낙산 | Naksan Art Village

Continuing on from my previous post, we took a bit of a hike up to Naksan. I'm partial to a bit of street art, so this seemed ideal, mixed in with a bit of much-needed exercise.

The walk started off innocuously enough, with a lovely long mural next to an intriguing looking building in the ever pervasive trend of "industrial chic", egh. (Also, it was a lock museum. As in, a museum...about locks. Padlocks, door locks, safes...really?)

However, it wasn't long before we reached this:

Despite my laboured wheezing, I had enough time to appreciate the view, which just kept getting better. I have to say, the people that live here must be REALLY healthy. There's only one road up the whole hill as far as I can tell. Anywhere not directly on that road? Better walk, kid.

\

Ghost Sharks

The higher up we went, the more art installations we found, also, more greenery. Even if it was just little potted plants, there were many more "gardens" in the area. It was also incredibly quiet, considering we were only a short distance from the hustle and bustle of Seoul.

*insert deep and meaningful caption here*

Possibly my favourite pieces of art here were the painted stairs, which were a fun perspective trick, as well as prettying up something generally un-pretty-able.

PUNS!

Annyeong~

The stairs just kept going up and up, and these little alleyways connecting streets and houses were becoming more and more popular, often leading to houses that had been awkwardly jammed into any free space, popping up like weeds. Too cute.

Mysteriously tiny door, for Ann-Marie.

Eventually, we reached the "peak", which gave us an awesome view of old and new Seoul.

Interesting graffiti wall featuring...Benedict Cumberbatch's entire name?

After a lovely long conversation, my lungs rejoiced and we descended through some leafy streets, hopped on the subway and went to Yongsan. It was our first trip to the infamous Itaewon, and typically I didn't take any photos. But I can assure you, after nearly 2 months in a fairly homogeneous society, it was quite odd seeing such a diverse range of people.

For the uninformed, the diversity is due to the USA's mini-city here, in the form of its army base. I think the population there is actually large enough to warrant being called a city, and there are neighbourhoods, shopping areas, schools, a cinema, and more.

Anyway, we went to a place selling GREAT sandwiches (OMG BREAD. MY ONE TRUE LOVE. I MISSED YOU.) which I have forgotten the name of, and, again, failed to photograph. We finished up with some excellently thick shakes at the adorably-named Once Upon a Milkshake, and that's that.

Petition to street art all the places _o/