Seoul in the Rain

Last Saturday I escaped again to Seoul, this time to visit one of my friends from Cedarville who teaches 2nd grade at the NICS school there. Once again I took the subway, but this time it was a lot more complicated since I had to make several transfers in stations without any signs telling which subway lines came to which platforms, and the trains were jam packed with people Asian style. I have found that the subway is great for traveling long distances around Seoul, but complicated for getting around the city itself. It took me as long to get to her stop in Seoul as it did to go all the way up to Uijeongbu. But I made it fine, and I think I have spent more hours on the subway already than some people who have been here a couple years!
Jessica and I had great plans for seeing the city, but by the time I arrived, clouds had blown in threatening rain. Hoping it would blow over, we had a great lunch at an Indian restaurant before setting out on our regularly scheduled tour. We caught a bus to Seoul Tower, the highest point in Seoul. It is not actually very tall by itself, but it is up on a little mountain so it looks higher. I think it it resembles the CN Tower in Toronto. You can go up in it and (usually) see the entire city, and on very clear days I've heard you can see North Korea. This was not one of those days. The tower was still pretty neat. It has windows all around it, and painted on each window is the direction it points toward and what major world cities are in that direction. And evidently, one of the major highlights of the tower according to the brochure is the Sky Bathroom, "the very private view point, offering the unobstructed, mesmerizing view of Seoul." Yes, the bathrooms are surrounded by windows, but I'm told the men's is worse than the ladies. Another interesting feature of the tower is the fence separating the base of the tower from the mountainside. Every inch of the fence is covered with locks, placed there by young couples to "lock their love." And evidently, if you propose on the steps to the tower, your love will last forever. But some of the locks are very heavy... I wonder what would happen to your love if the fence fell over??
From the tower, we proceeded to Insadong, the artsy shopping area of Seoul where we walked around in the rain and looked at souvineers. It was especially pretty with the changing leaves. After spending a while there, we headed over to the other main shopping area in Seoul, Itaewon, which is close to where Jessica lives. Between all of these places I got to see some of Seoul. It has a lot of very interesting architecture, including a building that looks a little like a zipper. Itaewon has lots of markets and stores selling clothing and bags and shoes and such. Markets here are not like they are in the rest of Asia though... they do not bargain much and they are not necessarily cheaper than stores. We did get to see the police show up though, in full riot gear. In Seoul they have a special police division for stopping riots... I guess they occur a lot. We waited a while but no riots began... I guess starting a riot in the rain would not be very fun.
In the evening, after a delicious dinner of Middle Eastern schwarma, I headed back. One of the things I like about Korea is the delicious international food. Most of it is pretty authentic, especially the Thai, and it is usually the same price or cheaper than Korean restaurants. This area of Seoul has a lot of foreigners since it is near the US military base and most the embassies so it had a wide variety of options. It was a very nice Saturday excursion.