Hiking....

Today we hiked and boy are we feelin' it tonight! We hiked up Mt. Namsan to the Seoul Tower. I think I'd recommend taking the cable car up there. I was sure envious of the people riding to the top when we were going up the stairs. We even ran into some bees and gave the locals a good show trying to get away from them. There were women with high heels passing us! (Which actually wasn't unusual, women here wear high heels everywhere.) It was a beautiful hike. The leaves are changing here and it was a wonderful view from up top! We ate lunch there and went to the observation deck. Here we are waving to Chicago...we didn't see anyone waving back. How sad. It was amazing to see how big Seoul really is. It just kept going and going....

We then walked down the mountain on the other side and walked to another shopping area called Itaewon. I had wanted to go a get the kid's names painted by this vendor that another couple had used when they were here. Little did we know that most of the stores were closed because it was Sunday. We had a time getting there and had to whip out our map several times. We had so many people stop and help us today. They would just come over and ask if they could help us. This isn't uncommon here. Like I've said before they are the warmest and friendliest people I've ever met. It turned out that the vendor wasn't there today, but we did find a fantastic dessert shop that was open!! It might have been the millions of calories that I burned going up and down the mountain, but the chocolate and dessert at this place was to die for!! And there were so many to chose from!! My mouth is watering just thinking of them again.

We started walking toward the subway and found all these antique shops that were open. That was a lot of fun!! There were so many nice things. Sean, who is ever the voice of reason in our relationship, pointed out that if I was willing to leave all my clothes here, then I could bring something back!! :-)

Speaking of clothes, I am in awe of the way people are dressed here. They are soo stylish! Everyone is dressed so nicely. Like I said before the women are usually in dress shoes everywhere they go. I bought a scarf the other day to try and blend in. Sean doesn't think it worked. I think he's right. But they sure make me want to strive to be more stylish!!

I have a correction to yesterday's blog. I posted the wrong picture of the rat. I actually posted the snake which is the animal of the year I was born. Sorry. Thank you to those of you who are REALLY reading the blog. Take my word for it, the rat look just about the same only with ears. :-)