Green Seoul - Hangang park Seonyudo

Next stop was Seonyudo. The Chinese characters 仙遊島 means the island where the fairies travel.

It's a little spot of land in the middle of the Han river. It's like L'île Saint Louis in Paris but instead of the Berthelot ice creams and the luxury apartments, here, they left it all green.

The center of the park has different sections created for walks

and children playing area

There's just a small snack and coffee shop so this was lunch.

Green Seoul part 1 - Hangang park Yeouido

Seoul has a lot of parks and greens. Hangang park is a serie of parks along the Han river dedicated to leisure and sports for the citizen. I've come to the ones of Yeouido and Seonyodo.

It rained a bit in the morning but it has refreshed the air for just about an hour. The sky was all fuzzy so the pictures didn't come out great :( The area of Yeouido has a marina for tour boats and leisure. There are bike rentals in every park. I did not take the bike because it's not possible to leave it after at a different station. I originally planned to ride the bike from Yeouido to Seonyudo.

Families, couples or just alone, everyone comes to enjoy the open space. Some bike, some play, some sit, some sleep and some come with the 6 persons tent! I don't know if they invested in the tent only to come at the park for the day?

 

 

And I took this picture because the grass has been mowed like a mess. I guess the guy doesn't really like his job?

Marrakech, the red city?

 

Oranges are everywhere, it's the orange juice kingdom!

You get the most freshly squeezed glass of juice for 30 cents.

 

Olives... I wonder... are they edible just like this? 

I've ever only eaten them seasoned...

 

Grapefruit, not ripe yet... 

 

The spiky ones...

the bizarre spiky ones...

 and the huge graffitied spiky one.

Spring is coming

Year after year, the first flowers popping out from the grayish winter always bring me so much comfort, as this period of time has a special meaning to me.

The definition of "comfort" from Merriam-Webster: 

1: to give strength and hope to : cheer

2: to ease the grief or trouble of : console 

 

Soon, the naked trees will turn light green covered by their tiny leaves buds. Days are getting longer each day. It spurs me to get out of hibernation. ^^

 

This is my favorite season.

 

Tea house

Up th hill in Bukchon, at a corner, we went in this beautiful tea house. The wall has been changed to glass panel that allows you to see the mountains at the back and the inner garden. We came in too early at 10:30 AM, the ladies weren't done with their cleaning. But they still served us.
They thought we were Japanese; she says because only the Japaneses come so early for tea. The lady was friendly and explained us all the different teas they serve, and showed us how to serve and drink our tea. 
She recommended us a traditional Korean cake to go with the tea. From what I understood, it's made with corn starch. It had a sticky spongy texture.

I chose a Korean persimmon tree leaves tea. She said it contains like 20 times more vitamin than a lemon. Korean tea has usually a subtle aroma, not like chinese tea that are a lot stronger in taste. I think that if you're not used to it, you can find it dull. After eating a piece of the cake, I was surprised that it brings out deeper tastes when we drink our tea.

 See the cake was still steaming

Suncheon bay

This is the last visit on the program at Suncheon. The bay is a large wetland with a specific flora and fauna like crabs, cranes and a bizzare ugly fish that flaps around in the mud. People seem to love these fishes though, and restaurants besides the Suncheon bay park serves a soup made with these fishes. You can walk in the middle of the reed fields on a wooden board walk.

 Check closely, you'll see the tiny bizzare fishes and some tiny crabs too.

There's a crane there in the middle.

More crabs

Boseong green tea fields

Boseong, about an hour and a half by bus from Suncheon, is famous for its green tea production. Autumn is not the ideal season to visit this place, but it was still interesting and beautiful. Again, it was quiet, not too many people.

And as usual, you must find food everywhere. This is green tea ice cream!

I think we are the only two crazy people who goes around by the city's buses to go visit all these places. Everyone else are either in a tour group or they come with their own car. But really, everything is accessible by bus if you just want to find the information. Today, we had our first error though. For the way back, we waited for the bus at the same place where we got off. We were just wondering why the bus is not on schedule, which is pretty impossible here in Korea, even in the tiniest city. Luckily, an empty taxi passed by and asked where we are going to. So we asked for the price to take us back into town, 4000W, so we went with the taxi guy. Then he told us we couldn't have taken any bus waiting where we were because the place to board the return bus is on the other side of the highway.

Gurye - Jirisan, Nogodan, Piagol

This is our mountain day! We plan to walk off all the fried chicken from last night.

First thing first, breakfast! We got up at 6:30am to catch the bus so couldn't eat earlier.

Very lyophylized Udon...

I guess one can't ask for more at 1500m

On the program, around 6 kms from Nogodan at 1507m down the valley of Piagol 500-600m (couldn't find the exact number). The ridge part was spectacular, with view of all the peaks in the clouds.

starting point

 Nogodan peak

Then we headed through a pass a bit below the ridge. This part was easy, all flat, and the road was boarded by small bamboos and interesting trees and roots. Also found some wild hydrangea.

The red leaves! It's just theb begining of the season, we found some nice red ones though.

Then we began our crazy descend! But again, the calling of the stomach!

We sat down here to have our kimbap picnic, bought this morning nest to the bus station.

The trail was a real natural one... Besides some crucial part where there were stairs, all the way down it was just rocks and rocks and more rocks. It was a nightmare for 4 hours... But we got a lot of attention from fellow trekkers. These Korean people are really nice. We got an apple, some chocolates because we must have looked exhausted :) This is the reward though.

Finally arrived! And in fact, we did way lot more than what we thought! 8.8km!

And I met this little friend at the bus stop we waited for the bus to take us back in town.

Musée du Quai Branly

I've been telling myself I should go visit this museum since it opened. (That was in 2006.) But then time went by, busy living everyday life . . . So here I share a little recap of my first visit to Quai Branly.

Quai Branly displays indigenous art and culture from Asia, Africa, Oceania and America. The building has been designed by Architect Jean Nouvel. It's right next to the Eiffel Tower at the left. To get to the museum, I'd recommend to get off at Iéna station (line 9). It's about a 5 min walk and on the way, you can get some nice angles of the Eiffel Towel.

Follow directions to exit the station, then you should go strait down on the same sidewalk. Take the stairs down at your right 100m later. (There, you can get glimpses of the tower already.) At the end of the alley, on your left, there's the underground path to cross the busy road. Then cross the Passerelle Debilly, the entrance is straight ahead.

I liked the garden with mainly bamboos and high grasses; it convey a kind of wilderness that matches the museum's theme. There is a restaurant in the garden. Just took a peek at the menu so I can't tell you the quality of the food. There were large salads, pasta, grilled salmon, prices are around 12€.

Inside, you begin to walk up a "river". Then you get to the main collections area. The architecture is very pleasant, it's basically a large open space but where you walk through the different continents. The path is very intuitive, it goes gently up and down in elevation. You flow around the globe from Oceania, Asia, Africa and America. There's almost no sharp angles, walls are curvy, you won't get lost between different separate rooms like in most museums. 

  
I took too many pictures so obviously I won't put them all up in one post or you'll get really tired scrolling. So here's a recap, all photos can be found on my yumesan picasa log if you want to have a closer look.

This one is my personal favorite!

And this is the bonus!

Even my shots are blurry, I still wanted to show you these. They are so funny, completely opposite all the other objets. These are masks from Ammasslik, Greenland. Most of them had a twisted nose or mouth. I wonder what's the idea behind this . . .

read more about these here