Sunday, June 1, 2014

Doing Dalmaji Hill.... drunk....

The weekend is always a wonderful time to get out and explore the city.  With the warm weather of summer finally upon us, my girlfriend and I took it upon ourselves to explore.  So several weekends ago, we went in search of Dalmaji Hill.

Dalmaji Hill is a scenic walk near Haeundae beach.  Known for spectacular views of the sea and the moon, the sidewalks here are wider and more accomodating to foot traffic.  A pleasant change to most streets in Korea.  On the weekends, Dalmaji Hill is the site of a logcal arts market, where local craftsmen peddle their wares in the open air.
Intrigued by this prospect, my girlfriend Carrie and I resolved to find this market.

The following account is our ridiculous experience:

Our journey began on a Saturday (the arts market is only open Saturday and Sunday 2-6 pm) a poor choice as Carrie and I are not known for our ambitious approach to Saturdays.

Cantankerous Carrie demands to know why she's awake at 11am
However, we managed to rally ourselves and clamber onto the subway towards Dalmaji Hill.  The hill is most easily accessed by taking the Green line past Haeundae to Jung-Dong subway stop.  From there we left Exit 5 and walked directly out of the exit and down the street.  It leads straight to the hill.  The walk to the hill isn't far, maybe 15-20 minutes before one begins to walk on the wider promenade the artsy hill provides.  Along the way Cantankerous Carrie and I armed ourselves with some soju tonics and snacks from a local 7-11 and set out on our search for artsy things!

The climb isn't difficult, and is no more strenuous that other hills in Korea.  We ambled our way up, enjoying the views on the coast and beach below, laughing, talking and drinking our soju.
Cantankerous Carrie enjoys a nearby garden overlooking the beach.  See how happy she is?
The weather in late May is hot, but not incredibly smothering like later in the summer.  The breeze is always strong near the coast so we were able to enjoy being outside without sweating through our clothes.  The climb was relaxing and we easily wound our way up to the top of Dalmaji Hill.


Upon reaching the top of the hill, we found this small plaza with local arts.  It was certainly less extensive than we'd anticipated, but by this time the soju was working is menacing magic and we pressed on for more sights on our Saturday afternoon.
Merry Michael is clearly more of a morning person

There are lots of fine restaurants and shops here on Dalmaji Hill, as well as unique hotels overlooking the sea.  Rumor has it, Dalmaji also possesses a large open air amphitheater that local thespians use to perform Shakespeare in the summer.  We never found the theater but amused ourselves with taking funny photos with the local sculpture:
EAT ALL THE GUMMY BEARS!!!!


My own attempt at devouring gummy sculpture via forced perspective failed miserably.  I merely look like a laughing cartoon villain! Though local Koreans were amused at us attempting this shot! 
Unsatisfied with the arts we found, we clambered back down the hill and down to the beach.  Though it was still too cold to swim we enjoyed walking in the surf and laughing at ourselves.  It wasn't much of an adventure, but it was enough to remind us how lucky we are to live in a great city with silly things to do on Saturdays.
Add ocean to Cantankerous Carrie to induce elated smiles!