Cool artwork in Seoul's subway underground
Sarah and I were blessed enough to have off of school from January 19th all the way through February 6th (we combined our 10 alotted vacation days with some long weekends due to South Korea's Lunar New Year holiday).
Sarah and I overlooking Seoul near the base of Seoul Tower
Sarah and I traveled up to Seoul during the first few days of our vacation. We had held out in going prior to this, and therefore we sort of lumped a lot of the anticipated sight-seeing of hot spots all into one all-inclusive trip.
For those of you who don't know, Seoul is roughly the size of New York and London combined. There is too much to see and do all in one trip, so it's always best to plan your visit in advance and map out the subway line stops in an efficient way.
Sarah walking down a street in Insadong
We got to see many cool areas of Seoul, including Itaewon (hot spots for Westerners) and Insadong (small-town strip with lots of local touristy markets). We also got to visit some historic sights, including the Korean War Memorial and Cemetary and the historic Gyeongbok Palace.
Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul
We finished off our time in Seoul doing some shopping (H&M baby!) and seeing an incredible theatre performance called "Nanta" (thinking Jackie Chan meets Hells Kitchen meets Stomp).
Sarah got called up on stage during the performance of Nanta!
From their we head southeast to an area known as Hwatcheon for their annual Ice Festival. There we had the chance to go ice fishing, ice sledding, and walk around ice sculptures...all along a really cool river/canal that runs through the town.
We ended the vacation by spending a week back home in Daegu, lounging around, watching movies, hanging with some friends, and finally spending a day at Elybaden Spa pampering ourselves with some much needed TLC.
While many people choose to use their vacation time to travel abroad in Asia (China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam), we were struck by how much Korea itself has to offer for travel and leisure. No matter which you decide, you will have a lot of fun and a lot to do!
All in all it was a FUN vacation, and we feel re-energized and are rearing to get back into teaching!
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