Welcome to Seoul

After a bit of a delay at the airport in Shanghai over the viability of J's visa, we were finally able to check-in. Luckily we'd arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we grabbed some lunch and then hopped on flight, arriving in Seoul around 7pm.
J had contacted her friend Peter, a classmate of hers in Chicago, and he met us at the airport. I hadn't seen him since the summer of 2009 myself, so it was great to catch up. Our first impression of Seoul was how clean and modern everything is, complete with Samsung and Hyundai products seen at every turn.
Although it was near 8pm, Peter said he'd be happy to take us to the N Seoul Tower where there is an observatory. We took the A'REX airport train to Seoul Station, then jumped in a (Kia) taxi to the top of Namsan, the southern mountain where the tower is located. The "N" in N Seoul Tower  stands for Namsan, apparently.
Peter told us that usually we would have to show our passports at the gate to the entrance road up to the tower, since only foreign visitors are allowed to take cars and taxis up. Koreans all take the bus or walk. It looked like a pretty steep climb to me, but Peter insisted that it was easy. Indeed, at the top of Namsan, there were gaggles of young people whom mostly looked to be on dates, dressed fashionably and enjoying the excellent evening weather.
Up on the observatory deck it soon became apparent as to why there were so many couples. The entire railing surrounding the deck is covered in pad-locks. Not just a few, but probably thousands. This is due to the tradition of couples putting a lock on the railing to symbolize the strength of their love, and some of the locks were indeed heart-shaped, or even had little love notes written on them. We hadn't come prepared with a lock, but Peter was nice enough to take our picture to commemorate the occasion. Then we went to a cafe inside the tower and all had some hot chocolate!
Around midnight, we hopped on the last cable car heading back down to level land. It put us near the center of town, and from there we grabbed a taxi to our guesthouse.
The guesthouse is a simple affair for budget travelers who still want a bit of comfort. It has clean sheets, fast internet, a massive, flat-screen LG television, and other amenities in the room, with access to a communal kitchen on the first floor where we could get coffee and toast with jam for breakfast the next day.
It all sounded great and the bed looked extremely comfy at that point, so we said goodbye to Peter and drifted into dreams.