Hello Seoul

Our trip this week takes us to Seoul, South Korea. Before ending up here, we looked at Taipei, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, and Shanghai. It's always an adventure when you're non-revving, especially during peak summer travel time.

Lunch in San Francisco - Lobster roll

Lunch in San Francisco - Fish Tacos

The flight was about 12 hours from San Francisco. Hunter got Polaris Business and I sat in premium economy. Premium economy is ok, but I was sad I didn't get first. If we had of went to Shanghai, I would have gotten it with Hunter.

Hunter's Dinner

Hunter's Breakfast

Breakfast in Premium Economy - I didn't take a picture of my dinner but dinner was chicken and risitto

We arrived at around 9pm local time June 28th, 2019. Clearing customs was straightforward. They took our fingerprints and pictures like other countries have and sent us on our way. Unfortunately, South Korea doesn't stamp passports, they just give a little slip of paper with a date you must leave by.

Arrival into Seoul

We now went to find an ATM and the bus that would get us to our AirBnB. The first ATM we tried didn't work so we went to another, but it also didn't work. We kept getting an error message saying the pin could not be verified. Luckily the bus that we were taking took visa so we gave up on the cash and took the hour long bus ride to our AirBnB.

The bus into Seoul

We arrived and met Lucy, our super nice Korean host. It was raining and she brought umbrellas to meet us at the bus station. She walked us to her apartment and showed us the important things then left. By this time it was 12:30 and I was exhausted. Hunter and Cody were less so as they had beds on the plane unlike myself. I quickly showered and went to bed.

The building we are staying in

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I woke up bright and early around 5 am July 29th and started researching some things for the day. Since it was supposed to rain, it would be a good day for museums. I wanted to go to the National Museum of Korea and the War Museum. I also found a bunch of breakfast places near our AirBnB. Hunter woke up around 6 and found this place called Issac Toast for breakfast, so we decided on going there when it opened at 9. We slowly got ready for the day.

The view from our bedroom window

Breakfast

What Hunter and I ordered

After breakfast we went to a train station to head to the Museums. We saw another ATM, so we tried it, but no luck. Cody's card worked however so he was able to get some cash and I tried my Canadian debit and that also worked so I got some cash for Hunter and I. We bought T money cards for transportation and went on our way.

As we exited the subway, we walked through paths lined with bamboo. It was really pretty.

When we got to the museum, we lined up to go through the security and as we were waiting, we got asked if we wanted to go on a tour. I said yes at the same time Cody said no. It turned out to be free, so we went. An adorable Korean woman showed us the highlights of the museum which was perfect as I didn't want to wander aimlessly. She showed us around for an hour and a half.

 

Our tour guide

 

Had to take a selfie!

A national treasure - Incense Burner

 

Another National Treasure item

The guide explained that this was a pillow for a nap, because if you slept on it at night it would give you nightmares as it's porcelain. The guide was really funny.

outside the National Museum

After the tour, we left and headed to the war museum. We explored the outdoor exhibit and before going inside, decided to get lunch. We found this highly rated dumpling place and walked to it, only to find out it was closed for some private event. So we walked all the way back to this burger place we saw near the Museum. It was very good.

Out front of the War Museum

They called this the wedding hall

A monument

B52 bomber still in use today (not this one but ones like it)

C46

T54 Tank

C119 Boxcar - Hunter's Grandfather parachuted out of these during training

P51

F4

PKM357 - used in the second battle of Yeonpyeong

During our walk to find lunch

Lunch

After eating we went back to the museum and looked around. It was filled with interesting things and today actually was the anniversary of the second battle of Yeonpyeong (The boat was from that battle) so there was lots happening. We walked around the bottle floor where we saw replica boats and then went to the floor about the United Nations in the Korean War. It was very interesting seeing all the artifacts and information. The US played a large role in the Korean War.

A model 

After enjoying the museum, I was extremely tired and I think Hunter and Cody were kinda tired too. We decided to go back to the air Bnb for a nap. We also stopped at a convenience store and got snack and water. It wasn't long before I was asleep from our busy day (it was about 7pm). I didn't wake up until around 11pm. We were thinking of going to a night market, but I didn't want to. I wanted to rest, so rest we did.

Looking out our window

Sunset

Date: June 27-29, 2019