Puttering around Seoul

It was raining and foggy in the mountains, as we left the Sorak Park Hotel and made our way into town to catch a bus back to Seoul. The taxi driver dropped us off at a different bus terminal than the one we arrived at, but thankfully it had bus leaving for the city.

Young Sun, Sarah's friend from Suwon, was wanting to come into Seoul for the day to meet us again, so Sarah gave her a call before we got on the bus and let her know where and when we'd be arriving.

The bus had a talent/variety show, called Star King, on which captured our attention for the first while of our 3 1/2 hour bus trip. I took a couple pictures of this one contortionist they had on, you'll have to see the pictures to believe what she can do. We then caught up on some sleep.

Arriving in Seoul, we noticed that we were not coming in the same direction that we left. We arrived in a totally different bus terminal, than expected. After tracking down an elusive pay phone, Sara called Young Sun on her cell phone to tell her were we were. Luckily with the great subway system here, we were quickly able to meet up at Dongdaemun Stadium, one of the stadiums used during the 2002 World Cup.

We quickly visited the Heung-Injimun (Dongdaemun) Gate, which is undergoing restoration. Walked over the much talked about revitalized Cheonggyecheon River, which at one time was covered by concrete.

We then went i-shopping (window shopping) at the Migliore complex, where they see how many retailers they can stuff into a building. On the top floor food court, I was shocked to see that the soccer stadium had been paved over inside and had become a flea market. Again, you'll have to see the pictures. Oh Korea!

After some lunch, we made our way to Namdaemun Market for some souvenir shopping.

After a tearful goodbye between distant friends on the subway, we checked back into the Holiday In Korea hostel for three more nights.

We were then off again to meet up with one of Sarah's former students, Jane.

Having not seen her in ten years, we left it up to Jane to spot us in the crowd at the subway stop. The ladies chatted as we made our way back to Myeong-dong for dinner. Jane took us to one of the best dumpling restaurants in Seoul, which we would have passed by, as it looked like any other restaurant in the area. The dumplings were great!

As Spider-Man 3 opened today (opens in North America May 4th), I was lucky enough to convince Sarah to go see it! However, in Korea movie tickets are sold by assigned seats, unbeknownst to us. Luckily Jane was still with us when we purchased the tickets and was able to get us the last two seats together for the showing. It's a Spider-Man movie, so the acting is only par and some of the scenes were a little too comicy, but I got to see it before you guys! :)