OK, after much sorting of photos, I've finally whittled it down to a few (well, quite a few to be honest) from our final weekend in Seoul that I want to put online. This is a pretty photo heavy post, so I'll reserve my scribblings for the odd amusing or informative caption. If you're confused as to why you're already on part four, have a look back at parts 1 to 3 first.
Dongdaemun
We stayed in Dongdaemun whilst in Seoul. It's a curious mix of highly fashionable and not fashionable at all. The huge clothing markets are definitely worth a look around. This was taken by a stream that runs through Seoul below street level. It's nice to be able to dip your feet in the water to cool off and escape from the mania above.
"Fly Uzbekistan Airways. We'll probably crash but at least you'll have the reassuring eyes of this beauty to stare into as you plummet to your death."
Changdeok Palace
This is one of Seoul's many historic palaces. Personally I'm not a huge fan. The buildings are undoubtedly impressive, but sparsely furnished and anyway you're not allowed into any of the rooms to look around. Rather like temples, I suspect once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all. This is why I'm clearly not so keen to look around.
Changdeok Palace Gardens
Much more interesting were the palace gardens, apparently some of the largest and best preserved in Korea. A beautiful sprawl of ponds and pavilions throughout a forest, it's quite the place for an ancient king to chill, or take a stroll with his lady.
Philoserfizing.
Phew. It was fricking humid here, and we'd walked several kilometers through this garden already.
This waterfall is one of the most beautiful parts of the garden. Apparently one of the ancient kings used to gather with the wits of his court here to float cups of wine and compose poetry. Bunch of gays.
Namsan Tower
It's a funny thing about Seoul. Whilst it's one of the largest urban conurbations in the world, it's also sprinkled with a good few mountains. Namsan is one of those, and I principally wanted to go there to emulate Jinho from the 5th grade elementary textbook, and stand at the bottom shouting "What a tall tower!"
This was one of the historic locations of beacons in Korea, to warn of attacks from China in the North. A bit like the South Downs then, eh?
A strange tradition around the base of the tower is to leave a padlock inscribed with a lovey message as a token of your love. Sadly we were lacking in a pen, so didn't leave Linda's padlock. Maybe we'll make it back here someday to leave one.
"Wow! What a tall tower!"
After the tower we had dinner on top of the cable car station. Recommended to us by the Rough Guide, this turned out to be a really excellent decision. Watching the Seoul nightscape slowly coming to light whilst munching a pizza and a couple of beers turned out to be pretty romantic, at least on my scale of romantic things.
And that's it! The following morning Linda got on a plane to Chicago, and I went back to Jinbu. Sad times indeed, but I suspect that she might be back sometime. The good news for you is that this blog will once again be dispensing with the amorous content and going back to the cold, hard reporting of the facts, just the way you like it.
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