Our Fledgling Flight

Day 3 of our Korea trip-

Today we decided to venture out into the city. Now remember we have no guide, no case worker, no one to help us navigate. So we were on our own! We decided to go see one of the 5 palaces here in Seoul.. Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was the largest of the 5 palaces and seemed to be an obvious choice. So off we went.

We found the hotel manager and showed him a map of where we wanted to go. He wrote it down on a card for us to show the taxi driver. The bellman got us a taxi and we took off. We got there safe and sound. The palace was gorgeous and grand. The pictures do not do it justice at all. We toured the King's residence, the Queen's residence, the Concubine rooms, and more. I loved it. ER was not so impressed. Attached to it was a Children's museum that ER thought was much more entertaining. Therefore, we spent another hour there. While watching ER play- we realized it was only 2:00 so we were not ready to go home. Using our map- we figured out that the Dongdaemun Market was close to our location. (This was one of the suggested places we visit for shopping). We found a nice Korean girl who spoke a little English and had her write down where we wanted to go. But we had LOTS of trouble finding a taxi. You know Scottsville folk really just don't use taxi's very much. We walked a long ways through the downtown streets of Seoul trying to find one. We admitted later that we both got pretty nervous at this point. ER was whining that her legs were tired and she was thirsty. (I felt the same). Finally we hailed one down- and off we went. The Market was not what we expected. It was very much like an upscale system of malls. Very trendy and very young. Pretty things but pretty expensive as well. Similar things to what our malls would have just lots more shops. We did find a few things to buy but nothing big. We enjoyed walking the streets and managed to have our picture taken more than once by curious Koreans. Many tried out their broken English on us by saying "hello, how are you today?" We of course were very polite. After a couple of hours of more walking we all 3 were done for the day. WE caught another taxi back to our hotel and now are in for the night. ER is at her limit and is ready to crash now. I may not be far behind. Tomorrow- we plan on shopping at a more traditional place and hopefully find Benjamin some nice Korean gifts.