Hey There!!! Back at it again with another post, which is Day 2 of my 5D4N Trip to Seoul, South Korea. It was a Sunday, and weather on the day was bright and sunny, although the temperatures were still above 30 degrees but it was fine considering its kind of like this all the time in Singapore. Will be splitting Day 2 into three parts, Part 1 being Seoul Olympic Park, Part 2 being Gangnam Station and Shake Shack and Apgujeong Rodeo, and Part 3 being Starfield Coex Mall and Hongdae.

Day 2 Itinerary

Seoul Olympic Park – Gangnam (Shake Shack) – Apgujeong Rodeo (K Star Road) – Coex Mall – Hongdae

We started the day bright and early, setting off from our hotel at about 9am. We decided to have breakfast at some coffee place near the station called Holly’s Coffee (Its a coffee shop chain from South Korea).

I ordered a Caramel Macchiato as well as a Belgian Chocolate Cake. The whole thing costs under 10,000 Won (12.2 SGD), and it was neither outstanding nor bad. If you need like your coffee fix you can come here for coffee in Seoul but I would say give the cake a miss unless you are really hungry.

We then took the subway from Hongik University Station to Seoul Olympic Park Station, which took us 50 minutes to get there. A thing to take note when travelling to Seoul Olympic Park on Line 5 is to take note of which direction you are heading. Towards Macheon is where Seoul Olympic Park Station is and not Sangil-Dong.

After reaching my dad was a little peckish as he does not really like cake so we went to get Kimbap from a store that was above the station.

After this we headed straight into the park. When we entered there were a lot of young ladies around carrying light sticks as well as banners around, so I was wondering what was going on. Turns out a popular boy band in South Korea called BtoB (Born to Beat) was hosting a 3 day concert, and many people (Mostly Girls) were here to queue for Merchandise. I walked for 3 mins just to get to the end of the queue.

I have listened to some of their songs before like Pray and Missing You but I did not know that they had such a huge fan base. Makes me wonder how many people come for a BTS or EXO concert in Seoul. Another Cool thing that I saw was the rice donation that artists from CUBE Entertainment do, where basically fans can donate bags of rice to charity in the name of the idol they support instead of buying gifts for them.

Enough of the BtoB concert, lets get to the actual part of the park. When you enter the first thing you will see is this gigantic thumb. Apparently this is a statue by a famous French Sculptor called Cesar Baldacinni called Le Pouce (The Thumb)

It takes around 30 minutes to an hour to complete a walk around the park. First off we passed by the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Arena (Where the BtoB concert is held) and the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium (Where Zico, another idol, was having his own concert). We then walked anti clockwise to see the park.

Seoul Olympic Park is full of these kinds of sculptures that are located all around the park in remote locations, so you can slowly spend your time exploring every nook and cranny finding all these sculptures (There are over 200 sculptures in Seoul Olympic Park!!!).

This is probably the most iconic monument of Seoul Olympic Park, which is the World Peace Gate. It was designed by architect Kim Chung-Up to commemorate the spirit of the games as well as to demonstrate the ability of the Korean people. It was really breathtaking up close to me HAHA. There is also an eternal flame under the gate as well as many totem poles along the road.

Overall, Seoul Olympic Park is a beautiful park located in the metropolitan Seoul that is really nice, with plenty of different sculptures to see, as well as ample space to walk around and explore this beautiful park. If walking is not your thing, there are also places for you to rent bicycles to cycle around the park (I think they have those couple bicycles too if I was not mistaken). You can probably finish exploring the whole place in at most 2 hours, so you can come here in the morning for a walk with your significant other or family members to take in the fresh air before moving on to your next activity. There are also playgrounds near the World Peace Gate for the young ones (as well as the young at heart) to keep them happy. Really recommend anyone who goes to Seoul to visit this place, even though it takes almost an hour to come.

That’s Part 1 of Day 2 in Seoul. Hope you understand the rationale behind splitting as I have more pictures to share today (I did not think about doing this blog while in Seoul). Next up is Gangnam as well as Apgujeong Rodeo!!! (Stay Tuned for part 2)

Links:

• My Post on Day 1 in Seoul: wanderland6.travel.blog/2018/09/02/seoul-day-1-11th-september-2018/
• The KTO Page on Seoul Olympic Park:  http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=789703