South Korea/China: Namsangol, Jongmy, Daehangno, etc.
The last day spend wandering Seoul, heading to the last few places of our choice.... Namsangol Hanok Folk Village, Jongmy Ancestral Shrine, nearby Daehangno Street (one of several "University Streets", this one with Seoul National University and Korea National Open University), then over to the area near Yonsei University (where Leif stayed).
We found fried chicken for once (not the common-yet-elusive-to-us Twotwo, but it was still good!), got lost for a few minutes somewhere south of Daehangno Street and out of the tourist-friendly areas (thankfully we found our subway station without too much trouble. We just were a touch concerned for a few minutes).
We also had Korean BBQ for lunch. Unfortunately, instead of going to a more tourist-friendly area, we went to a delicious place near our hotel that Eun-young had taken Leif's family too. "Unfortunate" because the staff didn't speak a word of English, and we had no idea how to say "beef" or "pork" in Korean... thankfully some businessmen seated next to us helped us out long enough to get us pork galbi, so we were saved from disaster.
Namsangol was a bit hard to get to, turns out we wandereed half the perimeter and walked in the back entrance. Oops. Jongmy Royal Ancestral Shrine was bordered by a large men's park-- literally, full of middle-aged and older Korean men playing chess or whatever they do there. Walking in with Sophia and Grace was probably not a common sight. =Þ Jongmy itself was large with huge single-story buildings, like most Korean palaces and shrines.
Walking along Daehangno was like walking along Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, only Korean-- a very classic "university street" atmosphere, although maybe a little more clean than Telegraph. We wandered up and down, plus into some side areas, and took pictures with some of the statues and artwork on the main street.
The streets near Yonsei University were much more heavily trafficed and not quite as art-filled, giving a stronger impression of a shopping district filled with university students rather than a more sedate univeristy row. Lots of fun mingling in the crowd, tasty snacks from a vendor on the SW street corner immediately south of Yonsei University's main entrance, but by then it was night-- and difficult to photograph.
As the norm, we hopped on subways everywhere. Seodaemun and the City Hall stops were our (convenient!) modes of transportation.
