Day 9

We had a good nights sleep and walked into HongDae again for breakfast . We walked past a sort of American Diner looking place and both had a breakfast burrito which was delicious. Today wasn’t as sunny as yesterday and overcast but still about 27/28 degrees.

After breakfast and another excellent coffee (you can tell a place is good when they ask you what roast you want) we walked down HongDae street. Unlike yesterday which was calm and tranquil this street was a bit nuts with lots of noise and bright lights. It’s the student part of Seoul and there’s lots of cheap student cafes and bars here. We decided to try and win snugglys as a trend here is to attach them to your bags (everyone does it).

Everywhere in Seoul are these shops filled with about 100 different types of toys you can win by paying to grab them with claws. It looks easy but we tried 13 times (about £6 worth!) and didn’t get one, while we watched a Korean girl get it first time so must be something we are missing! I was feeling confident after my success at ocean park but failed to win anything’

After our unsuccessful attempts we decided instead of taking the metro we would walk to Gyeongbokgung Palace. I have to admit that metro isn’t nearly as good here as it was in Hong Kong and slightly confusing. Seoul is behind in terms of not allowing Apple Pay unlike Hong Kong which because of British influence is much more westernised so a different experience as we need to buy tickets every time rather than chip pinning with our phones.

The walk was long to get there and we walked through one of the universities in Seoul to get there. We did a lot of climbing and walked through a big amphitheatre . Took us about 2 hours to get there and wasn’t the most pedestrianised! At one stage we walked along a bypass ! Sinéad didn’t thank me for that but we powered on. Probably best next to get the metro.

We arrived at the palace for 2pm as we had wanted to time it with the changing of the guard which was cool to see with big drums and marching. Reminded me a little of bagpipes. Once it ended we picked up our tickets to tour the palace and then walked to get something to eat as we were hungry. Had lunch in a lovely barley noodles place and had a bowl with broth and shared some huge steamed dumplings! 🥟

After the tour of the palace we got a bus (payment didn’t work so we technically snuck on) to the cable cars as we had booked to go up north Seoul tower. Unfortunately it was a bit of a misty day now so the views at the top weren’t the best although I couldn’t resist taking a photo in the toilets of a great view from the urinal. We had a drink at the top and deliberated waiting until sunset but the rain started and we got a bit wet so decided to head back via metro.

We arrived back knackered almost 30k steps deep and walked into a cheap beer and fried chicken place in the studenty district. 50 pence for a beer, no alcohol tax here!Okumaya devam et