Walking the Cheonggye stream

We started exploring Seoul today. We decided to walk the Cheonggye Stream. A few years ago this stream was cleaned and sidewalks and landscaping were added to the 6 km long stream. It was a huge renovation project and it is enjoyed by many people. We passed and came upon many families, children and young people on our trek. Along the way we saw a huge display along a wall of handpainted tiles that were a copy of a historical picture of a long ago royal procession of a queen and her son going to visit the grandfathers burial place. I didn't get a picture of that (I wish I had!) but I did take a picture of another cool tile display called the "Wall of Hope". This wall of tiles were all hanpainted tiles from 20,000 people showing their hopes and dreams. It was beautiful and interesting to look at. Some tiles showed baby announcements and baby hand & feet prints, some were wedding or anniversary tiles, and some were in honor of loved ones who have gone on to Heaven. There were also a couple places along the stream where you could walk across rocks through the stream to the other side. Fun! On our adventure today we also walked around a huge plaza that was across the street from the US Embassy. It had a big statue of King Sejong. There was also a huge grassy area that had beautiful flowers planted along the perimeter and in each corner. At the end of that grassy knoll was an unusual, but neat looking, building that we think was the Gwanghwamun Gate.

Along our stream hike we stopped at the Kwangjang Market and ate some of their food for lunch. There were tons of booths with food cooked in the middle and little benches all around them for sitting and eating. The food was delicious and cheap. You can see some of the food in the picture. We chose to have seaweed wrapped sushi. The sushi had red and yellow peppers and some type of very mild sausage wrapped in rice and then seaweed. It was actually really good. While sitting and eating the guy next to me took it upon himself to greet us and talk with us and help us. He really enjoyed that. At this market there were also a lot of hanboks on the street and there was an upstairs that had hundreds of booths with bolts of silk and patterns you could choose to have a hanbok made to fit you. It was beautiful -- like looking at a rainbow with all the different colored bolts of silk and hanboks on display. Those were very good quality and very expensive. Down on the street the prepackaged hanboks were much cheaper and I did a little bartering to get an excellent price on a hanbok for Henry and one for a friend of mine. Brent was impressed that even though the ladies didn't speak more than 5 words of English I was able to use a calculator to bring them down to the price I wanted to pay.

After all that walking and exploring today we found that during supper we hit a brick wall. Tiredness just suddenly overtook us. I was a bit revived by supper, but Brent is currently sound asleep on the couch. He wanted to watch TV and stay up a little longer so he could get on Seoul time, but he didn't quite make it. I hope he gets well rested so that he's ready for our next adventure tomorrow!