Wanderlust : Seoul, Korea (Day 5) [Yeouido Park, Yeouido Hangang Park, Itaewon]

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

It's Spring and it calls for some bloom cherry blossoms aka Sakura (no this is not Japan). I did some research and found out during Spring, there will be a Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival in Yeouido Park, and it's free too. Yes certain park requires admission, that's because it's more private, and one of the highlight includes autumn trees too. It is slightly further thus I decided to go with this, Yeouido Park (여의도 공원).

Yeouido Park is a large recreational area, a long rectangular park, located in the central part of Seoul. The park is divided into four themes mainly the Traditional Korean Forest, Grass Square, Culture Square, and Nature’s Ecosystem Forest. My main highlight to this park is for the cherry blossom trees, which are mostly 30 to 40 years old, all planted along in a stretch of about 6km long path.

Due to the unusually cold weather during Spring, some of the trees are still "bald". 
As you can see, the park is surrounded by tall buildings, this is also one of the business district. 

Like I've said the Yeouido Park has two ends because it's a rectangular park, and it's in between two stations and an alternative way provided via National Assembly Station.

Walking along in search of the pink tree and tadah!


Don't worry! I didn't pluck them from the trees, I picked it up from the ground.

If only I can preserve it all the way back to SG.
Oh they lovely mini flower beds in the middle with extremely beautiful and vibrant bloomed flowers, the one behind me are the smaller ones, the one in yellow is called yellow flames (my dad told me once when I was younger and I remembered till today haa)

Here's another one with tulips :)

Strolled to the end of Yeouido Park and we reached another section called Yeouido Hangang Park (여의도 한강공원), basically this part of the park is located along the Hangang River which explains the name. 

They offer Hangang River Ferry Cruise with or without buffet on board (reservation needed) if you are interested and have plenty of time.

All the walking makes me hungry and off we go to busy Itaewon for lunch!

Here at Maple Tree House (Danpungnamujip, 단풍나무집) for their raved premium grilled meats for BBQ. The restaurant is located behind the Hamilton Hotel.

You can't miss this huge door haa!

The interior and ambience of the restaurant is pretty elegant and it's on the above average pricing.

They use traditional grilling via the charcoal fire.

The service is superb! The staff offered to cook and cut the meat for us.

Korean Prime Beef Sirloin [approx 35,500 won for 160g]
I'm in love with the juicy beef and pork! It's very tender and soft, the marination was fantastic and it brings out the flavour in every bite. 

Previously they only have two outlets and the other branch is in Dogok-dong, but I personally find Itaewon branch is more convenient.
Definitely coming back here for awesome food, ambience and service!

***
Directions:
Itaewon Station (Seoul Subway Line 6), Exit 2.
Go straight for 8m and turn left at the first corner.
Go straight for 35m and make a left onto Itaewon 27ga-gil Street.
Maple Tree House is 40m up the street on the right-hand side.

Maple Tree House
Hamilton Hotel 2F,
116-1 Itaewon dong,
Yong san gu,
Seoul, Korea

Operating Hours:
Daily: 11:30am - 10:00pm
***


Itaewon is melting pot of a shopping district shops and restaurants and cafes featuring cuisine from all over the world.
We settled in Caffe Bene for desserts and tried the famous bingsu!
We must be cray cray to have that in the chilly weather lols =X

By the time we head back to our hotel, the whole stretch of stalls popped up and we thought we were on the wrong street, as this wasn't there in the morning/afternoon. Well as you can see most eateries and shops are closed thus this is how the local get food past operating hours. 

We didn't quite understand what was served there as they do not have a menu and we were having a communication barrier. Therefore, we headed back to our hotel to munch on these!!! (photo below)


Seoul, Korea (Day 4) <<< CONTINUE READING >>> Seoul, Korea (Day 6)

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