Our week in Seoul - By Ruby

For the first part of our time in Korea we stayed in Seoul, the capitol. The city was amazing with lots of tall towers and lights. We stayed in Seoul for one week and had a really great time there. 

On our first day we walked around the city. There were lots of street performers dancing in groups or by themselves. They weren't busking for money either, just putting on a show for people to watch. There were also lots of stores selling cute trinkets along the street. That night we had just come from the airport and were pretty jet lagged so we didn’t do much else than just walk around. 

In Seoul there were three main activities that I did. We went on a tour with two university students, we got dressed up and went to a palace and me and my dad went to the DMZ. 

The DMZ stands for the Demilitarized Zone, which means that in that area, there is no military. The DMZ marks the border between North and South Korea. It was Established after the Korean war, which started in 1950. Me and my dad left in the morning to meet up with a tour group, then we drove for half an hour to get to the DMZ. On our tour we would get driven around in a bus and dropped of at different stops. We would stay there for a certain amount of time and then drive to our next one. We stopped at viewpoints with binoculars and monuments for the war. 

Next we had a tour around Seoul. Some university students showed us around and took us to different places. First we went to a Korean market where people were selling all sorts of unique foods. Then we went to a shop that sold traditional desserts. I had never seen anything like them before! All around Seoul we had been seeing photo booths so when we all found another one (Which wasn’t hard) we decided to get some photos with our guides. The photos turned out super cute! Next we went to some shops where we did some shopping. We all got some cute trinkets. Then we went to a restaurant where we would cook our own food. The staff would bring out the meat and vegetables of our choice and then we would cook them ourselves on the table. I had never done anything like this before so it was a really unique experience. 

The next day we went to a hanbok store, where me and my sisters got dressed for some photos. We got dressed up in traditional outfits and went to a palace. Getting dressed up like this is actually a very popular activity to do! We all had a really great time getting photos. There were lots of great spots to get them. 

I had a really great time in Seoul, we did lots of fun activities and a different mix of them too. I really liked getting dressed up in the traditional outfits! Korea is a great country and I hope to come back one day.