Weekend in Seoul

Josh and I stayed in Seoul this weekend to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary! We left on Friday night after Josh got off of work and took the train into Seoul. We arrived in Seoul right at rush hour and we decided to take a taxi to our hotel instead of the subway since we had luggage. It didn't take as long as the cab driver said, he told us it would take over an hour with traffic but apparently it must not have been that bad because it took maybe a little more then 30 minutes! 

When we arrived at the hotel we felt very out of place. Have you ever walked into a hotel and felt... say dumb or embarrassed? I have only had this experience twice in my life. Both times Josh and I find a great deal on a hotel and we walk in wearing our normal everyday clothes and it ends up being a 5 class, rich peoples hotel! When we walked into our hotel in Seoul there were people standing around in suits and fancy dresses. There were bell men in suits, marble floors and walls... everything was very rich and I felt like a nerd in my normal everyday clothes. Not to mention, I also felt like an idiot because they had one of those swirly doors that you have to move with because they spin around and I was trying to make it through pushing a stroller and got stuck! We later found out that there were normal doors on each side of the swirly door... haha oops!

Friday night was rather uneventful. We had gotten there a little late and it was past Gabriel's bed time so I stayed in the room with Gabriel while Josh went to get some sandwiches for dinner. Talking about the room, it was fantastic! Oh my... I have never been in a hotel so nice! It had an upstairs in it, even though there wasn't really anything on the top part, a full equipped kitchen with everything you would need, you could separate the bedroom and the living room with sliding doors and it had a pretty fun view of the streets! It was awesome! Anyway, back to Friday night. I made a bed for Gabriel on the floor and put Gabriel down to sleep. About and hour after Josh and I went to bed Gabriel decided to wake up which was the beginning to a very long night! He did not want to sleep on the floor, every time we put him in his bed he would cry, so he slept between Josh and I in our bed. We are not used to sleeping with a baby between us and Gabriel was not used to it either so we all kept waking up! Every time Gabriel was slightly awake he got all excited that he was next to Mommy and wanted to nurse and every time Josh or I had to roll over or move we woke up so that we didn't do anything to wake up Gabriel! It was not a very fun night! We got smarter the next night though and requested a crib! In the morning we went to the hotels complimentary breakfast. We again felt like idiots as we were still very tired and I'm sure we didn't look very great and everybody else was in suits or at least fancy casual clothes! Afterwards Gabriel went down for a nap which was 3 hours! I wasn't surprised considering our night of sleep but we eventually had to wake him up, otherwise I have no idea how long he would have actually slept for. 

I had a fun experience in the bathroom though. Our hotel bathroom toilet was very fancy and had a lot of cool buttons. Well, being nosy like I am, I thought I would try them. I found out that you actually had to be sitting on the toilet for any of the buttons to work. So, one time I was going to the potty and thought "hey, I wonder what this button does" so I pressed it. Immediately after I pushed the button I heard buzzing and I immediately had second thoughts so I jumped up thinking that the pressure sensor would turn off and whatever was about to happen would not happen. Soooo not the case! I happened to press the button that makes this little thing come out and is meant to squirt water at your booty to clean it. Though I can say that I am very glad I was not sitting there to experience this "cleansing", I was not very happy that the water came shooting straight up getting all over the bathroom and myself! The water literally was spraying all over the walls and I was screaming in the bathroom trying to stop it, my husband was sitting in the living room laughing after he heard my screams because he figured out what had probably happened. So yes, on my anniversary weekend I got sprayed with toilet water... lovely!

We all made our way out to go shopping. We took the subway this time instead of a taxi which was a lot cheaper and faster but very cramped! In the first subway car that we were in we were shoulder to shoulder with people and it was hot and miserable! All the other ones after that weren't so bad, which we were very thankful for! We went to a little market called Itaewon (if you recall this is the place we meant to go to when we lost Josh's wallet) and had a lot of fun looking at all the things! I found cutest dress there which I was very excited about! 

After Itaewon we made our way to Insadong (the place we ended up going to last time when we did lose Josh's wallet). Josh let me get the really fabulous purse that I wanted to get on our previous trip and I got it for a cheaper price then previously thought and she gave me this really cute free tassel that you can hook on any bag to give it a little flare:) As we were shopping there we saw some people drawing those funny cartoon like pictures of whoever wanted to have it done, so we decided to get Gabriel's picture done. Gabriel was very tired at that point so he just kind of sat there. It was really cute because if the artist wanted him to look sideways Gabriel would look straight and if the artist wanted to look at his face straight on Gabriel would turn his face sideways and he would never smile for the guy! He was being stubborn:) Gabriel also became a celebrity in the 30 minutes that we were sitting there. See Korean people love Gabriel! Everybody always wants to stop us so they can talk to him and touch his chubby cheeks! Well since we were just sitting there in the open street it was kind of like a free show for everybody and at any given time we probably had anywhere from 30-50 people sitting there watching us and the artist draw his picture. Every time Gabriel would smile you would hear the crowd go "awww" and if the artist was trying to get Gabriel to look one way and he was not cooperating you would get everybody laughing. Then when we were done with the picture and I stood up with Gabriel we got swarmed by all the Koreans that had been watching us so they could shake Gabriel's little hands and touch his chubby cheeks!

We finally made our way home after walking around all day. See I figured out why all Korean people are skinny... at least if they live in Seoul. You walk a lot to get places which isn't so bad but if you take the subway (which everybody does) you seriously can walk up and down 7 flights of stairs to get on just one subway, which you then have to repeat every time you switch subway lines or surface to go shopping... I never knew that the subway was that far underground before! It really wouldn't have been so bad but we had a stroller which we had to fold up and carry up and down all those steps and also carry Gabriel who liked to squirm and flop around! Though what I still don't understand is how all the girls do it in 4 inch heals... ouch! I can't even wear heals for an hour without my feet hurting!

On Sunday we relaxed in our hotel room and then checked out of the hotel at noon and made out way back to the train station so we could go home. Now on Tuesday is our actual anniversary and I can't believe that we have been married two years already! They have been wonderful and crazy and I'm excited to see what this next year will bring!