Steal their Seoul in South Korea

Does anyone remember the amazing 90s TV show "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" (Sara, no need to answer since I know you dressed up as Carmen at Halloween last year haha!)? Well this lovely line is in the theme song that Rockapella sang, and I'm pretty sure I was humming the song the entire time we were in Korea!

I mentioned in my last post that it was a Chinese holiday - Labour Day was celebrated here this past Monday and Tuesday, so with a few days off from work we decided to head out to experience more of Asia. I had heard Seoul was a great place to visit, and it did NOT disappoint. I loved Korea. It is such a beautiful place, the people are creative and smart, the food is delicious and the history is unbelievable. What an awesome weekend. 

So on our way out of the apartments here in Shanghai, a kind couple from Florida overheard us talking about getting a taxi to the airport. They offered to let us tag along as their driver also took them to the airport. It ended up being a great experience and they gave us all kinds of advice about Shanghai to-do ideas. Very cool. Here I am getting ready to board our China Southern flight:

A fun little note: money in Korea is crazy. So in China, the exchange rate it roughly 6 RenMinBi per 1 US dollar. If a soda is 6 RMB, that's basically $1. In Korea, the exchange is about 1,100 wan per 1 USD. That means that small purchases are still like 5,000 wan. I felt so wealthy carrying around 50,000 wan bills!

We arrived late Saturday night, and decided to start Sunday with a morning hike at the Bukhansan National Park. It was so gorgeous! We laughed when we got there because most of the Korean people around us had on legit hiking gear ... what did we sign up for? This nice park is behind the house of the President and is definitely a real mountain. One of the first sights we saw was this neat temple. Here I am with a pagoda on the grounds:

Here's the inside of the temple. All the figures in the background are individually carved Buddhas. And the entire ceiling was beautifully carved too:

They were playing music and had religious leaders at the site, as well as worshippers. I wanted you to feel the experience, so please enjoy my attempt at capturing the moment:

Here is another video capturing the ambiance. As we were leaving, we caught this performance of some older Koreans drumming and marching. They are on a patio that overlooks a nice ravine and creek below, all at the base of the mountain:

We could have spent all day there since it was so cool, but instead we just hiked for a few hours and decided to move on to the next activity - the War Memorial of Korea. This museum was really nice and represented centuries of wars, conquests and defending Korea. We were naturally more interested in the most recent Korean conflict and seeing how it developed, how the US played a major role and seeing the actual weapons from that time. Here is a pic of the gallery where lots of planes were hanging:

On a few of the machines, guests were allowed to climb up and take photos. That was an odd experience. Very cool, but also a bit overwhelming realizing these were actually used in war:

The memorial had lots of neat sections about the various wars Korea has been involved in, and with every time period they included a model of the uniforms. Seeing the hundreds of uniforms might have been my favorite part! Can you find Holly?

Ok, so here's where it got a little more real. There was an entire wing dedicated to the 1950s Korean conflict. Wow, scary. The museum did a great job making it interactive and, quite honestly, scary as hell. I was creeped out many times. You walked onto a floor for the first quick movie, then it lit up below you to reveal bones of the fallen - yikes. The next room was a blank projector screen, but when the movie started, you could see that behind the screen was a tank and mannequin soldiers shooting at you while the narration ran over top of it (you can't quite tell how scary it is below, but definitely creepy):

The next part of the museum was life-size mannequins in fighting positions - you walk into the room and it's like you're in the middle of combat. Fallen soldier mannequins around you, medics tending to the wounded, gun blasts lighting up the room. They did a great job, but I wanted nothing more than to leave. A little too real. As we left, we saw this amazing and HUGE statue representing that conflict and the support they received from their allies:

Sunday night we experienced Hongdae, a cool trendy area in Seoul. On Monday, we started the day early with a trip to the N Seoul Tower. This tower is on a large hill (or mini-mountain, not sure). You take a cable car up to a certain point to lookout over the city, then you take an elevator within the tower to get to this observation deck:

We had such neat views of the city! After that, we headed to the Dongdaemun Market for some chotchky shopping and street food:

Ok, I know what you're thinking - street food? We heard so many recommendations to try street food here, so we did! I had pineapple on a stick (not very adventurous), and I also had this. Take a minute to come up with a guess as to what it is:

If you guessed pork hotdog breaded and dunked into french fry pieces with ketchup, you're right! I'm not sure if I'm proud of this picture or embarrassed, but we just couldn't resist. Was I in Seoul or at the Ohio State Fair? Part of the market goes by the Cheonggyecheon - a little creek running right through the middle of the city:

We also checked out the Gyeongbokgung Palace, built in about 1400. They were conducting a gate guard change ceremony when we arrived, which was so cool! They wore traditional garb and went through a whole series of traditions. After, they allow tourists to take pics with the guards:

To end the Seoul weekend, we headed to Myeongdong for a traditional Korean dinner of guksu noodles, mandu dumplings and kimchi. I didn't love kimchi, but guksu and mandu were oh-so-delicious. The best part was our entire dinner was about $8 USD (remember, that's about 8,800 wan!). I'd also like to note that I'm pretty sure I'm becoming a master chopstick-user. Watch out Heather - I'm coming for ya:

On TripAdvisor, the #1 rated thing to do in Seoul was to see something called NANTA. It is a show kind of like Stomp, but all of it takes place in a kitchen. The actors can dance, chop like champions (!) and drum so well. It was awesome. Here we are pre-show:

That night we saw Itaewon, a great foreigner section of town. Seoul is really great. If you're trying to plan a vacation out this way, I recommend putting it on your list. The strangest moment of the whole experience for me was when we came "home", and home meant Shanghai. Still pretty unbelievable that I live in China! When else in my life will I be able to take a long weekend to go to Korea?

On a few home updates, my friend Cole came back from Afghanistan to his beautiful 8-month pregnant wife (and one of my best friends!) Eileen this week. The few, the proud ... thank you for your sacrifices, and welcome home! I have two friends graduating from law school and a Master's program next weekend! Congrats Heather and Leslie! And three early-May birthdays to celebrate - my dad, Heather and Lisa. I'm thinking about all of you!

So is the next song I should be humming called, "Where in the World is Jessica?"?!