3 days in Seoul: Day 3

On Friday Terri went to the Traditional Music Museum (although she found out when she got there that it was under construction and was unable to go inside).

Katie had a post adoption appointment at the Eastern Social Welfare Society at 2pm and we didn't want to be late so we went to Insa-dong to do a little shopping and had lunch before we headed there.

Katie was able to go through her adoption file with someone from ESWS who translated it for her.

A few pics from her file.

                      Katie's baby picture                              A pic of Mom and Dad from

                              2-days old                                             Katie's adoption file 

Then we were able to have a tour of the nursery to see all the little ones waiting to be adopted.

After ESWS we went back to Dongdaemun Market to check it out, but it turns out it wasn't really a market for tourists, unless you wanted to buy a bunch of fabric, so we left.

There wasn't really much time left to do anything because we said we'd try to meet Terri and the Express Bus Station by 6:30pm, which was on the other side of town. So we took the subway to the station and caught a bus back to Dangjin.

3 days in Seoul: Day 2

On Thursday Terri and I went to go visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

My camera battery was nearly dead after we finished our +2 hour visit to the palace, but I guess that's what happens when you take over 200 photographs.

Here are a just a few.

We also ran into some Korean english students who were doing a survey for their homework. They stopped us to ask us a few questions.

After Gyeongbokgung Palace Terri and I went to Insa-dong to do a little souvenir shopping. I found a huge Korean flag for Katie, but then we left it in the hostel so we will have to go back and buy another one.

A few views of the streets of Insa-dong.

Then Terri and I headed to the Seoul Arts Center. (Terri needed to go to the Traditional Music Museum for a college project.) Unfortunately by the time we got there it was closed so we headed back to the hostel to get Katie and go to dinner.

We had to cross a 10-lane road to get to the Arts Center.

The South Koreans are very prepared for a terrorist attack. We found this cabinet filled with gas masks in the subway system, just in case.

Now you may be wondering, "Where was Katie?"
Katie decided to sightsee around the area our hostel was located instead of joining us at the palace.

Here are a few of the pics from her day.

After dinner we went back to the shopping area so Kaite could get some trinkets, but the shops were all closing so we didn't get to do much.

Then we randomly ran into Terri who just happened to stop by Insa-daong.
We all decided since the Insa-dong shopping district was closing that we should head to the Dongdaemun market, which the guide books said was open until 5am. But like Insa-dong, the only places that were still open only sold food and drinks. So after missing out again we decided to head back to the hostel and head off to bed.

3 days in Seoul: Day 1

On Tuesday Katie, Terri and I took the bus up to Seoul. On day 1 we took a hop on hop off tour of Seoul. We actually didn't hop off at too many places though.

Our first stop was a shopping district to get some food. We were hungry and realized that we would be unable to order food from a Korean restaurant because we wouldn't be able read the menu so we ended up eating at McDonalds. On a side note I have quickly realized, as I had suspected before I traveled here, that I do not like Korean food, shocking I know, so finding food to eat has been some what difficult at times.

So in the shopping district Katie bought a new purse, had lunch and then got back on the hop on hop off tour. Our first real stop was a traditional Korean folk village, which was located in downtown Seoul.

Then we watched a Taekwondo show at the folk village.

Some highlights from the show.

And our second stop was N Seoul Tower, which is kind of like Seoul's version of the Eiffel Tower.

We road the bus the for the rest of the tour of the city, to get our money's worth, but we didn't get off again (mainly because it was late and we didn't have time.)

And then we had to find the hostel we were staying in. This only turned out to be a problem because we had left the directions at Angie's apartment and we had trouble finding internet access so I could get to my email. But we found our way and got to our hostel a little later than we were planning and went out for some quick, and as it turned out also very cheap, Korean barbecue for a late dinner and then went to bed.