Seoul Korea
September 12-14th, Trav and I had a to go on a visa run! We are so grateful we have these because it gives us the opportunity to go to see countries quick especially if we only want to spend a few days checking things out in a certain country. Korea was on that list:)
We absolutely LOVED Seoul. We hadn't heard much about Korea, and didn't know much of what the country was like or what to expect when we got there. We were pleasantly surprised! Seoul is very much like the US. It is clean, organized, people drive great, the food is delicious (they even had a Krispy Kreme!! Woo! It's a rare occasion when we find delicious donuts or other pastries in China), some people speak English, everyone is courteous and so much more. It was so refreshing! One thing that really surprised us about Korea was how developed the country is: Clothes, food, and other shopping is really, really expensive!
Now to expand more about the expensive food. I loove Korean food!! Have you ever been to a Korean BBQ Restaurant? This is Koreas signature food!! And it is probably my favorite!!! I couldn't wait to try the authentic food. I have only been to a Korean BBQ restaurant here in Shanghai, and figured if it was amazing in China, that it would be mind-blowingly delicious in Korea. Right? WELL, because this is Korea's signature food, it is also their most expensive. The cheapest place we found a Korean BBQ was $35 a plate, and on top of that, you have to buy more food to grill! Uh, no thank you. Unfortunetely, we didn't get any kind of BBQ foods. So until next time, Korea. Instead, we had cold noodles and dumplings. It was pretty yummy! Here is the restaurant we went to, and the cheapest place we could find "fast food."
We saw these yellow ribbons all over the city. We couldn't figure it out what they were until the next day! We saw a ton of protesting going on for the kids that were lost in a fatal ferry boat that sank a few weeks or months before we got there. Our condolences go out to the families who are suffering from that tragedy!
The last two pictures were just some really cool streets that tons of cool vendors. And to the left of the last picture is Baskin Robbins! We were so excited. Travis took a picture of it in honor of his best friend who worked there. You know who you are:)
The Statue above is of King Sejong. (I could be wrong, and if so, you're welcome to tell me.) And in this courtyard, there is another statue right behind this one. This is the man who created the Korean Alphabet. Beneath the second statue (which unfortuntely we didn't get a picture of on our camera), is a cool little free museum that was full of the history of Korea. How the language was developed and the time before then. It showed the history of their people! I would recommend going! I love seeing that kind of stuff! These asian countries have such cool and unique histories, I find them fascinating to learn about!
Next, these are the two of the only pictures we got of the 4-5 festivals that were going on that day in Seoul. The first one is the picture of the lady monk singing. She had an incredible opera voice! This was a Religious Culteral Festival. All kinds of religions gathered together and had games, activities, and proselyting going on:) We were hoping to run into some LDS missionaries, but didn't have any luck.
The next festival we ran into was a Deaf Festival. This was a giant awareness group trying to help the deaf community. As we went through, they were giving free cotton candy to anyone who would come in and learn about how to communicate with a deaf korean person! Hahah, and if you know travis or I, you will know that we will do anything for free cotton candy. So naturally, Travis did the course. The women running this booth couldn't get enough of it:) We stopped at a few others that wanted us to come by and take pictures!
The first two pictures with the men dressed up was in an area called Gwanghwamun. In all honesty, we came and looked around in the courtyard, but never went into the temple. It cost too much and we figured it wouldn't be worth the money because it was very small. This entire structure and its surrounding buildings had been restored or rebuilt. It was really neat to see!
The last three pictures were a shopping street with lots of cute little shops, boutiques and restaurants. I loooved this street. This street called my name! I love seeing and walking around stuff like this. It reminded me a lot of La Jolla, California. If you haven't been to La Jolla, I would advise going.
We found another shopping center street full of really cool shops! We ran into another Music Festival here. As we were strolling along, we ran into some Senior missionaries!! We were SO excited! They were the sweetest people telling us about their time in Korea. They even bought us ice cream! So sweet.
As we went through the day, we totally didn't think about the temple in Korea. It slipped my mind completely, and Travis remembered to look it up on our last day there. Before the we ran into the missionaries, travis was planning on taking us there right then! As we told the missionaries that we were headed that way, the Elder on the top left of the picture volunteered to take us there! I am horrible with names, and can't remember this sweet mans name, but we are so grateful for the few hours he took out of his P-Day to take us to the Korean temple! He explained that the temple was hard to find and that it would just be easier if he joined us!
We headed that way, and low and behold, the temple is hidden in a neighborhood 2 blocks in from a main road! It was really interesting because they aren't usually hidden like that. Below is a picture of one of the roads we hiked up to get to the temple.
As we walked up to the temple, there were a few sister missionaries with a recent convert taking pictures! One of the sisters was a girl I knew from high school, back in Kaysville, Utah! Lets talk about a SMALL world!! It was so sweet to see to see her! The world is a small place. I can't emphasize that enough as we go on our trips. We always run into someone that either we know directly, or have similar friends!
The temple was so gorgeous. I know that there are a few in Asia that look similar to this, but I have never seen one like this before. It was a beautiful clear day, and we got great pictures of the temple!!
First Video - they had some of the biggest snails that people were selling on the streets! They were also expensive to buy a bag, so we searched to find a guy that wasn't busy and asked if we could pay for just 1 snail, and some nice guy just gave us one. Travis ate it, and it was disgusting to watch. Haha surprisingly, he liked it!
We were in a fun area called Myeong-dong. It is a huge tourist attraction full of fun street food, performers, shopping and restaurants. They had nice stores and restaurants, I believe we ate at TGIF!
Above is a video (Second Video) of one of my favorite street performers!! There were a few of these stands around, but they were making these treats. I have no clue what they are called, but this is how they make it! I had to shorten the video because it was too long. This guy was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing. He started out with a block of frozen honey. He put a hole in it and started to stretch it out and fold it over and over in corn startch, as you see in the video! As he keeps folding it, it becomes like hair! Its really cool to see! It doesn't break either. What isn't in the video, is the final product of the treat. He then takes a small handful of this stringy honey, and wraps it around bits of chocolate or peanuts and sells it! SO COOL!
Here was is to our final night in Korea. We had a Drum Festival happening right outside of our hotel! We enjoyed the little act that we saw. It was probably the weirdest band in the entire world. They didn't sing, they had music and drums going along with this mans voice. He just made the weirdest noises I have ever heard coming out of someones mouth! We finished our last day in Korea with this concert, and a box of Krispy Kreme donuts!!
Korea was amazing, and it is one place we want to go back to! The one thing that everyone asks us is why we didn't see the wall that divides North and South Korea. Little did we know, that you have to plan months in advance to get a spot for a tour guide with the US military. And so sadly, we had to miss that. Hopefully we will go back to Korea again one day, and that wall won't be there. And if it is, we will definitely make it out to see it!
