The Girls In Seoul - A Korean Bus Driver's Nightmare

Wow, what a great weekend! Eight ladies left the kids with their awesome husbands and spent the weekend shopping in Seoul. We rode the bus up on Friday and ate, shopped, talked and shopped some more. The only thing that could have made the trip better is if Eun Young had joined us!!!! Maybe next time.

The bus ride was an experience in itself. I didn't think we were loud but the bus driver was not very happy with us. Evidently, your supposed to be quiet or sleep on a Korean bus. Since we weren't driving we thought refreshments would be nice so we brought along a couple of bottles of wine. Now, don't get the wrong idea we didn't get smashed. Two bottles among eight people would hardly do the job. Seoul is 4 hours from Sacheon and the bus stopped at a rest area 2 hours into the trip. Everyone gets off to use the facilities, grab snacks and stretch their legs. Our group was standing outside the bus when the driver came over pointed at us aggresively and made the shhh and sleep gestures. Corrine looked at him and said no, no!! We had violated an unwritten cultural code and he was not happy. We laughed amongst ourselves but did try to quiet down a bit.

The view of Seoul from the 13 floor of the Millenium Hilton

Aren't these gorgeous!! I would like to buy one of these the next time I'm in Seoul.

A drawing of kimchi pots.

A sign for a hat store. We call this Konglish and you see it everywhere. Signs, clothes, etc. where the english isn't quite right.. It's amazing what gets lost in translation. We even see adult women walking around with shirts that have the "F" word written over the pocket like it's a brand name.

This is on my list too! I want two of these for my house in the states.

I did purchase several lanterns but they are smaller than these which were priced at 40 to 50,000 won a piece.

Traditional Korean Pillow! Can you imagine sleeping on this all night.

The Hanbok - traditional Korean dress

A rice mold used to make korean sweet rice cakes
I think these would look nice as wall hangings in the kitchen.

traditional korean vases. I did buy a set of these but it's not this set. I'll always treasure these because Hang and Pam worked so hard to negotiate a good price for me. They wore the sales lady out. These two were doing a routine talking about the prices at other stores, how much the extra baggage charge at the airport (we rode the bus) would cost me and a dozen reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea for me to buy them, especially at this price. They worked $90.00 of the price and I took them home.

Korean people made by hand with hanji paper

You see these hanging outside of shops and I think it is a symbol of good luck

Handpainted silk fan.

A beautiful lotus blossom. I will miss seeing these flowers when we return home.

Dinner and drinks before heading to Namdaemun for the evening.

Jars of ginseng.

A black market store selling American food products.

Sophie bought Kimchi Chocolate for us to try. It wasn't that bad if you like red pepper with your chocolate.

As you can see, we really enjoyed ourselves. We were so worn out we barely made a peep on the bus ride home.