Naksan Park (낙산공원), Jogeysa Temple (조계사) and Insadong (인사동)

in #steemit8 years ago

My time in Seoul was very packed and intense, exactly what I was expecting and looking forward to! After our time at Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village (see the previous blog post!), we had a well rested night's sleep before making our way to Naksan park early the next morning!

Naksan Park is tucked away from central Seoul, which was a nice contrast to the usual hustle and bustle. After a one hour walk to find the park we were pleasantly surprised by the wall art that we were seeking. Before leaving for Seoul, I researched all the top tourist attractions as well as the perhaps more low-key attractions, in order to cover the whole city effectively! I particularly wanted to go to Naksan Park for it's art.
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I really wasn't disappointed by the carton-like art that we found on the walls, which were very fun to take photos of! However, I was upset to find that the stairs with gigantic koi fish painted on had been painted over. When I asked the locals about what had happened they said they did it themselves as there was too much noise and disruption from tourists, who would come to the park and wait at the stairs in queues in order to get photos. This is only understandable, the village is still home to residents after all. The same locals that I questioned owned a small business renting hanbok (traditional Korean wear) to tourists wishing to take cute photos. We tried to avoid doing it but gave in as the grandma who owned the shop was so adorable.
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After taking some cute photos, we went for lunch and in search for some ice-cream of course!! One of my favourite things about Korea is the food and their obsession with milk flavoured ice-cream. Soon we found a wonderful ice-cream parlour around the corner, which served delicious, creamy milk ice-cream!
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Our next pit stop was Jogeysa temple. My mother follows the Buddhism way of life and this temple is meant to be one of the most impressive temples in Seoul and therefore I knew it was a must-see. After sitting inside the temple and reflecting in peaceful thoughts for around 20 minutes we went outside to enjoy the architecture of the temple and the surrounding area.
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The last stop of the day was to Insadong. A small neighbourhood with great street food, restaurants and local shops. We watched the beautiful sunset before searching for some yummy street food, which was in abundance!14212212_10153842513506711_8971602139245010624_n.jpg
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I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did check out my previous two posts! :)

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