First on his list was Seoul. We took the KTX from the new Singyeongju station in Seoul. We were running a bit late on time so we took a taxi from Yong Gang Dong to the station and it cost about 18,000 won and took 20 minutes. It now takes about 48,000 won and only 2 hours to get to Seoul! Such a relief to the 4 hour bus ride or 3 hour trains!
We arrived at Seoul Station and checked into the New Korea Hotel. It was a decently priced hotel for a decent room. It was clean and had a bathtub!
After checking into the hotel we started our adventure in Seoul by wandering around Namdaemun market, conveniently located about a 2 minute walk from the hotel. It was a decent market with stands full of clothes, shoes, bags, coats, etc. We grabbed lunch at a nice fried rice restaurant.
After Namdaemun we took the subway and went to the Gyeongbokgun Palace. Unfortunately, we arrived just as it was closing and could only observe from the outside. We took a few pictures in the front of the palace and went on our way.
We spent some time walking around the statues and decided to make our way to Insadong. For those who don't know, Insadong is a market for traditional Korean souvenirs. We wandered around the shops, bought a few things, and returned to the subway.
Our last stop for the night was Seoul Tower. We took the subway to Myeongdong station and walked up the hill to the Tower lift entrance. We stopped for dinner at a Korean restaruant and ate bulgogi. Though it was more expensive than the same dish in Gyeongju, it was pretty good!
After eating dinner we took our place in line for the lift. There is an option for hiking up to the tower, but seeing as it was dark and we were both pretty tired, we decided the lift was better, plus a better view! Though the line was long, it moved faster than I expected. The lift offered a great view of the city and got us to the tower in just a few minutes. In the observatory of the tower we were able to see out to the whole city, though the view wasn't very clear because of the weather. The best view was from below the tower.
Below the tower is a gazebo area for visitors to sit. There were also rows of trees with messages of love tied to the branches. After spending some time outside the tower, we took the lift back down the mountain and returned to the hotel.
Sunday morning I was feeling a bit sick. Tanguy went by himself to a palace and returned to the hotel near noon. After checking out of the hotel we went to Changdeok Palace. The palace was built in the 1400s, but like every other structure in korea was burnt down during the Japanese invasion and has been rebuilt. It is probably my favorite place to visit in Seoul (I had been there one time before). Behind the palace there is also a 78-acre "secret garden". We were not able to see the garden because you have to enter with a tour and the last tour was at 2:00. Be aware of required tour times if you visit this site. I had seen the garden before, and highly recommend it!
After visiting the palace we met with on of Tanguy's french friends for dinner and took the KTX back to Gyeongju.
More pictures from the weekend can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/aeihrig/Seoul112010#
No comments:
Post a Comment