corn dogs and chicken on a stick before we went out to Korean BBQ dinner.

Day 2 

Today we decided to do a cultural/history day. Hwaseong Fortress or Suwon Hwaseong is a Korean fortress surrounding the centre of Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It was built from 1794 to 1796 by King Jeongjo of the Joseon dynasty to house and honour the remains of his father, Prince Sado.  There is a nice trail around the top of the fortress which allows for the kids to get some energy out.  We ended up with a conbini lunch as there was a 7-11 across the street from the entrance.  The weather was amazing…crisp, cool and sunny.  We opted for a nice picnic lunch on some benches. We then made our way around to where there is a grass area in the middle to lay down a blanket.  (we love ours from amazon.jp as it is small enough for a purse).  We watched the sunset over the pond.  It was such a lovely day.

Day 3 

One of my students mentioned biking along Han river as a favorite memory of hers growing up in Seoul, so we headed here for a little bit of a physical day.  We rented bicycles for a couple of hours and biked up and down the river in both directions.  We came across a nice playground so after we returned the bicycles we headed over to the playground.  There was a nice swing, sandbox and obstacle course.  Nearby was also BHC Fried Chicken so we decided to try out one of their famous chains.  It was delicious!  They also had soft serve ice cream so we let the kids have a treat as well.  Under BHC there was another conbini, so it’s a perfect place to set up and relax.  To end the evening, we did a 30 minute rental of the swan boats.  There was also a restaurant attached to the place as well, but we opted to walk over to the fountain which happened to be doing a song show.  We felt like locals today and it was awesome!

Day 4

We totally went tourist mode today.  We headed over to Gyeongbokgung Palace and found a place to rent Hanboks for the girls.  There are hundreds of places to choose from!  This place was able to give the girls a Hanbok, an accessory and also an updo for their hair.  They looked so beautiful!  They loved walking around the city in the Hanboks and we were sad when we returned them.  We had time to walk back over to the Gyeongbokgung Palace where we watched the changing of the guards and walked around to take pictures (like the other hundreds of people).  We had lunch at a cafe along the side streets.

After lunch we made our way over the the Secret Garden.  Lots of walking, but it was such a nice place!  The weather again was so beautiful.

Day 5  

Today we went back to act locals. We had a late morning so we decided to take the girls to a cafe with a play structure. This is in the mall below the hotel. We paid for a couple of hours and the girls had a blast. They were the only ones in the place as it was a weekday morning. We ended up walking around Insadong. We ended the evening with a 4pm show at Nanta in Myeongdong. This show was so much fun!  It was in Korean, but there really wasn’t much speaking and the actors are so animated you can really tell what is going on. Our 3 and 6 year old had such a blast! After the show, we walked out to more street food! We ended up finding a nice bench and taking turns going to get food and snacks for the kids (and ourselves).  

Day 6 

We had a late flight out, so we decided to hang around the hotel. There was a nice stream at the bottom of the hotel, so we all wanted to walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream before we left.  There were random stones across, so the girls had fun hopping back and forth as we tried to walk as far as we could. We didn’t get very far before we were hungry, so we exited the stream area and found a food alley. Loads of street food with little tables and stools set up with counters as the owners cooked in front of you. It was super cool!  We walked through a bit overwhelmed with the kids and not finding much that would satisfy them or allow them to sit comfortably. We found a very nice donut shop at the end. As a family of donut lovers, we had to try and it was worth the wait!  So yummy!

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP; Korean: 동대문 디자인 플라자) is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, South Korea, designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo, with a distinctively neofuturistic design characterized by the "powerful, curving forms of elongated structures." The landmark is the centerpiece of South Korea's fashion hub and popular tourist destination, Dongdaemun, featuring a walkable park on its roofs, large global exhibition spaces, futuristic retail stores, and restored parts of the Seoul fortress. It’s a great place to explore and take some great photos. The design is really unique and for kids, there are so many places to play.  There is a rooftop grass area with outdoor seating and open air art. There is also a place called DikiDiki kids which is a paid indoor playground. There are even a couple of museums in the plaza as well. It’s a nice place to spend a few hours.  

Suwon Fortress

This is a pretty cool castle and fortress! We walked along the gates, detoured along the stream.  We were cold in the shade and hot in the sun…perfect weather! I enjoyed looking at the patterns in the artillery holes with Claire during our walks.