Seoul, March 17

Hooray! Finally, finally, we made it to Korea. We've been planning to go ever since we learned we were headed to Japan. And with only 4 months to go, we zipped over for a very short weekend.

We arrived at Incheon Int'l Saturday evening. As we walked through the airport, there were pottery and art displays from the Silla, Paekche, Koguryo kingdoms, followed with others from the Choson dynasty. With this artistic welcome, I was surprised to then find soldiers armed with sub-machine guns patrolling the airport.

We bused into Seoul, found our hostel, and went out to find dinner. We resisted the tempting street stalls, hoping to find a sit-down restuarant replete with those tasty side dishes. We finally settled on one, had some great fish soup, but were saddened with the kimchee options-- not the best.

We wandered around, stumbling down little alleys advertising hostess bars. Found my beloved candy-coated sunflower seeds [the ones in Japan have too much choco], and discovered coffee flavoured gum. Then it was back to the hostel and sleep.