Playing Tourist

You all know the story of the painters on Saturday morning.. and if you don't, well it's not a really big deal... the story wasn't very good.. more of a had to be there moment. The point of the story was that we got a late start to the day. Then of course I made a subway mishap (which rarely happens anymore I swear) and we ended going in completely the wrong direction, on completely the wrong line... nice.. just showing off my savvy skills. Eventually we made it to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which I had been to in the fall.. and I have to say that it's much prettier in the spring.

After the palace we made our way to Insadong for some shopping. But before we tackled the market area we stopped in a teahouse for a drink and some lunch. Jenna being a proper person ordered tea.. I ordered a beer. But in my defense I don't like tea (how was I supposed to know the cold tea was like iced tea back home and not that crappy American-like stuff).

After some food and drinks we headed out on the street and went a little shopping crazy. Well Jenna more than I, but I did manage to grab a few things. I fell in love with a purse but for 60,000won i just couldn't do it.. I am saving for a trip you know. Well Jenna being the sweetheart that she is saw me drooling over it and ended up surprising me with it as a "thank you for letting me stay in your apartment" present on her last night here. Bless her heart. The day was absolutely beautiful, thankfully. We had nothing but rain and cold weather up until Jenna arrived and coming from the middle east I was more than concerned... but she was met with sunshine, blue skies and decent temperatures. This of course had both Koreans and foreigners out in Insadong in full force that afternoon...

We could have spent hours more in Insadong (in fact Jenna did go back two days later), but we had a check in time at the hostel in another area so set out to do that.. first though we had to get our bags out of the locker in the subway station. Nothing in Korea is easy, especially when you are trying to impress your friend with how much you know in a foreign country. This was the first locker I had ever used here that you didn't input a code, had no English option and no pictures. We couldn't figure out how to get it open for the life of us. And of course, there was no one at the service desk to help. After calling friends for help and getting no help, we were finally rescued by a Korean highschool (that'd be my guess on her age anyways). She ended up going through all these menus and I know 100% we never would have been able to figure it out and our bags would have been lost forever.... but with the help of our Korean angel we were saved and on our way.

Saturday night deserves it's own post.. mainly for the many pictures that I'll be posting... I think it's gonna take me a week just to recap Jenna's week here.