Day 9! We had another busy day ahead, and today was a day where things didn't all go as planned. But if you're an experienced traveler, you know that you should always have a backup plan. We did, and it all turned out ok!
I've watched a few K-dramas, but together, Natalie and I have only watched TWO all the way through. The first, of course, was Crash Landing On You, which is THE greatest show of all time. The other was Extraordinary Attorney Woo - and this was the building they used as the exterior for the Hanbada Law Firm where Woo Young Woo worked.
Natalie in front of the revolving door that terrified poor Woo Young Woo!
Don't worry, Young Woo, I don't love revolving doors either!
On our way to the Yeoksam station, we passed this bar where apparently this might be how you recycle the bottles from the bar. Also, why is the ground crooked here? Wait, am I drunk?
We headed north again to see Seoul Tower, which we reached by starting on the Namsan Oreumi Elevator hat originated on Myeongdong Street and then taking the Namsan Cable Car up to the base of the tower.
I'm not being facetious when I say that they are everywhere. Hi Jin and Namjoon!
I'm also not being facetious when I say that this cable car terrified me! I already hate heights, and the breezy winds rocking this car did NOT help.
The views as you head up the mountain are very pretty though, especially in the spring.
Up at the top, you'll find the Love Locks of Seoul Tower.
They sell the locks here, which makes for a bright and colorful collection of little hearts!
Seoul Tower is 480 meters tall and has a 360 degree view of the city.
Wait, you want me to go up THERE? Ok, ok fine. I'll go if you go.
It was a beautiful Spring Day in Seoul. (See what I did there? IYKYK!) This is the view to the north from the ground level in front of the tower.
They have these very helpful signs which tell you where everything is to the north of the tower. You can even see the office of the President, which is a blue building at the very base of the mountain.
The wall around the city of Seoul still exists in some areas, and they had these great signs which explained the different type of wall construction and what time period or dynasty they were from. The walls served to protect for 514 years, longer than any other city wall in the world! (Superlative, check!)
It's kind of a funny joke that there is a 7-11 on every block in Seoul. There IS though, and there's even one up next to the ticket booth at Seoul Tower!
We went inside and walked through this beautifully ethereal room to get to the elevators.
Once you're finally at the viewpoint, you can walk around the circular room to see Seoul from various directions. I liked this one - Pyongyang is in this direction, only 153 miles away.
The North Pole and Santa Claus are a bit farther... 3,662 miles away!
The views from Seoul Tower are amazing and this time of year happened to be "ok" for the fine particulates in the air. We can see pretty well into the distance and the sky is still blue. This is facing to the north-northeast. Myeongdong is on the far left side of this picture.
When I was a kid, my mom's sisters and some of my cousins used to call me Colleenie Weenie Beeny. No kidding!
Ok facing southeast is a BIT more smoggy! Or maybe this was just a gross window. But you can still see Lotte Tower in the distance! That's also Gangnam, where we stayed on the right side of the picture on the other side of the Han River.
Oh hey, just NYC and DC in that direction.6,952 miles to NYC, and 7,033 miles to DC.
This is a view looking south-southeast. Itaewon is in the center right, but you can also see Lotte Tower waaaaay out there on the left. Maybe if you squint.
Tiny Tan Namjoon... they are EVERYWHERE!
Yongsan and Itaewon areas of Seoul. I like these areas because they're less high rise and more culturally interesting!
Park Sae-Ro-Yi, are you down there?
Natalie and I grabbed a post card and a stamp and sent a little card to our friend Carla in Georgia to let her know we were thinking about her on our travels!
Well, if they have the North Pole, you know they would have the South Pole. This one is just a TAD bit farther away - at 8,775 miles away!
I titled this one, "Been, been, been..."
And of course, this one was also titled, "Been, been, been..."
We continued our walk around Namsan Tower and now we are facing west. Interestingly, Hybe is down that long street that you see in the middle left that heads right for the Han River.
Natalie and I were getting ready to leave the tower, but I decided I needed to run to the bathroom. This is what I found in that bathroom. What? Like, is anyone down there with a telescopic lens watching me use the restroom??? I don't want any weirdo peeping toms watching me here!
After the great restroom adventure, Nat and I went down and found some cherry blossom soft serve with little pieces of white chocolate on it. YUM!
This was the part of the day that didn't go as well. After we left the Namsan area, we went back down to the hotel to refresh, and then took the bus over to Jamsil Stadium, where we wanted to see the Doolsan Bears play baseball. Apparently, a baseball game in Korea is an ADVENTURE.
When we got there, long before the game started and well before the box office opened, there was already a massive line. With most things, I usually buy tickets in advance of our travels because I know stuff like this can happen, but if you do not have a Korean credit card, you cannot purchase tickets to the game online ahead of time. You can ONLY get them at the box office.
We were right here when they announced the game had sold out. SUCH a bummer. Natalie was incredibly disappointed, but I guess that just means we have to come back to South Korea!
Oh well, good thing I always have backup activities planned! Let's hop on the metro... ohhhhh. It's rush hour. This was our first time experiencing a Korean rush hour as we had just been traveling at off-peak times. This was DEFINITELY an adventure! I think I got married twice!
But, we survived and we headed up to Banpo Hangang Park, passing this One Bailey building on the way there. We were like, "Nope! There are two Baileys!" We also swung by a 7-11 for some dinner for Nat (I wasn't very hungry at this point). I think she ate like, 4 meals at 7-11 ha ha.
The sunset at Banpo park was STUNNING on this particular evening. We decided to go grab a drink at the building on the right in the above photo, which is the Sevit Island beer garden.
We truly had the most beautiful sunset views over the Han River!
Not only that, but we were able to have a front row seat to the Banpo Bridge Moonlight Rainbow Fountain show!
The fountain show runs about 4 or 5 times every night. They switch which side it sprays from depending on the wind direction so that it doesn't affect the traffic on the bridge. If the winds are calm, they can fire the fountains in both directions but there was a pretty strong west wind on this evening which meant they could only spray to the east.
The colorful bridge fountain show had to contend with a colorful Seoul sunset on this particular evening!
The official Seoul website says, "With 1,140 m of total length (570 m on each side), “Moonlight Rainbow Fountain” on both sides of Banpodaegyo, created as part of Hangang Renaissance Project, was recognized as the world’s longest bridge fountain in the Guinness Book of Records in 2008. The fountain creates stunning scenes as it sprays water, offering a colorful spectacle like a rainbow with various sights and activities." Superlative, check! This is still true, for the record.
Me just looking left for the sunset and right for the bridge fountain show. It was like watching a tennis match!
Natalie and I watched the show twice before decided to head back to the hotel. She was mad that the music from the beer garden was drowning out the music from the fountain show.
We walked over to the bridge where we were going to pick up our bus back to the hotel and we had a nice view of Sevit Island all lit up in purple!
This is the point at which we realized, ah yes. Now we know why the fountains aren't running on the other side of the bridge. Otherwise, we would have been drenched from the back spray!
Natalie gives the evening a two thumbs up, despite it's rocky start!
Sevit Island doesn't just stay one color, apparently. So bright and pretty when it was all lit up.
Ooooo, I love the multi colors!
Purple for BTS! (Ok ok, probably not!). Side note- there was a scene in Itaewon Class that was filmed here on this bridge (I believe just on the other side where the guy with the backpack is standing).
In this scene (which was in the daylight of course!), Geun-soo meets up with Yi-seo before the head off to da club. It might have been under a different set of pillars, but it was close enough.
One more stop at the 7-11 for late night hotel snacks. And one more look at Worldwide Handsome, Kim Seokjin on the Jin Ramen! EVERY.WHERE.
I still can't believe how much fun we are having in Seoul! But... our time is coming to an end...
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