After nearly 20 hours of combined travel time from Pittsburgh, we finally arrived in Seoul at 4 am this morning. It is pretty fun to me how we entirely missed the date of May 10th. When we arrived, we stopped into a convenient store in the airport where I got a strawberry drink and this sort of bread with cream in it. We then got picked up by our bus driver and met our tour guide, Jinny, who is very sweet and extremely knowledgeable. After dropping our bags off at our hotel, Hotel Cappuccino, we all went to eat at a nearby restaurant, where I ate a spicy Korean soup dish with pork. Afterwards, we got our first experience of the subway. When walking into the station, it was amazing to me how clean it was and how there was no odor, unlike NYC and other subway systems I have traveled on. Also, there were doors along the tracks for safety, along with a short song that plays when the subway arrives. When on the subway, it is shocking how quiet it is for the amount of people on it; everyone is silent or speaks with a whisper.
After getting off the subway, we visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace (a royal palace). Here we were able to watch the changing of the royal guard, which was a spectacle. Aside from that, I was taken away by the beauty of the palace, both the nature and the architecture in the entire complex. Afterwards, we walked to the nearby Blue House, which is the Korean equivalent of the White House. We were very lucky to visit at this time, for Professor Yun and Jinny both said that when the next president is elected this summer, the Blue House will likely be closed to tourists, which is why it was so packed today.
After leaving the palace and the Bluehouse area, we walked to the local street market. The market was a tight alleyway with food vendors on both sides. I got a fried chicken dish with a sweet sauce, similar to “orange chicken,” and Ethan and I split an assortment of Mochi filled with red bean. Professor Yun was also kind enough to get us all corn-flavored Ice Cream. At the market, Professor Yun told us there would be a competition by team for who could get back to the hotel the fastest, and that the fastest team would get rewarded. The other three groups essentially took the same route home and then sprinted when they left their station. However, our group took a different route from the others. Our group came in last by a large margin.
Nate and I finished off our day by taking an accidental 4-hour nap and then waking up to go to a Korean BBQ place with Kacsper and David, which was delicious. Overall it was an amazing, but tiring day in South Korea. I am extremely excited for the rest of the trip!
