 |
| Myeongdong Cathedral |
Again, we were both awake before 6:00, so we got up and went
to church. We would have gone anyway,
but probably not the 7AM Mass! This was
to be the coldest day of the trip, so bundling up in our winter coats, we
headed out into not all that cold (like
40s). It was still dark as we walked the
mostly empty streets, well, dark except neon store light that seemingly never go
out. In about 20 minutes, we were near
the Cathedral, and followed a sign that directed us to go under a tunnel. OK. We
found the elevator to the Cathedral level, and pushed the button…it came on…and
went out. We heard the elevator passing
us in both directions, but it wasn’t stopping.
With 7 minutes left, we started thinking about how fast we might retrace
our steps and find another path, when a man came up and told us it was “closed
until 8” and showed us to the stairs down one level to catch the elevator back
up. We made it just in time, and it was more than half full (surprising for
that hour).
 |
| One of many Korean Martyrs |
After Mass we walked around the Cathedral a bit, admiring
the beauty, and then the lights went out.
So, we finished and headed down to the crypt.
It was a beautiful crypt, complete with a
sign that stating “No Photography!”
 |
The Sungnyemun (or Namdaemun) Gate,
(and a lot of lanes of traffic to cross!) |
We meandered a bit through the opening markets on our way
back to the hotel for breakfast.
Then we
took a nice midmorning nap!!
In the
afternoon, we headed across the street to see the Sungnyemun Gate, once part of
the fortress that formed the city wall when this was the capital city and called
Hanyang.
Since it was the southern
entrance to the city, it was informally known as “Namdaemun”, which is now the
name of the neighborhood.
The gate was
built in 1398, and renovated in 1448 and 1479, but damaged in the (Korean) war,
so reassembled in the 60s.
 |
| The woodwork on the building is intense! |
 |
| A view of our hotel from Sungnyemun. |
 |
| Part of the Namdaemun street market. |
 |
| 2000 = $1.50 and 3000 = $2.25 (roughly) |
After the gate, we headed into another street market in the
shadow of our hotel building.
After a
bit of exploring, we were about to leave, but Bill was kind of hoping to try
some “street food”.
At that moment, we
came upon a small cart vendor with a big line.
When in doubt, always go where the lines of locals are, so we took our
place in line behind over 40 people.
They were making “Hotteok”, which is sort of a fried sandwich. The woman took a ball of dough, rolled it in
her hands, and smashed it in one palm, then pressed a handful of vegetables in
the center and rolled it back up into a ball before dropping it in a vat of hot
oil. They were selling vegetable, brown
sugar, and mozzarella hotteoks, so we decided to get one of the vegetable and
one of the mozzarella. The vegetable was
obviously the standard as the woman was making them as fast as she could, and
the man was selling them as fast as they were done.
When we got to the front and made our order, he gave Theresa
hers right away, and told me to wait for the cheese. I watched her make it, adding the cheese and
a few veggies and rolling it, then as she dropped it in the oil, she put a few
black seeds (sesame?) on it which distinguished it from the veggie. It took a while to cook, but fortunately Theresa’s
was still hot enough to eat when mine was done.
 |
| Theresa with her vegetable hotteok. |
 |
| Bill with his mozzarella hotteok. |
 |
| Theresa's |
 |
| Bill's |
That seemed like a good end, and we went back to work a bit
in the lounge before dinner and to bed early (we hope!).
 |
| The corner from our room. So close...and yet so far! |
Update: We were still in the lounge by the time the Happy Hour (and food) started. The lady came by and offered us a "welcome drink", telling us it was "whiskey". OK, sure, twist my arm! They have Jack Daniels, and Johnnie Walker Red, and something else, so when she brought them I asked what they were. She said, "Single Malt". Oh? Tell me more! She thought and tried to say Glen Livet, at which I became very happy!! So, our night capped off with a decent Scotch!
No comments:
Post a Comment