The only pre-booked day activity for the whole trip was a tour of the Demilitarized Zone. If somehow you missed the incredibly exhaustive and detailed lessons about the 20th century history of the Korean peninsula taught in the US education system, here is a primer:
In the early 20th century when Japan was hurrying to catch up to the West in empire building, they started dicking with Korean politics in the late 19th century, including a coup, and a royal assassination (they clearly had read some of US/Britain's notes here) Culminating in full annexation in 1910. Japan now had a foothold on the Asian mainland to invade China, which obviously became imnportant to their latter efforts. Anyways, what we called WWI happens (which I have written about before so go read that) and at the end of it the Japanese also told the League of Nations to stuff it, and didnt let their subject peoples self determine and the League of Nations barely sent a strongly worded letter because the Japanese Empire was one of the good guys during that war, and a bunch of other reasons, but I am rabbitholing here, go read about the failings of that globalist liberal organization.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule)
Anyways, Japan held Korea through WWII, and when the Empire of Japan was dismantled, the Korean peninsula was controlled by the Allies for reconstruction. In classic post-war dick measuring the peninsula was cut in half at the 38th parallel with the Soviets occupying the North and Americans Occupying the South. Both sides established their own governments, conviniently modelled after the forces that occupied theior respective sides of the lines. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea#:~:text=The%20Division%20of%20Korea%20began%20at%20the%20end,between%20their%20zones%20being%20the%2038th%20parallel%20.)
In June of 1950 North Korea with Chinese and Soviet support invaded the South, and eventually pushed them all the way down the peninsula to the Busan region, the UN, in its first major act assisted the South Koreans, with mostly US support to push the North Koreans back up the peninsula basically up to the Chinese border, at which time the Chinese got more directly invovled, sending their own uniformed soldiers in, and pushing the UN and South Korean forces back South to essentially where the border is today, which is basically where it was before the war in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War
The War is still technically not done, the cessation of major hostilities was established by a ceasefire that holds to this day. The DMZ has become a bit of a tourist attraction now with robust infrastructure to support peoples learning of the conflict and history of the peninsula.
Our tour bus picked us up from a Subway station nearby at 0720, which was good because our internal clocks were all messed up from flights and time change, so it forced us onto a normal timetable for the region. After about an hour we got to the Peace Park which is in the Civilian control section of the DMZ which is just south of the South Korean half of the Military Demarcation Line, so technically not in the DMZ, this park includes a Gondola ride that takes you over the Imjin river
to an observatory where you can see across the DMZ and a slice of North Korea
We then went to the modern built up observatory with binoculars and cool cameras to see North Korea. North Korea, a land few Americans have approached in 75 years can be seen a few hundred meters behind us here us here.
The bus returned us to the city, and we immediately set of for Gwangjang Market (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangjang_Market) which is just as bustling and lively as all of the travel shows make it out to be.
The broth was very light, but the dried seaweed sprinkled on top lent a very briney flavor that wasnt to my taste, and dumplings were good, and if I didnt have social pressures to be writing a travel blog, I dont think there was much to write home about.
We also ate at an alledegly Michelin recommended Yukhoe spot (https://guide.michelin.com/en/seoul-capital-area/kr-seoul/restaurant/buchon-yukhoe).
Yukhoe is raw beef, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukhoe) this particular version was tossed in a sesame oil, and served with some dipping sauces, we also tried makgeoli here, which is an unfilited fermented rice drink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli) all of it was excellent, and I would highly recommend checking the spot out.
after this we went to try out the mung bean pancakes. We got snagged by aggressive marketing and sat down to try them
This particulay example was a little greasy, and after soup, dumplings and a plate a raw beef we got through about half of each pancake.
after that toddled home, through what appeared to be the gold/jewelry district to get our wits about us before heading out to get some Chimak.
we went to a BHC chicken spot, and there happened to be a World Cup Qualifier match between South Korea and Singapore, and Korea dominated at 5-0, and the place was having a blast. I only got a picture of the Curry Queen boneless wings, where were super crispy and tossed in a massala that made it super unique.
For some reason this large national chain had a problem with both our travel credit cards, so I had to leave laura as collateral to find a high-fee ATM in the bar district for cash.
We made it home 2200ish, I wrote the blog post for the day prior and crashed watching Korean QVC.
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