Family @ Seoul: Day 4 – Insadong

After postponed for a couple of days, my sister’s family had chosen on Day 4 to bring their boys to the Everland Theme Park. Hubby and I had earlier decided not to bring our boys to the Everland, so we chose to visit Insadong on this day since we were on our own. Very nice weather @ Day 4!

The last round when I travelled to Korea, I personally like Insadong a lot and I am sure Hubby will love this place too. So this round I told Hubby, I must bring him there! But then shyly to say, I did not know how to reach Insadong from Myeongdong. So we got assistance from the ‘Moving Tourist Information Centre’ who wore in red shirt. She told us to take the Subway and stopped at Chungmuro Station. From Chungmuro, to change to Line 3 and take to Anguk Station.

However, Hubby was smarter. He told me that we could walk to Chungmuro Station by reading through the subway’s map. Okay…. Actually initially I was a bit reluctant to walk as we were with 2 kids. But never did I expect that the walking journey seemed to be so easy. Haha… We walked through the underground, covered with aircon with very bright walkways. I believed they just renovated the walkways and some new tenants were moving into the new shops. But a lot of shops are still vacant. As we walked through, some older shops were not opened yet. Perhaps the time is still early.

I LOST most of my Insadong’s trip photos as most of them were taken using my smartphone. I can’t share how the underground walkway looks like but Nico and Kimi really enjoy the walk (at most time, they run!). Hehe… Not many people used this walkway, so Kimi and Nico can run as ‘crazy’ as they like.

It was a very long walk, but comfortable and not tiring. We were not in a rush. So the walking duration took us more than 30 minutes I supposed. Finally we reached Chungmuro Station (Line 3). We took 3 stations to exit at Anguk Station.

Insadong as introduced on: http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264354

[ Insa-dong, located in the heart of the city, is an important place where old but precious and traditional goods are on display. There is one main road in Insa-dong with alleys on each side. Within these alleys are galleries, traditional restaurants, traditional teahouses, and cafes.

Every Saturday from 14:00 – 22:00 and Sunday from 10:00 – 22:00, some streets are blocked off from traffic and it becomes a cultural space. Stores set up booths outside and others set up shops (Korean candy merchants and fortune tellers.) There are traditional performances and exhibits as well. Insa-dong is especially popular with foreign tourists. This is where they can experience and see traditional Korean culture firsthand, and also purchase pieces of fine art. On the street you can eat Korean taffy and traditional pajeon (Korean pancake), and see many foreigners lost in all the joyous festivities of the street. ]

Here, we are @ Insadong! It was very crowded even though we reached there before noon time...

Mummy and Boys ^^ They were so busy with their drinks!

Kimi @ Insadong ~

Nico @ Insadong ~

Hubby and I @ Insadong ~

The 'weird' ice-cream I tried at Insadong… Very long queue and I joined in the queue too! The stick shaped corn snack is a Korean traditional snack and is made of corn flour. It is filled with creamy, vanilla-flavoured ice-cream.

Korean Dragon Beard Candy – Very long queue too! We bought a packet to try and it was simply delicious! Soft and not too sweet. I like it ~

Finally, Nico fell asleep when Mummy was busy shopping around! So we chose a more spacious restaurant to dine in for lunch so that we could park Nico's stroller in the restaurant with us. We walked by a few twisting alleyways, passed by a few traditional restaurant and finally decided on one! And finally, we were sitting on a CHAIR to eat and not on the floor! Hehe :)

Luckily I found these food photos from my Facebook page. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to show how delicious the lunch was! A simple lunch with great satisfactions ~

Street Performance @ Insadong ~

We really enjoyed this day at Insadong, as we experienced the different street compare to Myeongdong. LOVE it!

Kimi was so tired after a few hours of walking and insisted us to carry him. So at the end, this was what his Daddy did on the street!

From Insadong, we slowly walked our way back... We passed by the Tapgol Park and had a short visit while the boys could rest their legs too. This is not a very big park but it protects a historical heritage. I can see some elderly people resting and chit-chatting among themselves. No photos to share on this park as I did not capture it by using my camera... To be continued ~