Julie's Take on Seoul - Day 2

When you're power traveling with Phil and Steven, there is no time for blogging.
I have left the two in the Kansai area of Japan (yes, we have made it to Japan) in order to come back for my school's graduation.
So I'll get you all up to speed one post at a time.



We had a slow start on day 2 of Seoul. (Yes yes, I was the main cause.)
As a result, we only had 5 minutes to walk around Bongeunsa Temple.



Then we rushed off to meet Phil+Michael at the school they work at for a tour.
Here's Steven brushing up on his Hamlet soliloquy.



Can you tell what that is that we are holding?



It's a friggin' Oscar, people! One of the directors at Phil+Michael's school was awarded for making a documentary.


It was so fun holding that thing. Quite heavy! Those actresses aren't just acting like they're having a hard time holding it up with their skinny wrists.

Here's Steven's acceptance speech.




After the tour, Phil's assitant Cindy took us to a yuuuuummy Korean BBQ place. We didn't have to do any work. The BBQ lady cooked, we ate. She cooked, we ate. Mmmmmm.




With our bellys full, Phil, Steven, and I decided to go back to that temple to finish seeing everything.

Here's Phil looking serene in front of the tallest Buddha statue in Korea. The marble floor is where meditators can sit and empty their minds. Phil and I sat for about 5 minutes. Very peaceful.




After quieting our minds as much as possible with a 5-min meditation, we decided to go on a walking tour that one of our books recommended.

Walking makes Julie hungry. No worry, stall lady with yummy goodness to the rescue; we had some pot stickers.




Now all along the walking tour, I was trying to meet up with one of my grad school friends Liz, who happened to be working in Seoul. After a couple hours of missed meetings, dying phones, and general confusion, we finally were able to find each other near Namdaemun market.




After about an hour of shopping, we parted ways with Liz and started walking towards Seoul Tower. This walk was a b1tch! We had to hike up, up, up... what was the guidebook thinking including a fricking tower on a mountain on a walking tour? (We didn't have to walk all the way up, but even the walk to the base of the mountain was very steep.) And to top it all off, when we got to the cable car that would take us to the top , there was a sign...

"The cable car will not be running from March 10th to the 21st. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

...

So we took a taxi.

Dumb tower...



But hey, it was a nice view.



And we got a fun shot with an overhead mirror.



And they had a funky laser show on the tower itself.


It's a nice tower... just don't go when the cable car isn't running. In fact, just take a bus up!



After a long day of walking, it was time to move location and get a good night's rest. On to Busan!