half a day in seoul

the next morning we took a bus to the train station…it’s a new station, having been built in the past few years…hana and mom both thought it looked so nice they took pictures…lol…it would be a whole lot more convenient if it were located closer to town, but when building the tracks for the train, that would’ve been ridiculous…it wasn’t a long bus ride anywho…we got to the station faster than hana and I had expected, so we took an earlier train…2 hours later, we were in seoul…a bit over an hour after that, we were back in our hotel…the same one we’d stayed in earlier…at this point, hana asked mom and I if we’d mind changing hotels the next time we stayed in seoul…the 20 minute walk from the subway station was getting to her…

After a quick planning session, we got back on the subway, and rode first to COEX, as all three of us needed something from an office supply store…across the street from COEX is bongeunsa…a Buddhist temple…probably the second most touristed temple in seoul, but I think it’s worth it…as buddha’s birthday was coming up, there were preparations at this temple as well…it’s a big temple, so there were crazy numbers of lanterns…EVERYWHERE…plus, each year bongeunsa puts together an exhibition of traditional lanterns…last year, the exhibition was in one of the temple halls, and the lanterns were lit up…this time they were placed all over the temple grounds, and I’m guessing they were lit up at night…I liked seeing them, and I think hana and mom enjoyed them as well…hana and I also sat for a little while in front of the big Buddha statue (it’s the tallest in some area, according to the brochure)…mom took our photo, of course, and later told us we looked very peaceful…hmmm…

From there we got back on the subway, and rode to my neighborhood…it was nice to point out to mom and hana the building in which I lived…we had dinner at a galbi restaurant, one of my favourites…I was rather amused (as usual) watching the two of them use chopsticks to put their meal together…after finishing eating, we were all knackered, but I wanted to show hana (in particular) a store where I knew she could find the kitchy Korean stationery she’d been keen to see…we ended up spending way too much time in the store…it’s one of those stores full of stuff you don’t need, but it highly entertaining anywho…all sorts of frog stuff, a large display of stationery, hair stuff, etc…fun…then the long train ride back to the hotel…

The next day we flew to hong kong…