Seoul 2015 - 10/16

Aaaand I'm back with yet another post about my trip to Seoul with my Swedish and Norwegian friends. Here's what we did on the 29th of July - our eight day in Seoul!

Today we were quite spread. Alex had gotten up early in the morning because he still had a lot of things on his to-do list, Cindy and Camilla strolled around the Bukchon Hanok Village (북촌 한옥마을), and Philip, John, and I took on the challenge to visit the Namsan Tower (N서울타워), which was a thing I had promised myself 3 years back to do when I'd finally visit Korea.

We rode the subway to Myeongdong (명동) and then walked left, right, around, and up a really steep road  in the warm weather before we finally found it. I think we took a huge detour to get there.

Okay! After having climbed the stair steps we finally reached the cable car building! You can walk all the way up to the tower but in this weather we decided to be lazy.

You can buy different tickets there, one being the Round Trip Tickets that we got. These would take you both up and down while you can also buy one way tickets if you'd either like to climb up/down and then we lazy the other way. Once you've bought your ticket, there are signs leading you upstairs for 'takeoff' and up there you will also find chairs placed for you to sit and wait in (and a small stand selling snacks and drinks) - just like in airports!

Going up! There are windows all around the cable car so even if you're a lot of people in there at once (we were), you should still be able to look out.

The terrace, which is located a little further down than the square where you find the bottom of the tower, is the first thing you will meet on your way up regardless if you're walking or taking the cable car. Here young couples hang locks (we saw a few phone cases as well) and throw away the keys in hope of eternal love.

And then we have what I call the square! This fancy thingie (I really can't think up the correct word for it right now) is the first thing that your eyes will meet.

If you turn your head just a few degrees to the left, you see the tower.

Even from here you can get a pretty cool view of the city (well some of it) but we wanted to go all the way to the top!

This sign outside the tower shows you what's on the different floors. If you'd like to go all the way to the top like we did, you'll have to buy a ticket. I remember that while we were standing here, waiting for the tickets, I recognized the language of the music being played in the background. It was Danish! I couldn't recognize the song or the singer but I remember that she sang something about looking at the stars and I thought it fit the place perfectly since this is the place to go if you'd like to have a good look at them.

(Hint: If you click the picture it will pop up in a larger version so you will be able to actually read what it says. Also, notice that there's no 4th floor)
After having bought your ticket, you'll be lead into a super high speed elevator that will take you to the top in like half a minute. The one leading you into the elevator will step in as well and probably tell you in Korean to look up (I should double check what he actually says). The elevator will go dark, dramatic music will start, and a video zooming in from outer space all the way down to the tower will play. The moment the video hits the tower, the elevator will stop and you're there!
When you step out of the elevator, you'll get to a green screen in which a photo will be taken of you. You can decide to just leave it or later buy a picture of you and your friends in front of the tower.

Since we'd come for the view, we stayed mostly on the 3rd floor. Here you'll find a candy store and a wishing pond!

Wooooh a selca! To be honest I didn't have the best day but I could definitely have looked worse.

The wishing pond! I suspected this to be something for couples as well and quickly turned around.

And now comes a couple of overview pictures. I was a bit disappointed in the weather actually. This foggy picture is not due to horrible pollution like I've seen around America. The night before had been absolutely perfect but today was just a super cloudy day. I have to go back some time and take new pictures - preferably at night now that I have a camera that can handle the dark.

What you see up here is the terrace with the many locks and the thing in the bottom is the roof of that building thingie that I still can't come up with a proper name for.

After having spent some time looking around and getting lost from each other (luckily Philip found me, phew), we went back down to see the terrace with the locks.

Oh the love!

Then we rode the cable car back down.

Weeeeeee~

One of the things on Alex's list had been to go to the Namsan Tower N서울타워) too so we decided to have the girls come to Myeongdong (명동) once they were done and then have dinner together somewhere.

While we were waiting for the others, Philip, John, and I strolled around. We got into a clothing store with girl clothes on the ground floor an guy clothes the next two floors up - so we split. When I was done looking (it wasn't really my style), I just walking around inside the store, occasionally looking at stuff while waiting for the guys.

At some point I turn my head to the window at the exact moment a group of like 8 sailors from the Korean navy, just a few years older than me, passes the windows. I made accidental eye contact with one of the guys in the back, who then says something to the rest of the group and then THEY ALL ASDFHSKFSLEF TURNED THEIR HEADS AND LOOKED AT STRAIGHT ME （/⌓＼)

Some time later when we all met up, we found a restaurant named 누나홀닭 (Noo na hol dak) and had dinner there. Here's the address, if you dare:

Namdaemun-ro 78, Jung-gu, Seoul.
(서울 중구 남대문로 78)

None of us were that hungry so we decided to share one each dish between three people. Alex, Cindy, and I shared and Alex decided that we should have spicy chicken while the others just had normal chicken.

That chicken proved to be some of the spiciest food I had ever had and we ended up naming it 'Spicy chicken from Hell'. We had to ask for extra water 2-3 times and I think I caught the waiter smile at us. Imagine a person with their mouth open and tongue sticking out while they rapidly try to wave air closer to their face. Yes, that was us.
Camilla and I also caught some men at another table looking at us but that was probably just because we were foreigners.

Let me tell you... this chicken was so spicy that some of us completely gave up on eating it. Our lips got sooooo swollen from whatever spice they had put on. I had an upper lip for a moment!!

John's were the worst. But he and Alex were also the only ones to continue eating it and John kept complaining about how spicy it was while stuffing more of it into his mouth.

HAhahahah poor John.

Our adventures from today start at 3:39 and you can pretty much watch until the the end of the video if you'd like. There's a clip from some of them partying in Hongdae and a last picture of us in the airport in Helsinki when we were flying back home.

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