Shopping Saturday

Since we changed our hotel arrangements to stay at the Hilton until Monday, we didn't have to pack up and leave today.  We were trying to figure out the best use of our time since we had all day.  We thought about making the trip to the Korean Folk Village about an hour away or the Seoul City Bus tour.  Early in the morning, I took the subway down to the Han River to meet up with the Seoul Flyers running club for a 10k run along the Han River.  I met a bunch of nice people and ran with a guy from England named Matt and a American named Peter.

After I got back from my run, we still hadn't decided exactly what we were going to do.  The weather was pretty cold, so a full day of outdoor touring at the folk village didn't sound fun, so we decided to do a little shopping.  Namdaemun market, dating back to1414, is a five minute walk from the hotel, so we decided to go there and see what we could find.  There was a Starbucks, a bit more recent than Namdaemun on the way, so it took a little longer.

Starbucks near Namdaemun

We've shopped at Namdaemun  previously and even gotten a few deals, but today we weren't having a ton of luck with good deals.  The kids found some items they liked and ended up buying.  Ian got a pair of angry birds earmuffs.  Ben got a bomber hat.  Cami and Dana got scarves.  Even though we dressed in layers, the cold weather was chilling us to the bone.  We went to the underground market at Namdaemun for a bit to warm up, but then Ian fell asleep and we quickly decided to head back to the hotel.

Some earmuffs Cami didn't buy at Namdaemun

Ian with his Angry Birds earmuffs

Dunkin' Donuts Korean Style

Ian woke up as we got back to the hotel so we decided to catch the shuttle to Itaewon so I could pick up my suit, but we missed the shuttle by a few minutes and didn't want to wait around another hour.  So we headed over to Seoul Station to check out the Lotte Department store.  On the way, we stopped at a vendor selling hats and mittens and both Dana and Cami found cute winter hats at a better price than the vendors at Namdaemun.  Then we got sidetracked by a Dunkin' Donuts and since we've been telling the kids we would stop sometime while we were in Korea, we figured this would be a good time.  Finally, we made our way over to Lotte and shopped like a Korean, which is pretty similar to shopping like an American except there are different products with Koran labels.  We didn't really buy that much, but we picked up some teas, a few snacks, a Pororo spoon and chopsticks set for Alex, and a Pororo car set for Alex that Ian is testing to make sure it works ok for him.

After Lotte shopping, we took the subway to Itaewon.  My suit was finished and fit great, but they had misspelled my name in the embroidery on the inside of the suit, so they said it would take another day to fix that.  At Manchester International, the place where I purchases the suit, Ben found a hanbok he liked and Dana got a Korea t-shirt.  Then Cami and Dana went back to a purse place they had visited previously and bought matching purses.

Cami and Dana with their matching purses, new scarves, and cute hats!

Ben and Cami with new hats.

We took the hotel shuttle back from Itaewon and the kids and I headed to the pool.  The pool has been one of their favorite activities of the trip and they'll miss it once we move out of the Hilton.  They are disappointed when a day passes where they aren't in the pool.

Even with most of our shopping done, there's still a Lotte to do.  We're planning to head to Lotte World, an indoor/outdoor theme park kind of like Mall of America/Disneyland tomorrow.  Stayed tuned ...