{"id":484,"date":"2010-02-25T15:33:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T07:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=484"},"modified":"2010-02-28T21:56:06","modified_gmt":"2010-02-28T13:56:06","slug":"a-little-bit-of-seoul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=484","title":{"rendered":"A Little Bit of Seoul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having to leave the country once again for my visa\u00a0I 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. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0I can’t decide which way is better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you recall, back in November I had to go to Hong Kong for similar reasons.\u00a0 That was by myself but I felt like I had way too much help.\u00a0 The trip to Korea was a different story.\u00a0 I got to experience ordering a ticket and having it delivered to my door and paying for it in cash!\u00a0 That was fun.\u00a0 I found a place to stay in Seoul called the “Happy House”.\u00a0 It was highly rated on the internet and, let’s face it, it’s called “happy”.\u00a0 How can you go wrong?\u00a0 I arrived at the airport, exchanged some money, and found myself on the airport express heading into Seoul.\u00a0 My ticket for the express train cost 3400W!\u00a0 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.) \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I managed to find the hiding hostel.\u00a0 It was in an interesting part of town.\u00a0 I’m glad the directions included certain ‘landmarks’ along the way or I never would have thought to go that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After checking in, I found some supper at a nearby Chinese \ud83d\ude42 restaurant.\u00a0 I guess I can’t avoid them!\u00a0 I was informed (through charades once again) that I was to take off my shoes if I wanted to eat at that table. Okay.\u00a0Check.\u00a0 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.\u00a0I’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.<\/p>\n

I headed back to the hostel after supper and met my roommate and her three-year-old child.\u00a0Funny thing…when I met them I said, ‘she’s cute!’\u00a0 To which the woman replied, ‘He’s a boy.’ \ud83d\ude42\u00a0In my defense, he had longish curly dark brown hair and the longest eyelashes.\u00a0 He really did look like a little girl.\u00a0 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\u00a0commercial that comes on in the Subway here in Beijing with\u00a0a little English boy. ‘Mummy! ….’ \u00a0<\/p>\n

The interesting thing about hostels is that you get to meet a varied group of people.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0This 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.\u00a0 There was a group of girls that I didn’t meet because they were only there for one night.\u00a0 Two men from Spain, Charles and the other guy whose name I didn’t catch.\u00a0 I chatted with Charles for quite a while one morning.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I exchanged email addresses with two of them!<\/p>\n

The Church, Olympic Park, Insa-dong Market, Namsan Tower<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next morning I woke up and made my way to the ELS mi**ion congregation.\u00a0 I met with the teachers there and the Shepherd of the Flock also.\u00a0 One of the teachers gave me some pointers for what to see and what not to see.\u00a0 I was looking forward to exploring on my own.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Later, I learned what the exchange was with Sean and the teacher\u2019s wife (who is his English tutor).\u00a0 It went something like this:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sean: Do you think she wants someone to show her around?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Teacher\u2019s Wife: I don\u2019t know. You could ask her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sean: No, that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TW: Okay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (five mintues later)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sean: (stands up abruptly) I\u2019m going to go ask her.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t available until later in the afternoon so he wanted my phone number to give me a call when he was done with work.\u00a0 I told him I didn\u2019t have a phone. He was confused as to how he would contact me.\u00a0 So he went back downstairs with his teacher.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is interesting to not have a phone where I can just text someone where I am. \u00a0I had lunch at the school\u2014a delicious soup-like dish\u2014and then left to explore a little on my own.<\/p>\n

I found myself at the Olympic Park.\u00a0 I imagine that the park would be much more beautiful in the spring or summer (as any park is) but it was still beautiful.\u00a0 I loved the mountain backdrop behind the large buildings.\u00a0 I wandered around the hiking area for a while. Then I walked along the little river that runs through the park.\u00a0 I wanted to be on the other side of the river and I had already passed up one bridge.\u00a0 I figured there must be another way to cross a little ways down.\u00a0 I found the crossing point and with it found a little outdoor \u2018sculpture\u2019 gallery.\u00a0 For the \u201988 Olympics sculptors from all over the world were asked to create sculptures to display in the park.\u00a0 It was fun to see which part of the world they were all from.\u00a0 Eventually I found the subway station and I was off to meet Sean.<\/p>\n

\"A

A bridge across the river that goes through Olympic Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"One

One of the outdoor sculptures in the 'gallery' inside Olympic Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Peace

Peace Gate near the entrance to the Olympic Park<\/p><\/div>\n

Sean met me at the subway station near Insa-dong market.\u00a0 This is a place where you can buy chintzy Korean souvenirs.\u00a0 It was fun to walk around the market and look at stuff though.\u00a0 There were many foreigners at the market. Actually, there were many foreigners in Seoul period.\u00a0 After the market, we went back to my part of town so I could get my tripod. (a must for nighttime pictures)\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The South Pole is over 14,000 km away!\u00a0 The area around the tower was also pretty cool.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

\"A

A view from Namsan Hill. We weren't in the tower yet.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"One

One of the illuminated wire sculptures near the entrance to the tower. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The lights illuminating the tower changed every so often. Here is the red version.<\/p><\/div>\n

Namdaemun Market, Hanyang University, Korean barbecue, 76ers bar<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2026or something like that. Hmm\u2026 I didn\u2019t really understand.\u00a0 The food was delicious and after lunch we were off to the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Namdaemun market is the biggest traditional market in Korea.\u00a0 It sells tons of clothes and miscellaneous items.\u00a0 It was pretty crazy at this market.\u00a0 I heard that over 40,000 people visit the market each day.\u00a0 My favorite part of the market was the flower shops. It smelled wonderful in all of the flower shops.<\/p>\n

\"Namdaemun

Namdaemun Market on a weekday. It's busier on the weekends!<\/p><\/div>\n

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.\u00a0 We ended up visiting Hanyang University where Sean studied Law.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We then walked around in the university area.\u00a0 We visited a bar called 76ers. Hehehe\u00a0 It was back to the hostel after that.<\/p>\n

\"Traditional

Traditional Korean Barbecue. Yum!<\/p><\/div>\n

Itaewon, Yeouido Island, the small island, bridges, 63 Building<\/strong><\/p>\n

The morning was spent by myself exploring Itaewon area.\u00a0 Itaewon is the foreigner part of town.\u00a0 There are many many foreign shops and restaurants.\u00a0 After walking along the street and window shopping I went to Starbucks\u00a0\ud83d\ude42 and had some coffee while sifting through my pictures. I then left to go visit the island.\u00a0 When we got to the island we rented bikes and rode around the island for an hour.\u00a0 During our bike ride I was able to take some pictures of the bridges we saw. \u00a0We took the bikes back and then walked (quite a distance) to the 63 building.\u00a0 Then we decided it would probably be neater to see it at night.\u00a0 So we walked back to the subway so that we could go to a different, smaller island.\u00a0 This island was only accessible by foot.\u00a0 We picked up some chicken on a stick on the way to the island because we were hungry and didn\u2019t have enough time for a sit down meal.\u00a0 The chicken was delicious!\u00a0 On the island there are many plants, but again, it isn\u2019t springtime and I\u2019m sure it would have been much more beautiful if the plants would have been in bloom.\u00a0 There was a good deal of bamboo growing there. \u00a0We stayed on the island until sunset so that I could take some sunset pictures.\u00a0 Then, we headed back to the 63 building via bus.<\/p>\n

\"One

One of the bridges we saw while biking<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Same

Same bridge, different view, color version<\/p><\/div>\n

We went to the\u00a060th floor of the 63 building (which is actually the top floor because three of the floors are underground).\u00a0 On the\u00a060th floor there is a Pop Art gallery.\u00a0 The art gallery was pretty cool but the view out the windows was even cooler.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was also delicious.<\/p>\n

\"A

A view from the 63 building. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"On

One of the many bridges over the Han River<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Same

Same bridge, different view. Namsan Tower in the background<\/p><\/div>\n

Ch*rch, The National Theater, The Yoduk Story, COEX<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next morning was Sunday and I made my way across the city for w*rship.\u00a0 There were about 20 people for the English service and about 200 or so for the Korean service!\u00a0 After ch*rch I went to a Communicating Chr*st Class.\u00a0 Then everyone was invited to join for lunch.\u00a0 Lunch was delicious, again, and after lunch the P*stor said that he had some tickets for a musical in the afternoon.\u00a0 I only had a small idea of what the musical was going to be about.\u00a0 So, one of the members drove me and another American (who is teaching in Korea) to the National Theater for this musical.\u00a0 The musical was about one of the North Korean prison camps.\u00a0 It was a great musical and very well done!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ELS

ELS Ch*rch<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Inside

Inside of the ch*rch<\/p><\/div>\n

After the musical, the American and I met up with Sean at COEX which is basically a really busy shopping mall.\u00a0 We had supper together at Sbarro where I ate Bulgogi pizza.\u00a0 Pretend it is meat lover’s pizza and don’t ask what kind of meat it is! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 The American left us after supper and Sean and I had ice cream at Baskin Robbins.\u00a0 (Korea is so American)<\/p>\n

Insa-dong (take two), Gyeongbokgung Palace, Palace Museum, Cheonggyecheon<\/strong><\/p>\n

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).\u00a0 The DMZ is basically a strip of land that’s kind of a buffer between North and South Korea.\u00a0 We didn’t end up going to the DMZ because they had a rule about wearing jeans.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So, I didn’t get anything except a magnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Insa-dong, I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace which is almost in the middle of the city.\u00a0 It was fun to see the similarities between the Chinese temples and the Korean ones.\u00a0 The Korean temple had much more green space than the Chinese ones.\u00a0 Below are some pictures of the palace and of the museum that was connected to the palace.<\/p>\n

\"Inside

Inside the 'throne' room<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mountains

Mountains in the background<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This is actually a pine tree.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Some

Some cool statues in the outdoor part of the Palace Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Where

Where should my next trip take me?<\/p><\/div>\n

After the palace and the museum I went to Cheonggyecheon. This is an area in Seoul that has this man-made river\/stream.\u00a0 It was beautiful for taking pictures, especially at night.\u00a0 I also got to witness a protest and see hundreds of police officers!\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"One

One view of the stream<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This was kind of cool. A little further down there was an outdoor photography exhibit. Very neat!<\/p><\/div>\n

\":)\"

\ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"To

To go along with the man-made river, there was a man-made waterfall. If you look closely in the background you will see a few of the police officers. On the bridge behind me is where the protest was happening.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This was the best picture of the protest of the ones I tried to take. <\/p><\/div>\n

It was a wonderful trip!\u00a0 I’m looking forward to the next journey I get to take.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having to leave the country once again for my visa\u00a0I 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. \ud83d\ude42 My trip began with a quick (less than two hours) flight from the capital to Incheon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}