Our Weekend Away

No one wanted to play my little guessing game. You guys are tough, huh? Don't make me have to start giving away prizes :)

We were off to Seoul, Korea for the holiday!

Seoul is a huge city...very spread out, and traffic is just as bad as in most Asian cities we've been to. It seems that the roads were a second thought after constructing the city. The subway was a treasure on our last day, as we were looking for any excuse to not hop in a taxi. 

Friday may have been my favorite day. We spent the morning touring Gyeongbokgung  (say that 3 times fast...) and the Gyeongbok Palace. It is a vast palace filled with dozens of courtyards and pagoda rooftops. 

 

Construction began in 1620 and served as the king's official residence. 

 

 I loved just walking the grounds. They were beautiful. 

After the Palace, we stopped by the National Folk Museum of Korea. We learned how Korean commoners and nobles lived during traditional times. Our favorite part was an open-air exhibition, called "a street to the past", in which the lifestyles of the 60s-70s were displayed. 

We stopped at a few local galleries and took in the Korean art. 

After we were well educated in terms of art, we made our way towards Samcheong-Dong. This was my favorite area. It was full of little galleries, cafes, and small boutiques. 

 

We really enjoyed this area, called Bukchon, which was filled with restored Hanok houses. They are fast disappearing in Seoul, as "out with the old, in with the new" seems to be a common way of life here in Asia. 

 After touring the Bukchon, we stopped for a delicious lunch of Korean BBQ. 

And then started to make our way up towards to the Seoul Tower. 

 

 Can you spot Michael carrying a murse???

We saw the 'wall of locks', where lovers go and write messages to each other, and then seal it with a lock. 

(Still carrying his murse)....

We ended the day with watching the sun set over Seoul. 

Day One Complete.

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It's Day 2 in Korea, and we're off to visit the DMZ zone. If you're like me, and need a bit of a refresher as to what the DMZ zone actually is, go here. 

We were able to walk through the 3rd tunnel, which was pretty incredible. The tunnel was discovered in 1978. It's about 1700 yards long, 2 meters in width and height, and 150 feet below ground. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but imagine a tunnel, and you pretty much get the gist. 4 tunnels have now been discovered, and the 3rd one is the largest thus far...We can certainly guess that North Korea was planning a pretty severe plot to invade the South at that time. 

We went as close to the border as we could get and had to stand behind a yellow line just to take pictures. The energy was intense.

 We were spent after this and called it an early night. 

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It's our final day in Seoul, and we started in Myeongdong, which seemed to be quite the shopping mecca. Each mall we walked through was filled with the most high-end brands. You name it, they had it. The stores were flooded with people and they were buying!

 We came across a festival and stopped for a few photos. 

 And continued wandering the streets. 

We came across a parade towards the end of the day, and this seemed like the perfect way to end our time in Seoul. It was back to the hotel for a coffee, and we were off. 

 We had a great weekend, and were welcomed home by this guy. 

Doesn't get much better.

xx,

Lauren