Day 9: A Closed Kitchen and Seonjeongneung

After leaving Bongeunsa, I hopped back on Line 2 and went one station over to Seolleung Station to visit Seonjeongneung.

It was 2:30PM when I got to Seolleung Station and I had put off eating lunch because I had plans to eat somewhere specific. By this time, I was kind of hungry, weak and 멍 from not eating but not as much as I was earlier. I find that once you get over that initial hungry phase, you don’t feel it as much anymore. At any rate, one of places I put on my itinerary early in the planning stages of my trip was this ramen restaurant called Red Kitchen. Being a fan and listener of K-pop, one of the groups I like is 카라 (Kara). They are super cute and their music is fun to listen to. One of the members of the group is Nicole Jung whose mom happens to be the owner of Red Kitchen. I saw Red Kitchen and Nicole’s mom being featured on Korean TV once so that’s how I knew. The program gave a tour of the restaurant and showed signed pictures of Kara all over the restaurant as well as the signatures and pictures of other musicians and actors/actress who had eaten there.

I was never serious about going until I started looking it up. If I start looking things up on the net, that’s when I usually end up committing myself because I’ll discover that anything is possible so long as you educate yourself. When I researched and discovered that Red Kitchen was located in Seoul and near one of the sites I was going to, it became a sure destination.  So here I was all excited to visit Red Kitchen and have some Korean ramen! I got off at Seolleung Station and left by Exit 7 and followed my maps until I found it. Here are the directions I took on the map:

View Red Kitchen in a larger map

Unfortunately it was CLOSED!!! AAAHHHHH!!! It felt like déjà vu all over again! I was still reeling from the Golden Rice Cake Room disappointment and now this. I tried the door, even though it was obviously closed. I couldn’t tell if it was closed-closed as in out of business closed or if it was just closed during this time and only opened at night. I peered in and it seemed like it was still operational but I couldn’t tell for sure. I didn’t even take a picture of the restaurant sign or anything and started walking away with my head down dejected. But you know what? Sometimes the things you hope for the most turn out to be the biggest disappointments and sometimes things you didn't care for much turn out to be the biggest surprises. At any rate, if you are interested in checking the place out, here is the tel# 02-539-7012 and maps. I hope you have more luck than I do and let me know how the ramen tastes.^^

There was a Paris Baguette very close to the subway station so that’s where I went for some food. Paris Baguette is like bakery that sells desserts, pastries, bread based foods and cakes. These were all over the place in Seoul. I bought a hotdog, pizza-like bread and a cool strawberry juice. The hotdogs in Korea were similar to the hotdogs in Tokyo and unlike the ballpark hotdogs found here in North America. The bread was similar but the wiener was more like a breakfast sausage. In addition to getting some much needed food and rest here, I was able to get my internet fix as there was free wi-fi. Yah! Here is my hotdog…does it look yummy or not?

After my late lunch, I took a short walk over to Seonjeongneung. Seonjeongneung, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, actually is comprised of the Seolleung Royal Tomb and the Jeongneung Royal Tomb, hence the name Seonjeongneung. My Lonely Planet book called this place Seolleung Park Royal Tombs. There are actually 3 burial mounds (2 Kings and 1 Queen) and they are dispersedly located throughout a wooded park so to see all three you have to basically do a circle of the entire park but that's actually a good thing.

The first tomb I visited, that of King Seonjong, was actually also the only tomb that was accessible up close for me. It was located at the top a hill that gave you a nice look out to the rest of the park. It was guarded by statues of men and what looked like ram or sheep made in stone.

Even though my feet were aching, I didn’t mind the walk around the park and I actually ended up finding that to be the best part of this place. I’m not sure what kinds of trees were growing here but foliage was a lush green and the trees themselves were a reddish brown. That coupled with the very earthy tones of the grounds along the paths all made it feel like a natural and calming place to go for a stroll. I saw several locals throughout the park using it as their walking ground.

While I was there, they were actually doing a lot of deforestation of certain areas but it was still very nice to find places like this where you could momentarily get away from the city while still being in it.

Here is the 3rd burial ground, that of King Jeongjong. The closest you could get to it was at the bottom of the hill.

Here are a collection of clips I took while Seonjeongneung.

As a tourist, I probably wouldn’t come here just for the tombs themselves as there is not much you can see up close and in person. However, if you are looking for a quiet, forested park where you can take a slow stroll that so happens to also be a UNESCO Heritage Site containing a piece of Korea’s Royal history, I think you will find it a much more satisfying experience coming here with that frame of mind.

Today felt like one of the longer days I was out and about so after seeing Seonjeongneung, it felt so nice to finally be on my way home…