[Part 1] 104. Exploring Seoul with my relatives II

Rushed to check out in the morning but before that, I had one last bubble bath :)

Love the Molton Brown toiletries! 

Received money, Christmas present, Panadol and beddings from my mum :) 

Started on the small box of macaroons 

It’s a battle everyday, against the cold

To fight the cold, we had warm porridge for breakfast and it was really good. At first, I was complaining that the place was too expensive because I didn’t know that there was ginseng in it. The restaurant staff seemed quite dao at first too but then we realised later on that they’re actually really nice and friendly. One of them even gave us a map and directions to Gwanghwamun. 

Love these 2 boys <3 td="td">

Initially, my plan for the day was to bring my relatives to COEX Mall but we decided to scrap that because COEX’s too far away. And I think that RWS’s new Maritime attraction is nicer anyway. Also, I decided not to bring them to Hongdae and Edae to shop because it’ll be quite boring and cold for the kids and most of the stuff are winter fashion too. So we walked towards City Hall to get to Gwanghwamun instead to check out the King Sejong statue. 

It was really cold and halfway there, I felt so bad that it was getting too cold for my relatives to bear and I wished I had brought them to COEX or somewhere else instead :( Also, the museum about King Sejong and Hanguel was gone. 

After walking to Gyeongbokgung to take some photos, we took the subway back to Myeongdong. 

There was a demonstration outside City Hall

Gwanghwamun

Thank you for inventing the Korean language! Hangeulnal will be a (public? or maybe school) holiday from next year onwards. 

My nephew, the star, having fun with the interactive camera in Lotte Department Store

Mobile phone provided for guests! 

I brought my cousins and cousin-in-law to Myeongdong to shop for cosmetic and skincare products before going to the post office for them to send back a box of purchases first. The PO was way too crowded…it’s best to go there early in the morning when it’s empty! One of the staff was so inflexible -.- He said that we had to queue up to buy a box and then re-queue again to send it when we were done with the packaging and all. Luckily we managed to find another female staff who gave us a box first so that we could make all the payments in one shot.

After picking up the rest of my relatives from Lotte Hotel, we set off for Namsan Tower. From the hotel, we walked to the bus stop opposite the main shopping area of Myeongdong. Initially, I wanted to take the bus but the bus stop was quite crowded and everyone was feeling cold so I made the RASH decision to take the taxi, forgetting about my research about transport to N Tower a few weeks back... that taxis are now NO LONGER allowed to drive up to the tower. Unfortunately, we had split into 3 taxis and I had told one of the cab drivers to drive to Namsan Tower. In my taxi, the driver told me that he couldn’t drive me up to the tower and he could either let me alight at the shuttle bus stop at the foot of Namsan or the Cable Car Station. But since I had told the other taxi driver to go to the Tower, I was afraid that he might drive them to the foot of Namsan instead of the Cable Car Station and I couldn’t contact my relatives so I told the driver to drive us to the foot. But it turned out that the other 2 cabs went to the Cable Car Station -.- Luckily H was in one of the 2 taxis and he brought my relatives to take the cable car up to the tower instead. While my 2nd aunt, cousin, niece and nephew and I had to wait in the cold for the bus which took forever to arrive and I had a few false alarms, running to every bus I saw when it wasn’t the public bus :( I felt so bad for my aunt that she had to walk up a few slopes and if she were in the other taxi and had taken the cable car, she wouldn’t have to walk so much. My cousin was carrying her son who had fallen asleep too so yeah, basically I felt really bad :(
Hopefully, the beautiful view that we caught on our way up made up for all the hassle in getting to the tower! I’ve always preferred taking the bus to the cable car up to Namsan because the view’s nicer and you don’t have to stand and squeeze with everyone in the cable car.

Had to walk up this slope to the bus stop

and this slope to the Tower

At long last, we finally reached the Tower and managed to catch the beautiful sunset. I had a great time shopping in the gifts and souvenir shop (as usual). I love shopping there :) Bought a beautiful table clock (wanted one and this is perfect, pretty!), postcards and a soft toy that becomes heated after you put it in the microwave oven for 30 seconds.

I wish that we had more time at the Tower and that I could have brought my relatives up to the top of the Tower but we didn’t have time :( My KTX train back to Busan was at 8pm and at 6.30pm+, I was still at Namsan. Surprisingly, N Tower wasn’t really crowded at all, especially the cable car! My memories of taking the cable car there is that it’s always packed, whether it’s a weekday or a weekend, and I had to wait quite some time before it was my turn. But we didn’t even have to wait for more than 3 minutes to take the cable car down. What we had trouble with was flagging down cabs to get down to Myeongdong. After finally arriving back in Myeongdong, I hurriedly brought my relatives to Myeongdong Gyoza for them to have their dinner before rushing back to Lotte Hotel to grab my hand luggage and belongings and taking a cab to Seoul Station which was, thankfully, less than 5 minutes away. Through this trip, I realised how small Seoul is. Or rather, how near many places actually are to each other. With half an hour before my train (was terrified of missing it again), we managed to have a quick dinner at Lotteria. 

I was so tired that I almost slept all the way back to Busan. Almost….because this kid who sat behind me was soooooo irritating. He/she talked non-stop from Seoul to Ulsan. Can you believe it?! For 2.5 hours straight?!?!?!?! Nearly drove the both of us nuts. Almost everyone else on the train was sleeping or trying to sleep and there the kid was, talking so loudly as though the carriage was his/her house. Ok, he/she wasn’t quite talking. He/she was story-telling to his/her mum who didn’t do much to shush him/her. I can’t even tell the kid’s gender because of the voice. But all I know is that I was so irritated. Despite blasting my music on my headphones and almost turning deaf from the sheer volume of the music, I could still hear the kid telling some story. 

Back in Busan, we managed to catch the last subway train at 11.10pm to return to the dorm. 

I’m really tired but it was a good trip with my relatives. I need to spend more time in Seoul! Wish I could have spent more time with them too. Their itinerary seems really good :)