Korea has Seoul, and now us too!

Finally, on our last afternoon here we have the opportunity to update our blog with stories from SK. To sum up this leg of the journey, we've had an absolutely fantastic time, in no small part due to our wonderful host Moira. We have had adventures all around Seoul, a city of 12 million (compared to Toronto's 3 million) that seems to span for miles and miles.

The city is so vast that the subway system has a crazy amount of lines and stops. Not quite like the TTC...check it out!

This week, we have seen many amazing sites and hiked to many interesting places. We walked along the Seoul city wall (built to protect the captial from North Korean invaders), which is still heavily fortified and guarded by troops to this day. This wall runs mainly uphill, roughly 2000 meters above sea level. We also climbed up to a sacred Shamanist ruin area, which is fairly secluded and is used as a place of worship for Buddhist follwers. With rocks in the shape of monks and carvings of Buddha on the rock faces, this place was spectacular and very peaceful. We saw several palaces and places of political relevance, all of immense importance to Korean history and culture. One of the most interesting to see was the Japanese prison, where Koreans were held and tortured during the Japanese occupation, until the success of the anti-Japanese military movement brought independence to this country. We also visited the "CN Tower" of South Korea called the Namsan Tower (a relatively modest version), which this city is extremely proud to have.

We have also been to our share of Seoul markets. Insadong is an area of town known for its art galleries, hand-made crafts and shops. It is so neat to walk through; there are so many vibrant colours and people everywhere! We loved it. We also visited an art gallery/display called "Wake up Andy Warhol" which was spectacular! We went with Laura, a friend of Val's who lives in Pusan, which is a city south of Seoul.











The food is another experience all in itself. First of all, there are restaurants and food vendors EVERYWHERE! You are never searching very hard for a place to eat! Our diets here consisted mainly of spicy cabbage, called Kim Chi, rice, soup and dumplings. We also enjoyed Korean BBQ, which is basically a BBQ pit in the middle of your table, on which all of your meat (pork, beef, etc) is cooked on right in front of you. Mmmmm...its delicious! Some not as delicious food (according to Val, cause Mark liked it) was an afternoon snack of larvae. Blahhhh! It's kind of squishy and salty, with a seafood flavour. Mark thoroughly enjoyed it, although Val will certainly not be eating it again, ever! Lastly, the alcohol here is impressively cheap. Mark has gained a dependancy to a Korean rice liqour called "Soju". It's about 20% alcohol and sells for about $1.25 a bottle! It's so-juriffic!


Well, that's it for now. We(Moira, Mark and Val) leave for Beijing this evening to meet up with Justin Bedard (also from our program at UofG) and party!!!!

In Beijing, Val plans to have a huge birthday celebration because today is her birthday!! Yeah! Happy Birthday to Val! Although, she has already celebrated in Korea, thanks to the lovely Laura who brought a decilious cake!

We love you all and can't wait to see you again!
Thank you to everyone who has posted comments. We love to hear from you!!!Keep checking this site for an update on China!

Mark and Val