We left around ten the next day for the COEX aquarium, the next stop on our whirlwind tour of Seoul. We filled up on energy juice at the Dunkin' Donuts conveniently located across the street from our hotel, then got onto the subway. COEX was good, but not quite as amazing as I had remembered, perhaps because many of my aquarium memories (including those of penguins), came from Busan. It was nice though, and it was followed by my first burger in months at the COEX food court. Highlights!
After the aquarium, we headed out to GyeongBeokgung palace. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards, so we all got to check "See gross taped-on beards" off of our to-do lists for that day. It was good timing though, because it was a really good thing for mom to see. It was also good, because it led to one of those random trip inside jokes between Mel and I where a pigeon wandering around in front of these very serious-looking guards was hearing that British comedy chase music as he mosied. We spent the next few hours (most of the afternoon) wandering around inside the palace. It's a really beautiful place. It was such a nice day too, the sun was shining, and it was hot, but not too hot. Mom was impressed, I think. We took in the whole place, and then we headed to Insadong (on foot, thank you sense of direction) and we grabbed a coffee and hung out while we waited for Carol.
We popped into a lot of different shops, saw the same art again and again, and mom wound up deciding that her souvenir would be a couple of scrolls to hang on the stairs up to her bedroom. She bought one that said love, and we looked around for different ones that might complement it. I wound up buying one that had a mantra on it, something about keeping your mind on things that are not of this world (this was communicated with my limited Korean and grunts and handclaps). We met up with Carol around 8 or so, and we headed to Itaewon for some Thai food. We arrived pretty late, because you know... travel. We were lucky though that that didn't seem to be a problem.
I forgot to mention something earlier, and I don't feel like scrolling back up. While we were on the subway either coming back from or going to COEX, we were waiting in a station and my cell rang. It was Stu, my Australian friend, calling to see if I was home. Stu's been arranging these photography road trips, and I guess he wanted to free up some room in his car, because he wanted to know if he could leave his guitar with me for the day. I said "No can do, mon ami, I am in Seoul in a subway station."
He said "Oh bummer (or some equivalent Aussie thing)! What about Ryan? Is he home?"
I said "No, he's in Tokyo for the weekend."
And THAT was the coolest conversation I had ever had.
We had some other very cool conversations at the restaurant, Thai Orchid, that ran in a similar vein. At one point, we made spur of the moment plans to go to Busan the next weekend, and that was so cool that I had to slap my forehead in amazement. Of course, the plans fell through, because having mom here was EXPENSIVE! Anyways, we all ordered our own dishes, and then we shared with eachother, and in the end we wound up ordering another dish, and I ate so much that it hurt a little bit.
Then we all headed home, and had weird Thai-food related dreams.
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