Seoul

At 9am on Saturday morning, I hopped on a bus bound for Seoul. It's only a 2.5hr journey and the bus takes you directly into the town so very easy. The subway system in Seoul is similar to that of London's so didn't have any problems finding my way around. The subway (I keep wanting to say tube!) map has prices on the lines from the centre so you know how much your fare is going to be each time. And instead of the ridiculous prices of £4 you'd pay in London for a single journey, it is only 1000won - 50p. Brilliant. They also have an oyster card system too, which saves you about 200won a journey. Not much when you put it into pence (10p!) but it saves having to keep bits of paper which are about 5cm x 2cm and you can also keep topping it up.

I had a list of things I wanted to do during the day and decided to start off with the Namsangol Hanok Village. Hopped on the subway to Chungmuro where the sightseeing began.

Cheonugak Plaza:

Queen Sunjeonghyo Yun's House:

Palaquin:


Me in the doorway looking touristy :)

Aristocracy:

After this I got on a bus to Namsan mountain where the N Seoul Tower is. After a strenuous 5min walk up a beast of a hill, I went up the tower to the observatory, took some piccies and then had a wander around. There was a great family atmosphere with lots of children running about and couples have a drink overlooking Seoul on their Sunday afternoon out. Around the edge of the seating area, is a barrier where there are THOUSANDS of locks locked onto it. An interesting idea and it looks quite cool!

N Seoul Tower:

Smoggy Seoul from the tower:

Keys:

Outside at N Seoul tower:

After having some candy floss and walking back down the hill (just as hard as walking up it!) I got back on the bus and then onto the subway towards Jogno-go to the Jongmyo Royal Shrine:

Just outside the Shrine (it is completely walled in) under the trees were hundreds of men sitting on strips of cardboard with make shift boards playing Chang-gi (the Korean equivalent of chess). They were all very serious and I don't think it's a place for women!! Definitely a man's game here :)

Next on my list was to go to Myeong Dong - this was in search of a bicycle shop but after walking around for nearly an hour and not finding it, I sat down to the most AMAZING meal - it was a meat restaurant. Mmmmmmmm, I am salivating at the thought of it!! Was given an apron to wear and a table that sits 4 people was covered in food for ME :)

Myeong Dong is a very popular shopping area and every shop is a high street name - Adidas, Mango, Ralph Lauren, Nike etc. On the outside edge of this area is City Hall where they had the ceremony for Mr Roh on Friday. Hundreds of riot police where about on Saturday as some troubles were still expected. All sat in straight lines like school children and not much action for them. Although there was a bit of running around:

Riot police:

Met up with some friends from Gunsan, Steve, Lindsey and Mark and we joined two others friends Josh and Jamie in Itaewon. We went to an Italian restaurant and the main reason for that choice was that it serves TEA! Proper English tea. Which was absolute heaven. They also had Guinness which put another smile on my face. I didn't eat after the monster of a meal I had already eaten, but food looked good :) We asked for bruschetta and were given melon, but everything else was right!

Then on to a bar which serves Kilkenny by the jug!! Another smile on my face!!!! Guinness and ale all in one evening!!! It was the final of the super 14s rugby and we went to a sports type pub for it. I could not believe my eyes when I walked in. Every single person in the bar was a foreigner. And it was packed full. Many were South African there for the match, but as we were with a New Zealander, we supported them in the final. They lost. Whoops!

The night went on and we got the bus back to Gunsan at 8:15. I had a relaxing afternoon and had a quick nap and then met up with 9 others at one the bloke's house on his roof. For some salsa lessons! Yes, salsa on the roof! It was great! We were separated into two - boys and girls - and learnt a few of the basic steps. Next lot of lessons next week :)