A Sunday afternoon in Yongsan Family Park

May 15 was Buddha’s birthday as well as Teacher’s Day here in Korea. I expected my husband, who’s a Buddhist, to go to the temple but he didn’t. I guess he’s lazier than I’ve known him to be :D. I don’t remember him going to the temple last year either. It was a Sunday and I don’t like staying home on weekends so I thought that we should go somewhere. ISKA Korea will have a picnic at the Yongsan Family Park on May 22nd so I thought it would be nice to check out the place. My husband called up Dayeon and Hangyu (kids of his eldest brother) so we can pick them up and go with us.

We went to Yongsan at around 4PM and it wasn’t hard to find the place. There was just a bit of a traffic near Dongdaemun coming from Jangandong. The park used to be accessible only to the American military and their families but later on was given back to the city government. The new National Museum is being constructed nearby. When we got there, the parking lot was full so we just left the key to the parking attendant.

Yongsan Family Park is not very big but it’s quite charming. There’s a nice a nice pond that’s shaped like a giant teardrop in the middle of the park. You can also find several sculptures placed randomly all around. There’s an area surrounded by Korean flags and appropriately called “Taegukgi Park”. A small hill was planted with young pine trees and on the top is an exercise field. The pine trees smelled so good that my husband thought we should go back there one time and just lounge underneath.

We spent about an hour walking and exploring the area. The kids were bored and hungry so we just decided to go. Before leaving, we had to pay for the parking fee and it was expensive at 300 won per 10 minutes! On the car, the kids were complaining that they’re hungry. I sensed that my husband got irritated with his own nephew and niece because he wasn’t answering their questions anymore! They kept on repeating that they were hungry and wanted to eat hamburgers. I also got annoyed so when we saw a Lotteria, I just bought them a cheeseburger each and nothing else. I would have bought them their favorite bulgogi burger set if only they behaved well! Bwahahahahaha!