Incheon, Gangcheon Rail Bikes + Nami Island, Taeyeon Tulip Festival, and Suwon!
4/2:
Today, a group of my friends and I planned to take a day trip to Incheon, which was about a little over an hour away from Seoul via Subway Line 2 and Line 1 on the metro. The last stop on Line 1 was actually Incheon station, and when we got off, we immediately headed over to China Town, which was well known in Incheon for its jjajangmyeon.
Since we had arrived on the earlier side at around 10AM, the area seemed quite quiet and empty, and shops were either closed or just opening. Of course, none of us had eaten yet, so we went into a nearby sit-down restaurant called Gonghwachun, where we ordered jjajangmyeon and another noodle-soup dish. Thankfully, one of our friends spoke Mandarin and was able to help us with ordering our food, which also tasted great!
After our meal, we walked around China Town, passing by various streetfood stalls, shops, and stopping by a few cafes and well-known landmarks, such as a Jjajangmyeon museum.
Next, we walked to Jayu Park (Freedom Park) which bordered China Town, where we enjoyed the greenery and scenic views of the surrounding area, such as Incheon Harbor. Jayu Park also centrally features a General Douglas MacArthur statue, commemorating the Korean War Incheon Landing, as well as a Korea- U.S.A. Centennial Monument, commemorating the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Korea and the United States.
Then, from Jayu Park, we quickly walked to Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village, which was adjacent to the park and featured buildings decorated with brightly colored murals and depictions of various children's fairy tale characters. We did not spend too long in the area, and just walked through to catch our bus to go to our next destination-- Wolmido Theme Park, located on Wolmido Island which is a man-made island. We ended up not doing much at Wolmido, other than walking around the area, since the theme park actually turned out to be very small, featuring a few rides, and some smaller activities for younger children.
After briefly exploring the area, we caught a bus back to Incheon Station Line 1, and took the subway to Songdo Central Park for boating on the lake (more of a pond) within the park. The boat ride was about 8,000 won per person for half-an-hour, which was enough time for us to go down and back the lake area on the boat (which went very, very slow). Following our boat ride, we were all extremely hungry, so for dinner we went to a sushi restaurant within walking distance called Tokyo Hana.
Finishing off the night, we went shopping, taking a bus to Hyundai Premium Outlet. I was not really looking to shop for anything in particular at the time, and I was very tired so I mainly just tagged along and then later just ended up sitting and chilling at a Starbucks Reserve at the mall, but my friends were able to make a lot of really good purchases from the outlets there!
4/8:
This Friday, we went to Gangchon Rail Bike Park and Nami Island, which are popular tourist destinations located in Gangwon-do, which is about a 1-hour ride on the ITX train from Yongsan station in Seoul.
The rail bikes were super fun, even though it was a bit of a leg work-out to have to pedal for around the 45 minutes it took to complete the entire course. The course took us through 3 different themed tunnels that were decorated with various lights and music, and we could also view the Bukhan river (the North Han River). After completing the course, we rode a train to a shuttle bus which took us back to our starting point location at the beginning of the Rail Bike Park.
Following the rail bikes, we took the train toward Gapyeong to go to Nami Island. There are two ways to get to Nami Island-- via a ferry, or via zipline. Of course, we had to go with ziplining to the island, which costed close to 50,000 won for a one-way ride. We were only able to zipline at certain times, so by the time we had gotten around to buying out tickets, the next available time to do the zipline was at 4PM, giving us an hour or so to eat in the mean time. So, we just ended up going to a nearby dakgalbi restaurant, which was one of the main dishes or specialties in the area served at most of the restaurants nearby.
Our time came to zipline to Nami Island. The zipline ride itself probably lasted 1 minute or less, and the actual ride was very smooth and scenic, but going up to the starting point at the top of the tower was really intimidating because the elevator felt quite rickety and the tower seemed like it was swaying a bit from the wind, with occasional creaking noises. However, I would still definitely recommend going on the zipline for anyone looking to go to Nami Island, since it was really fun, and probably one of the highlight activities of the day!
Once on Nami Island, we just walked around, exploring the area, taking photos, and getting snacks (such as ice cream and hotteok!). Unfortunately, Spring season was not yet in full-bloom at Nami Island, so the nature was not as pretty as it would have been if we had gone to Nami Island a few weeks later. Since we had also arrived on the island a little later in the day, we were also unable to rent bikes to ride along the island, which we had been hoping to do.
Leaving the island, we boarded one of the last ferries of the day at around 8pm (the ferries came at 30 minute intervals). We then taxied to a restaurant nearby to Gapyeong station called Stay 83 to eat dinner before we had to catch the ITX train back to Seoul.
4/9:
Today we went to Seoul Forest Park to see the cherry blossoms! This was not really a day trip, since this was within Seoul, but it was a fun excursion! The park was very crowded and there were so, so many couples, since it was a Saturday and it was peak cherry blossom season. At the park, we picnicked under the cherry blossoms (we ate an assortment of gimbap my friends had picked up from a popular gimbap restaurant), played cards, then visited the parks attractions (an insect garden, a green house garden, an enclosure area for deer, and a road-way lined with more cherry blossom trees). After taking lots and lots of pictures, we walked to a croffle place just outside the park (about a 10 minute walk), then went to a lamb BBQ restaurant for dinner.
That night we also went to the outside of Lotte World, to walk around and take pictures of the cherry blossoms surrounding the area, with the backdrop of a lake and Lotte World. We finished off our night with Baskin Robbins before heading home on the metro.
5/7 - 5/8:
On Saturday, we departed for Taean (about 2-3 hours south of Seoul via bus) to go to the 2022 Tulip Festival. After our long bus ride, we bought our tickets for our returning bus ride for the following day (we planned to stay in Taean for 2 days), then we taxied to the hotel we were staying to drop off our belongings. Because the area we were in was more of a countryside, public transportation was a little sparse, so we ended up taxiing to wherever we needed to go.
For our dinner, we ate at a crab restaurant, which is one of the things Taean is known for.
The Tulip Festival was gorgeous, but unfortunately, we were not able to spend very long there, because we had gotten there later in the day, and we were notified upon purchasing our entry tickets that the festival viewing in the park closed sooner than the time that had been listed online.
After, we ate some street food outside of the park, then taxied back to our hotel.
The following day, we visited Sinduri Beach, where we had breakfast at a cafe-restaurant facing the beach, then explored the sand dunes that the beach was known for. Although we had been able to get a taxi to take us to Sinduri Beach, because it was a campsite area, we soon learned that no taxis really came to the area and there were also no buses running to the nearest bus stop at that time. Fortunately, we escaped being stranded in the area because one of our friends talked to a nice worker from a CU convenience store who offered to drive us to our next destination (Chollipo Arboretum, about a 20-30 minute ride away) for 30,000 won, which we gladly paid.
Chollipo Arboretum, Korea's first private arboretum and one of the greatest arboretums in Korea, is an internationally renowned arboretum, and after visiting the place, I can definitely say that it deserves all these praises. It felt so healing to walk through the beautiful arboretum, and also sit and see the ocean view next to the gardens.
Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel to collect our belongings (the host had been kind enough to let us store our things at the hotel, even though it was past our check-out time), then we taxied to the station where we would be taking our bus back to Seoul. We ate quickly at a nearby chicken restaurant before our bus's boarding time. Everyone was absolutely exhausted and knocked out for the whole ride back to Seoul.
5/29:
Our most recent day trip was to Suwon, which is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, a satellite province just south of Seoul. The city is known for retaining its historic city fortress walls, which is, of course, the main attraction of the area.
We left in the morning at around 10:00AM from Seoul station (Line 1), thankfully you can just take Line 1 directly to Suwon. Some stations and metro lines also alternate between an all-stop train and an express/rapid train, which only stops at more popular stations. We meant to take the express train, which would significantly cut down on travel time, but unfortunately, we accidentally got on the all-stop train, and once we realized, we had to back-track and get on the rapid train.
With our initial detour, we ended up getting to Suwon past 11:00AM closer to midday, and we immediately sought out food at a red budae jjigae restaurant. After eating our fill, we took a bus to Suwon's Hwaseong Fortress, where we got coffee and cake from a nearby cafe, then walked along the fortress's impressive walls and lookouts. We then, walked to Hwaseong Haenggung Palace which we took a quick look at before walking over to an archery and hot air balloon location at another area of Hwaseong Fortress. We unfortunately ran out of time to do archery (since only certain time slots were left available to book later in the afternoon when we had arrived), however, we were able to ride the hot air balloon which gave us an expansive view of the fortress walls and the surrounding area. The balloon carried about 15 to 20 people at a time, or about 4 parties (although many of these were small children), and we were in the air for approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The balloon was tethered to a fixed location on the ground, and it was not super windy that day, so there was no danger of the balloon being unstable or flying off-course somehow. Definitely a really cool experience!
After the hot air balloon, we taxied to Jidong Market where we just walked around and got some snacks, like hotteok. Then, we walked from the market to Paldalmun Gate. From there, we bussed to a famous galbi restaurant called Gabojeong Galbi, which was so delicious. Lastly, we also visited Galleria Department Store, which I had seen on an Instagram reel for its glass walkway area which jutted out from the side of the building. We weren't exactly sure which floor the glass walkway was located on, so we had to go up a bunch of escalators before eventually finding the area. It was a cool photo opp, but the department store was closing, and at some point between 8:30PM and 8:45PM the whole department store started closing, so we had to hurry out. We then taxied to Suwon station and took the Line 1 back to Seoul.
