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Hi
After a pretty awful nights sleep I was the first up at 9.30 but it felt a lot earlier due to us just having 1 tiny window in our room so it was still pretty dark. The plan today was to visit the N Seoul Tower in Namsan Park which was a subway and bus ride away then a short walk to the base of the tower. The tower is not that tall but because it is up on a hill it makes it around 360m high, you could pay to go up the tower but to be honest the views from the base were just as good and it is the first time Mel and I have passed on going up a tower!!!
We spent quite a while up there admiring the views and watching all the locals on holiday (Korea are on 4 days national holiday at the minute.) Our next stop was the Mandaemun Market to look around the handicrafts but it turned out to be full of old clothes stalls. All morning we had been trying to get some money from the ATM's in town and had no success with 5 machines but had to keep trying as we had nearly run out. Eventually good old Citibank came through for us and we were solvent again.
It was still only mid afternoon and we went back to Insa-Dong (where we had the expensive curry yesterday) for a good look around the stalls and ended up having a great afternoon. Firstly we saw a sign offering free entertainment and entered the courtyard to find music and games plus free tea and coffee. We tried our hand at Tuho a Korean game where you have to throw sticks into a cylinder (sse photos for Mel having a try) which was good fun then I moved onto keepy uppies with a disc that had foil attached to it, after a few minutes I was exhausted and we got invited for a lemon tea by a nice Korean gentleman who we chatted to for quite a while before moving on.
Walking around the shops was an event in itself, the area was crammed with people and there were things to eat and people to watch, a big crowd pleaser was the guy mixing dough with a huge wooden hammer. At the same time a TV show was being filmed. We managed to sample a few street snacks including a flat cinnamon dough bread (yummy) and Pal Bbang (bread stuffed with bean paste (also yummy)
Our day had been packed to the brim but I still had a bit more energy and we stumbled across some batting cages (baseball) and I could not resist a go.The pitches came thick and fast and after a few swings I started making contact and after 3 more visits I called it a day. The Insa-Dong area is close to our hostel and it only took a few minutes to walk back to the hostel to get our feet warm on the underfloor heating!!!
Had a powercut at the hostel which threw us into complete darkness for a while.Tomorrow is the DMZ visit which we can't wait for.
Lots of Love
M & M
xx
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