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Last weekend, Megan and I were happy for Friday to come and decided we’d get up early to travel the subway into the heart of Seoul. Getting outside our little neighborhood had its highs and lows but it is an amazing city! Very big, very clean and very beautiful (the vistas we saw from the Metro line included the whole city).

You never see one police officer, yet being in the city is very safe. In crowded areas, I usually travel with my wallet in a front pocket, and I still did, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t need to take that precaution.

Riding the subway is very clean and fast. Koreans may be known to be a little pushy but I really don’t mind. Maybe it is just that nobody is pushing the tall American boy but they sure don’t mind bumping into Megan. When the train stops and the doors open, you will be face-to-face (or face-to-waist depending on conditions) with Koreans who expect to get in just as fast as you get out if not faster. In truth, they are supposed to form two lines so you can escape through the hole in the middle. There are some nice things to say about the subway rides though; if you are standing and someone is sitting down, they may offer to hold your bag for you. Being unfamiliar with this custom, Megan thought an eighty-year-old woman was trying to steal her purse.

We started out from our apartment in the morning and headed over to an area called Itaewon. It is near an American Army base, so there are a lot of Americans and foreigners. Itaewon has a lot of merchants selling clothing both fake, new and/or stolen. Good place to get some deals. We had some breaky at Burger King and called the whole thing American as apple pie.

From there we moved on to the center of Seoul; Seoul Station and City Hall. Here we actually ran into another teacher from our school by accident. He advised us to head over to the 24-hour Namdaemun Market. We did, and while it was cool to see, it was just a much more crowded version of the same type of wares we found in Itaewon. You can only take so many cheap shoe stores that stop at size 8.

The City Hall district was next. It was very nice and included the ice skating rink that Megan was talking about a few days ago. We walked around a palace and had dinner waiting for the city to light up with Christmas lights. Then we had had just about enough and retired to our 120-square-foot mansion to recuperate from the cold.

In all, we covered two very small areas of the city, but despite what we’ve seen from our apartment to school (about three miles of outlet shopping) we have been impressed with Seoul. The people can be pushy and laugh at you, or very helpful and funny. Every once in a while though, we get someone in a crowd who randomly yells out “HI!” or “HELLO!” after we’ve past them so we don’t confuse them with someone who wants to talk. They just want to show off their English skills.

Go to our new Photos page to check out our latest album of our 1st trip touring Seoul.

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