I guess it was a couple of weeks ago now, but I went to Seoul (the BIG city!!) with my friend Stacie. We went there in the late afternoon one day and then I left before dinner the next day, so it was a whirlwind of a trip, but it was fun.
Stacie took me to the Seoul shopping Mecca. I was super happy that she did, despite not really in the mood to do any serious shopping, because there is no way that if I went to Seoul with Jeremy he would have wanted to go there at all. Everyone who you talk to here raves about the shopping in Seoul though, and it would have been a real shame to not at least check it out. It was fun. Most fashion here is really different then home, so the clothes in the stores were not exactly what I am used to. It is hard to put your finger on, but it is definitely not the same thing. Stacie also took me into stores that I would have never gone into on my own. Having her take me was like getting the real Korean shopping experience.
We went up Seoul tower late at night and the view was stunning. It was cool to be able to walk the 360 and get a look at the city in all directions, but it didn't give me any sense of where things were or how big it was even from there. The subway maps look like a maze. Although it is easy enough to find your way around once you know where you are going (if you count several metro line transfers easy), but I can't imagine actually knowing where you were at any given moment. Seoul isn't set up like a North American city with the high rises in the city center, it seems to me (but then again what do I know) that most of the high rise buildings in South Korea are apartments. That is the case outside of the city and from the looks of it things weren't that much different in the city. This picture is of a fence up by Seoul tower that had locks of love on it. People made promises of love and locked the forever to the fence. It was huge and really quite beautiful, especially with the city sparkling behind all the hopes that are attached to each lock and note. There were even a few couples up there making them. Very romantic.
Day 2 had lots of plans to see lots of awesome sites, but things did not really work out that way. We ended up spending the whole day at the palace and its corresponding museum. This was Stacie's work... she insisted that we look at every artifact in every room and read every sign. Not exactly how I would have approached the museum visit, but at least I got to see it. She is a hoot though so having her explain what the Korean signs meant was pretty funny. The palace itself was unreal. My favourite part was that when you look back at the gates from the inside you could see all the modern buildings of Seoul. I like that the palace is so large and so plunked in the middle of the city. I suppose the city was built around the palace, but it feel somehow the other way around.
