Cheonggyecheon River

Another day, another part of Seoul we have not yet visited. According to what we learned, there was initially a little creek running through what one might consider the actual downtown Seoul. To have more land available for more and more skye scrapers and what not, this stream was dried out and filled up. Not too long after, the people regretted this decision, missing the nice little creek, where one could relax listening to the sound of water and children could play. So they decided to rebuild an artificial creek right in the center of some of the most impressive skye scrapers in Seoul. It starts with a waterfall near an event area and runs for quite some time a little below the surrounding crowded streets offering a little bit of quite in an otherwise busy center, that wasn't quite so busy on Sunday. We also learned that while even Johannes and me as blond and tall Germans don't really impress too many Koreans on the street anymore, there is still something that can: a long red-haired girl. Thanks to this, Sibylle immediately got interviewed by a Korean (student) camera team that was scavenging the area. Surprisingly, the new stardom didn't seem to appeal to her all that much.
Due to the clouds in the sky and out everpresent fear of rain, that cannot be warded off by an umbrella, we decided to have a coffee and cake and head back to Nok-Du afterwards. We again took the Insa-dong subway stop, this time coming from the other direction and passing by another traditional Korean building as well as the amazing Jongno (Samsung) tower, featuring a bar and restaurant on top. We actually had wine and beer up inside the Samsung tower the day before after our shopping frenzy, to complete the blow out of money. A beer there cost 14000 - compare that to between two and three thousand, which you'd be paying in Nok-Du. But therefore you have an amazing view over the city, classy live Jazz music, stylish interior (rather mediocre plastic chairs?!?!), a majestic bathroom with yet another amazing view, very nice looking cakes and the best dressed crowd we've seen so far. We were terribly underdressed and decided to return in appropriate suites in the near future to match the Korean guests and the surroundings. For picture of the view you will have to wait til I get them from Johannes. His camera is way more capable of dealing with darkness than mine.