Off to Seoul!

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Wow. Even just finding a location for this blog was complicated. Seoul is a biiiiiiiiig place!

Sunday morning, David, Teresa, Griff and I met up after breakfast and went into Seoul. We took the bus to Jamsil station. Before going on the subway, we decided to have some tea and coffee at Starbucks. After that, we walked into the station and took the subway to City Hall station.

David showed Teresa, Griff and I which direction to head, and then left to meet up with his friend from a previous year of camp.

We checked out the skating at City Hall. It reminded me very much of the skating at Nathan Phillip's Square. Then we walked over towards Deoksugung Palace. We decided to stop in for more caffeinated beverages and snacks at Dunkin Donuts next door first. However, as soon as we sat down with our things, this processional started. I bolted and went to watch what was going on. It turned out to be the Changing of the Royal Guard. The ceremony was about thirty minutes in length. It included music played by a marching band with traditional instruments, a password exchange, sword exchange, changing of positions a drum beating to different orders being commanded and a traditional dance. Afterwards, I was able to try some traditional clothing.

Following the palace, we decided to check out the Namdaemun Market, which is one of the two major markets in Seoul. We wandered around for a few hours. Highlights included finding Diet Coke(!), getting cheap school supplies (so much more expensive in Canada!) and this really neat demonstration of how to make these Korean honey candies with 16,000 strings (16,384, to be precise). Watch a video about it here! This is not my video, but it is the same guys making the string candy. They were hilarious!

Griff and I enjoyed the market place, but decided to go on a quest to find McDonalds/other western food. We were starving. We settled on Burger King. I snacked on some fries and a kid's pack of chicken nuggets. Of course, we saw a McDonalds less than five minutes later. We decided to go in there anyways. I tried their spicy chicken tenders (delicious!) and a chocolate dipped cone. The cone cost about sixty cents Canadian. Win.

At that point, we decided to start our trek home. The subway part was a cinch, but finding our bus stop after was a pain. We got off the subway at a major junction, and because of construction, weren't able to see around the corner of the block which we exited to see the Lotto World mascot, showing us the right direction. That combined with my transit card not having enough money, language barriers and the bus driver not stopping at our stop made for a long commute home.

Overall, it was still a fun day, but we were exhausted by the time we arrived back at the dorm.

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Photos

On Guard!
Me, standing with one of the Korean Royal Guards.

Eat Your Heart Out, TTC!
The Seoul metro is amazing. It features monitors with information, a map telling you which direction we're travelling, and lots of space or passengers.

Namdaemun Market
One of the two major street markets in Seoul.