Everything is uphill in Seoul

Although I read it and Phillip said it, I did not realize the extent to which South Korea is a mountainous country. We've only been in Seoul so far, but I can say that every destination seems to be uphill from one's present position! I don't mind and the workout we get from walking and climbing stairs is good for us. We understand why the obesity rate is 3% in South Korea. Seoul is not crowded with cars like Bangkok, even though many millions of people live here. Walking and the subway seem to be the more popular means of getting from point A to point B than driving.

We returned to Seoul Station yesterday morning and I did "conquer" it before we went on any further adventures. I had compared it to the DC Metro on steroids, but I now need to add a caveat to that comparison: The Metro has escalators at almost every exit. Seoul Station has no escalators at its exits. None. Nada. This is a view up one of the smaller staircases to ground level. We walked around the maze of tunnels and came up at various locations, found the subway line we need to go to class on Sunday, got help from a nice young lady who witnessed me trying to get a new fare card from a reload-only machine (convenience stores sell the new cards), and then rode the subway to another district to experience the loading and unloading process. 

The other district to which we traveled was the Myeongdong shopping district. It was more stores than street vendors, although Phillip did buy me an egg bread - an item I will definitely try to replcate when I get home and will eat more of here. Think sweet cornbread with an egg cooked on top of it. Again I started eating before I remembered the picture! 

We walked back to the Namdaemun area closer to our hotel, a warren of alleys with more street vendors. After lunch, we had a choice of visiting palaces or riding the cable car to the top of the mountain in Namsan Park. We decided on the cable car ride, so we walked back to Myeongdong and found the beginning of the cable car. The line, however, was terribly long to get a ticket and it did not bode well that the facility had a waiting room in addition to a boarding room. We gave up on the cable car rode and crossed the street into Namsan Park. Two park entrances greeted us: a meandering path along the side on the mountain with a gentle incline or the other entrance: steps that seemed to go on forever up the mountain. Yes, the masochists that we are, we chose the steps. 1200 meters uphill to the Seoul Tower at the top. 

It was scenic as it followed the ancient city wall, there were stopping areas for pictures and rest, but it was uphill all the way. I wanted to turn around a few times, but Phillip pointed out the 80-ish year old man who was climbing the mountain also, so I kept going. We made it to the top and could see all of Seoul. We didn't pay to go up into the tower, as the view from the ground near the tower was quite good enough.

This picture was actually taken by a fellow stair-climber at the viewing area about 1/2 way up the mountain. No, I hadn't pushed Phillip over the edge for suggesting we take the stairs instead of the path!

This is one of the views of Seoul from the top, and yes, there is a layer of haze. We walked around to top area, then headed back down the stairs. Fortunately, I had a pedicure before we came on the trip or my toenails would have punched thru the ends of my tennis shoes. I didn't notice it coming up, but going down, it was obvious that each step surface was also sloped up. An incline walk and a stair workout!

We walked back a different route toward our hotel. At one point, we could see our hotel straight across in the distance; however, we couldn't walk that way because we were on the sidewalk of an elevated road. So, more steps down, then up again and up a hill to get to the hotel. Everything is uphill in Seoul!