I refused to get up when told and for 2 hours longer we slept. Eventually I got up, showered and began to write my journal. Then it was time to check out so we paid up and made our leave, walking 300 metres up the road to the Prince Hotel where we will stay for two nights. The room is smaller and more expensive but it doesn't smell so it suits us.
We went out to get an early lunch at Joe's Sandwiches and Coffee where we failed to go last night as we were fractionally too late. The favourite item on the drinks menu seemed to be fresh strawberry juice, all the locals were visiting just for that, and after watching a punnet of strawberries going into each drink it's little wonder why! We were given a complimentary taster of it. It was extraordinary! There must be an awful lot of sugar along with the strawberries, it was so sweet! The flavour was a taste of England, it was lovely.
We walked down the pedestrian street which was lined with shops where we saw four tiny rabbits for sale. They were very young and bravely wandering in between pairs of legs belonging to the many gathered specatators. We only saw one Western face throughout the streets. After visiting the tourist information centre we walked to Lotte department store and leisurely ambled around the furniture and audio visual departments, myself fascinated by the Yamaha baby grand piano in polished ebony, similar to the one I used to play on, knowing that I probably don't own a piano anymore since I gave my parents permission to get rid of mine during my absence. Seoul is very busy, considering it's 15:00 on a Monday afternoon, there are lots of people about.
We took respite in Ediya Espresso Coffee to catch up with our journals. Ian received a rather strange sweet tasting milky tea. My hot chocolate is very sweet. But we can sit here and watch Seoul go by, if we are not distracted by the loud volume of South Korean voices surrounding us.
We walked through Namdaemun market to see the South gate, Sungnyemun, and as people started raising tarpaulin over their market stalls we walked off to see the Seoul City Hall and gate to Deoksugung Palace. It had started raining on us at this stage and on finding the United Airlines office we took cover and tried to mend our frequent flyer accounts as so many airmiles from our travelled flights are missing from our Mileage Plus accounts. I hadn't brought my passenger coupons with me so we left a copy of Ian's with the woman and we were to return tomorrow with mine. We also took the opportunity to bring forward our final flight from San Francisco to London from 18 July to 10 May, and then felt sad that we only had a month remaining of our trip.
On emerging outside we made our way back to the tourist information centre to make use of their complimentary internet service. 2 hours later it was dark and raining heavily and I didn't have my raincoat with me. We found an Italian restaurant and I ordered us inside to Il Male where I dined on spaghetti with salmon and caviar, which was very nice. A walk back to the Prince Hotel via the bakery and 7 Eleven revealed that it really is like being in England in South Korea. It is cold and wet.
We ate our treats from the bakery while watching a Korean replay of the farcical Brazilian grand prix. It was absolutely shocking!
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.