SOUTH KOREA 2013 Day 2: MyeongDong Area

Just a quick summary of day 2: Myeongdong Cathedral, Paris Baguette, Myeongdong Shopping, N Soul Tower, Teddy Bear Museum, Lotteria, SPAO

I officially admire the weather forecast in Seoul. They said it was going to rain on April 6 and it actually rained! The whole day we were there, it was raining non-stop. Imagine the cold wind and freezing rain water.

With this arrangement, we decided to venture around one place with roofs to protect us from the cold rain.

At around 9am, we set out for Myeongdong Cathedral. Our original schedule was to attend Mass here on Sunday, but my relative invited us to attend one with Filipinos at Hyehwa.

MyeongDong Cathedral: taken from its patio

We got lost around Myeongdong while looking for the Cathedral. I can see its spires from the shopping streets but not the entryway. So we went alleys after alleys, passed by a building and emerged at another bigger street where we saw and followed a nun. Where else would she go at this place, right?

We hiked uphill and finally saw the entrance. A wedding ceremony was about to take place so we stayed a bit until they were exchanging vows.

Korean wedding

Right about this time, the rain started to pour harder. We were determined to still get our photo taken in front of the Cathedral.

even through the rain, must have picture taken in front of the Cathedral

 

When we were making our way back to the shopping streets, we passed by a tourist information center. Exactly what we needed because we were looking for a Paris Baguette shop to have brunch. Good thing it was just around the corner. I grabbed a map of Myeongdong – obviously so we don’t go back and forth in the maze of the shopping center in the middle of a heavy downpour.

inside Paris Baguette MyeongDong

Posing in PB

 

MyeongDong shopping street

Found Tony Moly with JYJ! *happy fangirl alert!*

After a little bit of shopping, we went back to our guesthouse to deposit our bags. We decided to take a cab to the Namsan tower. I was battling about this with myself at first (“When in Rome, eat like a Roman!” or something like that), but because I don’t want to get lost in the middle of the freezing rain – temperature has dropped in the late afternoon – my friend and I agreed that we should not risk bleeding noses in the middle of our trip.

We purchased roundtrip tickets for the cable car, because again, it was raining and I didn’t want to freeze just yet. The ride up the cable car was very foggy. And the sun has not fully set yet, so the skyline was not very pretty. There were still remnants of winter around us.

Way up thru Cable Car

I noticed that Koreans love to visit tourist places despite probably already living in Seoul.

Foggy View Deck

Still Foggy view deck

I was disappointed by the fog at the deck with the Love Locks. I can’t get a photo of the lighted, infamous N Seoul Tower. So, we just went to the Teddy Bear Museum.

Forgive the missing hand, it was freezing!

Teddies!

It was a mixture of Korean history and teddy displays. Contemporary scenes of everyday Korean life were also on display.

King Sejong

Prince Teddy!

Teddy Sageuk building a house / temple

Modern day Seoul scenes in Teddies!

After going around the place, we decided not to go to the Observatory deck because of the thick fog. So we opted to go back to the shopping district and have dinner, a little bit of shopping – again – then go back home.

After walking on and on – the rain has stopped by this time – we finally reached the shopping streets again. We ate at Lotteria – with Song JoongKi! on the place mats – and visited SPAO which was just a few feet away. We went back to our guesthouse via train at around 10 in the evening.

Any particularly special experience in Namsan Tower? Share them on the comments below!