Sunday in Seoul - Korean Folk Village, Hitting the Mall

On Sunday, Mike, Ilena and Lauren trained down to the south part of Seoul to meet up with the Lee Family (and Jacob, who had his first successful sleepover!). On the agenda for the day was Korean Folk Village, a Korean version of Colonial Williamsberg (i.e., see how people used to live, work, and play in olden times) set on a beautiful sprawling property that also includes a cool performances, horse back riding, swings and games, a big old-style Korean market, and a just-perfect-size-for-kids amusement park.

Afterwards, on our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the more modern Samseong-dong, south of the Han River, to check out the famous mega-malls, like COEX and Hyundai, and to grab some food. The Asian mall complexes are simply beyond belief. Their scale put American malls and shopping to shame. It is total shopping and sensory overload. (And remember, this is coming from people who live in New Jersey; we know a thing or two about malls!). For dinner and drinks, we hit "O'Kims Brauhaus," a spacious microbrewery in the mall, with really nice beer and free help-yourself refills of popcorn (which kept the kids busy). Dinner was an electic mix of cuisines, including German sausages, Thai salad, Japanese tonkatsu, and Korean kimchi chigae. Afterwards, we walked through a beautiful outdoor flower show display that included huge sculptures that the kids could play on.

After a merry car ride back to our hotel, during which almost all of the Soundtracks to both The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins were sung by the back seat with gusto, we said a very tearful goodbye to our great friends.