Namsan Mountain- April 15th.

On Sunday, we woke up and enjoyed breakfast in the private executive lounge, which was nice until I found out the spread downstairs with the commoners was amazing.  American, European, Japanese, and Korean style breakfasts, plus a smoothie bar.  (I actually skyped with the kids once from the breakfast buffet just to rub it in).

It was such a nice day, we decided to take a walk up the mountain beside our hotel.  First we stopped by the library, where they just have books sitting out for people to take and bring back.

Sara's mom also worked for the American Chemical Society and joined us for our day trip.

Sara has mastered Instgram and took many cute shots of us.

Of course, we weren't actually hiking, but walking up a rather nice set of stairs.  Here we are at the first landing overlooking the north side of the city.

At the top of the mountain, we were rewarded with twisty potatoes with hot dogs in the middle!! Korea IS the future!

Since it was a weekend in Namsan Park, all of the tourist activities were in full swing.  Maureen got to try on her own hanbok.

And pose beside a warrior.

The Rouhi girls took a breather on a love bench.

And we checked out the locked fences.

I'm a sucker and bought a lock for the family.  Now someone has to go back and find it.  

We're learning how to take photos Asian style.

Posing with Haechi- the cute city mascot.  I really wanted to find a stuffed one of these guys for the kids.

A final shot of the tower before we headed back down.

After we descended the mountain, we met up with Sara's friend from college- Simon.  He took us to a fun restaurant where they stuff a whole chicken with rice and ginseng and make a stew out it.  You eat the pull thing with chopsticks and a spoon.   My chopstick skills were really taking off by then.

We followed lunch up with some shopping in Insadong..

And novelty snacks.  This was seriously called "Poop Bread."  It was like a waffle with sweet bean paste inside.  Of course I got one.

Then we snuck down a back alley to get what are known as the best dumplings in the city.  I'm not much of a dumpling person, but these were pretty good.

Sara and flat Stanley pose in Insadong.

Sara isn't the hardcore tourist I am, so she went back to the hotel for a nap, and I headed down to the Korean War Museum.

  

I arrived too late to get into the museum, but I did get a chance to walk around outside and explore the huge display of planes, tanks and other vehicles used in the war.

I think Henry would have loved this.

In the evening, we met up with Simon again and he took us down to Gangnam (like the song) for galbi, or pork belly fried at the table and eaten with sesame leaves.

Maybe one of the best meals we had in Seoul.

Exploring town with Sara- April 14.

Sara finally had a day off work and we were excited to see the town.  I told her so much about the little neighborhood I stayed in that she wanted to see it.  So we went back to the guesthouse I stayed in. 

And realized that they had a ton of hanbok to try on.  Shoes included.

 

Who wouldn't want to try one of these fancy dresses on?

 Especially when there's a photo shoot involved?

 And props?

Chaeson (I know I spelled this wrong) was the owner of the guesthouse.  

Remember how I said they filmed popular Korean tv shows in Bukchon?  We walked out the front gates and right into a film crew.  That guy in the denim shirt is apparently pretty famous, according to someone I asked in a shop nearby.  Strangely enough, I also ran into another crew filming a show a few days later. 

Next, we met up with another volunteer guide to tour Changdeokgung- another palace in town.

I said that every guide I had taught me something different.  This guide turned out to be our culture guide.  She was very kind to answer any question we threw her way.  We wandered the palace and enjoyed all the little kids.  (It was a Saturday, so the place was packed.)

Everyone was out getting their photos taken, including this group of teenage boys.  They were good sports.

 I missed the peak of cherry blossoms in DC, but we did get to see some apricot blossoms in bloom.

 The jewel of this palace is the Secret Garden, where the prince spent his time learning and studying to be king.  You can only go in with a tour.  And our tour guide was a pro.  It's too bad they don't tip in Korea, because she certainly earned.  She sprinkled in plenty of humor for us foreigners.

 Right above Sara is the prince's private library.  a guy could get used to that.

  

The prince's teachers got to stay up here.  They were second only to the prince.

Sara, I and Eugene under the arch that promises eternal youth to all that pass through.  I'll take it.  

One last shot in the gardens.   We didn't finish the whole tour of the garden( it's quite big), but instead opted to go get some food.  

We found a little place that served spicy grille pork and got very embroiled in a Korean historical drama.  It was very dramatic and we had a great time speculating what was happening, even though we couldn't hear anything.  Let's just say a guy turned into a wolf, babies were floated downstream and there was lots of crying.  They were certainly on par with some of the dramas we watched in India.

Next we walked to Jogmyo Shrine, which is clearly the preferred hangout for every old person in Seoul.  Retirement is compulsory at 60 in Korea, so hundreds of old folks headed to the park to play from games.

Once we got in the park, we met an old man (who was maybe a little senile) who found out we were American and spent the next 20 minutes playing 70s musical trivia with us.  I've got to say, I nailed all of the Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers songs he knew.  Somewhere over in Seoul, there's an old guy who thinks I'm pretty great.

At this point, i clearly had some pretty heavy camera fatigue, so I didn't take many pictures of the amazing Gwangjang Market, except with the ones i got from my phone. 

To do it justice, I pulled this picture off Google image search.  Essentially, Gwangjang is where you go to get all of your traditional Korean needs met.  

 Food (included whole pigs heads cut up for you while you waited), clothes, fabric, decorations- it was here.  Do yourself a favor and check out the image search.

I scored a cup of silkworms for consumption.  You know I did this so I could post the picture to facebook and freak everyone out.  (It worked.)  They really weren't too bad, but my western sensibilities about eating bugs kept coming back and I didn't make it through the whole cup.

 In the meantime, Sara found a long line and decided whatever food was being served at the end must be worth the wait.  She waited while I took a quick tour down the homegoods aisle and bought a bright pink buckwheat pillow.

 At the end of the line, I got a rice pancake filled with a sweet bean mixture.  It was really good.

Unfortunately, the whole place shut down around 5:30.  We did get into a store just in time to score these awesome shoes, which are probably the favorite thing I bought on the whole trip.  I really meant to get back to this market one more time before I left.