Korea Pt 2: Soeul

After all our much needed family time and seeing some of the Korean countryside we decided to hit the big city. We took the train into Soeul from our family's place. It would have taken about an hour, but we misnavigated and got on a local train so we stopped at all the stops. But it was fun to see Korea by train, and the people were so nice giving our kids snacks and saying hello. So when we got to Soeul it was a bit later than expected. We ate a late lunch and headed to Tokyo Tower to see the views and then after walk down along the old city wall. The views were great, and it felt so different than Tokyo with a hill in the middle of the city.

The walk along the wall was my favorite part. It was so peaceful and beautiful for being in the middle of a big city. The kids loved the hundreds (maybe thousands) of stick bugs we found.

The next day we woke up to light rain, that began to downpour as we got to our destination: Changdeokgung Palace. It was a downpour on and off for the entire day from that point on. We made it work and we got to see the beautiful Palace. When we did the secret garden tour the rain thankfully stopped and we could fully enjoy it. And we found a huge rhinocerous beetle, it's wing had been a bit damaged, but it was amazing to see such a massive bug. After the Palace we stopped at a pizza place to get out of another downpour and it was delicious brick oven pizza, Yum!

After lunch, the rain slowed enough for us to venture out again and we walked over to Bukchon Hanok Village to see the traditional neighborhood. The narrow streets were fun and the doors on the houses were really beautiful.

Then we were walking over to Gyeongbokgung Palace, when we walked apon Samcheong-dong Street a really fun street with fun shops. We found a churro place with several different flavors of churros and stopped for a treat. Then when we got to the palace we realized that it was closed on Tuesdays, so we could just see it from the outside walls. It was in a really cool location with amazing architecture and modern buildings right next to this old traditional palace, and beautiful mountains surrounding. So we headed back to our hotel and on the way home we stopped at a ginsing chicken soup resteraunt (which was an amazing coincidence, because it is the meal of summer solstice, and it just happend to be the solstice). It was also a great warming meal after a very wet day (we were all drenched to the bone). Dispite being soaked our kids still opted to go swim at the hotel pool, so our skin got a lot of water that day.

The next day we took a lazy morning as the forcast was rain again. The kids an I explored the wet playground and the gardens in the back of the hotel. It had a lovely Korean style Pagoda with the most beautiful flower design painted on it (the flower design I saw frequently throughout Soeul).

After we walked across the street to the Korean War Memorial and Museum. The kids loved all the military vehicles and they enjoyed the history part. it was a fun day for all. After we were all thouroughly tired (and hungry, because we could only find a coffee shop in the museum for lunch), we headed to the neighborhood just east of the hotel, Itaewon (it seemed to be the international quarter and even had tiles with different cities from all over the world stuck in the walkways). We ate fusion tacos, they were delicious. They had some traditional mexican tacos, but they also had a kimchi pulled pork taco that was divine.

We found out that our military flight had been delayed two days for maintenance, so we got to extend our vacation two days. We decided to do more indoors activities, because the rain just persisted. In the morning we headed over to Lotte Tower mall. We thought about going up in the tower, but the poor visibility with the rain made it feel like a waste. So we headed to the Lotte Aquarium. We did make one stop on the way, a Ghibli Studio store, just to check out their amazing Totoro and Spirited Away displays.

The Aquarium was a lot of fun and we even got a brief look at a beluga whale.

For lunch/dinner we headed to Gwangjang Market. It was a bustling traditional market with a big street food section. I ate the most delicious kinchi dumpling that I have ever eaten, they were heaven. Jake and the kids settled for a ice cream waffle with nutella. Jake and I also tried the mung bean pancake that they were sellin everywhere, they were good but not nearly as food as the dumplings. After the food we explored the rest of the market which included so many fabric stores, clothing stores, traditional clothing stores...for what felt like miles. I loved it...the kids got a little bored. So we headed home and watched Ponyo together (I guess we are really in a Studio Ghibli phase).

Our last half day in Seoul we decided to go to the Coex Mall to explore the beautiful library there. And it was a sight to see. The kids at first were grumbling that they would hate it, but they all found books to read while Jake and I took turns exploring. After we decided on bimbibap for lunch. And we headed back to Pyongteak to our family.

We spent one last night with our cousins and then we caught our flight home the next morning, no surprises. I liked Korea so much more than expected. I was thinking it would be very similar to Japan, but it turned out to be very different and so much fun.