Less than 24 Hours to Visit Seoul, South Korea
South Korea marked the beginning of a long but amazing two month trip. Our flight to India included a fifteen hour layover in Seoul, but that is not enough time to actually experience a city in its entirety. How can anybody visit a big city like that in such a short amount of time? Where there is a will, there is a way. Free day tours were available at the airport. They take visitors around the city and stop at certain locations for a little bit of sightseeing. This sounded too good to be true! Since it was free, one tour was not enough. Two tours was definitely the way to go. So after careful consideration of which tours to take, the journey of a lifetime began!
Even though it was less than 24 hours, visiting South Korea was something that I will never forget. The day consisted of temples, palaces, good food, snow, and the best fashion that I have ever seen!
There were a few minutes to spare in the airport before our tour, so we did a little bit of exploring. Since the flight was business class, we were able to access the lounge. That was a really cool experience. The flight, so far, had been about 13 hours, so a nice clean up was necessary! The lounge had everything to help after such a long ride. It had free showers (with all necessities), comfortable couches, sleeping pods, and great food. They had a huge variety of Korean food, such as dumplings and desserts, which made for a very tasty snack! Needless to say, the lounge was quite nice to have before a day of touring.
Before I continue on about South Korea, I just have to say that stepping out of that airport felt like I hadn’t left winter back home at all! We were supposed to be going to warmer places. It was so cold that I felt like there were needles poking into my skin every second! Good thing I had some thermal pants and multiple jackets on. Ok, so with that, I will continue my story.
Tour number one stopped at two temples. An older gentlemen was the guide for that tour and he gave some great information about the country and the city specifically. Both temples were extremely ornate and perfectly preserved. One of them is still used today. They both had gorgeous decor and an incredible history behind them. This was the shorter tour and it was enjoyable, but tour number two was absolutely awesome!
Tour number two gave a glimpse into the life of a local in Seoul. Something really cool happened as we were getting out of the bus; it started to snow! (Cool – pun intended) Flurries were felling into my hair and onto my jacket. It was awesome! I have not even been outside for 1 minute and the tour is already off the a good start. The royal palace was the first stop. It demonstrated ancient methods of living for South Koreans and gave an insight to the history of the country. For example, there was a small square door in the wall of one of the buildings in the palace. Our guide explained that this was how the locals used to heat their floors. Not only did the palace show how locals lived, but it also showed early fashion of South Korea. If a resident of Seoul comes dressed in their traditional attire, they get in for free. So, almost every local there had on traditional Korean clothing. I found this very interesting. The women dressed so beautifully in their fancy hairpins and elegant accessories. South Korea was growing on me.P
After the palace, it was lunch time. I was so excited to try some traditional Korean food that was not from an airport. That is exactly what I got! The restaurant that we stopped at was a quaint little place in the middle of the city. I loved the tables that had no legs with mats as chairs, just because it was something that I had not seen before. People would eat on their knees, which doesn’t seem very comfortable to me, but, you know, let them be themselves. They had a variety of food, which is exactly what I like. It was up until now that I realized that I had not perfected the art of chopsticks. Chopsticks were the only utensils available! Luckily, the guy beside me was from Australia and had been in Asia long enough to help me out. Nevertheless, I had a good time. Somehow, I managed to actually get most of the food in my mouth!
To conclude, I do wish I had gotten to spend a bit more time in South Korea, but I was fortunate enough to even be able to go. It seemed like a lovely place and I would highly recommend visiting it someday. One more thing, if you do visit in January, please bring 700 jackets. You are going to need them!
