S(e)oul City walking....

We were v excited to be going to Seoul. We had no idea what to expect & no guidebook so we took to the internet to find out the ‘must see places’. Then Mr L stumbled upon ‘80 facts about S. Korea’ & I drowned in a sea of information. He has retained many of these facts to throw out when you least expect it. You have been warned!  The flight there was just over 1hr, however we hit turbulence that actually lifted us out of our seats  & caused people to scream but it settled down & we landed safely. We had opted to stay in Myeong Dong which seemed like the best place to base ourselves to explore. We checked into our hostel & by the time we headed out it was early evening & the streets were alight with neon signs, lots of music & plenty of people. One street was lined with  food vendors, serving a great selection of delicious food – we know because we had plenty of it! The following day we explored a nearby market where you could buy pretty much anything. Mr L got some reading glasses made up whilst we waited. It was  amusing watching him being asked to read Korean to see if the words were in focus! We also explored one of the recently restored historical entrance gates to the City. Most of Seoul was destroyed in the Korean War so there are v few original buildings left. In the afternoon we met up for lunch with a friends son & his girlfriend who have been living & working in Seoul for a year. It was interesting to hear their experiences.
The next day we headed to the war museum, a huge building with statues outside depicting the struggle of war. However they weren't the focus of our attention – it was the sea of tents –  hundreds of them set up in front of the building with families, sheltering from the sun, drawing. It seems we had arrived on a children's drawing competition day & we could see it was being taken v seriously. We headed into the museum & followed the arrows (at one point we didn't & were v quickly sent in the ‘right’ direction). The displays were interesting but we found the videos more useful in providing a  plotted history of the war. I was impressed to see many exhibits dedicated to role of the UN &  recognition of the contribution other countries made. One particular presentation, called ‘the drop’ used unusual graphics to deliver a very powerful  dedication to those from all around the world who lost their lives.  We were less impressed with the 4-D presentation which showered us in fake snow & pumped the room full of freezing cold air to illustrate just how cold the conditions were.
In the evening we headed to Hong-Dae an area described as ‘lively’ & it was. Along the Main Street every few feet was someone singing or a group  doing synchronised dancing – strangely this seemed to attract the biggest crowd.  We had hoped to take a trip to the border or as close as we could get to the 38th parallel,  but we couldn't arrange it in time. We will have to save that until our next trip.On our last day we visited the Gyeongbok-Gung Palace & joined a free guided tour of the buildings, most of which have been rebuilt in the past 20yrs. Still worth a visit though,  if only to admire the chimneys which the guide seemed obsessed about! From there we headed to the Cheonggyecheon steam – 11km long,  running through the centre of Seoul, which  had been covered up by road but, in recent years the road has been removed & the stream & footpaths either side have been rebuilt making  it a lovely walk. We didn't of course walk the whole of the river but we did  do plenty of walking during our time in Seoul – over 50km which we added to when, on our final evening we decided to forego the cablecar option & walk up the steep steps to Seoul Tower that stands on a hill overlooking the city. We got into the tower  just as the sun was setting, giving us great views. However what caught our eye as we entered the observation deck wasn't the view,  but what was on the windows. All around were the names of cities & their distance from the tower – cities we had visited on our travels – Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Kuala Lumpar, Hong Kong, Ulaanbaatar, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Amsterdam & of course our start & end point – London. Still some 9,000 Kms away but getting closer every day.
 Our flight from Seoul to Okinawa was uneventful & we managed to get back into Japan without a hitch, which was a relief. Tomorrow we catch the ferry to a small island called Aka,  for a holiday, where we hope to spend our 6 days  doing very little but lay in the sun (if it decides to come out), swim, kayak, snorkel & sleep.