Ice-Skating at Seoul City Hall

Angela and I recently decided to go ice-skating one evening after work. Neither of us had skated in nearly a decade (probably a lot more, in my case), but after a little practice we soon became pretty self-assured, occasionally even a little cocky, whizzing around the rink like Torvill and Dean. In fact, during our allotted ninety minutes of skating, we fell over a total of...zero times! After my rather graceless skiing venture (which I made a post about at the beginning of this month), this was a huge success, and both of us felt pretty proud of ourselves for walking away from the rink bruise-free and dry-clothed!

We arrived at City Hall metro station, where some umbrellas hung over Exit 4.

The ice rink was fairly busy, and there were a lot of Koreans who were obnoxiously good at skating; not a surprise given that they seem to be superhuman when it comes to navigating ice on the streets.

Before it was our turn to skate, there was an interval while the staff polished the rink with buckets and watering cans. This seemed a little rudimentary for technology-obsessed Korea, but they did use an ice resurfacing machine at the end of the evening.

Angela, posing while a man in a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) skates by.

Me, trying to get my bearings.

We got our photo taken with the old man in the hanbok.

There I go, graceful as a swan.

Angela and I had a great time at this ice rink, and we're planning on going again while the winter lasts. If you're interested in visiting it yourself, you can easily find it by going to City Hall Station, Exit 4 or 5, and following signs to Seoul Plaza.