War Museum, Seoul Tower, Korean BBQ

It was a long time since I slept this well. As you say hunger is the best spice, I guess exhaustion is the best sleeping pill 🙂 I woke up to the sound of rain hitting the windows and when I looked out it seemed to pour down. I should have bought the umbrella yesterday. Jonas and I had decided to meet in the lobby at 9:30 to find some breakfast since the hotel didn’t offer any. We had seen one place we walked by yesterday so we went for it. The rain wasn’t that bad and it was still really warm so we just kept walking while slowly getting wet.

We found our place but it was closed. Since the digits on the sign said 08:00 we expect it was because it’s Sunday. We walked on and found some sort of cafeteria where they had a few breakfast items left. I got myself an egg-and-ham sandwich of sorts, and a garlic bun together with some orange juice. You had to warm the items in the microwave yourself, but it was quite good and a nice start to the day. Though it got a bit chilly with the wet clothes in the air-conditioned room.

By recommendation from our Dutch friend we met yesterday, we headed to The War Memorial of Korea. We started outside and looked at a couple of monuments and a bunch of airplanes, tanks, helicopters, guns, and even a couple of boats. The rain wasn’t too bad, but I got a bit nervous about the laptop in my backpack. Luckily the Haglöfsbackpack we got from the Swedish contingent kept my stuff dry, opposite to the rest of me.

When we got inside, we met Erik and Björn who had been here a couple of days. We got a couple of tips and then we headed down to the first floor which contained more tanks and guns. Some of the models, primarily on the North Korean side, are still used today.

We moved along through the museum. It was a lot to read and look at. My problem after a while is that it becomes too much so I tend to walk by more and more showcases. At 14 I picked up my phone and followed the Swedish entry into the FIFA World Cup with a victory over South Africa with 2-1. After we had gone through most of the museum we both realized we were a bit hungry so we left the premises and started to look for something to eat. We ended up taking the subway back to “our” neighborhood and found a restaurant that offered bibimbap. It was quite good and what we needed.

On the walk back to the hotel we stumbled upon a Daiso store. 12 floors with a wide variety of stuff. Granted each floor was like a small “ICA Nära”-store, but they still had quite a big selection. We got ourselves an umbrella each and I found a toy for my cats.

We went back to the hotel and rested for an hour before heading out to the Seoul Tower. We took the Namsan Cable Car to climb the hill where the tower is located on. We bought a round ticket to take the cable car down afterward. I have seen tips that you can walk downhill, but the weather didn’t invite it.

After a short elevator ride up in the tower we ended up 236 meters up in the air (479 meters above sea level). The view was quite spectacular, even though half of the windows were covered with moisture. We met some Danish scouts in the observatory as well as a unit of German scouts. The men’s urinal had a great setup. Not very often do I take a leak with that kind of view.

We saw the dark cover the city, the lights coming on and then headed down again to look for some dinner. We had found a suggestion for a great restaurant but when we arrived there it was closed, probably because of it being a Sunday. However, we had ended up in some sort of district where there were more restaurants so we found a Korean BBQ and popped in. We ended up with pork belly but didn’t cook it to the waiter’s satisfaction so she took over 🙂

It was a delicious meal and interesting talks during and afterward. We took the subway back to the hotel, starting to get the hang of a couple of stations now. It’s great that they number all the exits to make it easy to navigate. Short planning for tomorrow and then off to bed.