Sightseeing in Seoul

Last night was a little crazy.  We finally got to our hotel at about 4:50 our home time… I’m not even sure what that ended up being Seoul time… 6:50, I think.  (Seoul is 14 hours ahead of Home.)  Amanda and I were ok until we would be still and then we got overwhelmingly sleepy.  We managed to keep ourselves up till about 9:30 wrapping gifts, then went to sleep in about .2 seconds.

A slept pretty deep, but I on the other hand started waking up at 3:00am, then every hour, on the hour.  I finally gave in and got up at 6:30 to start my day.  I think it’s the earliest I’ve ever gotten up without an alarm clock!

Today was amazing!  We started our morning with just about the best breakfast I think I’ve ever had.  If you could think of it, it was on the breakfast buffet- American and Korean.  Some of the Korean breakfast items included Kimchi, seaweed, rice, broccoli, and salad. 

After indulging, we left our hotel at 9:30 for our city tour and didn’t return until 9:30 PM!!  It was the LONGEST city tour I could have imagined and my feet and back are most certainly paying the price.  But, I couldn’t be more excited to learn more about this amazing place!

We started out with a lesson on the subway transit system… which by 9:00pm, we realized we apparently DID NOT master.  Thank goodness a nice local guy was willing to help us out-literally- instead of just laugh at us.  I think the only thing more frustrating than being lost in a foreign country is being lost underground.

After our subway lesson, it was time for the Palace tour.  It was nice and BIG.  We enjoyed watching a small “changing of the guards” ceremony and then were on our way to the throne room.  By a wonderful chance, we ran into some other adoptive friends, Heidi and Mark.  We were thrilled to spend the rest of the day with them!  (Their gotcha day is also tomorrow-Monday- Amanda/Tay’s is Mon. at 12:00 noon/ Sunday 10pm Alabama/Louisianna time.)

We then visited the Insadong (and several others) market.  There, we ate a traditional Korean meal that was complete with Pepsi (THANK the good Lord above!!) and scissors to cut the meat!  That one was interesting. 

We shopped some more… then took a break for smoothies at a TomNToms.  Sitting was fabulous.

After lots more window shopping, we headed to Seoul Tower to put our locks on and enjoy a view of the city.  We were also able to mail letters from the highest post office ever!  I can’t wait till P gets his post card!!

We then paraded through the subway system like two crazy Americans, lost as all get out, were finally saved by sweet local guy, then literally dragged ourselves (seriously-does anyone know how many stairs this city has??!!  I KNOW I’m going to return home five pounds lighter with Dominique Moceanu thigh muscles!) to the hotel where we ordered pizza and sprites for our room.