As it is a mere two hour flight from Tokyo and currently Americans do not need visas to enter South Korea (a 30 day landing permit is issued upon arrival) we decided to hop on over for the weekend. After a quick flight and gross airline meal, we found ourselves cleared through immigration and customs in under 10 minutes and within 15 minutes of landing were on a bus headed to our hotel..this of course is a world record.

The city of Seoul seemed to us to be an interesting mix of Chinese and Japanese language, behavior and architecture. Our first evening we found ourselves walking through the neighborhood outside the hotel and stumbled upon a cluster of restaurants that were filled to various degrees. Perhaps the funniest moment came as we heard “Crimson & Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells blaring from speakers inside a bagel shop which from that point became the anthem of the trip. As for the food, we soon found a Chinese place that had the best spicy sweet and sour shrimp we’ve ever encountered.

The next day, we took in the sites by starting out in the center of the city as we normally do. The hotel we were staying at was kind enough to offer a shuttle bus around the city which we hopped on a little after 9am.

First stop: the Gyeongbokgung palace.

You may note that this palace is similar looking to those we’ve previously shared with you, but it did have one striking difference: non-military guards. While the guards there were mostly for show and are sponsored by the Korean Heritage and Culture Society, it was quite interesting to see the traditional costumes and changing of the guard ceremony. You will note that real men wear pink and fake beards.

After spending the better portion of the morning wandering the palace grounds we set off into the different areas of Seoul to explore, do a bit of shopping and just take in the sights.

Food proved to be an interesting challenge on this trip as Korea is known for its BBQ, not vegetables.

We ended up having lunch the first day at a vegetarian restaurant we found in our Lonely Planet guide…it ended up being quite an experience. With pickled veggies being a Korean delicacy and meat not a possiblity (yes mother, I still refuse to eat meat. oh the humanity!) lunch was 20 or so small traditional dishes of Korean style vegetables.

Following lunch we came across our newest dragon. He’s really quite unique as he was sitting on a table in the back of a junk shop we passed by. With really thin legs and wings, he makes a great addition to our expanding flock.

We also came across plenty of these:

In Korean culture these totems are said to protect from bad spirits…protection we would need for our next adventure..to the DMZ.