Elise's Visit

The first thing we did was go back to the National Museum, this being my 3rd time there. Luckily, it's free and really big, so this time we spent a lot of time on the 2nd and 3rd floors seeing the art rather than the historical stuff on the 1st floor that we'd already seen.

Day 2 was just Elise and I and we did a walking tour of Seoul. Hilary had the GEPIK training that weekend so she was able to stay the night with us at the hotel but she had to go back for the lectures in the morning. We started the walking tour at Namdaemun, the southern gate of Seoul. Sadly, someone set fire to Namdaemun a few years ago and burned it down, so it's still enclosed in a giant building while it's being repaired. The picture above is Elise after pretending to cry about not seeing the gate. Rest assured, we would see a gate before all was said and done. The tour then went through Namdaemun outdoor market, with a stop in Shinsaegae Dept Store, the most elite of department stores in Seoul.

Leaving Namdaemun market brought us to the old Bank of Korea, one of the few remaining examples of colonial Japanese architecture. The Japanese ruled Korea for about 35-40 years until when they were defeated in WWII and the Allies freed Korea so they could colonize it themselves, leading to the USA and USSR splitting the country along the 38th parallel, causing the Korean War and creating the DMZ. 

From the old Bank of Korea, we walked towards the center of downtown Seoul, stopping in at this Anglican church, the only (?) church of this style and design in South Korea.

After the church we passed by City Hall and the big plaza downtown where Koreans do most of their protesting, and found our way to this street I don't know the name of. It's possibly the main-est of streets, given that it is home to statues of King Sejong (above) and Admiral Yi Sun-shin (not pictured), as well as the start of Cheonggyecheon stream and leads right up to Seodaemun and Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok palace), the West gate of Seoul and one of the biggest palaces in Korea. The statues are situated on a large island between the lanes of traffic on either side, and the street is so wide when the little countdown timer starts at the crosswalk it gives you more than 30 seconds from when the walk sign starts flashing.

Further down the island, past the statues, we found an ice rink and a snowboarding hill under construction. Also, these oddly painted statues were all over, each done by a different artist. We weren't sure about the snowboard hill at the time, but later I saw on TV some video of guys snowboarding off the jump in some sort of demonstration thing.

Here's Elise crossing Cheonggyecheon (Cheonggye stream/river). There used to be a stream flowing through the center of Seoul, until it was paved over with a road to help manage traffic problems. Anyway, the former mayor of Seoul decided to do away with that road, and he tore it out and put the stream back, he also committed to improving buses and subways, and Seoul's traffic has actually gone down since the stream was reincarnated. He proceeded to then get elected President of Korea. We stopped just shortly after this at a Mr. Pizza (Love for Women) for lunch and then headed on to Jongno intersection where we found a giant bookstore and met up with Hilary.

Elise bought so many Korean baby/children's books that the cashier had to call for reinforcements and they counted the stacks multiple times to make sure they weren't missing any. John had mixed feelings about all the book purchasing.

We went up Jongno Tower to have a look down on Seoul from the 33rd floor. We were informed there was a cafe up there, but all we found was a super fancy restaurant so we went back down.

Jongno intersection is the site of Bolshingak, this bell pavilion. We'd be back there later.

Our next day started at Tapgol Park, the site where Korean students gathered to proclaim Korean independence, home to the stone pagoda pictured, National Treasure of Korea #2.

Then it was back to the Bolshingak belfry to see the bell. By pure accident we were there just in time to witness a bell-ringing ceremony, or so we thought. They let us in to the pavilion, and since it was so cold we were just about the only ones there, and we stood around a bit taking pictures and wondering when the bell-ringing would start. Then, a Korean tour guide led a couple Korean guys in and took them up to the battering ram and began prepping them to ring the bell. Since we were the only other people there, and we were awesomely foreign, he came and offered us 2 spots on the bell-ringer. Hilary and I accepted the invitation and Elise took pictures and video (coming soon), while we helped the guy ring the bell 12 times (he's on the far right above).

Behind Bolshingak we found a great Indian/Nepali restaurant, and again Elise ate all the food.

After Bolshingak we headed to Dongdaemun Toy Street, an amazing street featuring shops that sell all the toys you could ever want, at warehouse prices. Hilary bought a Lego Millenium Falcon that would become my Christmas present.

When we were sick of toys, we went and saw Dongdaemun, the east gate of Seoul. Finally, we saw a gate that wasn't covered for construction. Seodaemun (the west gate), at the end of the street with the Sejong statue, was enclosed in a protective housing while being repaired, just like Namdaemun.

Another picture of Dongdaemun, from the front.

Elise, Hilary and I stopped into a coffee shop across the street from Dongdaemun where we chatted and Elise told us funny college stories about her and John.

We went to Coex mall where there's a board game cafe, and John and Elise taught me how to play Settlers of Catan.

Elise and John came out to Maseok for an evening, in the photo above we're at Eomaejib, a great dwejikalbi restaurant.

After dinner, we went to a noraebang for a couple hours and sang the night away.

Back in Seoul at the hotel, John does some work. Always working.

We went back to Coex mall, but before going in we were intrigued by a sign for the Coex Artium, and thinking it might be some sort of art gallery, we went up. Turns out it's a theater where they're showing performances of a Korean-adaptation of Legally Blonde (the Korean actress had to dye her hair/wear a wig). We didn't stick around for that though, and found our way to a cool little roof garden where we admired the really tall building above us, and our view of the roof of the building next to us, before heading back in.

Inside Coex mall is the Kimchi museum, where you can learn the history of kimchi and learn about all the different varieties, as well as the methods of making kimchi and why it's so good for you.

Hilary and I pose for a picture in front of a kimchi pot display.

Back in the hotel, we played Settlers of Catan, which after we had played at Coex I decided to buy.

We went out for a late dinner of samgyupsal at a restaurant near the hotel, and then the next day Elise and John left back to America. We had a pretty awesome week hanging out together, and I'm sure John had a great time doing depositions all day every day. I know there's not much anecdote here, but I like doing the epic picture posts so that's what I'm serving these days. Click on them to head over to Flickr and see the rest of the set, I got a lot of good ones.