Seoul Lantern Festival

Eager to claim back part of our Saturday that we'd spend on the field trip with school, Ric and I went straight to the station and jumped on a train to Seoul. We wanted to check out the Lantern festival that was taking place along the Han River. Colourful lanterns and displays tell the story of the people of Seoul and how the city grew up from the river where the first settlers lived.

I had a hate-Korea moment getting on the subway - so many people! Queuing to get into the station, queuing to go down the stairs, pushing, waiting, sweating. Population 10 million people. I'm glad I live in Cheonan, I don't like crowds.

The entrance to the river was also chaos, we had to wait in-line for 25 minutes just to get to the river. The lanterns were lovely though...

I forget the name of this device but apparently it was invented by a Korean

It was about one degree outside, so cold that I had to buy myself a second pair of leggings to wear! The temperature has dropped so quickly over the past month. When we got too cold to appreciate the lanterns we went for dinner in a dimly-lit Italian restaurant the size of my living room.

It was all in all a rather lovely date <3

My favourite picture of the evening.

Mum and Dad's Visit. First Stop: Seoul

Our first visitors in Korea!

Oct 27th - Nov 6th

When I told my parents I was going to live in Korea for a year they were happy for me, but not necessarily bursting with excitement to come visit. Fortunately though, my Mum realised she could make the trip with a 6 day layover in Abu Dahbi and that swung the vote.

It was wonderful to see them again looking so happy and healthy a year into their retirement and I was excited to give them a massive culture shock with Korean food, language and general oddness. As it turns out, this required no input from me and simply being in Asia proved traumatising enough.

Following what I can only imagine was a very dry, sober stay in Abu Dhabi, we went straight from the airport to our [small, seedy] hotel in Gangnam (Bangbae Olso Hotel, I wouldn't recommend it), and then straight to a bar where we ordered the biggest pitcher of beer we could find. To give my parents that extra special welcome to Korea there was even Premiership football on the TV!

Welcome to Korea Dad!

Gyeongbokgung
After an alcohol induced nights sleep in our pokey room we headed out for some sightseeing, to Gyeongbokgung, for some Korea history. The palace is beautiful, set against a backdrop of mountains it feels a million miles away from the centre of the capital city. The autumnal colours in the gardens and the crisp October sunshine were just perfect for our family reunion (gush gush).

Centre of Seoul? Chincha?

Family holiday shot.

I heart Autumn in Korea

The National Folk Museum is inside the palace walls

Insadong

Insadong is supposed to be the cool, arty neighbourhood of Seoul but it was so busy it felt more like a theme park. The touristy shops had some good traditional [tacky] presents and I really liked Ssamzie shopping gallery, a spiralling ramp of arty shops and boutiques with a centre courtyard and trendy cafes. We had some traditional bulgogi for lunch and my parents got their first taste of kimchi! It didn't go down well.

Ssamzie shopping

Han River
We walked all the way through Insadong to the Han River which was being decorated for the Seoul Lantern Festival. Having exhausted my poor jet lagged parents, we jumped in a taxi to go to Namsan Tower but failed when we got there and realised the queue for the cable car would take us into the early hours of the morning [I didn't dare suggest we take the stairs!].

The Han at dusk.

Next stop: Cheonan....