Suwon

We visited Suwon on my first trip to South Korea, but I only briefly covered it in my single post covering the week we spent there. I wrote it about a year and a half after my visit, so I had tried to condense the memories that remained into that post, but over the years, bits and pieces of the day we spent in Suwon came back, and I decided to write about some of the fond details I remembered from that day.





We took the subway over from Dongdaemun, and then finagled our way to finding the bus that would take us to Hwaseong Fortress.




It was a hot, sunny day, and the path up the fortress was uncovered.










We walked around the walls and reached a viewpoint, where you could see Suwon below. It was fun exploring all the little pathways, but the humid weather and lack of liquids quickly tired us out.






We decided to take the dragon bus down to the city centre, and hopped onto the last seat, facing backwards.






Riding the dragon bus was one of the most amusing parts of our trip. We went down the fortress, and joined the city traffic in our designated bus lane. Despite this being a regular occurrence, we got a lot of stares from people.

There was a second bus following us, and it felt like the dragon was chasing us - it was fun.




Thoroughly hot and sweaty now, we decided to cool down with some cans of Milkis from a vending machine. No sooner had we popped open our cans did a lady come by and start speaking to us in Korean. My understanding was extremely limited, and she kept pointing to our cans, so we wondered among us, did she want a sip? We offered her our can, but she shook her head and kept pointing at them. I quickly realized she wanted the can itself, not the drink. Dan and I were not willing to gulp down the entire can then and there, but she kept following us, so Ranee quickly finished hers and gave her the can. A trooper.





While wandering around the top of the fortress, an elderly gentleman had suggested we pay a visit to Hwahongmun, to see the view across the river. We dutifully removed our shoes and relaxed in the shade, before heading down to the river to skip over rocks and cross rickety footbridges.





One thing we noticed during our time in South Korea were all the paths across the streams and rivers. They were either stepping stones, or a simple wooden plank. Used to the uber-safety of North America (due to suing culture), we were surprised but delighted with these paths, and had so much fun running back and forth all the paths we came across as we walked along these waterside paths.








As we left, we found these piano stairs, that played music as you walked over them.



We paid a visit to Hwaseong Haenggung, where Dae Jang Geum was filmed, and as we got our tickets, a gentleman who volunteered at the palace came up to talk to us. He recommended the same gate we had just visited, and upon finding out we were Canadians, held a long conversation about his visits to the country and the history of the palace.











While we had a relatively peaceful visit to the palaces in Seoul, there was decidedly less people here, and devoid of school groups running around. My favourite part of visiting these historical buildings are when they stage the interior with items from that period, especially the kitchen and pantry areas.







After a long morning of walking, we headed over to Chicken Street in search for some chicken and beer. Oddly enough, in the middle of the day, many shops were closed, so we found one of the only open ones and ordered a traditional-style fried chicken and some Kloud beer.





To this day, I have still not had modern fried chicken in South Korea. A travesty, I know.



We got back to Seoul in the evening, and after wandering around Dongdaemun and checking off more items on our shopping list, we settled for a dinner of Korean-Chinese food. I enjoy jjajangmyun (짜짱면), but I still have not had a dish of tangsooyook (탕수육) that I enjoyed - 咕嚕肉 is superior.