Sightseeing in Seoul

(View out of our room.)

We all slept a little better last night. About 2am every morning, we all wake up and toss and turn until daylight. We are delighted when the clock hits 6am since we feel like we can get out of bed and start our day!

About 9am we headed out for some direction from the concierge and breakfast. We also ordered up a baby bed for the room. We have no idea if we will actually use it or if Theo will need to sleep in bed with me.

We caught the metro to the Air Terminal, just a few minutes away. There, I bought Theo’s airline ticket on Korean Air. He has to have a lap ticket but I couldn’t buy it until I had his passport, which I was given yesterday. Mom and Laur emailed home at some computers in the Korean air office while I bought his ticket ($276 US). We also read the comments from yesterday’s blog and it was fun to read those. It did make me miss our China travel group camaraderie – this has certainly been a more independent travel experience!

Then we did a little shopping in route to the subway. The underground walkways lead to all kinds of interesting places. At the mall, Laur wanted to try on shirt she liked but the store clerks wouldn’t let her because it was a “one-size fit all.” We had a hard time understanding her so we got in trouble twice for trying to try it on. Crazy.

We then took the subway to the Insa-dong area which was delightful. The stone streets of the Insadong are lined with shops of Korean crafts. We explored many pottery stores and enjoyed tea samples. This area was very different than our shopping at Namdaemun since there were more authentic Korean items- a must see stop for travelers in my opinion!

A little after 1pm, we decided to get some lunch. A narrowing side street led us to a Japanese garden and an interesting restaurant. We ventured in but didn’t find much on the menu so we headed back down the narrow path. A little way back down the street, a woman making handmade dumplings caught our eye so we decided to try the menu. Our server did not know any English so it was a very interesting ordering process to say the least. Luckily mom had a card written in Korean that said “I do not eat meat.” I showed the server the card so she understood why I selected a vegetarian dish (they often try to talk you into certain items on the menu). Then we ordered dumplings for 2 with meat for mom and Laur.

Our server brought out a beautiful presentation of vegetables, noodles and dumplings and sat them on a burner at our table. We started to dig in but she quickly stopped us because the foods were not cooked!! All in all it turned out to be a terrific meal and more food than the 3 of us could eat for less that $30 total. I am sure the restaurant staff had a lot of fun talking about us after we left.

We headed back out onto the main road in search of Gyeongbokgung Palace but instead happened upon the Jogyesa Temple. We observed a Korean Buddhist ceremony from a distance. The “One Pillar Gate” was colorfully decorated with lanterns. We were pleased to have stumbled upon this historic temple surrounded by cityscape.

After some round about trekking (our specialty!), we finally ended up at the enormous Palace and we were able to join in on an English tour. However, the three of us were quite a distraction to the hundreds of school kids touring the palace. They all wanted to practice their English with us (China travel group, it was like the park experience in Nanning!). Many kids came up to us and said “Hi!” we would say “Hi, how are you?” and they would giggle profusely as they said “Fine!” Many of them said “You are beautiful.” We would say back, “You are beautiful too!” and they would giggle some more.

A few groups of girls asked us to take pictures of them with their cell phones and would follow us throughout the palace giggling. Our tour guide had to scold them several times! We were quite a spectacle. Fortunately at the end of tour we were allowed to pass through the gate of eternal life. Who doesn't need that?

After our palace escapade, we caught the subway back to the hotel. We’ve been enjoying an interesting grocery store in the underground of our hotel. It is set up like the makeup counters in a department store except the vendors are all for food related. There are amazing bakeries, candies, cheese, sushi etc. We found a wine area and bought a some wine, cheese and some bread. By the way, they also happen to sell Volpi sausage products from St. Louis, Missouri!

Now we are treating ourselves to in-room happy hour. We will have to see how much energy we have left for dinner. It was cold and rainy today. Add that to some serious walking and you have 3 worn out girls!

Tomorrow had been deemed “Theo day!” We will be sending Laura off to Japan tomorrow morning. That will be sad because we have had a terrific time stumbling through the sights of Seoul with her.

Love and miss you Chris and Ella!! More pictures of Theo very soon.