I wanted to visit the Han River, and thought, “What best to do there than to live out a Rooftop Prince scene…”

CYCLING!!!

I somehow have the impression that dating-cycling is a thing in K-dramas, although Rooftop Prince is the only one I can recall now.

In case you’re clueless, Rooftop Prince is a really nice Korean drama (which you should watch)!

Han River is a really, really long river – 4th largest in Korea, as Wiki tells me – that winds through Seoul. I researched the best place along Han River to go cycling, which was at Yeouinaru.

It wasn’t too crowded, and the weather was PERFECT. Not sunny, but not rainy either ^o^

The only thing is that the pollution from China made the view all hazy :I

The moment we entered the park, I was ambushed by a flyer-distributing ahjumma. At the very instant I reached out for one out of curiosity, the radars of the other ahjummas loitering around instantly picked up the signal and flocked over.

What is “Chimek“? It’s a portmanteau of chicken and mekju (Korean for beer). So yes, it refers to chicken and beer, a favorite food combination of Koreans!

In fact, it was made popular outside of Korea recently, full credits going to the super hit K-drama, My Love from the Star (aka You Who Came From the Stars).

Cheon Song Yi (the female lead), craved chimek about 284089 times during the show. Made me so hungry watching her :G

We watched the drama just before going to Korea, so it was something we wanted to eat too :D

Yes. I’m aware everything mentioned so far are K-drama references. SO? We watch a lot of K-drama.

Anyway, back to cycling.

We returned the bike at about 7pm, and they were still renting out bikes. When we finished dinner about 8-ish, rentals were closed.

There was a building next to the rental station, serving… YES. CHIMEK. Guess what was for dinner? Hahaha.

It was a lovely cozy place, but all the full-length window seats were taken! :G

OY GIRL. DON’T TAKE THE WINDOW SEAT IF YOU’RE GONNA BE LOOKING AT YOUR 300 DIFFERENT ELECTRONIC SCREENS AND NOT OUTSIDE OK.

We settled for a half window, bar-style seats instead.

TADAH!!! Fried chicken, served with the typical side dish of sour cubed radishes. And ya la, it’s coke, not beer, so technically it’s not chimek. It’s chico. LOL.

We went home with fat, round bellies, heh. Also super happy that we got good weather to cycle in, plus we had chimek!

Oh, I had no optimal place to add it in, but I wanted to post the photo of our first ever cherry blossoms sighting in Korea. We saw it at the entrance of the park, and there were like, 2 trees that were in bloom.

I made it look all pink and pretty here, but actually it wasn’t as magical haha. And somehow the feeling is entirely different from viewing it in Japan, dunno why.

Although yes, it’s entirely possible that I may be biased.

Cycling at Han River

To the bike rental station:

At this exit is a wide flight of stairs leading into the park. After descending the stairs, turn left and walk for about 5 minutes and you’ll see it.

For other Seoul posts, check out the master post!