Having to leave the country once again for my visa I found myself in Seoul, South Korea. Technically this post doesn’t belong in my blog since I was not in ‘The Middle Kingdom’ but I think you’ll forgive me. 🙂

My trip began with a quick (less than two hours) flight from the capital to Incheon, South Korea. The flight was in the middle of the day which is nice because I didn’t have to get up early but also isn’t nice because by the time I got to Korea, traveled to the hostel, and found some supper, the day was pretty much shot. I can’t decide which way is better. 

If you recall, back in November I had to go to Hong Kong for similar reasons.  That was by myself but I felt like I had way too much help.  The trip to Korea was a different story.  I got to experience ordering a ticket and having it delivered to my door and paying for it in cash!  That was fun.  I found a place to stay in Seoul called the “Happy House”.  It was highly rated on the internet and, let’s face it, it’s called “happy”.  How can you go wrong?  I arrived at the airport, exchanged some money, and found myself on the airport express heading into Seoul.  My ticket for the express train cost 3400W!  I made it to the subway station that was near my hostel and followed the directions. (Thanks to my handy iPod Touch I didn’t have to write anything down.) 🙂  I managed to find the hiding hostel.  It was in an interesting part of town.  I’m glad the directions included certain ‘landmarks’ along the way or I never would have thought to go that way. 

After checking in, I found some supper at a nearby Chinese 🙂 restaurant.  I guess I can’t avoid them!  I was informed (through charades once again) that I was to take off my shoes if I wanted to eat at that table. Okay. Check.  I pointed to something at the menu because, even though I feel comfortable ordering for myself in China, I find myself in Korea…at a Chinese restaurant…with a waitress that speaks Korean. I’m starting over again. Back at square one. The food was enjoyed while watching pairs figure skating on the huge TV right in front of me.

I headed back to the hostel after supper and met my roommate and her three-year-old child. Funny thing…when I met them I said, ‘she’s cute!’  To which the woman replied, ‘He’s a boy.’ 🙂 In my defense, he had longish curly dark brown hair and the longest eyelashes.  He really did look like a little girl.  They were from England and it was fun to listen to the little boy speak to his mother with an English accent. It reminded me of the commercial that comes on in the Subway here in Beijing with a little English boy. ‘Mummy! ….’  

The interesting thing about hostels is that you get to meet a varied group of people.  I didn’t really get to know any of them well (I mean, how can you in a week?) but it feels like you are immediately connected to them simply by being foreign.  This woman and her son were there just as long as I was and each night we told each other about our activities of the day.  There was a group of girls that I didn’t meet because they were only there for one night.  Two men from Spain, Charles and the other guy whose name I didn’t catch.  I chatted with Charles for quite a while one morning.  Oliver, who said he was from England but didn’t really sound like it. I made small talk with each of these people in the mornings before I left and at night when I came back.  I exchanged email addresses with two of them!

The Church, Olympic Park, Insa-dong Market, Namsan Tower

The next morning I woke up and made my way to the ELS mi**ion congregation.  I met with the teachers there and the Shepherd of the Flock also.  One of the teachers gave me some pointers for what to see and what not to see.  I was looking forward to exploring on my own.  About 10 min into our conversation, a Korean man (Sean) comes into the office and just stands there. The teacher introduced him to me and then he left.  Later, I learned what the exchange was with Sean and the teacher’s wife (who is his English tutor).  It went something like this: 

            Sean: Do you think she wants someone to show her around?

            Teacher’s Wife: I don’t know. You could ask her.

            Sean: No, that’s okay.

            TW: Okay.

            (five mintues later)

            Sean: (stands up abruptly) I’m going to go ask her.

So, he came back upstairs to ask me if I wanted someone to show me around. I said sure. Really, he wanted someone to practice his English with.  He wasn’t available until later in the afternoon so he wanted my phone number to give me a call when he was done with work.  I told him I didn’t have a phone. He was confused as to how he would contact me.  So he went back downstairs with his teacher.  I figured something out and then wrote where he should meet me and at what time and took it down to the room where they were studying.  It is interesting to not have a phone where I can just text someone where I am.  I had lunch at the school—a delicious soup-like dish—and then left to explore a little on my own.

I found myself at the Olympic Park.  I imagine that the park would be much more beautiful in the spring or summer (as any park is) but it was still beautiful.  I loved the mountain backdrop behind the large buildings.  I wandered around the hiking area for a while. Then I walked along the little river that runs through the park.  I wanted to be on the other side of the river and I had already passed up one bridge.  I figured there must be another way to cross a little ways down.  I found the crossing point and with it found a little outdoor ‘sculpture’ gallery.  For the ’88 Olympics sculptors from all over the world were asked to create sculptures to display in the park.  It was fun to see which part of the world they were all from.  Eventually I found the subway station and I was off to meet Sean.

Sean met me at the subway station near Insa-dong market.  This is a place where you can buy chintzy Korean souvenirs.  It was fun to walk around the market and look at stuff though.  There were many foreigners at the market. Actually, there were many foreigners in Seoul period.  After the market, we went back to my part of town so I could get my tripod. (a must for nighttime pictures)  We ate some supper and then headed on a bus up the large hill in the center of the city. On top of this large hill is a tower. Usually when you see a picture of Seoul it will have Namsan Tower in it! The tower was pretty neat. On the windows surrounding the tower there were city names in the appropriate direction with the estimated distance to each city.  The South Pole is over 14,000 km away!  The area around the tower was also pretty cool.  There were a bunch of these wire sculptures of men that were illuminated by a beam of light. Very neat. I included a picture of one of them below!

Namdaemun Market, Hanyang University, Korean barbecue, 76ers bar

The next day we met for lunch at the previously mentioned Chinese restaurant. Sean wanted me to try a certain Korean food that was made by a Chinese person that you can only find in Korea…or something like that. Hmm… I didn’t really understand.  The food was delicious and after lunch we were off to the market. 

Namdaemun market is the biggest traditional market in Korea.  It sells tons of clothes and miscellaneous items.  It was pretty crazy at this market.  I heard that over 40,000 people visit the market each day.  My favorite part of the market was the flower shops. It smelled wonderful in all of the flower shops.

After visiting the market, we were planning to go to Yeouido Island but thought that might be better during the warmer part of the day.  We ended up visiting Hanyang University where Sean studied Law.  The campus was beautiful and is known for its cherry blossom trees. Unfortunately, I was there in the winter and did not get to see the cherry blossom trees. After wandering around and taking pictures for a while we went to a restaurant where we had Korean barbecue.  We then walked around in the university area.  We visited a bar called 76ers. Hehehe  It was back to the hostel after that.

Itaewon, Yeouido Island, the small island, bridges, 63 Building

The morning was spent by myself exploring Itaewon area.  Itaewon is the foreigner part of town.  There are many many foreign shops and restaurants.  After walking along the street and window shopping I went to Starbucks 🙂 and had some coffee while sifting through my pictures. I then left to go visit the island.  When we got to the island we rented bikes and rode around the island for an hour.  During our bike ride I was able to take some pictures of the bridges we saw.  We took the bikes back and then walked (quite a distance) to the 63 building.  Then we decided it would probably be neater to see it at night.  So we walked back to the subway so that we could go to a different, smaller island.  This island was only accessible by foot.  We picked up some chicken on a stick on the way to the island because we were hungry and didn’t have enough time for a sit down meal.  The chicken was delicious!  On the island there are many plants, but again, it isn’t springtime and I’m sure it would have been much more beautiful if the plants would have been in bloom.  There was a good deal of bamboo growing there.  We stayed on the island until sunset so that I could take some sunset pictures.  Then, we headed back to the 63 building via bus.

We went to the 60th floor of the 63 building (which is actually the top floor because three of the floors are underground).  On the 60th floor there is a Pop Art gallery.  The art gallery was pretty cool but the view out the windows was even cooler.  I probably would not recommend paying the price to go up the building because you can go up Namsan Tower for almost half the price and see a cool view also.  After the 63 building we walked along the river so that I could take some more night photos before we found some supper at a nearby restaurant.  It was also delicious.

Ch*rch, The National Theater, The Yoduk Story, COEX

The next morning was Sunday and I made my way across the city for w*rship.  There were about 20 people for the English service and about 200 or so for the Korean service!  After ch*rch I went to a Communicating Chr*st Class.  Then everyone was invited to join for lunch.  Lunch was delicious, again, and after lunch the P*stor said that he had some tickets for a musical in the afternoon.  I only had a small idea of what the musical was going to be about.  So, one of the members drove me and another American (who is teaching in Korea) to the National Theater for this musical.  The musical was about one of the North Korean prison camps.  It was a great musical and very well done! 

After the musical, the American and I met up with Sean at COEX which is basically a really busy shopping mall.  We had supper together at Sbarro where I ate Bulgogi pizza.  Pretend it is meat lover’s pizza and don’t ask what kind of meat it is! 🙂  The American left us after supper and Sean and I had ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  (Korea is so American)

Insa-dong (take two), Gyeongbokgung Palace, Palace Museum, Cheonggyecheon

I was intending to visit the DMZ (demilitarized zone) with a friend of mine from Beijing (who was going to be in Seoul for a few days).  The DMZ is basically a strip of land that’s kind of a buffer between North and South Korea.  We didn’t end up going to the DMZ because they had a rule about wearing jeans.  So I ended up in Insa-dong once more to try to find some sort of souvenir from Korea. All of the stuff I could buy there looked just like the stuff I could buy in China.  So, I didn’t get anything except a magnet. 

After Insa-dong, I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace which is almost in the middle of the city.  It was fun to see the similarities between the Chinese temples and the Korean ones.  The Korean temple had much more green space than the Chinese ones.  Below are some pictures of the palace and of the museum that was connected to the palace.

After the palace and the museum I went to Cheonggyecheon. This is an area in Seoul that has this man-made river/stream.  It was beautiful for taking pictures, especially at night.  I also got to witness a protest and see hundreds of police officers!  I took a video of part of the chaos but the file is too huge to upload. Below are some of the photos I got from Cheonggyecheon. 

It was a wonderful trip!  I’m looking forward to the next journey I get to take.  🙂