Day 5. Free day out and about. 8 April 2024.

Today is the first of two free days here in Seoul. Our plans were made last night over a G&T.

Suzie and I went for breaky a bit earlier than our 8:30 plan. It’s a fabulous spread – so many choices. I will post some more pics each day.

This morning Susie M pulled up lame- a knee issue so a slight change of plans for how the day ran – all good.

Suzie and I left hotel about 9:50 after finalising arrangements with Susie M. We walked up past Town Hall to see some

Magpies so as per Hayley’s instructions we attempted some better shots.

The gardens we had admired earlier were being zooshed up with a grass border. There were many gardeners of all ages hoeing the border of the ‘nature strip’ to plant grass border.Very industrious they were too. Each was wearing a red thing around their bum which turned out to be a seat – very practical as the pics will show.

A very interesting street display educated us re: Korean War. Of interest was the Guinness Record for most countries supporting another in War. 67 of 91 independent countries provided some form of support to ROK (Republic of Korea).

The war was between North and South Korea and after many losses the existing border on the 38th parallel was hardly changed. However, Seoul was devastated and invaded and won back again.

We continued our walk to see two prominent statues we had seen or passed by. The first of King Sejong, the great, who devised the Korean alphabet.

The second statue was of Admiral Yi Sun Sin who led Korea in battle against Japan between 1592 and 1598.

From the plaques representing twelve victories he seemed a wise leader. Here’s some quotes that led me to this conclusion.

“Do not make a hasty movement. Be like a mountain. Move silently and cautiously.”

“Your Majesty, there are still twelve battleships in my possession. We can win if we fight with all we can.”

“I will do all I can, alive or dead, to protect the country.”

“There is no point in regretting if you lose this opportunity.”

We’ve noted that a vast majority of the trees here are scaffolded and supported using various means – cables, ropes, bamboo, chrome etc.

Ducked into a gallery for the loo and I really liked this whale on the big screens. There are screens everywhere in Seoul – it makes me wonder about power consumption and heat production.

Thanks to the use of good ol paper maps and little bit of Kakao maps we made our way to Insadong and in the first Calligraphy shop we came to Suzie and I purchased the brush we wanted as a Korean memento.

We found Susie M after a few What’s app calls.

A break for coffee and a Black Lavender tea for me.

Then to the shopping strips of Insadong – a few purchases were made by all and we had a small lunch break with delicious smoothies and some sweet treats – not sure what they were – different tastes and textures are part of the travel experience.

On the way to catch a cab happened by the Calligraphy Brush sculpture which is a bit synonymous with Insadong – tick. ✅

We had the taxi drop at Myeondong Catholic Cathedral and this was a start to the daytime wander around Myeondong markets – and back to the hotel to drop of shopping and catch our breath.

Tonight we returned to Myeondong Markets to partake of street food for tea. We shared quite a few dishes I wouldn’t have braved alone. Again more of the adventure of travel – I will let the pics tell the story – just have to pinch good shots from Aunty Sue as I was juggling kitty and food.

A visit to 12 floors of Daiso yielded a lot more than the insoles Suzie was chasing.…and NO insoles BTW!

Back to the market for a little desert – a honey pancake and a black sesame ice cream.

Walked back to Hotel corner where Susie left us to rest the bung knee (and burdened her with our shopping) Suzie and I went to the lights of the Cheonggyecheon Stream by night. Quite disappointed but obviously popular spot to sit and chill by night.

Home for the nightly ritual. Unpack, shower and washing clothes before blogging and getting to bed.

Earlier start tomorrow.