Just one day to spend in Seoul, South Korea

South Korea is where Jeanne took her first breath and the country that wasn’t kind to its orphans back in 1978. We had a chance to travel through Seoul on our way to Thailand and we decided that it was time for Jeanne to return to her country of birth for the first time since she left for France as a baby at six months old. From the moment we landed at Incheon Airport (the international airport about 90 km from Seoul), it was clear that the country has changed drastically since she was adopted from an emerging but still mostly poor country.

Taxi from hell

Rather than take the bus from the airport for $12 per person, we chose instead to take a taxi for $70 and immediately regretted our decision. The driver was an elderly man who constantly changed lanes, had a hacking cough, and caused us suffer through a two hour plus ride to our hotel in Gangnam, the famously wealthy part of Seoul. We arrived at the Aloft at 7:30pm, eager to get out of his van/torture chamber and very hungry for our first dinner. Quickly unpacking, we followed the advice of the concierge and went to a nearby Korean BBQ that turned out to be absolutely amazing. They cooked our rib meat and steak at the table and we ate one of the best meals of our lives. The local rice wine, known as soju, was an excellent complement to the meal.

Hitting Seoul

Back at our hotel, we fell asleep within minutes of hitting the bed and had an excellent but short night of sleep. Up early on a Saturday, the first view to greet us was of the Han River outside of our 15th story window. It was a cloudy day but with no rain in the forecast, so we planned to see one of the more famous palaces in the city and to visit the Korean War Museum.  We decided to use the metro, one of the world’s largest, to get around for the day. This proved to be a great idea with just one flaw…the sheer number of stairways where it was necessary to carry the stroller with an increasingly heavy Catherine. Sure, there were elevators — if you were fortunate enough to read the Korean signs saying which elevator to take.

Changdeokgung Palace

Changdeokgung Palace was interesting and built into the side of a hill in way that made it seem like a very natural and earthy architecture. It was no surprise that it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we spent a couple of hours touring the sizeable grounds. We found ourselves laughing at the people who had long poles with their camera phones attached so that they could take “selfies.” It was common, even when people were in groups and was the first time we’d seen anything like that.

Korean War Museum

From Changdeokgung Palace, we took the metro to the Korean War Museum where we spent the next several hours. There were a significant number of airplanes, tanks and other military equipment outside, including an entire B-52 and large exhibits inside covering every aspect of the war. The exhibits at times used over-the-top language to describe the efforts of South Korea and there were obvious efforts to demonize the North, but it was a great reminder that the two countries are technically still at war with each other. It was an uncomfortable thought considering how close the North is to Seoul. To emphasize this point, as we left we encountered a large demonstration protesting what they felt were the South Korean government’s lax attitude toward finding North Korean tunnels.

We had an excellent lunch at the museum’s cafe of bibimbap, a dish I had heard of but never tried. Just like the BBQ the night before the meal was excellent, fresh and spicy. We even liked the small bowl of kimchi that came with it, which came as a surprise (the smell wasn’t that bad at all).

Overall, our impression of Seoul was that it is ultra-modern in many ways. The food is fresh and delicious with reasonable prices for a capital city. The metro is clean but tough on foreigners with small children. The streets are immaculately clean and wide, but there are a great number of cars and the streets get traffic jammed. We felt fortunate to be here in November when it wasn’t as warm or cold as we’ve heard Korea can be. We would gladly come back to see more.