Seoul - Day 8

On my second last day in Seoul we went to Nami Island, after our oversleeping spoilt our plans to go on New Year Day. The rescheduling sort of worked because we had no idea where to go on this day in the first place.

Nami Island, or Namiseom, is this small island in the middle of a small river made famous by Winter Sonata where the male and female characters had various meetings there.


The boat that would take us to the island.


The boat had a weird design where there were seats at the sides only. Everyone else had to stand. The boat ride was short though.


Country flags lined the sides of the ship, and there was Singapore's!


Arrival at the island!


Random ice structure.


Still in New Year mood.


This is a fountain that had turned into ice.


One of the many rows of trees around the island.


Squirrels, and later as we found out, animals, running freely on the island.


The bridge where the male and female characters had their first kiss on.


More random ice structures.


This little river had turned into ice completely.


No idea why this was there...


Yet more random ice structures.


Even the snowman felt cold that day.


Of course as usual, plenty of establishments to make money out of us tourists.


Very beautiful row of trees.


This was taken at the edge of the island, and this was the river which the island sat on. Probably because ships didn't run through this area, it had turned into one huge sheet of ice. Beautiful.


A lake. As icy as the river.


More rows of trees.


Rabbit.


Another fountain. Again didn't work anymore because all the water had turned into ice.


A joyride train for kids that ran around the island.


Ostriches.


How the name of this island came about.


Late lunch was Ginseng Chicken with a pot of tea. A little expensive at 12,000 won, around S$13, but in such really cold weather, the ginseng soup was simply heavenly.


Went back 'mainland' after lunch. This was 'immigration' where Nami Island was an imaginary country.


Waiting for the train back. It took us an hour and a half each direction.

Second stop of the day was at Technomart, South Korea's version of Sim Lim Square. Our main aim there was not the electronics and computers there, but..


..the Olympic Bridge, built for Seoul's 1988 Olympics.


Technomart had a little viewing gallery where we could overlook Han River and Seoul. Very nice, although it was very cold.




We walked around the shopping mall and waited till night to see if the Olympic Bridge was going to be lit up. There were some lighting in this viewing gallery..


..but the Olympic Bridge was not exactly lit up. :(

And that is all for Day 8.

Seoul - Day 8