Korea: Day Three - the grand tour

What's the best way to see Seoul with a 4 year old? The City Bus Tour, of course!

Chapter 5: Seoul by Big Red Bus
Seoul has definitely captured our hearts...it's a clean and easy to navigate city with warm and friendly people with such a sense of culture and community. We've totally embraced this city and have an enormous new appreciation for our son's culture and heritage.

Seoul is a BIG city. It's obviously impossible to see "everything" in a few short days...and especially hard to do with Drew (as well as when it's so hot & humid - I've never sweat so much in my life!). Since we know we cannot see and do it all, we're not even trying to squeeze some of the "must see and do's" in. We're ok with that....because in my eyes that just means there's return trips in the future. Palaces - skipping 'em; Big fancy department stores - skipping 'em; Folk Village -skipping it. All things a 4 year old boy would not have patience for. But, that doesn't mean we haven't seen the city. On Saturday we decided to tackle the city by the City Bus Tour. It was a brilliant idea and were very happy with all the stops we made.

We left the hotel - this time with Drew on Damon's back - and headed off to Gwanghwamun Gate, the first stop of the bus tour. We got there a little early and enjoyed the sights before hopping on the first bus of the day.

We decided to check out the National Museum of Korea first - namely for it's Children's Museum. The museum and grounds were so impressive. Just the building itself drew us in to discover more. We seriously could have spent more time there. But, with all the school kids there "gawking" at Drew - there was only so much waving, smiling, and hellos a little boy can say at one museum. :)

After the museum we passed a whole bunch of great parts of the city - the Korean War Museum, the U.S. Army Base (which had quite a few trees down from the typhoon), an antique area that I'd LOVE to check out the next time we visit Seoul, Myeongdong (a popular shopping district), and the National Theater - all on the way to NSeoul Tower. We have a great view of the tower from our hotel room and have been very anxious to get to the top ever since we saw it our window (which wasn't until after good ole Typhoon Kompasu left town.)

We made it up to NSeoul Tower - past many workers cutting up down and uprooted trees - and enjoyed watching a traditional ceremony and having our daily ice cream treat (Drew's not eating milk while here - he's got to get his calcium somehow, right?!) before heading up to the top of the tower. (In case you are interested, Drew's flavor of day was kiwi.) He loved it. [Note: this is the place in the blog that I should be documenting and showing you pictures of how we brought and placed a lock on the fence at the tower to symbolize our everlasting love...for Leo and for Korea. Well, I forget the lock. It remains in my suitcase. An unconscious decision I am sure to seal the deal on a future visit i am sure.]

Back on the red bus we went to Dongdaemun Market in search of toys. The Dongdaemun Market has many different areas with each area comprised of many, many different stalls. To get to all the toy stores, we went through the shoe market and the pet market. It was just insane on so many levels. All I could think of going through the Market was "where did all this stuff come from!?!" and "who's going to buy it all!?!" Well, we definitely helped with the buying part in the toy market. Drew was excited...but we told him that we could only buy things that could fit in a suitcase and that we could not buy at home. Ultimately that meant a bunch of Pororo items and a nine-pack of soft baseballs that say Korea on them. Sweet.

Originally the plan was to hit one of the Palaces next on our bus tour. But, it was too damn hot and we were all way too hungry to even think about spending more time out in the hot and humid sunny day. So we just learned about the Palaces on the tour bus and peeked at them from the windows. Again, something for us to do on our next visit to Korea.

But before we got off the bus, there was one special place we got to capture on camera. The U.S. Embassy.

I was so impressed with Kyobo bookstore, I just had to take an awake Drew and Damon there. After the bus tour we headed there and picked up a few more things before heading to Mr. Pizza for dinner. The salad and pizza hit the spot...and Drew had a great time flirting with the Korean teens while we were there. He winked at one of them which sent the entire table of four girls into the biggest giggle-fest I have ever heard. I so wish I had gotten it on video!

It was an amazing day. Absolutely amazing. We just fell even more in love with Korea and Seoul on Saturday. Happy, warm, and generous people in an incredible city. I feel so unbelievably honored and blessed to be adding this culture and heritage to my life. Leo, I love you.

Up next...Sunday in Our Neighborhood