Our time in Seoul was met with certain obstacles, starting with a very rainy Saturday. It was our only full-day in the city and we knew the weather forecast would dampen any outdoor activities, so we planned accordingly: City tour bus!A one-day pass only costs 10,000 Won--which is actually less than $9--leaves every 30 minutes and allows you to get on and off at the thirty-some stops, as you please. It also includes free entrance into a number of museums, and is--unsurprisingly, for Korea--fairly high-tech. Each seat is equipped with headphones that tell you about each stop, in any of three Asian and two Western languages. Well...I was impressed.One of J's friends, Soi, met us around 10 o'clock to go on the tour with us. It was great to meet her and have a Seoul native along for the ride. We decided to go to the National Museum of Korea since the rain was still coming down pretty hard outside. On the bus, I was hoping to get a glance at the city as we rumbled down the streets, but the windows fogged up so quickly that it was easier to just sit back and listen to the audio tour.The museum is a rather new complex, opened in 2007, and is an impressive structure. Peter met us there as well, and we all had lunch at the museum's Korean restaurant, Hancharin. I had a dish called Tteokbokki, which is rice cake sliced into a penne-shape and stir-fried. It is supposed to be a spicy snack food, but the dish I was served was neither spicy nor a small portion, and was garnished with shredded egg, mushrooms and beef slices. Soi, Peter and J all had bibimbap (see pic), a bowl of rice topped with veggies, chili pepper paste, meat and a raw egg, usually served in a piping hot stone pot.
After a quick tour of the first floor exhibits, Peter and Soi headed to their respective homes (Peter to go to church, and Soi having a family gathering that night) so we bid them farewell. We checked out the rest of the museum and then, since the rain was subsiding, jumped back on the city tour bus to see what else we could find.
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