Seoul has Soul

It took us three hours to get to Seoul from Andong. We thought we knew where our hotel was but it turned out a lot hard to find, guess it didn't want us to know it's Bizness. We stayed right next to Insadong which is a fantastic place for souvenir shopping and eating. 

Eating in Korea is tricky because sometimes you don't know what you are putting in your mouth. Nick knew what he was getting into and you might not believe me when I say this but the picture is my witness. He asked for that green leaf in his hand...................

 and then he ate it! Miracles happen, you all just witnessed one!

Tasty cream and chocolate filled Churros

 More food!!! We love our food. YUM!!!!

You should remember this amazing Oreo bingsu from a previous post. Mom and Don enjoyed it immensely....

Well maybe a little too much, "I can't feel my eye" (Don) HAHAHAHA We laughed for days just repeating that line! We couldn't count how many times he stopped eating because of a brain freeze, guess he enjoyed it.

 The famous mirror picture!

 We walked a lot in Seoul and it was worth it to see these places.

The two pictures sandwiching this description are of the old and new Seoul City halls. The old city hall is the cube building and was built by the Japanese during the occupation previous to World War 2. The new one is the Glass building that looks like a Tsunami wave.  I wonder what the architect is trying to tell us.  Maybe you can leave your theories in the comments.

Of course we had to take them to the Temple, our favorite place in Seoul.

We found an awesome bench in the subway. If you can't read the English print it says, "You are not alone." but I would think if you have friends that look like that, loneliness isn't your biggest problem.

We walked by an old Palace.

 Don stopped to admire the bumps for the blind people.

 He also stopped to check out this Golf place!

 Before we knew it we were on the train headed to Mokpo.  Nothing like the Korean KTX to get you there in style.

Nick's Hidden Talent

Here recently we have been visiting our beautiful swimming hole. We have gotten a lot of rain so it has been very very full. We have been on morning schedule (8:30-5) so we attend taekwondo in the evening with a group of amazing kids. Nick has discovered some confidence in his tumbling abilities.

At first I freaked out, because we are getting old and I didn't want him to end up like me, a gimp. Then I realized we are still young. Nick is so fit right now.... Now is the time for him to flip and do whatever he wants within reason.

Other than Nick's awesome flips we went to Seoul again a couple of weekends ago for our routine Temple trip, but this time we were able to meet up with a friend. Although I had never met Dorthy Stott before, I knew both of her parents from Church in Alabama. Her mother told me that she loved Korea. Last summer when she came for a few weeks we tried to meet up but I got sick and we missed each other. We kept in touch and this year we finally met up and man am I glad we did.  She showed us some great places and things to eat not far from the temple, too bad we didn't discover them earlier!

Nick and I at the Seoul Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

First time we tried Soldiers Stew: Raman, hot dogs, bean sprouts, macaroni, spam, random meat, cheese, rice cakes and more. When you started running low on raman and rice you can add more at no extra cost. It was delicious and spicy.

Dorthy brought us to an AMAZING dessert place. We had the tallest oreo bing su (like shaved ice) and Nutella pancakes SUPER DELICIOUS!!!

BRAIN FREEZE!!

Just a fun picture! We had a great night!

Van Gogh and Namsan Seoul Tower

Weekend in Seoul

We decided to go to Seoul for the weekend because we had a district conference meeting (for church) so we planned the whole weekend as a get-away. I researched some things that I wanted to do and I had the whole thing planned a few weeks in advance. I will just tell you now that it didn't turn out like I had planned, some things we didn't even get to do because we were so worn out. I was proud of myself for not caring!

FIRST the bus ride.. We did not encounter any snomit this time.. Praise the FROG! Nick slept most of the way... and so did the rest of the bus..

After we go there we went straight to the Museum of Art and used the bathroom! I immediately spotted a girl in the line, wearing the dress I just ordered online. I was interested to see how it looked on a real woman with curves. So I struck up a casual conversation with her before I asked if I could see how the dress looked. She laughed and we became friends. After the bathroom escapades we came out to find our men had found each other and were also talking. We had a lot in common and found them fascinating so we exchanged numbers. We found them again later in the art gallery and decided to stick together. I don't think I was allowed to take pictures of the paintings, but I didn't have my flash on and if they said no pictures I didn't understand. This painting was one of my favorites.

It's of a crab that is upside down. HA

       After we went to the souvenir shop and got a few things, we decided hot chocolate was in order.  We found a nice place that happened to be right outside the concert hall.  We arrived right as London Philharmonic Orchestra began their concert. Where we were sitting in the lobby area, we could hear the music they played and were able to view it via a large screen above the entrance.
 
        We made plans to see our new friends on Saturday to eat some YUMMY burgers and we left to check in at the temple. This time we did not stay at the dorms. When I called to reserve a bed they told us they had a four bedroom house and that we could have one of the rooms. This was the first time Nick and I slept on the floor in Korea. They gave us a pad to put on the floor and some blankets. We knew this was how they usually sleep, but it was a pleasant, unexpected surprise. We dropped stuff off and headed to Namsan Seoul Tower.

         We thought it was only going to be a short 2 hour adventure, but it turned into a 5 hour adventure. We left at 8 pm and got back and in bed at 1:00 am. So we left and caught the subway to our first destination. Then we jumped on the bus to go up to the tower. When we finally got there it was about 9 and we were starving. We tried to eat at the burger place there but they had just closed down :( We waited in a VERY long line to go up to the observatory deck. Which was well worth the wait. It was so beautiful up there and we loved every minute of it. Here are some pictures looking out from the deck.

 They say that Namsan Seoul Tower is a romantic place.  Their commercials consist of a bear who is trying to help the guys make a move on girls. For example there is a boy and girl sitting on opposite sides of a bench and you could tell they liked each other.. well the bear comes along and sits in the middle and bounces up and down until the bench is broken and forces the couple to slide toward the middle. Very cute. They had these benches outside. Anyways in the tower they had cute postcards that you could purchase, write on, and mail from there. We wrote one each and sent them to some special people in our lives. When you get them you'll have to post on            
                                  the blog and let everyone know!

After we finished and left we were starving.. We decided to eat at the first place possible which happened to be McDonalds.. well if you know anything about Nick he hates McDonalds, but he ate it anyways. Above is a picture for proof.
We caught the subway partly back to the temple but we were kicked off a few stops before our destination because it was closing for some reason we do not know. We found some women who also did not know what was going on. Turns out they were from Taiwan and going to the same area so we shared a taxi. We finally made it back to our room for the night and we passed out. We woke up early to find  A LOT of Koreans dressed in their Sunday cloths sleeping in the main room outside of our door.

After the temple we did some shopping and then met our friends for lunch..
The restaurant was called Salt and Butter. YUM!

We went for a walk and found this person.. for school food he sure does look angry.. maybe it isn't good food?

 A shoe tree..

Check out the spelling of phone here.. AWESOME!

We also ate at a Mexican place called On the Boarder. It was a little pricey but worth it to have real Mexican food. Nick was super excited as you can tell in the following photos..

             

The second night in Seoul we stayed at a traditional Korean guest house. We had a very small room and we slept on the floor...again.... It was great! Mr. and Mrs. Yoo were really awesome and spoke really good English.  This palace was right next to where we stayed.

Well that about sums up our awesome weekend in Seoul.. We will leave you will a pretty awesome picture.. No questions asked.