Olympic Park and Olympic Museum in Seoul

     This past Saturday I went to Seoul to check out the Olympic Park and Olympic Museum. Olympic Park is actually a huge park of about two square kilometers which houses a lot of the original stadiums used for the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988. There is also a small art center SOMA which has an outdoor sculpture garden. On the morning I was there they were actually setting up for a Kara concert. Kara are a popular South Korean girl group who have been around now for about 5 years. The above picture are of Kara.

     As you enter the park from Mongchontosong subway station the first thing you will see is World Peace Gate and then you'll enter Peace Square where they have all of the flags of the 159 countries that competed in the Seoul Olympics. Some of the countries are no longer in existance such as East and West Germany while Honk Kong was still under British control. The first two pictures above are of World Peace Gate. The third picture is of the East German flag, the fourth picture is the West German flag and the fifth picture is of Hong Kong where you can clearly see the Union Jack. The other pictures of different flags can be found on Facebook.

    If you turn left from Peace Square you'll see the Olympic Museum which is full of a lot of history of past Olympics with special emphasi of course on the Seoul Olympics. Included in the museum are such things as replicas of past Olympic torches and a lot of the mascots from previous Olympics. The first picture above is of Amik, a beaver from the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The second picture above is of Sam, an eagle from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The third picture is of one of two tiger cubs used in the Seoul Olympics Hidori and Hosuni which are popular in Korean legends. The fourth picture is of Hidy and Howdy two polar bears from the Calgary Olympics in 1988. The pictures of a lot of the other mascots from previous Olympics can be found on Facebook as well as other pictures from the Museum.

    In the leadup to the Seoul Olympics the Korea government had a monthly lottery which lasted for 67 months in which people could buy tickets which cost 500 won (approximately 50 cents)each for a chance to win the monthly price of 100 million won (approximately 100,000 dollars). The above three pictures are actual tickets from the different monthly draws.

    After leaving the Museum I went to the top of Mongchon Fortess and took the two above pictures of Peace Square and the various flags and of Mongchon Moat which is frozen over ass it was about minus 10 degrees Celsius in Seoul on Saturday.

     There are about 200 different pieces of outdoor sculpture in the park itself and I've included some of them in the above pictures. Some are pretty straight forward while others are up to you to decide what they are. The other pictures of some of the other sculptures in the Park can be found on Facebook.


CHOENAN DUDE

COEX Mall - Kimchi Museum and Aquarium

     Today I went to the COEX Mall which is a giant megamall in the Gangnam district of Seoul which is home to more than 250 stores and hundreds of eating places. It also includes the Megabox movie theater with 17 screens, a night club, banks, a post office, a huge bookstore and music stores. It also contains a small Kimchi museum and the COEX Aquarium.

     The Kimchi Museum is located in the basement of the COEX Mall and provides information about the Korean staple food of kimchi and how it was made and stored both in the past and present day. There are multiple different kinds of kimchi as you can see from the above pictures. There are upwards of 80 different kinds of kimchi. Traditionally kimchi was buried in pots in the ground which would keep the kimchi at the proper temperature for long fermentation. In this way no heat was gained or lost and the kimchi could be kept a long time without losing its taste or healthful benefits. The rest of the pictures of the Kimchi Museum can be found on Facebook.

     Also at one end of the COEX Mall there is also the COEX Aquarium. The COEX Aquarium has over 650 different kinds of animals including both land and water animals. Everything from bats and spider monkeys to penguins and sharks. The above pictures are from the Aquarium and the rest can be found on Facebook. The weather is finally starting to warm up some so hopefully it will be a chance to venture outside next weekend instead of looking at indoor options.


CHOENAN DUDE