Of course I caught an early bus and got to Incheon Airport about three hours before Patti’s plane arrived—just to make sure I wasn’t late. Some folks from the Seoul office of Daejeon Metropolitan City met us at the airport, took us out to dinner, and then dropped us off at our hotel, the Kukdo. The Kukdo is large and modern and very nice, a step or two up from the kind of back-packer dives we usually frequent. There was even a sign at the entrance to the dining room, asking people not to come to breakfast in pajamas and slippers.
Friday morning we mastered the Seoul subway system, which is large and complex—in fact, it carries more passengers per day than any other subway system in the world except Tokyo and Moscow. There was a subway stop a block from our hotel, so getting anywhere in the city was pretty fast and convenient.
We spent most of the morning at Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of five enormous palace complexes in Seoul. The rooftops alone were worth the visit. 
Friday morning we mastered the Seoul subway system, which is large and complex—in fact, it carries more passengers per day than any other subway system in the world except Tokyo and Moscow. There was a subway stop a block from our hotel, so getting anywhere in the city was pretty fast and convenient.
We spent most of the morning at Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of five enormous palace complexes in Seoul. The rooftops alone were worth the visit.
We popped into the US Embassy in Seoul to get some papers notarized (and because we are, finally, proud to be Americans) and stopped to rest at a peaceful little city park with a huge, ancient, and delicately carved stone pagoda where an elderly man came up to us and asked me how old I was. He, it turns out, is eighty-four. He looks much younger. 
During our remaining time in Seoul we took a city bus tour, went up Seoul Tower in Namsan Park for a view of the city (which appears to extend several hundred miles in all directions),
Walking back to our hotel, we passed a Starbucks with the sign written in Hanguel, Korea's unique alphabet developed in the 15th century. It really does say "Starbucks Coffee." (Well, actually, "Se-ta-bok-se ko-pi," since there is no "f" sound in Korean.)
During our remaining time in Seoul we took a city bus tour, went up Seoul Tower in Namsan Park for a view of the city (which appears to extend several hundred miles in all directions),
attended a traditional music and dance performance at Korea House, hiked up a hillside to some shamanist shrines, ate a lot of rice cakes, and went to several museums, including the War Museum, which is enormous, quite informative, and very moving,
and the Seoul Museum of Chicken Arts, which is very small, not easy to find, and, well, dedicated entirely to the role that chickens have played in Korean culture and history. Since we were the only ones there, we got a personal guided tour during which each chicken-related artifact and icon was very carefully explained to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment