We checked in at the Holiday Inn, and celebrated Ellyn's birthay with some champagne.
We asked the Concierge, Ms. Park (one of several million in Korea with that surname) about a good place to buy subway tickets, water, and dinner. She left her post in the hotel and escorted us to to 7/11-type convenience store to buy subway passes for early in the mornng - our tour to the DMZ - and then took us right in to be seated in a reasonably-priced restaurant.
Every table has a hole in the middle and one of the employees brings around a pan of charcoal and a grill for cooking. No sissy natural gas here.
A waitress grilled all of our meat and stayed with us throughout. We couldn't quite figure if that was because we were foreigners who didn't know how to do things but the meal was excellent. It consisted of grilled beef and grilled pork. We had lettuce to use as a wrap and a chilled kim chee soup that had a lot of flavor - almost reminiscent of a gazpacho -without being too spicy for us.
We stopped in at a small market next door and bought ourselves some mineral water.
We're all finally starting to fade, as we only napped on the plane and we're no longer young enough to enjoy pulling an all-nighter.
It's off to bed and up really early to try to find our way on the subway to meet up for the the USO tour of the DMZ.
This afternoon has been a great start to our visit to Seoul.
Kathy and Brian
Two retired educators alternating joyfully between seeing the world and enjoying our eight grandchildren (in order of birth), Jake, Avery, Taegan, Lily, Peyton, Riley, Blane, and Jace.
Kathy and Brian met in the clarinet section of the University of California (Santa Barbara) Symphony Orchestra several decades ago.
Brian's Western Canadian roots and Kathy's Colorado ties resulted in their making beautiful music together along with producing a cross-border crop of descendants.
Kathy spent a year studying in Vienna at the Institute for European Studies and the University of Vienna.
Brian started the school band program in Hope, British Columbia, and later became the high school's vice-principal for 6 years and subsequently principal for 15 years before retiring in 2001.
Kathy, in between raising our three children, taught kindergarten and first grade, middle school, and high school - mathematics, computer studies, ESL, and her first love, band, before retiring in 2001.
We enjoy sharing our travel experiences and providing the odd travel tip to friends, relatives, and visitors.
