Seoul Calibur OCI: Tourist Edition

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Note: read Seoul Calibur OCI: Drinking Edition before this entry to get the full story.

Sunday began for me at about 2 p.m. I went with Choi to Insadong to buy some gifts for people. It's a big tourist street with lots of high quality shops. We started with some lunch where I ate some soup that was "made from beans" I was told. It was kind of foamy with lumps of bean flavored gunk in it and some pieces of pork. Not the best but I ate it because of how hungry I was. I found what I was looking for but it was quite heavy and I didn't enjoy carrying the stuff around the rest of the day considering how much walking I did.

After shopping Choi and I went to Joseon palace. It's the palace built by the largest dynasty Korea has ever seen. The Joseon dynasty. The place was really cool. We got to see the changing of the guards as well as a lot of neat architecture. There was a nice lake surrounding one of the buildings and lots of trees. One tree looked kind of sad and really old. It was growing completely horizontally if it was even still growing at all.

After walking all around the palace grounds we walked to Myeung-dong. On the way we stopped and had a little snack. I had a piece of pineapple rolled in ham. Choi had a sausage rolled in steak. We walked past a statue of the most revered emperor in the Joeson dynasty, Emperor Sejong. His face is also on the 10,000 won bill. We also went to see the source of some man made river the president made. Choi seemed to think it was a waste of money but a good city beautification project. There's a lot of controversy about Lee Myeong Bak's project to build up four rivers in Korea. I mostly just like to joke about it. For example: the president probably drives a Kia Rio.

Myeung-dong was by far the most commercialized part of Seoul I've visited. I couldn't walk through the streets without either bumping into a teenager or a cart peddling knock-offs of something. I didn't buy anything there but it was fun to look around. After visiting we went to COEX mall. This place is similar to an underground Mall of America. Not terribly busy on a Sunday evening which was good. We went to a PC room to print off a coupon for On the Border (a Mexican chain) then went there for some delicious food. I forgot how much I miss Mexican. This was pretty legit compared to the other Mexican i've tried in the country. Again, I didn't have to pay...tee-hee!

We caught the free OCI bus home at 8 p.m. I saw Mr. Uhm and Root on the bus and we talked a bit. I would definitely say that I had the most fun in Seoul this time around thanks to visiting the huge city with only Korean people. No offense foreigners...you're just not in the right position to be hospitable. I promised Choi if he and his girlfriend ever wanted to visit Minnesota I'd repay the favor although we have far less palaces and people there.

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