Seoul, Korea - The Rest of It...

So I left off on Saturday with a tour of the DMZ. We got back into the city and went immediately for a pedicure. We were too impatient to wait the full 20 minutes to let our nails dry because we had places to go and see (and because of this we were buying toe nail polish and touching up our nails after we got back to the hotel) so we went back to the hotel and changed for shopping, a show, and dinner. The shopping is fabulous in Seoul. We bought into the culture and bought some face cream to help give us shiny glowing skin like the South Koreans. The shops stay open late, until midnight or later, and these people love to shop. The shops were mostly for face cream, clothes, shoes, and athletic gear. Loud music was blaring from a lot of them and lights were shining bright in all directions. Coffee shops and smoothie shops are on almost every corner. My friend read that Seoul has the most coffee shops per capita than any other city in the world. So we shopped and ate some dumplings on the side of the road. Then we went to a show, famous in Seoul, called Nanta. It is basically the Stomp for Asian cultures using kitchen supplies - they make music while chopping cabbage. It was really entertaining. After Stomp we ate some more Korean bar-b-q. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. Sunday, we were up and at it by 8AM, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed to some palaces. First we toured Changdeokgung Palace. It is known for its Secret Garden that you have to see via a tour. We joined the Korean tour since it was the first one offered. :) It was beautiful. From there we walked to the Bukchon Hanok village. It is a village of old historical homes that are still lived in or used as a guest house. From there we walked to Gyongbokgung Palace. It was beautiful and housed a children's museum and the National Folk Museum. Unfortunately we did not have time to go into the museums. After that we grabbed lunch (you guessed it, Korean bar-b-q) and walked through some more shopping streets. We got back to the hotel, packed up and got on the airport bus. Just as we were talking about how smoothly everything went, our bus was in a minor accident and was stopped for about 20 minutes. A taxi ran into the side of the bus, where the luggage was stored. After lots of persuading, the bus driver opened one of the luggage containers that thankfully had our luggage. We got our luggage and sprinted through the trains to get to the airport while the bus driver gave a testimony to the police. We were on the last flight out of Seoul to Tokyo. We did not think our husbands would be too happy if we called and said we were not coming back until Monday. We made it to the counter 45 minutes before our plane took off; thankfully they took us in. It was such a fabulous weekend. I loved the food and the spicy chili sauce they put on everything. Seoul reminded me a bit of NYC with the lights and music coming out of the stores. It was louder than Tokyo - people talked on their phones on the subway which is not allowed in Tokyo. It felt a bit more relaxed, like the people were more relaxed in general. You saw people sitting on the ground while they wait for the train to come...it was as if you broke the rules it was okay...life will go on and you will be okay. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. What a blessing. I had a blast and will remember it for a long time. What is next...we were thinking Taipei for a weekend in the fall...but we have yet to tell the husbands about that. :)