Ringing in '07 in Seoul

December 27, 2006 4:53 PM

Entertainment for two megooks in Seoul on New Year's Eve?

Husband and I are taking the express bus from our tiny island to the big city of Seoul Friday evening. We'd like to do something fun for New Year's Eve. Ideally nothing too Western-oriented, as we'd prefer a multicultural experience.

If nothing else, we haven't ruled out spending all evening at a bar in Hongdae. I've Googled, but all the events I can find are from last year.

posted by Brittanie to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

I'd also consider the neighborhood around Yeonsei university for local bars. Very much a college scene in some ways, but you're sure to get the multiculti experience. This is a really wicked-cool interactive subway map of Seoul--would have loved this when I lived there 10 years ago.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 5:24 PM on December 27, 2006

If you guys don't mind crowds, you might want to be around the Boshingak bell when it rings at midnight on New Year's Eve. You've probably seen it on TV if you were in Korea last New Year's. It's like a Times-Square-ball-drop thing, maybe. It's on the 1 line, at the Jong-Gak stop, around exit No. 4.

Or try walking along Cheonggye-chun or stopping by City Hall. They have a bunch of lights up and the skating rink's pretty active.

In fact, what I would do (if I didn't have plans) would be to start around City Hall, walk east along Cheonggye-chun for a bit, head up north to Insa-dong, and then back south a bit to Boshingak to see the ringing of the bell. It's a nice area around there.

In fact, that's a pretty nice course. Hmm. Here's a map. Here's the same map in Google maps. Hmm. I might do this tomorrow. Thanks for asking this question!
posted by suedehead at 7:33 PM on December 27, 2006

Brittanie, I am not 100% certain yet, but my colleague and I may be in Seoul, and if so we will be looking to drink beer... if you are interested in meeting up, email is in my profile.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:13 AM on December 28, 2006

Wow, thanks for all the maps, guys. If anyone wants to meet up I'm down, just post here and I'll send you an email.
posted by Brittanie at 3:47 PM on December 28, 2006

Two miguk-in/miguk-saram. 'miguk' is an adjective (as is waeguk, used the same way, for another common example). [/pedant]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:26 PM on December 28, 2006

Stavros, I just got "Survival Korean" for Christmas so hopefully things will improve.
posted by Brittanie at 5:18 PM on December 28, 2006