Weekend in Seoul
South Korea
- SeoulPosted on November 23, 2008 by Stefan
Filed under Gallery, Travel, Seoul, South Korea
Finally! Itsuki managed to get off a whole weekend from her busy schedule and we decided to use this chance for a quick getaway trip to Seoul. Seoul is only about an hour away by airplane – perfect for a little weekend trip!
We stayed at Fraser Suites. They offer spacious serviced apartments (even for short stayers like us) at excellent rates. The rooms are modern and spacious (with kitchen, dining/living, separate bedroom and 2 bathrooms) and we certainly wouldn’t mind staying there again when we go visit Seoul next time.
Itsuki already knew most of the tourist spots (she’s been to Korea already a couple of times) and instead wanted to take advantage of the fantastic currency exchange rate to do some shopping. So we decided to split up in the morning and go separately.
I used the free time i got to hit some popular tourist attractions that were within walking distance starting with the little Deoksugung Palace. I was lucky on my way out to see some actors in traditional clothing posing there for us touris’ to take some snapshots. I then walked up north for the Gyeongbokgung (Royal Palace) which happened to be a lot bigger and more impressive then Deoksugung.
After spending the morning seperately the wife then joined me again for a Bibimbap lunch and then later we strolled the street markets in Myeongdong and Namdaemun. For dinner we had an excellent spicy chicken-pot-dish dinner in one of the little restaurants that was recommended by Itsuki’s travel guide. After finishing our dinner we took a taxi to the Sheraton Walker Hill Casino and tried our luck with a bit of Blackjack. My wife did quite well .. while i ended up loosing all of my gamble money ;-x
The next day was already our last one. After the exhausting Saturday (gambling till late in the night) we skipped breakfast and instead had a nice long sleep and started our day with a yummy Bulgogi (Korean grilled meat) lunch. After that we did some more shopping till it was time to go back to the airport.
2 days in Seoul made for a bit hectic travel but we both enjoyed the time tremendously! The food was absolute fantastic (i love Kimchi!) and we gave it our best to try as many dishes as we could in the short time we stayed there (even opting for Korean dinner in the airport instead of the usual complimentary airplane meal).
hi
Just came back from Seoul . I DO agree that Korea is a fantastic foods contry! I have spent 4 nights and 5 days in Seoul, means I have had 12 meals, I ate 12 differnt dishes each time 
( with new friends who I made this time ) All of them are so friendly ( even if it were just surface ) , and they seemed to enjoy my unskillful Korean. ( a fluent Japanese speaker told me that I made many funny mistakes) Anyway, I can say that this trip is the most enjoyable trip in my life! 
Aoiiiiii … glad to hear you had a good time! Sounds like your next husband is going to be a Korean
! Thinking about the food makes me wanna go back too! … but Taiwan is planned for next month, i am sure we can also find some yummi food over there. Real Chinese cooking, not like the “Japanese” cooking you get when walking into a Chinese restaurant here in Japan ;-p!
yeah~♪ I want to do that
BUT! Although they are friendly and nice, once we talk about ” the two nations”, it devastates the relationship very easily 
I made a friend who got phD from MIT ( wow!) he also told me that “竹島” is Korean’s. so I suggested him: “Let’s cut the island into half and share with” but he refused the generous offer( 
) I think we have bigger wall than “38°” between Japan and Korea……sigh…
Definitely a lot of tension between those two countries … those children drawings say it all: http://aog.2y.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1550
But you know? normaly kids don’t try to express ” hatred” to the others on their paints, specially, unknown others. They “normaly” drow the flowers, the sun, and happy family and friends on their pictures . So all those pictues shows ” grown-ups” teach how express hates to Japan and Japanese in classes. The most dangerous thing is ” Education” Do you think it is a good idea to plant the endless hated to kids?