More about being a tourist in Korea

Since Diane was leaving in the afternoon we decided to go to the Namdaemun Market. We were able to get around easily with the subway. Since I was going to be there several days I bought a card that I could refill with money when I needed to. The subway is cool and clean and pretty easy to navigate. There are signs and pictures everywhere guiding you to where you need to go.

One thing that we enjoyed about the subway was this stairway that actually played like Piano Keys. 

The subway has glass doors and walls that keep people from falling or committing suicide on the rails. On the glass they have poetry of famous people written on the glass. Korean money pictures poets and artists.

The market was crowded and went ON and ON. There were areas to buy different types of things. There is a jewelry area, an electronics area, a clothing area and others. We must have entered in the paper and party goods area, so I bought a few interesting things. I got a centerpiece that I can make for Miriam’s first birthday, Origami paper, and a few other things.

We ate lunch with Diane and Dan and then they took off for their Vietnam trip.

In the afternoon we went on an adventure with Sung Soo. He took us to a Buddhist temple. It was beautiful and we had tea after looking around. Sung Soo was disappointed with the temple and really wanted us to see one up in the mountains, but we never had time or energy to drive out and see one. We also saw the Bukchon Hanok Village. We walked all over this village. It was an area where people actually lived, but their homes were on display so there were always people walking through the streets.

After that we walked down Itaewan, which is a shopping district created especially with foreigners in mind. It is supposed to be arranged in a way that we like. Actually, we would rather go to the Korean market and see what shopping is like for real people. There was actually more interesting art and clothing in this area. For dinner we experienced a very popular type of restaurant here – chicken and beer. I talked about that in my food post. http://notageektravels.blogspot.jp/2016/07/seoul-south-korea-food.html