Pictures from Seoul

These are all pictures we took in Seoul, we haven't taken any in Icheon yet.


This building is the Holiday Inn where we stayed in Seoul, viewed from across the street.


The next two pictures are of the view from our room's window. The hotel is in the Mapo district of Seoul, which is the business district. A very nice part of town, we like it because it is an easy subway ride to just about anywhere and the subway stop is about a block from the hotel.








Joe and I aren't much on visiting "tourist attractions" when we travel, we prefer to spend our time walking around and seeing what everyday life is like for the people who live in the area. This trip we spent quite a bit of time walking around the area surrounding the hotel, on our last visit we didn't do much of that because it was too cold. This trip it has been hot and humid, which kept us from exploring as much as we wanted to, our walks wound up to be a series of short ones so we could get back to the air-conditioned room and cool off!




This is a picture of a gas station we passed on one of our walks, we thought it was interesting the way the fuel is dispensed from overhead. All the stations we have seen here seem to have attendants, one is pictured here in a yellow vest. The colored containers along the back wall are recycle-bins. Gas here is about $4.00 a gallon. Many of the gas stations have big plastic palm trees in front that are red, yellow, green and occasionally blue and are lit up at night. This is the only station we've seen with the overhead pumps, all the others have had standard pumps.





This picture is of an unusual building a few blocks from the hotel. It is a bank and seems to be constructed mostly from concrete. It sits on a steep hill.








We stopped in a small park a few blocks from the hotel that featured 5 pieces of exercise equiptment. We tried them out and managed to get a nice workout despite the heat. The exercisers are all well thought out and easy to use. Wish we had something like this at home!






These pictures were taken on a trip we took to the Nandaemum market area of Seoul. They were taken at the Nandaemum gate, the men in traditional Korean clothing are some sort of ceremonial guards. A sign nearby listed times for changing of the guard ceremonies, but these guys were marching around at a time that wasn't listed so I don't think it was an official change. But it was interesting nonetheless. When we were here last time there were no guards, in fact there were very few people around at all because it was so cold.

On our first visit to the Nandaemum market Joe noticed a very cute kitten at one of the seafood vendor's stalls. He had section of nylon rope fashioned into a leash, and had a styrofoam cooler filled with sand (and cigarette butts) that seemed to be his litter box, and an empty food dish nearby. We made sure to swing by for a second look before we left (the stall is near the subway entrance) and saw the man running the stall playing with the kitten with the other end of his "leash." The kitten is quite young and incredibly cute. Pets are not common in Korea from what we have seen. We have seen 2 cats near the hotel in Icheon, but they are obviously strays. We've also seen a couple of storefront vets in Seoul, but they appear to cater to dogs mostly. Pets may gain in popularity as more people enter the middle class, but for now they seem to be very much a novelty. I don't think we've seen any dogs at all this trip, although we did see a couple (on leashes) last time in Seoul.
When we went back Nandaemum yesterday making sure to swing by the stall where we'd seen the kitten, and sure enough, there he was. Instead of the rope around his neck he had a little homemade collar, and he was sitting on a cooler watching the man running the stall work. Joe took some pictures, but it was raining pretty hard and the market was VERY busy, so he didn't have much luck. This was the only one that turned out:




We stopped back by for another look before we left, but didn't get any other pictures. We will try again when we go back, this is such a cute kitten who obviously likes his new job!