Why Korea is awesome: Namsan Tower

Hey everyone~

Here's another travel post for you :D

These days, even though I'm really busy with preparing for my move to Taiwan, I still seem to have enough time to get anxious and worried a lot about leaving home. So I try my best to distract myself, and look forward to my journey abroad. And the best way to do that is to look back to my past travels.

Now, who of you heard of Namsan Tower before?
Many, I bet.

But did you know its name is not actually Namsan tower?
It is actually called N Seoul Tower ( N서울타워 )
The reason why many people call it Namsan tower, is its location.
N Seoul tower is located on top of the mountain Namsan, which is why people call it Namsan tower.

To get there from within the city Seoul, it takes quite some time, and there are a few options for you.

1) Take a taxi. This is the most expensive option , and it may take a while to find a taxi driver that is willing to drive up the mountain, and you still have to walk quite a bit at the end too.

2) The cable car.
It's not as expensive as taking a cab, and it most certainly offers the greatest view.

lights of Seoul in the rain while taking the cable car up to Namsan tower.

However to do that, you must find the cable car station first.

You can either try to go there by subway and walking (a guide is available on the Seoul tourism website ) or take a cab to the cable car station.

There you can purchase the ticket, it's either one-way or round-trip.

One-Way tickets cost 4,800 Won,

and Round-trip costs 6,300. 

(the prices may differ now, these are the prices listed on the seoul tourism website)

You could also take the cable car one-way up the mountain and then walk back down again. It's cheap, and you'll see more of Namsan too.

3) Take the bus.

For this you want to take the subway to Chungmuro station (subway line 3 or 4) and then take the yellow bus up the mountain.

It's cheap and the buses run very often, more often than the cable car.

However

unless you're tight on budget and time, I would not recommend doing this,

The bus can get very crowded, and the ride takes a while.

You don't want to be stuck in a full bus, on a summer day, with ahjusshis pushing past you to scan their T-money cards on the machine all the time...for about 15 minutes.

It's uncomfortable, and you'll most certainly won't be able to appreciate the beautiful mountain and view when you're squeezed between people like sardines in a tin.

Option 4) would be

hiking up the mountain

I haven't done that (because i'm lazy), so I can't explain how to get up the mountain or how long it takes. But~ I did walk back down the mountain once.

And it took us a good 40 minutes at least.

There are stairs, but even though we just walked down, not up, we were sweating (it was in June) and really exhausted when we finally found back to the subway station.

Yes the scenery was pretty....but for me it wasn't worth it.

If you like hiking and nature and sports, this might be the best way to get up to Namsan tower for you.

It wasn't for me, so I'd recommend taking the cable car.

Now back to the tower itself.

This is the view that greets you if you go there after sunset. I went twice, once in the evening and once in the afternoon. 

While the lights may look pretty, I have to admit i preferred going in the afternoon. It was difficult to take good photos of the locks in the evening, and it was raining too.

Speaking of locks

There are so many of them, and all of them are adorable.

Thinking about how each lock represents a couple, or a single visitor to this place just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :D

I took such a long time walking around, looking at all those lovely locks..

there were so many cute and unique ones.

I bought a lock too, even though I had no one to share it with.

But even though it is not a couple lock, it's still nice to know that my lock is hanging there at Namsan tower.

Can you find it? Hint: It's yellow

Other than locks, there's another thing couple's like to place at Namsan tower:

Photobooth Stickers:

Like on this lamp, for example.

They also have a big heart figure at Namsan tower, and obviously, it's filled with locks of love too.

They also have those lover's benches.

For couples that are too shy to sit next to each other. The bench is bent in the middle, leading to the people sitting on it automatically sliding closer.

I just can't figure out if that drawing on it is supposed to help the couples with getting closer...or the opposite of it.

Another reason to go up to Namsan tower is the view over the city that you'll get.
Even if you don't pay the extra fee to go up the tower, the view is still amazing.

And~ filled with locks, of course.

Why Korea is awesome: Insadong and yummy Mandu

Added this photo because apparently, this is the only Starbucks in the world which name is not written in English. And it's located in Insadong.

Insadong is an area that is pretty famous between tourists, it sells a lot~ of souvenirs that you can probably find cheaper somewhere else but it's easier to find them in Insadong.

There are also a lot of tea houses, traditional restaurants etc.

And in between the many small stores selling ink brushes, national flags, masks and postcards, you'll also find a few cosmetic shops and a few stores selling all things Hallyu.

In conclusion, it's basically the place everyone goes to when they notice on their last day in Korea that they didn't buy any souvenirs for their family and friends yet.

I went there with a Korean friend of mine because she wanted to buy some traditional Korean things to take with her before going abroad.

It's not the cheapest place for souvenirs, but if you're on a tight schedule and a not-so-tight budget or if you just want to look around, it's definitely worth a visit.

How to get there:

Take subway line #3 to Anguk Station.
Get out of exit 1, walk straight and cross the street when you reach Samcheongdong.
If you see a statue of a giant paintbrush, you're on the right track.

On the side of Insadong-gil, you'll see a few of those guys selling traditional korean sweets. They'll probably call out to you in whatever language they think you're speaking. Those guys are usually hilarious, able to speak some sentences in a lot~ of languages, and good at making sweets. You can judge that yourself, because they make those sweets right in front of you, which is quite fascinating. They start off with some kind of dough, then pull, then place it together, then pull again and at the end, it looks like many thin threads.

And the sweets taste great as well. But be careful if you're not planning to buy anything, because those guys know how to sweet-talk people into purchasing those sweets :P

This is Ssamziegil, a really interesting part of Insadong.

It's kind of like a mini shopping mall, but the interesting part of it is that you do not need to climb up any stairs. There's a path that just curls upwards and you can just walk along that and check out all the small stores along it.

Some are really...interesting?

They also have stairs, if you want to go the faster way back down.

And since there are some art galleries and artists selling their items in Ssamziegil, there are many creative things hidden in there. Like those giant, pretty roses for example.

And on top of Ssamziegil, there's a small area to relax..

Including an alley for lovers because couple culture is huge in Korea.

You can purchase those somewhere, write a message on it with your beloved one and then hang it up there.

There were so many of those...

They also had some interesting statues all the way on the roof of it.

And some lovers chose to hang their messages on those statues ^^ 

There's also a small store of the famous Choo Choo Cats in there ^^

And at the ground, you can buy some famous...poop bread.

There are many of those all over Insadong, and I only found out what they were after I came back from Korea ^^''

Those are ice-cream cones.

You wouldn't think that when seeing them, right? :D 

Now, if you're really hungry and not just in need of some ice-cream, there's a pretty famous Mandu place in Insadong as well.

Just walk through Insadong, if you're coming from the direction of the paintbrush statue this alley will be on your left side.

They also sell Mandu to-go, if you're in a hurry ^^

The menu. Lots~ of different Mandu variations, but also some standard dishes like Naengmyeon.

And some sauces for you to add yourself if you need more ^^

I chose the assorted Mandu plate:

It costs 8,000Won (roughly 5,60€ or about 8$ I guess) and it may not looks like much, but the dumplings are really big...so big, that you actually need to cut them in half at least. With scissors.

Korea is really practical. Everything works so much better with scissors :D

Steamed dumplings~ those were quite yummy ^^

No dumpling-dumplings.

I didn't really like them to be honest. Too much meat for me.

Super yummy fried dumplings.

Those were so, soooooo good :D

They were really crispy, but still nice to eat and I just loved them ^^

The filling of the fried Mandu~ ^^

So, that's all about my adventures in Insadong. 

If you ever go there, try the Mandu and tell me if you liked them :D