11.5 days in Korea: Follow royal footsteps in Seoul

Landed in Seoul at 7:14, the first thing we did, which has became part of our instincts, was to visit the Tourist information center. It was way to the end of the airport building in a quiet corner. There was nobody, ... and no staff!!! Oops.. ah! There was a note saying "Be right back", so we waited. Not for long, a friendly young lady came back to her seat quietly (I didn't even notice her). She handed out almost everything we asked for, plus two booklets; Travel Korea and Seoul's best 100. Visit this tourist office if you go to Korea!



We changed some euros to get half a million won.   Then, we spent some time trying to get a rental mobile phone. After we agreed to rent one and signed the paper, we tried to use internet. It only worked with an operator portal in Korean characters. Oops! Fortunately, they understood and let us cancel the deal. While Alex was dealing with the mobile phone, I got a T-Money card for 3000 won and topped it up with 27,000 won. We put so much money in because we thought to use it with the limousine bus to town which costed 9,000 won each. However, the cashier of the bus company didn't accept the T-Money.

After 40 min. we got off at Hapjeong station, and continued walking for another 10 mins to reach Kim's Guesthouse, our first accommodation in Korea. The first problem occurred. The owner admitted that he made a mistake with the booking. Thus, we wouldn't have a room for that night. Just before I screamed, he said "No worries. I will let you stay in my sister's house next door". Bad news turned out good, since we got upgraded from normal customers to guests of the house ˆ-ˆ and it was only 28,000 won for the first night instead of 38,000.


Despite of lack of sleep, after leaving all the bags in the room, we were ready to go. No tiredness nor jet-lag, but hunger! On the way to the metro station, we stopped at a small restaurant for breakfast. Our first Korean meal was Bibimbap (rice with vegetables, red sauce and sesame oil) and spicy tofu soup. They came with 6 side dishes. While Alex enjoyed his food using chopsticks, one guy came to tell that "no no no in Korea, spoon for rice. I speak little English". He kept checking us whether we did it right and from time to time repeated "spoon spoon", very nice of him.

We took a metro to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Finally, we could use the T-Money for the metro ride. However, the card can be used only for one person. What should we do with the 27,000 won in the card when the ride costs only 900??? Oops! We found a vending machine and got some chewing gum, paying with the T-Money. At least, we knew if we had money left in the card, we could take some sweets home. ;)

Before we went inside the Gyeongbokgung, there was a colourful guard changing ceremony in front of the main gate. The palace was huge and beautiful. While I was enjoying the scenery, Alex showed signs of jet-lag. However, his heart wanted to go on, only the body that acted a bit zombie like then. Each of us had a glass of iced green tea on the way to the next palace. Not so good but at least kept Alex awake a bit.



Visiting Changdeokgung palace that day was only possible with a guided tour, so we took the English one (More about what we saw can be seen in the photo album). We both agreed that this palace was more beautiful than the first one we saw. It is also a World heritage site.





After two of the five main palaces, we had enough of royal stuff. We went for dinner in Insadong. We had a super delicious vegetarian meal, recommend by one of the internet blogs we found. We had wrapped mushroom and vegetable soup with Chinese green pepper. And, I think, I don't need to mention anymore the side dishes!

It was not dark yet, so we headed to Namsan Seoul tower. Perhaps we could see the sunset and the night view of the city. We took a bus and got caught in a traffic jam. Missed the sunset and got off the bus too early. A young Korean heard our conversation, he told us to get on the same bus as him because he was heading to the tower with his mum! He carried a guitar which he planned to play and sing for his mum on the tower, real sweet boy! He also took care that we got up the tower. Only up there, he left us.

We both were tired but the night was still young, so we stopped at Dongdaemun market. It was a HUGE clothes market for both retail and wholesale. We just browsed around briefly, didn't buy anything. Before we got lost, better went back to the guesthouse to get some sleep!