Skill old bloke park

This morning we went to the Communication Memorial Hall, which was a small exhibition about the Korean postal service, and then Jogyesa Temple. At the Temple there were lots of people praying and a monk was chanting nearly the whole time we were there. There was an information office there, that said it had leaflets about the temple in English, but it was closed. We waited until shortly after 11am, as a sign outside the information centre said that there was a tour at 11am. But nothing happened, so we walked to Insadong.

In Insadong, lots of the sellers on the small stands in the street seemed to speak Japansese, English (and Korean). We saw some small tea shops, but didn't go in any as they were probably relatively expensive, and Moccle said his Korean tea (which we got 2 packets of in our hotel room) wasn't very nice.

After that we went to a Dunkin' Donuts to get some lunch as it was now just after 12pm. We went to Tapgol Park, which was just round the corner and across the road from the Dunkin Donuts, and ate our Donuts and coffee there. The Coffee was black, as we didn't think to ask for milk or anything when we were in the shop, but actually it still tasted quite nice (normally I don't like black coffee). I think the sweetness of the doughnuts must have counteracted the bitterness of the black coffee.

When we'd finished lunch we walked around Tapgol park a bit, it seemed to have memorials to the people who had died in the Korean war. The park was full of skill old Korean blokes.

Then we made our way back to the subway station. On the way, I took a photo of someone, but after I had taken it, it seemed they didn't want their photo taken. Someone there who spoke English told me that in Korea you should always ask someone before taking their photo.

We got back to the hotel, and I sorted yesterday's photos out and copied them to the hard drives. I also started copying the morning's photos,and writing up yesterday's blog post, then we went out again to try and go up a mountain using a route/map in the Korea guide book.

However, when we got to the correct place, near Danggogae subway station, the road layout was different to the map in the book, so we weren't sure what road to go down. We just went up a road that went upwards towards the mountain. Eventually we did find a path that went up the mountain.

We walked up the mountain, and saw an old lady coming down, a man in a fitness park where you can get some water to drink near the top, a family having a picnic or something outside a cave, and a chipmunk (well Moccle saw the chipmunk, I was too busy filling the water bottle up).

Getting to the very top was quite difficult, especially some parts were very sandy and your feet would slip on the sand. When we got to the top I took a couple of panos, though it was quite windy.

On the way back down we saw a bloke who spoke to us in English and asked us about where we came from, how long we were in Korea for, etc. I bashed my tripod, camera, and lenses up a bit more going up and coming down the mountain as well.

When we got back to the bottom of the mountain near the subway station, we went into a shop and bought some food for dinner. It was far cheaper than eating at a restaurant like we had been doing recently - only 3720 Won for a big bag of crisps, 2 pastry things, some corn bread, and a pot noodle style thing.

Walking back to the station, Moccle noticed a chemist, so we went in there, and looked up the words for 'headache' and 'travel sickness' in the Korean-English phrase book. The lady working there said 'Vomiting' and 'headache' when I said the Korean words, so I guess she understood what I said. Unfortunately I couldn't understand what she was saying (in Korean), but I think she said to take 2 tsp of the travel sickness medicine.

We got the subway back to the hotel, then I started to copy across the pics from this afternoon, and wrote a bit more of yesterday's blog post. We also ate some of the food we'd bought. The Corn Cream that I'd bought, thinking it was bread made with corn flour, actually turned out to be a cake style thing. I think it was bread made with corn, but then it also had a sort of buttercream in the middle of it. So I didn't have any savoury food today.

We went out again at about 9pm so I could take a pano from the bridge over the river that has flashing lights in its floor. I also took a couple of other panos, and some shots of the Seoul Tower.

We got back to the hotel about 10.15pm, then I copied across the evening's photos, sorted all today's photos, copied them to the hard drives, and finished writing yesterday's blog post. By the time I was done it was about 1am, then I went to bed.

Food
Breakfast: Slice of toast with Strawberry jam; cup of fizzy grape drink.
Lunch: Dunkin' Donut's Original Doughnut; Dunkin' Donut's Chocolate iced Doughnut; Black Coffee.
Dinner: Corn Cream; Chocolate pastry (didn't taste chocolately at all though); Cup of Maxwell House.