선유도공원 - Seonyudo Park

Had the chance to visit this beautiful park that I always pass by whenever I take the bus from the Songdo Campus from Incheon to Sinchon, Seoul. From afar, I only see a long curved shaped bridge joined by 2 straight ones which really made me interested to go to this place. It's actually a little island in the middle of 2 areas, namely Hapjeong and Dangsan. So the entire "little island" is actually the entire park, Seonyudo Park. Once you see why it's so beautiful, you might actually want to have a go.

Before actually going to the park, I was actually at the Seoul Friendship Fair. This fair is held annually, usually during the first week of May. It hosts many booths from different countries around the world, selling merchandise, souvenirs, food, and traditional items. Went there specifically to change the size of the T-shirts that the Singapore booth was selling. It was pretty fun, and was able to try one of the food from the Indonesian booth.

Here's more information about the Seoul Friendship Fair if you've missed it and plan to go:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=1277021

The food was nice, and considering you got to eat sort of "authentic" food that was cooked by the native people, it was pretty delicious. There were many other different dishes available, but we weren't feeling very hungry so we decided to carry on. So we went back to Hapjeong station where we had to take a public bus for 2 stops before getting off and walking there. It was raining pretty heavily so we decided to make a rest stop at Coffine Gurunaru, which by the way, serves the best honey bread ever. (Instructions on how to get here at the end of the post)

This is the bridge I see all the time, beautiful isn't it?

Hot chocolate on a rainy day.. Just missing some marshmallows. 

This is the T-Shirt the Singaporean booth was selling. 

If you don't get it, it says "Korea jinjja swee"

Which actually plays on 2 puns:

1. Korean jinjja (진짜) which means "really"

2. Hokkien dialect jinjia which means "very"

Swee... just means beautiful, or pretty, depending on your context.

Which made me really excited to buy!

The rain had simmered down, the smell of rainwater, trees and nature filled the air. It was cool and beautiful, very nice to walk and the place was just eye-catching. 

And now, after crossing the bridge to what I would have thought to be just a park, or a random island, was this beautiful place with lots of old structures, playgrounds and just amazing colors. To top it off, there were many photographers going around with people dressed to the nines, not in a professional way, but in a cosplay way. There were people in wigs, fairytale dresses, anime costumes and the likes.

The entire place was overridden with plants, trees and water. I wouldn't want to be there in the night with all the mosquitoes buzzing around due to stagnation of water, but it was indeed really beautiful to be walking around, breathing in the fragrance of Mother Nature, and just appreciating the beauty of a natural reserve park.

There even were 2 greenhouses near the entrance of the park

There was an art performance to do with water and clothes (maybe laundry?) so they were doing some sort of dance where they were on all fours crawling around and flinging clothes to some creepy music. I wouldn't really be able to understand things like that, and wasn't able to read the brochure either since it was all in Korean. Though it was not really understandable to me, it was pretty interesting to watch because it was something that I can safely say I've never seen before. After a while an intense part of the music came and they started flinging clothes like crazy into the air. It was pretty magnificent.

After a while, we came to an end (technically, the entrance of the park) and then continued to walk towards Hapjeong since we didn't want to take the bus again. It wasn't really far, and if you actually know where it is, it wouldn't hurt to walk there since it's better than taking the bus (in my opinion). But then again, it's up to you ^.^

So anyway, the instructions! Get off at Hapjeong Station - Exit 6, take a right turn, cross the street halfway and then take bus 602 and  facing the left direction. You just need to be on for 2 stops, and get off at the stop with Coffine Gurunaru. You can either walk downwards to the signage as in the first photo of this post, or you can start off with the bridge, either way it's going to be an eye-opener.

Till next time!