Korea Travelogue: Day 9 - Infinite Forest/Yeouido Hangang Park
Hi, I'm finally back from Tokyo and back to finishing up my Korea travelogue entries lol. It's just such terrible timing that South Korea has been hit by MERS but you can still KIV these places to visit in the future :/
Anyway moving on from the last entry, it was our last day staying at Travellers Planet so we all had some "errands" to run - Jace slept in, Stella went to find the Shinhwa Forest while the rest of us headed to Hangang to find the Infinite Forest. But not before trying out TP's dish for the week - tteokguk!
TP cooks a Korean dish every Sunday for the guests' breakfast and it was tteokguk that day, possibly because it was the first Sunday of the year and Koreans traditionally cook this dish for new year. I've never tried tteokguk prior to this and it was pretty yum. Gonna try and make some on my own because when I looked up the recipe it seemed quite easy and idiot-proof lol.
3 of us made our way to Hangang which is at Yeouido. It was freezing cold and there was no one there obviously. It was my first time at Hangang and we had originally included the Banpo Bridge/Hangang night view as part of the trip's itinerary but the rainbow fountain show doesn't show in winter hence we skipped it. Thankfully we decided to search for the Infinite Forest which happened to be located by the Han River/Hangang.
Upon stepping into this "park", you'll see a huge patch of empty land filled with branches trees lol. Turns out those trees were planted in the name of their idols by fans - pretty smart move by whoever owns the park I would say to beautify the park for free - and as it was winter time, the trees were nothing but twigs and branches. Fans decorated the trees with ribbons and ornaments to make the trees look more nicer I guess lol.
Directions
Take the metro to National Assembly Station and come out at Exit 1. Walk all the way straight and cross into park.
First up would be the Girls' Generation forest as you enter the park.
I obviously zoomed in to my favourite member Yoona's tree :D It was a pretty funny sight cos 3 of us were taking pictures of branches non-stop, some passerbys who were there gave us very weird looks. Oops.
Selfie with Yoona's tree :) And possibly the closest I would get to her in real life lol
I am not the only one who had ideas to take selfies with trees ah xD
Our main objective was to visit this, the Infinite Forest. But sadly again, the trees were all botak HAHAHAHAH!
My favourite member Myungsoo's tree hehe also the closest I would get to him in real life
Apparently the members came to visit the forest that Inspirits planted in memory of their first world tour and autographed all the name plates of the individual trees.
You know you are bffs when she takes the same type of photo as you did (refer to pic which I sneakily took of her and Wanjun while we were at the Girls' Generation forest) HAHAHA.
Ok last pic of Myungsoo's tree before we moved further down the park.
Beside Infinite's forest was the TVXQ forest. Sadly only 2 trees had the name plates (Yunho's and Changmin's) but there were 3 other trees behind them :') Excuse me while I go and cry on behalf of all Cassies T.T
The next plot of land contains the trees planted by Shawols for SHINee. Neomu areum daun daun view~ I love their new song "View"!
Can you tell who is my favourite SHINee member? *raps* Dubu Onleader Onew dibidibidib <-- I hope a Shawol caught this reference HAHAAH!
The entire patch is botak. I hope this looks way better in the warmer seasons.
I'm sorry but the SuJu forest was so sad. Oppas' trees look so kelian T.T But at least they had some Xmas decoration on them lol.
After being super weird and taking photos of botak trees, we headed straight to Myeongdong to meetup with the rest. Along the way, got attracted to this bread with fillings inside :D
You can consume food and drinks on Korea's subway stations - damn awesome!
Tabi hubby ^^ I'm so happy that Big Bang is so much more active these months, all their new songs are so addictive!
We popped by Lotte Departmental Store near Euljiro-1-ga to buy Hera Cosmetics. Jace and I went crazy over there and had to control abit however we were considered quite mild compared to other tourists >_<
I always get my album fix at Myeongdong station's underground stores. There are about 3 stores there that sell albums and K-pop idol merchandise so you're definitely spoiled for choices. FYI prices do differ by abit from each store.
Lunch was at Kimbap Heaven which I usually patronize near Myeongdong Station Exit 8. I'm sad to say that I cannot find any other Kimbap Heaven outlets in Myeongdong save for this store T____T
Aish, you don't visit Myeongdong for 1 year and the stores change so quickly! Anyway, we resumed shopping around Myeongdong and headed to Cafe J Holic afterwards because the bff had to visit her husband's cafe LOL. I'll leave that entry to her so till then, annyeong ^^