Suseong Lake

I ventured to Suseong Lake in Daegu over the weekend. I followed my usual city exploration strategy of not really knowing what something is, and finding it via very long, extended routes on public transportation. There were a few different names for this particular location, like Suseong Lake or Suseong Park or Suseoung Mot, but we figured to get off the bus when the electronic screen read “Suseong Land.”

This lake is apparently a known spot for the fancy restaurants surrounding it. Though the lunch I had was pretty good, what I noticed most from this outing were the duck-shaped paddle boats.

There were many duck boats docked in duck boat rental stations. They were all very cute, but all looked like they had some sort of personal struggle or statement going on, with their innocent, similar faces.

Some were decapitated and bound by barbed wire chains.

Some just seemed neglected, perched up and away from their friends, though forced to smile.

Others looked content, feeling comfort sitting still in a line amongst their peers.

Apart from the duck boats, there were some live ducks and geese. They were doing what ducks and geese do in every lake, wait around in one area for food being thrown by humans, and then fight over it.

Though aside from all the animate and inanimate water fowl at this urban body of water, my favorite sight was how well this man’s hair matched his hood.

Northwest Urban Lakes

While I was in Seattle, I randomly decided to go to a place called Green Lake. I thought it would be some small pond of no importance in some public park, but I was very surprised at its reality.

It turned out to be a decent-sized lake, with people all around swimming, diving off the diving boards, sun bathing, sailing, fishing and paddling. The water was remarkably clear for it being in such a densely populated city, and its shore was lined with a path with lots of lovely trees, flowers and blackberry bushes.

I was surprised at how clean the water was, I actually got in for a bit and went for a walk, far enough that the water would not hit the tip of my shorts. Others enjoyed the park by circling the lake, and there were lots of dog walkers, parents with strollers and joggers that look like they came there a lot.

Back in Portland, I wanted to go check out Laurelhurst Park in Southeast, the urban lake I am most familiar with. Though not Greek Lake, it is a pleasant place to daze off at the brown waters and watch the turtles basking and the ducks waddling.

I was surprised to find this lake had been immensely reduced. It was locked off entirely by a steel fence, and some sign said that they were draining the lake and taking the fish out.

There was one part where you could get sort of near where the lake used to be, and this was fortunately the area that you could also feed the ducks. The sign on the fence said that the birds would go elsewhere and then return once they refilled the water, but I guess a few of them were too stubborn to move. These birds were all funneling their beaks throughout the bleak mud, to navigate their new fraction of a swimming hole that was really a small puddle.

We fed them some burger buns through and over the fence, and talked about how strange this place now looked.