My First Trip to Seoul

http://picasaweb.google.com/travelingchris/200707Seoul - Pics!

Yesterday was my first trip into Seoul. I was invited by a fellow teacher, Jane. Two of my college aged students were to join us as well. When I arrived at the meeting spot, my students -Joy and Yeung Dok- were waiting for me. They told me that Jane would join up with us in Seoul.

The subway ride was about an hour and 20 minutes and cost me approximately $1.70. The distance is comparable to taking the LIRR from Ronkonkoma to New York City which costs $13.00. When we walked upstairs into the city, we were in the heart of a huge market. There were a number of vendor that were particularly interesting to me -selling pottery, baskets and the like. I could have spent a lot of time and money there, but previous trips to markets have taught me better. I made up my mind from the start not to buy anything, the day was for looking only.

We took some time to walk around and see a sight or two, but it was very hot and we got tired quickly. My two friends didn't really know the was around the city well. Jane's train was late and we were all a bit cranky. That was, until we found a book store. There isn't much I love in this world so much as books. I was eager to see if they had any in English and much to my delight, they had a fairly decent collection. Here again, I could have spent all of my money, but I had to remind myself that 1) I was broke and 2) books are heavy to bring on the plane ride home. I talked myself into only buying two. The first was "A Man Without a Country," by Kurt Vonnegut. It seemed like a good title for someone living abroad and I enjoy his writing. The second title "Sophie's World - A Novel about the History of Philosophy," by Jostein Gaarder claims to be a #1 International Bestseller, and sounds totally intriguing. I am very much looking forward to reading it.

When we finally met up with Jane, she took us to a downtown area of the city. It would be perfect for Christmas shopping or just spending a day walking around. There were tons of little boutiques and street vendors, coffee shops and tea house. We stopped at the latter for a cup and I enjoyed one of the tastiest cups of tea I've ever had. I truly didn't expect to love it as much as I did, but it was really amazing. I wish I could remember the name of it, but the description was something like "Five Tastes." I was supposed to have all five tastes sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent. I doesn't sound all that great, but please, believe me, it was great.

After tea, I was feeling much less irritable. We went for dinner -Korean traditional, then walked back through downtown. I was good and only bought a $3 bracelet and spent about $5 on incense, but we had a nice time "window" shopping. By 9:00 we were back on the train headed home. I have to say that I was grateful. It was a nice first trip to the city, but it was truly an exhausting day.