I’ll Follow the Sun – A Day Tour of Seoul

Unfortunately, I think I took the title of this post (& song) a little too literally…  Indeed, I followed the sun, and now my body is burnt to a crisp – lobster style.  Everything hurts, especially my pride in taking care of my skin.

Let me explain.  After a month+ of insane rains, grey skies and levels of humidity that made my hair poof into a frizz-helmet, the sun has FINALLY come out to play summer in Seoul.

This delightful change in weather magically coincided with M’s visit to Korea (G’s step-brother), and we spent the last few sizzling days running around the city, bathing in the sunlight.

Unfortunately, I over-bathed.

Lucky for you – I’m taking you on a day tour of Seoul through the interwebs, where you can see all the sights safely in the shade.

We started off our Seoul tour by visiting my absolute favorite place in Korea, Paris Croissant, home to the most delicious croissants in the world (French friends, don’t frown at the computer, it’s true).

We then hopped on the subway to the Northern part of the city to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, the oldest & largest of Seoul’s palaces.

Gwanghwamun Gate

Pretty impressive, isn’t it?  Too bad the Palace was closed!  Woops.  For those of you who are interested, below are a few pics of the Palace from visits past:

Kami's visit to Seoul

We then crossed the street to Gwanghwamun Square and admired the statues of King Sejong & Admiral Yi-Sun Shin.

A quick walk to the east brought us to the Bukchon neighborhood, one of the only places in Seoul where you can get lost in the winding alleys of traditional Korean Hanok homes.  I absolutely love walking through this (elite) residential neighborhood and imagining what Seoul was like before its insane 20th century modernization.

The heat was out-of-control by the time we finished our hanok walkabout, so we dashed into a cafe, where I introduced M to Bingsu – an elaborate Korean version of the snow-cone.  Except it costs $8.00.

The Bingsu ice bucket hit the spot and gave us the strength we needed to venture back into the heat. We finished off the day tour-de-Seoul at N Tower, the city’s landmark building atop Mt. Namsan.

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It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful way to introduce M to Seoul and reintroduce myself to summer.

Hope you enjoyed the quick tour!