Well here we are again...blogging. Hopefully we can keep up the good work (I know, two posts in almost a week? Yes, we are crazy). Well here is the second part of our too short vacation (but then who's isn't?).
So we left from Jeju city on a Saturday afternoon and flew to Seoul, arriving at Gimpo airport. The flight was great, only 50 minutes, and no one lost their passport! After an immediate stop at Starbucks, we headed for the information booth to find how to get to our hotel. There is an amazing amount of people who speak English in Seoul and almost all of the information booths we found cater to English speakers. So we got the skinny on how to get to our hotel and were off on a bus.
Our hotel was a nice change from where we were staying in Jeju. We decided to "splurge" a little on our hotel in Seoul, and we were nicely rewarded. The hotel had central air (something often to be desired in Korea), two beds (also not that common), a balcony, a huge shower (no shower shoes needed) and even a bidet (what a treat). Only Shawn had the courage to try the bidet, and for those of you who really "know" Steph you can understand why she would never try it.
Well on to more interesting subjects...the events of Seoul. The first night we kept it pretty low key, just visiting Itaewon (a major foreigner hang out) for dinner. For this trip we made a strict vow to eat no Korean food (not that we don't like it, but come on we get enough!). So for our first night we enjoyed a nice, romantic Thai meal. Well, alright it wasn't that romantic for us, but the restaurant sure tried. After dinner we just visited a few of the local "hot spots" to check out the Seoul night life...no more on this subject.
The next day we roused ourselves in the early afternoon for a little shopping, which Seoul is so famous for. We were completely underwhelmed by the Namdaemun shopping district (supposed to be the largest open air market in Korea). Not that they didn't have a lot for sale, just not a lot we wanted. We emerged from this shopping trip with only one purchase: a dog costume for Steph's old dog. After shopping there was only one obvious choice, a visit to a palace. Deoksugung Palace, is located right in the heart of Seoul next to city hall. This palace was originally built as a home for King Seongjong's older brother, but then became the home of the King after the Japanese invaded (one of the many times) and burnt the King's Palace. Didn't know you were going to get a history lesson did ya? This was a good first choice for us, as it is one of the smaller palaces and not nearly as overwhelming as our next palace. After our first palace experience we needed a little rest and relaxation, before we ventured to Seoul tower that night.
Seoul tower was an experience in and of itself. Really if you have visited one tower, you have visited them all...but that didn't stop us from being the tourists we are and including it as a "must see." This was a long ordeal. The wait just to take the cable car to the Seoul tower base was almost 1/2 an hour and then you are stuffed in for your ride up. Once you get there you then have to purchase an elevator ride to the top of Seoul tower and wait again for your turn. When your turn comes around you are crammed into an elevator with as many people as they can safely fit and up you go. The view from the top of the tower was pretty much what we expected... lots of lights from the city below. Not that it wasn't pretty, we're not sure that it merited the wait required. After a quick stroll around the tower, we made the long trek back to the bottom.
The next day was filled with more shopping and more palaces. This time we visited Insadong, which is famous for it's Korean souvenirs. We spent a couple hours browsing the selection, which all started to look the same after a couple shops. We both had intentions on buying gifts for people, but both went away empty-handed. Sorry guys, maybe next time. After our shopping trip, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). I believe this is the largest of the palaces, measuring in at 5.4 million square feet. It definitely was a beautiful palace, but like we said, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. So after milling around for an hour, we decided to head back to our hotel. This was our last night in Seoul so we went out for a nice Italian dinner and even had ice cream for dessert. After a long day of walking around Seoul, we decided to call it a night.
The next day we were up and off, back to our "lovely" town of Chilwon. Shawn had never taken a train before and wanted to pretend he was Harry Potter for a few hours so we headed off to the KTX station. Unfortunately, the trains in Korea are nothing like the ones on Harry Potter so he was slightly disappointed. But nevertheless, we managed to get home in one piece. All in all, it was a very nice vacation.
Stay tuned for pictures from Seoul.
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