I know that I am living and working in South Korea and I am not a tourist, but I had a moment last weekend where I needed to be a tourist and see as much as I could during the weekend.
On Saturday Barry and I got up fairly early and hopped on the express bus to Seoul. The bus takes about 30 minutes (depending on traffic) so before I know it, we were in one of the biggest train stations, Gangnam station south of the Han river.
We had previously booked tickets to go on Seoul City Tour, a hop off hop on bus. We didn’t estimate the timing of the subway and over an hour later (Seoul is a huge city and has a huge convoluted subway system) we arrived in Gwanghwamun, a main gate that leads into a traditional palace from the Joseon Dynasty
But, before we hopped on the bus, we had to have lunch. We were escorted to a noodle restaurant after asking a local for advice. I ordered cold soup because it was SO hot outside and split an order of Mandu with Barry(dumplings filled with Kimchi and meat). Here is what I happily ate (and yes the soup literally had ice in it)
After weaving our way around Seoul for a couple hours and listening to the English commentary on the various stops, we decided to hop off and visit the Namsangol Traditional Korean Village
Namsangol has restored five traditional houses from upper class Koreans from the Joseon Dynasty. At the village, you can learn what life was like during the Joseon period by observing the different houses and the household items and decorations in the house. There are also booths where you can learn about traditional Korean masks (and make your own) same with calligraphy and classical music. To be honest, Barry and I thought this village was a little too “modern” and for lack of a better word “fake.” None of the houses were original and I honestly didn’t learn much because there was no brochures, or writing on the houses, so it’s not a place I will return for awhile.
Our next stop was a complete 180 from the Namsangol Korean Village, the Namsan Seoul Tower.
Namsan is a downtown park in Seoul that offers an outdoor music hall, botanical gardens with an array of jogging, walking and biking paths. In the middle of Namsan Park is actually a huge mountain called Mt. Namsan, visitors can take a cable car, bus or walk up the mountain and visit the Seoul tower which sits at the top of Mt. Namsan (we took the bus up and the cable car down). This tower is 480 meters from sea level and has an observation deck that offers a panoramic view of Seoul and the Han River. When the sky is clear, you can even see North Korea.
That night we met Raunaq, a student from the University of Akron that my mom worked with closely in the honors department. He is currently living in Seoul teaching MBA students working at Samsung. We met him in Itaewon, which is known as foreign land due to the high number of westerners living there (it even has a Taco Bell and a KFC). We enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner filled with conversation and wine. After dinner we had a nice long walk and then dragged ourselves back to Gangnam station were we hopped on the M4403 bus and were in Dongtan before we knew it.
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