A Day Trip to Seoul

With my trip home coming up and my desire to travel by KTX at least once before I had to use it to get to the airport, I planned a trip to Seoul with my friend Michelle.  We made it a day trip on Saturday in July.  First, it's amazing that I can travel to Seoul in about 3 hours by train when it takes between 5-6 by bus/car.  Second, I love that you can go pretty much anywhere in Korea and make it a day trip if you want to.

Michelle and I had met the weekend before when we went to the Lotte Giants baseball game.  We got along great and both wanted to spend some time in Seoul.  Michelle had already been a few times since she arrived in Korea a few months prior but I had not been to Seoul since my trip to Korean in 2004.  We didn't have an agenda besides I needed to find some souvenir items to take home with me in August.

It ended up being a fantastic day.  We spent several hours walking around seeing some things and had Mexican food and Subway sandwiches while we were there (since both are next to impossible to get in Busan).  Below are a few pictures from our fun-filled trip.

We saw Taco Bell but didn't eat there.  We at a Mexican restaurant down the street that a friend recommended.

Mexican food.  A rarity here.

On the other side of that was is a US military base.  Although I read online that this base is being moved outside of Seoul by 2016.  Its very much in the city now though.

It's a large base too!

My understanding is that this is the only Starbucks that has a sign not written in English.  It's in Itaewon which is known for having a lot of Western influence since its next to the base.  And yet, their Starbucks sign is in Korean...

South Gate.  I'm so glad we saw this.  It was one of my favorite things that I saw during my 2004 trip.  It's just something about the history preserved even with a busy road surrounding it that makes it interesting to me.

The old Seoul train station.