Day 29. Touring Seoul

So today, a colleague of mine took me out sightseeing in Seoul. I felt like a tourist and in ways, it felt good. My options in case boredom/homesickness gets a hold of me in the coming weeks are at least somewhat widening. We took the 8100 bus to Jong-no although I think M4102 and 9000 would also make a stop to where we took off. From there we did a quick check of this little park where there was a stone monument/pagoda encased in glass dating to as far back as the 1400's. I didn't note the name but there were at least two national treasures in that little park but it was well-maintained and did not come with a fee.



unedited

From there we headed over to Gyeongbokgung Palace where I felt right at ease what with all the tourists around me. I am not the only one lost in translation anymore! Of course, it helped my colleague and I were from the same country. Too bad, he'd be leaving in a few days time but at least he got to show me around somehow. The fee was just 3000 KRW which was not really bad I think. Before heading inside though, one can take a quick tour of the museum under the statue of King Sejong. This underground hall was for free and it was actually quite spacious. I can probably take a lot of time here just to learn more about Korea in the next days when I am back to being alone on weekends. The inside of Gyeongbokgung was pretty nice and if you have time to kill, I think it would be a good place to stay in, relax and take pictures. As it turned out I failed to wear thermals/layer for my top that my head actually hurt a little from being out in the open too much. The wind made it worse but come noon, it stopped. I actually appreciated the sun's rays to help ease out the cold.



behind this monument is the entrance to the museum under.



inner lake

After lunch, we went to Jamsill station where there was this theme park called Lotte World. We didn't enter anymore as the ticket was quite pricey (KRW 38,000). From the outside, the place looked nice though with decent thrill rides. I guess the highlight for me really was this sort of cultural show at the back of the department store at one side of Lotte World's Magic Island. I was really amazed by this set of guys with the ribbon spinning using their heads. I was not paying attention at first but when I realized it I couldn't get over how difficult (to me at least) what they were doing. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch it on video but they were also doing some sort of acrobatics while spinning the ribbon. Amazing!