Seoul; Soul of Asia (that's the city's tagline)

We are back! We made it!

Alright, so Seoul for Solnal (Lunar New Years). I'm still sad that we never got to go to China, but it would have been uber cold, and I would have been miserable. It was freezing in Seoul. We got there, and taxi etiquette states that you have to take the taxi at the front of the line. THe taxi in the front of the line was a Deluxe one, which starts the meter at 3x the regular rate. Boo. Luckily, where we were staying wasn't that far away. We got to Seoul by the KTX. It goes about 300km/hr. You would think that it would look like we were going lightspeed, but it didn't. It really didn't feel like we were going that fast at all. But the ride was incredibly smooth. I like trains.

We were staying in Insadong, which is the cultural district of Seoul. It's really only a small street, but it's got some really rad vendors, and if you want souveniers, that is the place to be. When ever we would be looking for somewhere to eat, I would get so distracted, very fast, at all the trinkets and everything, and Luc would go all bonkers becuase he was so hungry. I can't help myself. I LOVE trinkets and gadgets, and tourist traps. It's not my fault. I swear. I have to look at everything. So the first day we checked into the Hotel, the Crown Insadong, and then met up with Brielle and Dave, who just happened to be staying the same area. We owe them so much, Brielle knew her way around, and she showed us the way. So we then went and had some food at a really rad restaurant off the beaten path.

We then went to see the Van Gogh exhibit that was in town. I was mildly sad that Starry Night wasn't there, but there were some other beautiful paintings there. We felt so sophisticated going to an Art Gallery show. We then bought a bunch of stuff from the art store. After that, we navigated our way through the Seoul subway system, which is completely ridiculous. Daegu is so much more organized. We went to Itaewon, which is more the bar district. We went to a Greek Restaurant called Santorini. Can you imagine Luc's excitement when we went to a Greek Restaurant? It's pretty much his favorite. Diana, all he was talking about was your Greek food :D We have Souvlaki, Gyros, and Baklava. Fantastic!

After Santorini, we went to the Canadian Bar, Rocky Mountain Tavern. It was in our Korea book, but it was a little disappointing. There weren't many Canadian beers, just Moosehead, Big Rock Traditional Ale and Grasshopper, and Alley Cat. The interior was pretty rad though., There were Haida carvings, framed Jerseys (Hockey and CFL), and license plates from every province and territory. But the people who were there reminded me of college drunkies. Once we had a couple beers we went to another place, where I swear to God, I had the best hot chocolate of my life. I'm imagining it now, and i'm starting to drool. After, we were pretty pooped, so we headed back to our hotel. Lucas and I slept like the dead. The bed was soft, the pillow was fantastic (though Luc wasn't too thrilled about the pillow), and strangely enough, there were no meowing all night long.

We woke up the next morning feeling so refreshed. Which is good, becuase Lucas had a long day ahead of him, with me tourist shopping. We first refueled with some lunch, and then I shopped down Insadong for a good three/four hours. A lot of the stores have the same thing, but I still like to look at it all. Once that was finished, Luc and I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace. We got there just in time to see the end of the changing of the guards. It was sweet. We wandered the place for about an hour, but it was so bitterly cold, we headed out. We missed a little of the palace gardens, but we were more concerned about keeping ourselves frostbite free.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel, and then met up with Brielle and Dave to go to a cute tea shop. You would never know it was there. There were birds, and the interior was so cozy. We'll be taking you parents when you come. Then we headed again back to Itaewon. We weren't very hungry at this point, so we went to a DVD room. DVD rooms are places where young folk go to be alone. It's basically a comfy couch, where you have a big screen, you pick a DVD,a nd the guy at the front plays it. Youcontrol the sound. We watched Welcome to Dongmakgol. It was set during the Korean War and there is this village that has no idea about guns, war, or hate. North and South converge here, and it the movie was AMAZING. I seriously recommend this movie. The tone of the movie is slightly humourous. Please, see this movie.

We then went for dinner at Buddha's Belly, a Thai place. Megadelish. Bought a bottle of wine, wanted a lot more, but it was pretty expenive to do so. I had already spent about 250$ by last night. Once dinner was over, we went to find a place to have some drinks. We went to a place called Helios, thinking it was maybe a gay bar. We got in, and it definately wasn't. It was crazy club, where the boys had to pay, and women were free. We stayed about two minutes. We then went to a Latin place where were had beer, margharita, and mojitos. That was more my atmosphere.

THe next day, Lucas and I had to check out, meaning we had to haul our bags everywhere we went. First we went for a sandwich and then to Changbokgung Palace. This palace is a world heritage site, and you have to go on a guided tour. So while were waited for the English tour, we went to Dunkin' Donuts. This was my first Dunkin experience, and I must say. Timmy's is better. Dunkin' is saltier. So went on the tour, which was an hour and 20 minutes, got lots of pictures. Then we needed to warm up, so we took a taxi to the CO EX mall, which is supposedly the largest underground shopping or smething. IT was a disappointed. I swear, 80% of the stores are restaurants. But we did have a little thrill. Randy Orton and Snitski (Wrestlers) were walking around. So we got our picture taken with them, we wanted to make Sean jealous.

We still have about 4 hours until our train left, but we went to the station to see if we could change our tickets in to leave earlier. We were tired, and wanted to to home. The tickets got switched, we chugged back home, got some dinner, and looked at our treasures.

Lots of pictures, lots of tourist stuff. I spent 300$. Oops.