First Day in Seoul!!!

Hey all!

Jenn and I had a four day weekend last week, so we decided to go up and visit Seoul! We did so many things there, that we are going to have to split up the posts, just like Jinhae! So without further ado, here is what we did during our first day in Seoul.

A little background first, last Tuesday (May 10th) was Buddha's Birthday. Our schools also gave us the Monday off. So Jenn and I booked our train tickets, and left Friday night. We got to Seoul from Daegu in about an hour and forty minutes. After checking into our room, we decided to walk around the area. We were in a really good location. We were near a University I think, so there were a bunch of restaurants, clubs, and college students walking around and having a good time. After about 5 minutes or so of just soaking in the city, we found a...Taco Bell. So of course we went in and got some food! First Taco Bell in Korea, and I gotta say, it was good! It was just nice being able to get a burrito! After that, we walked around for a little longer, then decided to call it a night. Anyways, Saturday, the real trip began!

We woke up in the morning around 930, and got our free breakfast. Toast with peanut butter and jelly! And real Folgers coffee! Koreans really like instant coffee, like that kind where you pour a mix into a cup and fill it with hot water. I am slowly getting used to it, and by that I mean, I don't hate it nearly as much as I used to. So...getting real coffee was great! And why haven't we bought a coffee maker? We're thinking about it, but we're also thinking about when we leave, and how much of a hassle it would be to bring back home. Coffee makers aren't cheap here. Anyways, then our day began. We got out our subway guide, and basically decided to do anything and everything we could in one day. First on our list was Gyeongbokgung Royal Palace. We took the subway there and it was amazing. For 3 bucks, we were able to walk all around the area, and it was huge! What I really liked about it was how there was this amazing palace, filled with a lot of Korea's history, culture and tradition, right in the middle of the city. We wandered the grounds for an hour or so, and even got free admission into the Seoul Folk Museum (which was right next to the palace). Then we left the palace and boom, right in front of us was this long plaza. And there was a statue of a man sitting in a chair. I think he was one of Korea's first kings. Anyways, we were really excited, because we saw this statue all the time in commercials of Korea, and Seoul tourism videos. And we had found it! On accident! So we walked over there and took some pictures. All of this, and it wasn't even 12 yet!

Gyeungbokgung Palace!

The King guy!

The guy with the sword in front of the king. If you look closely, you can see the palace behind the king!

The next place we went to (side note: thanks to Seouls amazing subway system, the whole city was literally at our fingertips) was famous Itaewon! It is a pretty famous area known for its foreigner friendly stores, souvenir shops, and most importantly of all, restaurants. Yes, Jenn and I were on a quest. We were going to find a Mexican restaurant, and Itaewon seemed like our best bet. So after some random exploring, we found a taco shop! We were so happy, and we ordered a ton of food, and it was AMAZING. Best Mexican yet, and closest thing we've had to real Mexican food. It had pico de gallo, avocado, and cilantro on all of their dishes. After Itaewon, we decided to visit some famous shopping areas of Seoul. So back to the subway we went!

Our first shopping area was Myeong-Dong. Which is basically like a huge outdoor mall? I don't know how to describe it, because there isn't anything in the US like it! Let's just say that there were hundreds of stores to choose from, along with your outdoor stalls selling wallets, cell phone cases, shoes, and more. It was a really cool place, and of course, jam-packed with people. We didn't buy anything...yet. We then decided to go and look at another shopping area. Dongdaemun. At this point, we had probably ridden the subway at least 8 or 9 times. And spent less than 10 bucks doing so. Traveling around Seoul is cheap! Dongdaemun was just as big, but more spread out. It consisted of maybe 5-6 huge buildings, with up to 15 floors of shopping, movie theatres, restaurants, and more. We thought it was cool, but it also seemed a bit more pricey than Myeong-Dong. We still didn't buy anything though. Not yet at least...Anyways, it was a long day, but we weren't finished yet. I mean, it was only about 4 pm! We seriously felt like we had traveled all over the city at this point, and we were ready to sit down and relax. The Lotus Lantern parade was going to start at 7 pm, and we wanted to get good seats for that. So we took the subway to a stop nearby, and found some good seats around 6 pm. The street we were going to watch the parade on was like a main street of Seoul. The staff had set up chairs on both sides of the street for everyone and we found some good seats near them. The parade began, and it was just...wow. It was so awesome! There were lanterns of dragons, elephants, helicopters, the list goes on and on. There were drummers with lanterns, children with lanterns, men and women with lanterns, monks with lanterns, and more. The parade lasted for 2 hours. We lost track of all the lanterns that went by us, and even ran out of memory on our camera because we were taking so many pictures! After the parade finally ended, we headed back to our room.

Myeong-Dong Shopping Area!

One of the huge buildings in Dongdaemun

On the way back, we stopped at a Pho place to eat dinner. It was our first Pho in Korea! It was delicious, but I do have to say that I was disappointed because they had no Sriracha sauce! It was still a spicy sauce, but it felt like they mixed it with ketchup or something. Anyways, didn't like the sauce, but the soup and the noodles were spot on! After that, we went back to our room, and got ready to go out with some of our friends! We met up with them and went clubbing! The club we went to was packed, but the music was good, and we had a really good time. Anyways, after the club we went back to our room. We were completely exhausted. We seriously left our room at 10 am, came back around 10 pm to get changed, and then didn't get back until 2 or 3 in the morning. Phew! Needless to say, we were asleep as soon as we hit the pillow. I can't believe we did all that in one day! 

Jenn at the end of the parade, we rushed the street!

All that light behind us are the last of the lanterns!