The Jones' Korean Adventure

Sam and I went to Seoul Tower today. Seoul Tower is, as the name suggests, a huge tower on Namsan Mountain, in the middle of Seoul. Our Korea book said that the best views of Seoul were from this tower, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.

Our journey began with a sandwich at the subway station. We were fortunate enough to stumble across an Isaac Toast (pronounced "Isaac Toast-ah" by the Koreans), and enjoyed our "VIP" sandwiches (eggs, baloney, cheese, cabbage, red sauce, and orange sauce on toast...surprisingly delicious!). Then, with food in our bellies, we set out to find the trail.

Unfortunately, we first of all stumbled across the wrong trail. It was heading up the mountain, so we thought it could be exactly what we were looking for. It was extremely wide and paved, and there were tons of people jogging on it. Hmmm. After about 5 minutes of walking upwards, our trail started heading downwards...which is exactly when we decided this couldn't be our path. 5 minute climb, no tower, path going downward = not the right path!

We headed back the way we had come and were able to set out on the RIGHT path shortly after that (confirmed by some foreigners who were coming down the path). This path was pretty much stairs the whole way to the top. The views we had from the top, however, were definitely worth the work-out! Seoul is gigantic...a huge city with mountains surrounding it. The city stretches back into every possible piece of land in the valley.

Some other highlights from the top: a nice viewing deck, a man entertaining the crowds with his guitar and microphone, the smell of popcorn, a surprise "run-in" with other former Trinity students (how do we run into people we recognize in a city this huge??), and a little old woman selling cotton candy that she made in a foot-pedal powered cotton-candy machine and twisted onto a wooden chopstick (it was delicious, and only cost a dollar).

When we were all viewed out, we decided to catch the mountain gondola back down...for the experience. It was beautiful to see the lights of Seoul shinning out into the night...very pretty! The book was right...best views of Seoul we've seen!

Here we are at the top of Namsan Mountain. Seoul is huge! It stretched on and on...what you see behind us is just a little piece.
This is the gondola that brought us safely down the mountain.
Here's Sam on the "wrong trail"...luckily we figured out it was the wrong trail pretty quickly.
Here I am, looking half dazed as I scan the Seoul skyline (this was half way up the mountain).
Sam, enjoying his Isaac Toast-ah on the subway.