Playing Tourist

We received our third or fourth snowfall of the year, overnight Friday. It's always pretty strange when it snows - the same drivers that do insane maneuvers, and go incredibly fast, seem to be absolutely frightened when there's any of it on the ground. They slow to the very minimum speed, and they're not quite sure how to drive - and I guess it's hard to blame them, with the infrequency of snowfalls during winter.

I decided this morning that since this was a long-weekend, and that our trip is still a few days away, I wanted to go see something new. I had my sights on going to visit Seoul Tower for a while, so after researching directions, I started making my way out, when I bumped into two other teachers. They were pretty enthused about seeing the Tower too, so they tagged along.

The tower is located right in the middle of Seoul, and gives a panoramic view of the entire city. It's a pretty simple commute - we only had to take one bus, and go down two stops along the Subway. From the Subway exit, it was about a 15-minute walk to a building where you can take a cable-car all the way up the mountain (It can be done by foot for free, but given the snow, that wasn't a very good idea). The round-trip cable-car fee was about 7.50$.

Once we reached the mountain, we had to climb a few stairs to reach Seoul Tower. We were surprised (and so excited!) to find out that Seoul Tower is also the home of the little-known Teddy Bear Museum! Pictured here is myself trying to contain my excitement. Anyway, tickets to go all the way up to the Observation lounge only cost 7$ (take that, CN Tower! Seoul is three times cheaper, and would beat you by default anyway, since there's no Teddy Bear Museum in or around the CN Tower).

One strange things we noticed were a bunch of locks, tied to the fences surrounding Seoul Tower. I'm told that this is a tradition that young Korean couples do, to symbolize wanting to be (locked?) together forever. Some of them were more creative than others, using bike locks - I wonder what they do with the key afterwards. Do they keep it safe? Do they go all the way back up to undo their lock, if they ever break up? Mysteries, mysteries.

Here are a few shots, taken from the top of the tower:








Have a good weekend.