Market Day

So, yesterday was "Market Day". And just like "Palace Day", we did not even touch the surface of how many markets there actually are here. There is a market and possibly a street for every thing. A whole street devoted to stamps, toys, lighting, towels, seafood, pigs, buttons, zippers, etc...

There was a whole Shepard Mall size building devoted to fabric. Not to mention aisles and aisles of fabric notions.

We walked around for 7 or 8 hours yesterday. This city is so incredibly huge and seems to have no ending. Every street is different and, like I said early, devoted to ONE thing. It's so crazy.

Yesterday I talked about how huge the Hyundai Department Store was; Then we saw Lotte. Lotte takes up a whole city block and is massive. Plus, I think Lotte owns everything here. Down the street from where we are staying there is a Lotte something or other which I think may be like a Nordstorms Rack. I found a Burberry coat on the street for around $80. I was going to get it on the way back but they were closed, so maybe I will today.

Another thing that is crazy here is the leaf obsession. It is fall here and the leafs are falling off the trees, but there are hardly and on the ground because someone is right there waiting to throw it away. Same goes for all trash. There is none.

I am hopping we are done trying the street food, because we are getting so full of stuff we don't know what it is that we have had trouble actually eating. The food here is terrific! I will totally miss it here. Of course Luke will miss the surplus of super cheap snacks and so will I. We got these little pastry things filled with some sort of chestnut paste on the street for like $.40. Everything is very very cheap. We haven't spent more than $20 on any meal including drinks. The subway is about $.50 a trip after the refund (when the card is deposited you get half your money back!). I bought sweet earrings yesterday at the "Free Market" for $8!

This stream is where the "lantern festival" is going on. It was covered up in the 1050"s for urban renewal or something and then uncovered in 2005. The temperature of the city is said to have dropped 10%! It is very pretty. The landscaping reminds us of Oklahoma because it has similar, if not the same, plants and grasses. Except this stream would never work in the US. It has uneven surfaces and walkways with no hand rails. There are even rock passages to the other side. Some one could die or trip :)

(Here are some pictures of some of the things we saw, but they do not justice.)

The craziest thing here is the lack of white people. It is so quite and clean it is amazing. The only place we actually saw more than one white person at a time was when we had to try the Korean-Mexican restaurant. There all theAmerican's had congregated :)

Today we are going to the "fish market" and possible climb Seoul Tower. Mainly we just like to walk around and look at things.

Last night around 5 pm we came back to the hotel to regroup and take a short nap. We woke up at 5 am.

Off we go to enjoy another great day!