Once Upon a Time, I went to Namsan Tower

This happened... a long time ago. Like, November. Tristan, who lives in Seoul, called me up to see if Pat and I wanted to do something "touristy" in Seoul. We haven't really done a lot of touristy things, to be honest. I have enough fun without doing the touristy things for the most part. But we decided to go into the city and meet up with Tristan, as we hadn't seen him for awhile.

We found him in Gangnam, Lonely Planet Korea in hand, and he informed us that we would be going to check out Namsan Tower. This actually didn't seem like a bad idea, as I have always admired Namsan from afar and always wanted to see it close up. At night in Seoul, when it's all lit up, it's a gorgeous sight. In fact, the very first time I went to Seoul, a year and a half ago, I was mesmerized by it as we drove by in a taxi.


To get there: head to Myeongdong (on the light blue line) and then walk up the hill. There are two ways up- hiking, or taking a cable car. We opted for the latter and I went of my very first (terrifying) cable car ride. It didn't take very long.

... but it sure was a long way down.

It wouldn't have been a terrible hike, though.

At the top it's a typical Korean tourist attraction- and there are vendors everywhere selling dried squid.

The Tower.

View from the top... Seoul is so huge. It stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Nice view of the Han River.

The only part of the city I recognized: Itaewon (that's just sad).

I was feeling a little dizzy, hence the stunned look on my face.

Afterwards we decided to walk back down. Only we ended up on the other side of the mountain. We went down a shady alleyway and then accidentally found ourselves smack dab in the middle of Namdaemun Market! I love markets so much.

Mmmmmmm my favourite kind of food. Street food.

Christmas had officially thrown up on the place (Namdaemun is rumoured to be overrun with the Russian Mafia).