Seoul trip

The KTX Ulsan station just opened last year - the high speed train. Michael thinks it is very cool. The train stopped in a few cities on the way and then 2 hours and 10 minutes after leaving Ulsan, we were at Seoul station in the heart of the city. The view along the way is mountains with some big cities (all the cities have the same appearance in many ways with the tall housing apartments/condos). There was lots of farm land - not big plots like Iowa but many greenhouses that look to be covered with plastic.

At the Seoul station a nice young lady talked to us and then we asked her about where we were headed. She recommended the subway (I had thought cab and then to start figuring out subway), so we figured out how to buy the tickets (machine dispenses for one trip; we had to put in our destination stop; all subway info has English). But we went to the stop with the same name as the neighborhood of the Holiday Inn - Seoungbuk-gu. A nice couple helped us there and said "no" you cannot walk and told a taxi driver where we were headed. No problem getting there. At the original stop I thought the place looked rather residential by Seoul standards - not too many high rises. Michael didn't seem phased at all. He could have asked what the heck I was thinking!!

The Holiday Inn was very nice - the people helped us a lot. (And now we knew our subway stop.) I have figured out at a nice hotel with breakfast buffet that morning is the best time to get some greens. It's a little strange loading up on salad bar for breakfast, but the selection is good. Michael preferred eggs, sausage, etc. I planned a few things on the north side of town because that's where our hotel was. Monday was a holiday and lots of places (e.g., museums and palaces) are closed Mondays anyway, so we went to Bukhansan national park in the morning. The hotel people gave us a note for the bus driver, but he said "no," so we regrouped and took a taxi. A 25 minute ride was only about $12. The driver took us right to the trail head, which is right by a fairly large Buddhist temple. We were glad for the taxi. The walk up the road from the entrance was probably a mile. The temple seemed pretty busy, and people were bowing to statues aroudn the area. It seems so sad because I don't see how anyone could think a holy God wants people to bow to cement statues. The hike was really good - fairly steep and rocky. Michael makes it pretty clear he doesn't really want to hike, but he is much better than I am. And once he gets going he has a good time. We met a couple of English speakers who were nice and asking him if he was waiting for his mom. There started to be light rain, which was sort of refreshing. After hiking a short two hours, we had lunch at a little place by the trail head. We spotted others eating a big vegetable pancake. It was delicious. I am getting respectable with my chopsticks. Once Michael said I was trying to close them too tight, things have gone much better.

After the hike, we needed a taxi. But the main taxis to the trail head area act as a shuttle. The guys directing traffic figured out our situation and one of them took us back in his taxi. Apparently they have a couple of taxi drivers directing traffic. This was just one example of people being very nice to us where I wished I could communicate I understood they were going above and beyond duty. We were kind of wet so headed back to the hotel to clean up. Then we took the subway to a downtown area to walk around the small river that flows through downtown below the main street level. I had come across this area when I was here last year and was familiar with this area of town. I had let Michael pick the night city bus tour, which departs in this vicinity. We had dinner and then came upon a Coldstone so enjoyed an ice cream. A nice fellow started a conversation - he has a US PhD and his daughter is headed to Harvard in the fall. Wow. Pretty smart and hardworking girl. The 1 hour tour was on a double decker bus and when mostly around the Han River - very nice to see the bridges lit up at night and city on both sides. The audio in English told what many of the bridges represent. There was a LOT of traffic - I think there always is. But it seemed to be moving pretty well. We got back to the hotel about 10:00. I was letting Michael figure out signs, direction we needed to go on subway, how to get to transfer line, etc. He did a good job.

Tuesday we slept late and had the hotel breakfast and then took a subway to an area of town where we could do two main things. We walked around a historic neighborhood (Bukchon) that has maintained many traditional houses, called hanok. It's the roof you would picture on an Asian house. There is a small cultural center (that I finally found!!) that explains some of the history. This area of town has very narrow streets and lots of very small store fronts - really, this is sort of the way it is in many parts of Korea. There is anything from a shoe store to a porridge restaurant (a specialty - I would like to try but Michael is not going for it). We then went to one of the five palaces in Seoul - they all have similar styles of structures and quite a bit of open area. This one is especially nice because there is a secret garden tour - the garden can only be seen if a tour is booked. We knew the times and got there for English. It's not really a garden but more like a big park. We couldn't even see or hear the city from inside. The guide was quite informative about the different areas. It was raining - hard sometimes - but afterwards Michael said how nice the tour was. We were then hungry for what would be an early dinner. I said "Korean," and he said, "Pizza." It seems like he only wants to eat Korean with Justin!! I sighed and said I had seen a place that from the window looked like it had pretty good salads too. But on the way we went by a very small place that was making steamed dumplings. I said, "Let's have one. I guarantee you will like them." They were DELICIOUS. We ordered more and counted it as a light early dinner. They were making them fresh. We opted for pork, which had some veggies too. Then we were headed to the subway station and saw a very small place with a guy making what turned out to be two pieces of bread with filling that goes in a device like a waffle maker - so the middle comes out shaped like a fish. I thought "no way Michael is going for this," but he stepped right up and said he wanted the one with the red bean filling. Apparently Denny from school had brought some bread with these red beans. They were so tasty. The sweetened red beans are the same thing they put on the shaved ice desserts, and I've seen it as donut filling too. So that was our day! We walked so much it was hard to fathom. And the subways were usually fairly crowded so we were usually standing. I feel like I am getting in "city shape."

We also tried our first Dunkin Donuts while in Seoul. There are plenty around Ulsan too. They have some America style donuts, but one thing Michael likes is the steamed blue berry donuts. They are really kind of like baked cake - so I like them because they are not fried. Wed. morning we headed by subway to Seoul station and returned to Ulsan on the KTX. Michael liked Seoul but said he prefers "home" in Ulsan. On the map I could tell which two buses probably went to our neighborhood, so we took a bus after asking "Nam-gu, Ok-dong?" Gu refers to a large neighborhood, and dong is the smaller neighborhood. The same terms are used in other cities. Interestingly, Korea is doing away with the historical references. Gu and dong might still apply, but they are starting to have streets with consecutive numbers. Apparently the original numbering was by parcel of land, and numbering was not in any real order. So, they are westernizing! Even when I was looking around to figure out what to tell a taxi driver to get home, Prof. Jang said they probably wouldn't recognize a street name. Our piece of paper from Justin adds that our place is "next to ____," one of the large apartment buildings next door.

I intendeed this trip to Seoul to be one that would familiarize us with KTX and also Seoul in general, and I think we succeeded. I would like to go again and do a few specific things. A few new pictures are posted at the end of the blog.