After their time on Jeju, Allison and Kate wanted to explore Seoul. Patrick and I decided to go with them and finally see the big city everyone keeps talking about!
Despite living here more than 6 months, we’ve never seen Seoul. Here’s some quick stories from our first trip.
Stop one: Patrick and I went to the main palace, used for many 100s of years. Here’s the main gate, with skyscrapers behind.
The throne room – so colorful!
A quiet reflecting pool on the palace grounds. The signs say the boated here with high-power guests!
Behind the palace is the current Blue House (like the American White House) – real guards with guns hung out here.
Back at the front gate of the palace, we had perfect timing to see the changing of the guard – historical style.
Just like in London! These guys all have the same funny Confucian facial hair, too.
Star charts: this stone was carved with stellar movements/maps. It is the second oldest in the world, carved in the 1300s!
We were in the big city and took advantage of our first Mexican restaurant in 6 months! Chips and salsa and super burritos. Patrick tried the “fusion” burrito – with beef and kimchi… He liked it!
We spent a little time wandering the touristy shops in the foreigner district before heading back to central Seoul. We were hoping to get to the Seoul tower for some great sunset views over the city.
As we walked toward the bus stop, we walked with dozens of brightly dressed police officers. There were about 50 police busses in front of the subway station. Must have been some kind of drill, but definitely intimidating!
The bus didn’t come, so we took a taxi, which couldn’t drive to the top (busses only, go figure). He dropped us at the cable car, which had a VERY long line. Here’s the view from the outside part of the line…
Riding in the cable car, after sharing lots of pictures and stories during our 1.5 hours in line. 🙂
Trying to capture the tower behind us. Needless to say, we didn’t make it for the sunset!
Kate and Allison smiling at the observation deck. No sunset views, but awesome night-time lights.
On the observation deck, the thing to do was to buy a $15 lock and hook it to the fence, to “lock” your love together. We locked our love with photos instead.
We closed the night with a noraebang (private karaoke room) and some beers, including this one from the North and got to us “under the table”. The beer wasn’t much, but we were noraebang masters!
Sunday we spent at the “secondary” palace. We got there just in time for an English tour. This stone bridge is the oldest in Korea – original and survived all the Japanese burnings, attacks, and when they turned the palace into a zoo for a few decades.
Our tour group approaching the main palace building.
Painted eaves with carved guardians on the roof.
I loved these little guys. Each figure had a different meaning – monkey, monk, phoenix and more.
In the palace garden, we got to view some old statues, the concubine quarters, and the secrets statues holding the placenta from royal births. Then to the ponds, where some serious looking photographers were way into the ducks.
We grabbed some Vietnamese food for lunch – I had my first pho (delicious!) and then went on a quest for some special ice cream our friends told us about. It took several games of charades, a bus ride, and Allison almost tackling a poor woman we saw eating one – “Where did you get that?!” But finally:
Smiling with our ice cream canes.
The canes are made of something like honeycomb cereal and filled with vanilla and/or chocolate thick soft-serve. Tasty, and clearly a trend. Everyone on the block was eating them and the production line was extremely efficient.
We said good-bye after our ice creams. Patrick and I headed back to the airport and Jeju and Kate and Allison continued their journeys on the mainland.
It was so much fun to explore together and have great friends around.
Please leave a note if you read this far – it’s always nice to know someone’s reading. 🙂
Lots of love from Korea!
Looks like so much fun!
You really got busy in March I’ve checked the calender several times and there is nothing. It is so great that that you have had the opportunity to see that part of the world and share it with the family over here. I have found the reports very interesting and have thought it would be nice to visit you there but it isn’t in the books. So please keep the news coming, we really enjoy, we have read them all.
When you get back pleas try to visit us here. Mark’s wife Ellie the Wells family from the Seattle and Oregon area have plans to come to Juneau in July for a wilderness trip on Shelter Island for six days. Maybe we could do the same in a coupled of years God willing and I’m still around. You realize I’m coming up on 86 years in June.
Love to you both from us here in Alaska.