Seoul

Today Cindy and I spent the day in downtown Seoul. First we took a cab to the shopping district of Itaewon. This is an area that many Americans visit because of its proximity to Youngsan Garrison. We walked up the street looking in the shops and fending-off the pushy vendors. When we came across the subway entrance, we thought we’d give it a go. After all, we’ve been all around England and Sydney, Australia on the subway, this shouldn’t be much different, right. Well, sort of.

Although much of the information was in English, not understanding the language was a big disadvantage. We wanted to visit the Hard Rock Cafe to buy shirts for the kids and have some lunch, so armed with the Hard Rock brochure and a sorry map from the hotel, we bought two subway tickets at â‚©190 each. We entered the gate and boarded the “Line 6″ train for Yaksu. At Yaksu, we boarded the “Line 3″ train for Apgujeong. Upon exiting the subway station, we tried to determine the right direction to go to find the Hard Rock. This wasn’t as easy a task as we thought it would be.

We looked for a familiar street or building name, something top correspond with our crappy map, so we could get our bearing. Nothing. We walked around the block and came across a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop (go figure!). We went in and ordered two cups of coffee and a jelly doughnut for Cindy. I asked one of the workers for directions to the Hard Rock and she didn’t know what i was talking about. I showed her the brochure and it didn’t help. She asked one of the other workers to help us and this time we found someone who could indeed help! She wrote the name of a hospital on a piece of paper and then some text in Korean. She told us to walk up one block and give the paper to a cab driver and he would take us there. We did.

The cabbie didn’t speak a word of English, but he read the note and invited us into the cab. He took us to the hospital which was right next door to the Hard Rock Cafe! The cab ride was â‚©3,000.

So, we were able to buy the t-shirts, but the restaurant didn’t open until 5:00 (it was about 2:30). We headed back to the subway station. On the way we stopped at a Mary Kay store we’d seen as we were riding in the Cab. Cindy is a beauty consultant and knows just about everything there is to know about Mary Kay. The store was very interesting and they seemed very excited to learn that Cindy was a Mary Kay girl, too! Cindy bought some product that they make and sell only in Korea and they showered her with gifts. It was quite an experience.

After Mary Kay, we got back on the subway and headed back to Itaewon where we dined at the Outback Steakhouse. It was very good and a pitcher of Hite beer made the meal pleasantly unique.

What a nice day!