Seoul

We've been living in Korea now for 5 months and have yet to take our first site seeing adventure (unless you count Emart)! So, we decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and the four day weekend! We left for Seoul after church on Sunday afternoon, certain that Caden would fall asleep in the car because he was very tired after playing in the nursery. But, he didn't!

We arrived at the Dragon Hill Lodge on Yongsan Army Base after only an hour drive. We didn't run in to traffic so the trip was very quick! We unloaded the car (it's amazing what you have to bring for just two nights away with a baby) and headed out to explore Itaewon.

Itaewon is a shopping district right outside of Yongsan (the Army Base located right in the center of Seoul). It is very similar to the Songtan Shopping Mall my mom and I visited several posts back. Itaewon is a lot larger than Songtan. Caden dozed off in his stroller (a FIRST for him). He only slept for about 20 minutes though. After our little shopping excursion we went to eat some Mexican food at a place in our hotel.

After dinner we took Caden for his first dip in a pool! It was an indoor, heated pool, but still a little too cool for him. He enjoyed kicking his legs and bouncing with Daddy, but only for a few minutes and then he started to shiver so we took him out and headed to bed... at 7:30pm! Oh, the joys of sharing a hotel room with a baby!

The next morning we went to a nice breakfast brunch at the hotel and then headed off to find the subway! The subway systems are not stroller friendly. We knew this going in to it and were prepared to have to carry the stroller up and down lots of stairs, but boy we didn't realize how many stairs it would be!! Up and down, up and down. My calves are still aching three days later! It was a little worse than it could have been because after weighing the pros and cons, we opted to take the larger stroller on our adventure rather than the lighter, but smaller umbrella stroller. The main reason for this was because we needed layers for the weather and potential rain that thankfully held off.

After our first trip on the subway we arrived at our 1st destination: Cherry Blossom Park. The Cherry Blossoms are all blooming and I had heard/read about the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul... Thinking it would be gorgeous and so much fun (not to mention a once in a life time experience because the Cherry blossoms only last a few short weeks) we were really excited. We arrived and were disappointed because it is not what it is made out to be. The park is actually void of Cherry Blossoms, and is instead full of weeping willows. The road that runs around the park is lined with Cherry Trees (that were beautiful and in bloom). Not the whole park full of Cherry Trees that I thought it would be, but still pretty. I was hoping for a nice family photo opportunity, but Caden fell asleep in the stroller and I didn't have the heart to wake him.

So, back on the subway again. We headed to Nandeamun Market, which is a huge Korean market that is not geared toward tourists/American's as much as the markets outside of the military bases. I found a gorgeous pair of "Prada" glasses I was so excited about. They were not like the typical fake glasses I always see and I was so ready to buy them. I asked how much and GULP.... 250,000 won ($250). We tried to talk the guy down to $50.00, but he was shocked and thought we were crazy. Apparently these were original prada glasses... Oh well! We tried! He would only come down to $230.00! :)

One of the stores had tons of blue jeans and a pair of 7 for All Mankind jeans caught my eye... and they were in my size! I inspected them very thoroughly and every little button, stitch, etc was identical to a real pair of Seven jeans (which is what I had on that day so I could compare). The only thing that was funny looking was the stamp on the inside of the pockets was a little blurred looking so my guess was that this was a real pair with a defect.... Just before deciding on trying to buy them, I took a glance at the tag to see what materials they were made of. And that is when I discovered they were most certainly a fake pair of Seven's.... the tag said:

96% cotton

2% polyurathane

Machine wash

Tumble Dry

Iron if Mecessary

I think they were going for "Polyester and Necessary!"

After all the shopping we were hungry and tired. We looked up the Hard Rock Cafe and headed back to the subway. This time on the subway Caden noticed all the Korean people were looking at him and decided it was his job to entertain them. He scream and smiled and showed off the whole trip. It was pretty embarrassing. When I say he screamed, I mean a LOUD scream. It's his new thing and it is so not fun. We are still trying to figure out the best way to deal with this behavior, but on the subway we just kept trying to put the paci in his mouth to keep him quiet, but the other passengers thought it was funny.

We arrived at our destination and carried the stroller up what seemed like hundreds of stairs (the subway is about 4 or 5 stories below ground to give you and idea). I pulled out our little book to help us locate the Hard Rock and saw that it was closed during lunch!!! So, back down the stairs and back on to the subway... stopped a few stops up to change lines (more stairs... so much fun), and finally made our way to our second option for lunch, A TGIFriday's. The book said to get off at exit 4, so up we went with the stroller again and we couldn't find Friday's anywhere. We asked a bell hop at the hotel nearby and he gave us directions. It was a good 25-30 minute walk so we settled on a nearby Outback Steakhouse instead. Unfortunately the outback was twice as expensive and didn't have any of the dishes we were interested in, so we left. Back down the stairs of the subway and back to the hotel for a late lunch/early dinner.

Overall we had a great time, it was nice to get out and do something different, but we are now rethinking our potential trip to China with Caden in the fall. Not so much fun traveling like that with a little one....