trip to Seoul

The full moon at the end of September marks Chuseok. It's an important holiday where Koreans pay respect to your ancestors and celebrate the harvest. School was closed for the week, so I took the opportunity to go to Seoul. ( I heart Seoul).

I took the KTX train which is super fast and comfortable. It was a treat to see the mountainous country side and listen to easy listening banjo music which was being played over the train's intercom.

As we neared Seoul the rain began but knowing Korea I brought my umbrella. By the time I got out of the train station it was pouring, and flooding. It was crazy! Fortunately I made it to the neighborhood where I was staying before the station closed due to flooding. The streets weren't draining and the water was, no joke, half way up to my knees. We stood under a overhang watching the madness as people in their holiday clothing were forced to wade through to board buses or get into cabs. It turned out to be a freak storm that lasted all day.

One of the traditional chuseok foods is songp'yon, a glutenous rice cake filled with honey and sesame seeds (sometimes mugwort is added) steamed over pine needles. To make the glutenous rice you smash the grains with a wooden mallet while adding a bit of water. The day after the rains as we walked around we saw a festival where traditional games were being played and there was a glutenous rice flour making demo.

The last photo is of Cheon Gye Cheon a stream that flows through Seoul near the main palace. A road was built to cover the stream in the 1950s to eliminate the shanty town and disorder that had sprung up along the stream. Later an elevated highway was built over the area. In 2003 there was a movement to restore the stream, the roads were removed, the infrastructure changed, and in 2005 the stream reopened. Stepped below street level it's a beautiful park and place to stroll.