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Published: March 21st 2007
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Octagonal Building in Tapgol Park
Built in 1897 for musical performances for the royal family. Also the site where the Korean declaration of independence was first read We woke up this morning in the compact little back packers tucked away in the back alleys of Korea's largest city. The free breakfast was surprisingly good, toast with cheese and ham. A fantastic break from the stretch of local food we've been subjecting our bodies to for the last few days. Kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage) with every meal makes for nice warm sleep at night, but sometimes you need a break!
The idea for the day was to go to Bukhamsan national park just north of Seoul to hike 3 of the peaks and get a view from above. But as our luck would have it, we woke up to a steady drizzle that looked like it was here to stay. One of the benefits of being new to a place is that there's always something else to do. Instead we headed down to one of the cultural markets, which turned out to be pretty touristy on the main street, and browsed around some of the shops selling beautiful handmade pottery, pintings and jewelry boxes exqisitely carved and decorated with mother-of-pearl.
We also took a walk into Tapgol Park, one of the parks where some beautifully restored
The Seoul Tower
Through the branches of a tree in Tapgol Park pagodas and stone carvings from the fifteenth century. In the same park was a 13 tier marble pagoda built in 1476, which is designated as National monument #2.
By 2h30pm we were really hungry and pretty cold from standing out in the drizzle, and a close and convenient Burger King managed to tempt us into eating a second Western-style meal for the day. We got our dose of culture for the day in the form of local art and historical relics, instead of street food, for a change.
One heavy disappointment was that 2 tall cups of 2000 Won (R14) Burger King Coffee turned out to be heavy contenders in our ongoing competition for the worst coffee in the world. We ended up pouring the smelly brown water down the drain and each refilling our cups with 3 of the small cups of deliciously strong coffee sold for 300 Won at a nearby vending machine.
Our last stop for the day was back to the electronics market in Yonsan in search of bedside lamps. After negotiating at several shops using the point-to-the-phrase-in-the-guide technique, we managed to find the cheapest lamps available and buy 2. More success!
The Pagoda
A 13-tier structure built in 1467. Now wrapped in glass for safe-keeping We then headed by subway to the intersection our bus home stops at. When we got up to the road level, we found that there are bus stops on either side of each of the 4 streets coming into the intersection, and we had no idea which of the 8 stops was the right one. While running around checking the stops, we noticed the bus driving through the intersection and managed to catch it just as it reached its stop!
We were sooooo glad to be sitting, heading back on the 90 min trip, because we were both tired from spending two full days on our feet and the bus only comes through once every half hour.
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