The Volkers were here: Seoul tourist-ing with the family :)

A couple of months ago my Family came to visit me in Korea for a whirlwind week of catching up and taking on a slither of Asia together. They arrived just before the Korean holiday Chuseok which gives most people in Korea a nice 3 days off work during this time once a year. My family arrived on a Saturday and spent three days in Seoul where we did all the touristy things we could. It also happened to be brothers birthday during their time in Seoul too! I managed to get the Monday and Tuesday off work and then because of the lovely 3 days off that Chuseok gave us plus the weekend, we were off to Beijing for our first family trip overseas!

The first night they arrived Mom, Dad and Andrew quickly became acquainted with everyone and we took them to Hongdae to introduce them to some delicious Korean barbeque and the potent, cheap as hell soju. The night escalated a little from there, which probably wasn't the greatest idea when we had to wake up at 6 in the morning the next day to go on a DMZ tour. Needless to say we were all cursing the little green devil that is soju the whole of Sunday. Welcome to Korea family!

The DMZ tour was really interesting and a bit eerie in a way. To see such separation with two places that are technically one yet completely opposite in every way, is really hard to wrap your head around. We then wandered around Seoul for a while and made our way down to Ansan to see my humble abode and to show off a bit of Ansan station where we met everyone for Uzbekistan dinner. Our Uzbek dinners have become a pretty regular thing on a Sunday so it was nice to show the fam how our weekends end in our little city. Other touristy things we did included Gyeongbokgung Palace and lunch and shopping in Insadong. I had only ever been past the palace and seen its walls and the gates before. Its situated in the middle of Seoul so its surrounded by high rise buildings and tons of modern architecture. Being inside the palace gave you a completely different perspective, you forget that you're in the middle of a bustling city for a bit and get taken in by the peaceful quietness of it all. We also went up Namsan tower or Seoul tower as its sometimes known. We made our way up on one of the last cable cars of the day so we could see the lights of Seoul in full effect. I realised very quickly after arriving in Korea that Seoul is a lot bigger than I had originally thought but seeing it from up high like that and seeing how far the lights stretched it made me realise that its even bigger than that. Crazy big really. It was great travelling around Seoul doing all the touristy things I hadn't ever done before and even better to experience them with the fam :)