After waking up at the RYSE, we had our usual breakfast and went out to take a walk around Hongdae as well as had one final snack before checking out. We then took the train to Incheon to fly home to the US.
Hongdae
After waking up at the RYSE, we headed downstairs for breakfast. We were a bit surprised that there was no bulgogi today! They’ve had either spicy or non-spicy every other day during our stay!
After breakfast, we went outside for one last walk along the Hongdae Red Road. While this area has been lively every night that we’ve been here, it is extremely quiet during the morning. The Red Road name makes sense once you see the road’s surface!
The two Red Road mascots!
They do a pretty good job of cleaning up the area each morning. The plants are also watered and appear well taken care of!
The red Red Road mascot makes an appearance on some of the infrastructure boxes by the road.
The garbage and recycling bins are decorated as well, though with the 마포구 Mapo-gu logo.
We kept on going until the Red Road merges into the 경의선숲길공원 Gyeongui Line Forest Park, a linear park that follows a former railway line which has since been moved underground. We noticed this map for the first time. We’ve only visited a small portion of the marked areas, maybe from R1 through R5.
Not sure what this is, it looks like a generator or some other sort of equipment. It is well decorated!
The two mascots make a appearance again ❤️
The structure containing the map, as seen from a different angle.
We found a map of the immediate area.
This building is depicted on the map. It has information and bathrooms.
These structures contain various shops. We’re not sure if they’re permanent or popup shops. It was still pretty early, around 10am, so nothing was really open.
We kept on walking to the east, coming a cross a Seoul My Soul installation which was sort of taped off. Seoul My Soul is the official branding of the Seoul government.
This section of the park, under an overpass, is setup as if it were a train station. There is a large Red Road mural opposite of the platform, which was being touched up at the time. It is about half way between the real subway stations at Hongdae to the west and 서강대 Seogangdae to the east. This was as far as we went. We turned around and started to make our way back to the Red Road.
This stone marker commemorates the first Korean Nobel Peace Prize winner and gives this street the honorary name Nobel Street. The text translates to (via Google):
Honorary Road Name: Nobel-gil
Road length: 12km (Gyeongui Line Forest Road and Gyeongui Line Book Street in both directions) Road sections: Yanghwa-ro 21-gil ~ Wausan-ro 35-gil, Yanghwa-ro 23-gil ~ Wausan-ro 37-gil Reason for award: To commemorate the first Nobel Peace Prize winner in Korea, to wish for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, and to hope for additional Nobel Prize winners, the honorary road name was awarded by Lee Hee-ja, President of the Nobel Foundation in the Republic of Korea.
Donor: Kang Seung-hee, Senior Advisor, Nobel Foundation, Republic of Korea
April 29, 2019.
Mapo-gu Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun
The marker doesn’t mention it but the Nobel Prize winner is Kim Dae-jung, a former president of Korea and the only Korean to win so far.
As we approached the Hongdae subway station, we noticed windows being cleaned on one of the buildings in front of us.
This is kind of a weird sculpture. It was next to the subway station.
We headed past the station to return to the Red Road but had to wait a bit as there was some construction traffic in the way. In the US, we only know Samsung as a manufacturer of electronics. However, they are a chaebol and are involved in all sorts of businesses. This apparently included commercial vehicles, though the company seems to be defunct as of 2000.
Finally, the Samsung truck is gone!
We noticed some additional equipment boxes with the red Red Road mascot.
We noticed this Smurfs building before while walking through the area. It is the Smurfs Magic Village, an officially licensed escape room that has multiple locations in Korea.
This planter features both Red Road mascots.
We noticed this big map of the Red Road. We never noticed it before!
This building seems like it is constructed from shipping containers, or maybe just shipping container parts.
We decided to get one last snack in Seoul before returning to the RYSE to check out. We ended up visiting 골든크레마 Golden Crema, a coffee shop, as it was open. We went up to the second floor to wait for our order.
There is at least one more floor above.
We ordered a mango bingsoo with mango ice! It was pretty good, similar to what Mango Mango had back home before they discontinued their shave ice. We also got a cold brew coffee which was pretty bad. Oh well, the bingsoo is more important!
After our snack, it was time to head back to the RYSE to check out.
We made our final departure from the RYSE at around 10:50am. It has been an excellent, comfortable, and quiet stay!
We passed through part of the Red Road again on our way to the Hongdae subway station. There are entrances near the RYSE but we kept on going to the north to use an elevator, which we had previously located.
This Foot Locker store had a nice mural on the building. It depicts the Hongdae area as it includes various subway station exits.
We’ve walked by T Factory a few times but could never tell what they actually sell here. Looking it up, it is a SK Telecom store but is also supposed to be an “open collaboration space between people and partners to generate even greater social values,” whatever that is supposed to mean.
After arriving at the station, we took the elevator down and headed to the platform for the AREX, Seoul’s airport line. While a non-stop express train is available, it only stops at Incheon International Airport and Seoul Station. Instead of going to Seoul Station, we simply took an all stop local train to Incheon International Airport.
The Journey Home
After checking in with United Airlines and passing through security and emigration, we visited the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge.
We were pretty happy to find chilli crab! The crab was previously frozen but at least it didn’t taste bad. The sauce was pretty good. The closest we’ve gotten to actual Singaporean chilli crab without being in Singapore! And significantly better than our last chilli crab experience, which was the worst meal we’ve ever had in Japan!
The other food items at the lounge were excellent too. Definitely better than airline lounges in the US. They also had laksa available to order.
Soon, it was time to board UA892 to San Francisco International Airport, a trip that takes about 10 hours of flying time.
United does typically offer some sort of local selection on its long haul international flights, though it isn’t always good. At least the ice cream is generally pretty reliable! Breakfast service has been pretty hit or miss, and this was definitely a miss.
After arriving at SFO, we quickly entered the US, went back through security, and headed to United’s Polaris Lounge. The options in the dining room vary by season and location, though some are always available like the cookie.
We had what must be the world’s smallest crab cakes, which weren’t too bad as far as crab cakes in places that aren’t Maryland go. The asparagus and pea soup was surprisingly decent. The salmon was also surprisingly decent, still too dry but moist by American salmon cooking standards. The risotto was more like congee than risotto. The flavor was ok though.
We had nearly six hours to spend in the lounge we arrived before noon and our flight out wasn’t until around 6:30pm. Plenty of time to use the shower!
There was a nice view of San Francisco as we departed to the east on the first of two domestic flights that would take us home.
Two flights, two meals.
The End
Overall, it was a pretty good trip! 10 nights is longer than we usually will stay in one place, but it is nice to be able to settle in and not have to move. While we saw may things in Seoul, there is still plenty we did not see and plenty of food we did not try. Maybe we will return in the future?