Seeing the Sights in Seoul

It was a gorgeous day in Seoul today. We had clear, blue skies and it was nice and sunny, although quite chilly and windy out. But it was a nice change from the last few days of dreary, rainy weather.

We spent the entire day out and about in Seoul, on our city tour which Holt provides for as part of our visit. Even though we've visited Seoul twice before and have seen just about everything touristy there is to see here, we decided to go anyway and just have fun...maybe meet new people. There was another couple from Milwaukee who met their baby boy for the first time at the same time we did yesterday and they're leaving a day ahead of us. We had 2 tour guides, Yuri and Song, who took the four of us around.

We started out at Holt and headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we caught the morning changing-of-the-guard ceremony. After that was over, we walked around the palace grounds, enjoying the beautiful architecture. Admittedly, it all started to look the same after a while and it was easy to get turned around, but it was really gorgeous, especially on such a pretty day.




Then we all hit Kyobo bookstore, a really fabulous bookstore that also sells lots of gifts, stationary, music, dvds, etc. After we were done there, the other couple and the second guide ended up splitting off at that point to go do their own thing since this was their first time in Seoul.

So Yuri took us around for the rest of the day. We walked along this interesting new canal/stream that they recently built through Seoul, walked around Namdaemun market, and checked out what has become of the famous Namdaemun gate that sadly got burned down by a crazy old man and is currently undergoing restoration.







At that point we were starving and ended up at a tiny little restaurant trying budae-jongol for the first time ever. It was a very interesting combo of ramen noodles, sausage, ham, and hotdogs in a very spicy broth. Strange, but tasty and cheap, and it sure hit the spot.



After that, we browsed around Myeong-dong and ended up in Insa-dong, one of the hippest, coolest areas of Seoul, and found a place to sit and drink coffee. It was getting pretty late at that point, so we decided to call it a day...we were pooped out.



After we got back to the hotel, we received such a lovely surprise. I had mentioned to Yuri that I was looking for Hangul fridge magnets and we weren't sure where to look for them. Well, I got a knock at the door and it was a hotel guy delivering a gift from Yuri...Hangul fridge magnets! I'll definitely need to get her email from Holt so I can thank her. They're exactly what I was looking for.




Well, we had planned on meeting Chi-Yong tonight, but we are so tired from being out in the cold all day, and I think the jet-lag is starting to catch up with us. John's currently zonked out as I write. So tomorrow, our plan is to meet Chi-Yong and head over together to the foster family's place to meet the rest of the family and Jin-Ri. It'll be so much fun to see Jin-Ri in her familiar home setting where she's totally comfortable, playing with all her toys and crawling and standing for us. We can't wait!