Hello from the other side of the world! I arrived on Friday night and was met by Heather at the airport. We then traveled into Seoul (about an hour on the bus), and promtly (well, for me at least) went to bed. I was slightly worried (having been to England as my last overseas trip) that my room was not going to be warm enough. This fear was completely unwarranted, and kept debating over the warm room or the really loud traffic outside (open the window/close the window?)
On Saturday, we went on the DMZ tour. It was an amazing experience. For one, it still gives me a start every time i see an armed guard just randomly standing by razor wire along the highway. Then, to actually get to the area is an interesting adventure. Lots of checks to see who we are. A great tour guide with a strong accent (amplified by the echo over the loudspeaker). We had the chance to look out over the DMZ area - which is 4 km wide and a couple hundred long. The tourist information talked about all the wildlife that lived in that area. We also went into the tunnel that the North Koreans had been digging years ago to get into South Korea. Rumor is that at one point, we actually crossed into North Korea. There was a train station that we stopped at and got a commemorative stamp in our passports.
After that tour, we got some lunch. I'm basically counting on Chris to know the difference between good food and bad food. I'm not sure how to tell a better restaurant from a less desirable one. Also, I have never been stellar with chopsticks. Let me tell you, after 2 days, I'm much better now. Someone always said that if I needed to know for my survival, I'd be able to figure it out. Well, that has definitely been tested. (Though, the restaurant on Sunday night was nice enough to bring out forks...)
We visited the Deoksugung Palace next. A very interesting place to wander. There are 5 palaces in Seoul, and more than one person asked why we needed quite that many... The Royal Museum was also there. Interesting to see what things have been collected. Pretty artifacts. They seemed to frown on the idea that I wanted to take some of them home.
Though, the highlight was having a Korean girl (perhaps 11 or 12) come up to me and ask me questions in English. It was great! She would say "hello. how are you?" and then run away. She would then come back with another question. Obviously practicing. But it was wonderful.
Then, on to a couple of street (or under the street) markets. They are very entertaining. But at 11 million people in a city, pretty darn crowded. Dinner was Pizza Hut with a circle of sweet potato just inside of the crust.... So, like American, but not really...
Posted by Heather Voss at October 31, 2004 07:09 PM