One drawback of sleeping on a heated floor is that it can get pretty warm. We slept with our bedroom window open all winter long in DC this this year, so it's clear I like a cold room. So at 5:30 am, i gave up on sleep and went out for a walk.
It was a lovely, clear morning as I set out on a walk around Bukchon.
I never got tired of this view of the city.
And snapped a this quick shot after I walked past another early riser.
At the edge of the elevated neighborhood, there's another good view of the palace.
The house with the white lined roof is the Blue house, where the President lives.
I told you the neighborhood was elevated. I took the stairs down with the intention of walking toward the Blue House, but got distracted by a park.
This park was frequented by a ton of early walkers and joggers and was beautifully maintained.
Only 400 meters to the top of the mountain? I might as well give it a look.
I didn't realize it was 400 m straight up! At least there were stairs that followed the old city walls.
At the top, I climbed a rock and marveled that I climbed a mountain before 8am!
Then I marveled being in a country with incredible cell phone coverage and posted a picture to Facebook that led everyone to believe that I'd wandered into North Korea and would be kidnapped at any moment. (North Korea is at least 60 miles north of the city.)
Halfway down the path, I came upon a natural spring with drinking cups. In Korea, everything seems to be a sign of longevity or wealth, so i didn't want to pass up some good fortune.
So I posted to Facebook that i was drinking the water to freak my mom out some more.
I wanted to walk down the east side of the mountain and walk back to my neighborhood, but i ended up taking a path down the north side and walked straight into a Buddhist Temple.
Even the rinky-dink little Buddhist temples look cool. Luckily, I was still in the more technologically advanced country in the world and my GPS got me back on track and I eventually made it back to my guesthouse. I got back before 10 and calculated I walked a little over 11 miles.
But there was no time for a nap, because I had to pack up my little room.
And say goodbye to my little guesthouse.
Because I was moving over to the Sheraton with my friend Sara, who had just arrived in town.
Sara instigated this whole trip. She is constantly traveling for her work and offered up her room if I ever wanted to tag along. Lucky for me! We dropped off my stuff in her executive suite on the top floor (a big jump from sleeping on the floor) and took off to do some exploring.
We had a adventure in Dongdaemun Market, where we found a tucked away little place serving food that didn't want to serve us because no one spoke English. But we convinced them through a series of hand gestures and refusals to get up that we'd eat whatever they had. I'm glad we stayed because we had the best stew cooked right at our table full of whole fish, shrimp and who knows what else.
After that, we wandered into Lotte- the Walmart of Korea, which was amazing. Then we finally found Siloam Jimjilbang- a Korean spa wear you're issued a get of baggy shorts and a t-shirt and you spend a lot of time laying in 120 degree saunas on top of piles of jade rocks. We even spent a few minutes in one room that was 220 degrees, by our rough calculations from Celsius to Fahrenheit.
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