Seoul!

This post is kind of late, but that's the nature of things. Anyway, Korea has two main national holidays, New Year's and Chuseok. Chuseok is sort of a Thanksgiving Day when you pay respects to your ancestors and thank them for the harvest. Everyone travels to their hometowns to pray at their parents' or grandparents' graves and make the traditional offerings of food and alcohol. As for foreigners, it's a great time to travel to some of the big cities because they're relatively empty during this time. For that reason, my friends and I took off for Seoul.

It was actually a great time to visit, as it wasn't overcrowded and the weather was good (although Seoul had actually experienced flooding the day before we arrived). The subway was easy to use and decently priced. Because of all the foreigners, I was able to pick up American chocolate chip cookie mix and Germn schoko-muesli, two things that made me very happy. We stayed at a hostel that was conventiantly located right over a subway station. It was a nice, reasonable place with free breakfasts. All five of us shared one room, and it had a kitchen, fridge, and computer with internet. This post has lots of pictures, so I put them after the cut!

Geoff, Ashli, Sam, and Sandy walking down the streets of Seoul.

 Out first stop was Itaewon, the foreigners' district. There are lots of stores and souvenir wagons there, some of which sell foreign imports and other hand-to-find items. There are also lots of foreign-food restaurants. You can get Indian, Mexican, Chinese, American, Middle Eastern, Japanese, all kinds of food!

 A sign outside a thrift store we visited.

 This picture's for my sister. This cloth poster was hanging in the thrift store changing room. I can't account for the weird coloring!

 Everyone standing on some cool stairs we found on one of the sidestreets.

Geoff standing outside the Baby Guinness where we ate dinner. It was fun to have Irish Pub food, which I hadn't had in quite a while!

I chased down this young woman in a lovely hanbok. Chuseok is one of the few holidays where a handful of people still dress up in traditional clothing, so I had to take advantage of it. She was shy at first, but she let me take her picture, for which I'm very grateful!

 Ashli, Sam, Sandy, Geoff, and Geoff's friend Jeff pose with some statues outside the Museum of Animation. I wanted to go there, but it was closed at night, of course, and we never went back to that area of the city.

Our next stop was Namsan Tower, a popular tourist attraction. At night, the tower is brightly lit with color-changing lights. For a small fee, you can take a cable car to the top of the large hill on which it stands (or you can walk up for free, but it's no mean climb). There's a pretty square up there, surrounded by trees and flowers with several fountains and a laser light show at night. For another small fee, you can ride an elevator up the tower for an awesome view of Seoul, but I didn't do that. This trip happened before our first paycheck, and most of us were woefully strapped for cash.

Sandy, who is constantly mistaken for a Korean, imitates the locals by "sleeping" on the subway. In one of the subway stations, we were approached by a man who wanted to practice his English, I guess. When he spoke to Sandy in Korean, she explained that she's an American, so he asked if she was visiting her family in Korea. No, she explained, she has no family here. In fact, she's of Chinese descent and her parents lived in Vietnam. But her ancestors were from Korea, he insists, her grandparents, etc. No, no they weren't. The guy just can't believe it, though. I'm pretty sure he left convinced she's Korean.

The next day we went to Changdeok Palace, one of the old palaces in Seoul. This is the sign in front of the main gate. Changdeok Palace was rebuilt around 1600, after the Japanese invasion, and served as the main royal compound for quite some time.

Inside the main gate is a large courtyard with this building at its head. One of the features I've continually noticed about wealthy Korean comounds is the emphasis on open space. Although the buildings and rooms are quite small by our standards, there are always a lot of open-air spaces and many courtyards.

Once again, it was so hot, we used our umbrellas as parasols. Sandy, Ashli, and Sam take a rest of the steps of the courtyard.

Another shot of some buildings in the main courtyard area.

This is what's inside the large, main building in the courtyard.

The courtyard is surrounded by a wide, tall wall, but far taller still are the apartment buildings and skyscrapers of Seoul, which jut up very visibly in the distance, a sight the old kings surely never imagined as they strolled around the palace in their day. 

More of the compound is visible through a gated entrance.

 Ok, so I took a lot of pictures at the Palace. There were a lot of lovely buildings. This little gate I found particularly picturesque.

And I chased down another young woman in a hanbok. She was even kind enough to pose in front of a building for me.

Many of the buildings are lined with these little white-shuttered windows. Although the rooms themselves are small, there's never a lack of fresh air, it seems.

 You're never allowed to go in the rooms, but I did snap this shot of a fairly large room through one of the many windows. This room, as you can see, opens onto a little corridor leading to some stairs and another room. All of the rooms in the houses are raised off the ground a good foot and a half or so at least, which I found out later is because of the heating system.

Hanbok-hunting again, I snuck in a picture of this couple getting their photo taken. Even their adorable little baby is all dressed up, so I assume it was for some kind of celebration, perhaps the kid's first Chuseok?

On the way to the Antiques Market, which we never found, we spotted a Tteok Cafe, where they sell traditional rice cakes. Since that's a big thing during Chuseok, we stopped and ordered a selection to sample.

Here are our rice cakes. I think the round pink one was the best.

 After not finding the Antiques Market, we went to a different market to shop, and then to the Olympic Park. Built for the Summer Olympics, this park is now a tourist attraction and, I read, I place where people can still go to use the various stadiums and sports equipment. If nothing else, it's quite a big park with some nice walking paths and a "sculpture collection," although I found most of the sculptures a little too modern for my taste. This one, however, made a nice frame for the setting sun.

For my other sister, the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. Ok, this was a little before our time, but still, hahaha.

 Finally, we went down to the Han River for a view of Seoul's cityscape at night. We took a short boat tour, and it was really beautiful, but my camera doesn't take great night shots, especially aboard moving boats, so I don't have any documentation. The weather was gorgeous during the trip, and I found the cool night tour just perfect.

 Just up from the water's edge there was a rock-climbing wall, just open for anybody's use, I suppose. In America, you would never have this sort of thing, since kids could climb up, fall down, and sue the park. Geoff and Sam are rock-climbing fans, so we gave the wall a try, along with some local kids.

There were also two professionals there who actually climbed the thing, using professional equipment.

And here's a picture of me having a go.