Here’s a view outside the hotel window; as you can imagine, Seoul is always under construction. (This picture was taken at about 6 AM; the lighting looks strange because I used a 1.5 second exposure).
I went in search of breakfast, and found a roadside place called Isaac, which serves toasted sandwiches. I had a ham, egg, and cheese on toast. It was good, except that the bread is much sweeter than what you find in the United States. I also had a pineapple smoothie. On the way back to the hotel, I found the Dunkin Donuts. They had a green tea donut with chocolate icing, but I was not brave enough to try it. Maybe tomorrow.
As I walked further, a truncated flatbed truck with a sound system blaring some sort of speech went speeding past. On the back of the flatbed was what I thought was a department store mannequin in a suit and white gloves. Until he waved at us. A person on the corner noticed my slack-jawed expression and said, “It’s election time. That man is a candidate for mayor.”
Namsan National Park is one of the higher areas of Seoul, and I decided to climb to the top. [No, this isn’t like rock climbing; it’s paved road all the way up and a fairly gentle slope.] Before I got on the subway, I stopped near a bank to see if I could change some money, but they weren’t open. The area outside was quite relaxing.
I had some confusion about purchasing a subway card. The card carries ₩10,000 of value, but the card itself costs an extra ₩2,500. The sales agent finally explained it to me, and off I went to the Seoul Station subway stop for my trek up to Namsan.
On the way up to the peak, I saw some not-very-nice buildings and an interesting restaurant sign, and I stopped to take a picture of Seoul from about halfway up the hill.
I passed a couple of public libraries; the statue depicted below was near one of them. Upon entrance to the park, you get a note that this is a wildlife area. I presume the text says not to disturb the animals.
Once inside the park entrance, it’s a wooded area the rest of the way up to the top, where you see Seoul Tower.
You tend to get a strange blend of old and new in Seoul. There was a typical shrine with some interesting statuary, and no more than 20 meters away was this modern building with scrolling LCDs giving you information. Seoul also is home to the unutterably (and unbearably) cute; the picture of the topiary does not include the almost cartoonish bunny rabbits.
I took a picture from the outside terrace area, and finally decided to spring for the ₩7,000 ticket to the elevator to the observation area, about 368 meters above ground. Here are some pictures of Seoul from the terrace (first picture) and the tower. You can see the reflection from the glass in some of the pictures.
There. Have you had enough of those pictures yet? Me too. On the way back, I got a picture of an old-fashioned gate:
I called the person from LinuxWorld to arrange a meeting at 1:30 PM; it was noon, so I figured I had enough time to go back to the Kyobo bookstore and buy myself a new map book. I certainly hope that the information inside was checked more carefully than the text on the cover...
I still wasn’t able to get to a bank to exchange money (the line was too long and slow), so I hopped onto the subway and made my way to the COEX (convention and exhibition center), which was near Mr. Kim’s office. I got to the mall, which was absolutely huge, and gave Mr. Kim a call when I reached the exhibition area. He gave me directions, and, after many false starts, I finally found the office. I got the speaker’s information packet, and we chatted for about fifteen minutes.
I then returned to the exhibition center and spent about a half hour finding where I would have to be next week; I did not want to go through a “let’s run around totally lost” process if I did not have to. After that, I found a bank and got some money changed, which was a big relief as I was down to my last ₩3,000 (about US$2.75). Then I went to the mall and found a food court and had seafood with fried rice. I went to another area of the mall for dessert; a chocolate ice cream cone.
Finally, I got back to the hotel about 4 PM and decided to rest for a few minutes. I slept until about 7:30 PM. I decided to go out and find the other hotel where I will be moving to tomorrow. This was somewhat of a mistake. The web site said it was near Dongdaemun station. This was half correct. It is near Dongdaemun Stadium station, which is one stop south on a different subway line. It was already dark out, and I was totally lost. I knew the hotel was on Euljiro 6-ga street, but the first few people I met didn’t know where it was. The people who did know presumed I could speak Korean because I asked in Korean, and their answers were too fast to understand. I finally found the place, but I was so disoriented that I was sure I was headed north; it turns out that the stadium is south of the station where I started my search. I just reverted back to “the direction in which you are going is always north” mode.
At any rate, I did finally find the place and made arrangements to get a room there on Tuesday. On the way back to the hotel, I had a small pizza from a roadside stand. It was good, but again, the bread was too sweet. I stopped at a convenience store and had the Korean equivalent of a chocolate ice cream Drumstick.
More tomorrow as I decide whether to go back to COEX and see the International Art Fair on its last day, or do some shopping, or just relax, because I plan on a day trip to Daegu on Wednesday.