Day 45: Fluffy Plants & SMTM Finale

I slept in and didn’t really have any plans for the day, all I knew was that I was craving the sweet potato bun that I ate a lot when I was living in Sinchon and I needed to be home by 11 pm tonight to watch the Show Me the Money (SMTM) season finale.

So I got on a subway to get my bun. I ordered my typical tea and potato bun and sat down, super excited to eat it again. Unfortunately, some time over the last few weeks they had changed the recipe and what was once sugary potato filling was now actual sweet potato (sadness). It was still ok but not the amazing bun I had been hoping for. As I was finishing up eating, the guy that was working at the cafe came over and randomly gave me a free bun though so that made up for it!

I was kind of close to the river and about an hour walk from a place called Haneul Park that I wanted to check out so I decided today would be another walking day (shocker).

I passed a few hair salons and a cat cafe on the way to the river. The hair salons were super cheap (20,000 won for a hair cut, about $25). I face timed my sister to get her opinion on whether I should get a hair cut or not and to catch up. We talked briefly and I decided not to cut my hair until it got a bit longer. I walked down to the river and just wandered along it for awhile in the direction of the park. Along the way I passed a cool ship museum that was really tiny but there was a huge ship outside of it (in the water) that people could walk on to take pictures. I passed a bunch of smaller parks and walkways and Yanghwa bridge (there’s a song I like that is named after the bridge and Jungkook sang a cover of it).

I took a cool coloured, jagged staircase up to a bridge to get to the park.

Then I took another winding stairway up to the park. When I got there it was so beautiful! I didn’t know what to expect and was blown away when I got to the top and saw huge fields of the fluffy plants that I like. It looked super magical and pretty! I walked through the grass for a bit and then found another area of pink muhly grass where tons of people were taking pictures. The place was huge and there was so much tall grass everywhere!

I can't upload videos so here's a panorama

I wandered around for a bit and found a little circular area that people could climb to take pictures. I entered it and there were lots of people, but also a guy who was singing. I wandered to the top, took a few pictures and enjoyed the singing. On the way out he finished his song and everyone clapped and started shouting for an encore so he started up again.

I later learned (thank you Martin!) that the park is on what was once a huge landfill. They built the hill on top of it and then planted all the grass to make it into a beautiful place for people to come take photos and enjoy. There’s a tiny convenience store at the top and also areas where people can look out over the city. There are also shuttle cars to take people from the bottom of the hill to the park and and I could see the World Cup stadium from one side of the hill. It was such a relaxing place to walk around and it made me feel very content.

After wandering and taking tons of pictures I decided to check out Digital Media City since it was only about a 30 minute walk away. My walk down from the park:

Digital Media City (DMC) is an area where there are tons and tons of offices of huge broadcasting stations who run music shows and film some of the biggest TV and variety shows in Korea. I have watched a lot of these dramas and shows and Steven had recommended visiting the area so I walked back down the hill and towards the ‘city’. I passed a small park and some cool art along the way.

The buildings started to get bigger as I approached the start of the DMC. The first buildings I saw were for JTBC and KBS. There were several big black vans driving in and around the buildings and they all looked very fancy. I could see inside and see people working or in meetings!

Next I looked at the tvN and SBS buildings as well as one that had several different broadcasting stations in it. The tvN building even had a huge screen on the side of it that was playing a variety show.

Beside all of these buildings was MBC. MBC had its own plaza with several large buildings built in all sorts of different shapes. I grabbed a popcorn and pretzel mix at one of the stores and then found a kimbap place in the plaza for dinner.

There’s a big sculpture in the plaza with two blue people and I found out that it's actually where a scene from the Avengers was filmed! There’s even a little sign that explains it and plays the scene from the movie.

After looking around a little more, I made my way back home, grabbed my laptop and walked to a place called BlueSquare. It’s a four storey building that’s 10 minutes from where I’m staying. It has a musical theatre on the first floor, but the second and third are a huge book cafe. The walls are filled with bookshelves that have used books that anyone can take to read in the building. There is also a cafe on each floor and seating area for people to read or do work. I set up at one of the tables on the third floor and tried to do some trip planning for Japan but ended up writing a blog post instead.

I stayed there until around 9:30 and then went back to have tea with Kate and Martin and watch the season finale of Show Me the Money. SMTM is a Korean rap survival show that I love. I'm not very good at watching the episodes in order because they are hard to find online but I love to listen to all the songs at the end of each season. It was so awesome to be able to turn on the TV and just watch it rather than having to search all over the internet.

Unfortunately, the performances were super disappointing for it being the season finale and in comparison to the ones we had seen the previous week from the same artists. At least one of the people that I liked won though! I also watched an episode of Weekly Idol with Stray Kids on the TV.

Poster for the season finale from kseries.net. It is televised/filmed by CJEnM (one of the buildings I passed while in DMC). I didn't realize until I got home but I had gone right by the building they would be filming the finale in in just a few hours.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(November 9)

Distance walked: 18.6 km

My route: the blue is the subway line and the black is where I walked. The area I was in is called Mapo-gu (still part of Seoul).