Left Torino in the early afternoon on Monday and arrived in Seoul nearly the same time I had left Torino. The flight from Frankfort was about 10 hours. I was actually able to get about five hours sleep on the plane. Unusual for me, but it helped the trip get a good start.
There is a few ways to get from the airport to the hotel: taxi, hotel shuttle bus, or the train. I went for the train because I thought it would get me in the real Korea sooner. I.e. traveling with the local population rather than a bunch of foreigners. It was a good choice. Clean, efficient and economical (about five dollars for a one hour ride into the city).
Train station to the Hilton was a bit of a challenge. I was told it was a ten minute walk, but no one had mentioned that the station was at the base of a hill and the hotel near the top. It wouldn't have been too bad without the roller bag, but I did have a roller bag. I made it to the lobby ok, even if I was a little ripe by the time I got there.
My coworkers were arriving a little later, so I took the opportunity for a short walk to get familiar with the neighborhood and to take some photos. Later, when the first person arrived, we grabbed a coffee at a Starbucks clone coffee shop. Very nice actually and the coffee was better than Starbucks (not "burnt"). Seoul is full of American stile coffee shops. Really surprising in that sense. Lot of people walking around with big paper cups. Definitely not Italy. (You never see anyone out walking with a coffee in hand in Italy!)
Simple Japanese diner with the guys the first night. The second night we were entertained to a grand Korean dinner by our hosts. Really wonderful!
After the second day of business on Thursday my colleagues wanted western food so after an unsuccessful walk to look for something, we went back to the hotel and grabbed a taxi to a place the hotel had recommended. Italian in this case. It was fine even if a little pricey.
During the walk we had found one really wonderful street with several blocks of very dense market stalls. Food , clothing etc... There was stall after stall selling fresh sea food to your order, prepared by smiling women on little cook stoves behind the display. Each of the stalls had two or three small tables (think of our "Little Tykes" table and chair set) The sea food on display looked very well organized and fresh. Tempting to me but not to the others.
So after dinner I went out for another walk to see if I could get a picture of the market scene and maybe a beer and a snack to make up for missing a local experience the last evening. Unfortunately, the market was packed up by the time I got back to the correct street. So I wandered around to take some photos of Seoul at night. And get a beer and a snack!
Namsan Mountain and Seoul Tower in the day.
The hotel lobby is both grand and stylish.
I liked the large format art in the lobby
Typical city street.
The old Seoul Station
Seoul Station and the point of my arrival
One of the many Christian churches in Seoul backed up by the Hilton up the hill
Namsan Mountain and the Seoul Tower at night
Evening street scene
Typical "carry out" with the display and serving area on the walkway,
and a very small kitchen in a nook in the wall.
People out for the evening. Not as crowded as I recall Yokohama
but still a lot of people out and about quite late.
The diner for my last outing. Beer was good and the fish dumpling
soup was ok. But the fried chicken looked wonderful.
Next time!!
