To market, to market, to buy a ...

Saturday - free time today. With Brendan leading the charge (directing us through the subway), we all set off on an adventure around Seoul. Firstly we headed off to City Hall, past the palace, and posed for a photo with the local motorbike police squad who were doing some kind of peaceful demonstration for the Save the Children Fund. The boys (big and little) enjoyed looking at their police issue Harley Davidson motorbikes.
Then it was off for a walk along Cheongyecheon Stream (a beautiful long river that has been built right through the city, where once was covered by freeway). The kids had a ball frollicking along beside the water, jumping across on the many stepping stones.

Lily, Lette and Trixie are now the best of friends, and have spent the whole day walking around together holding hands and giggling away as only girls can.

Then it was off to one of all of our favorite places - Insadong. Insadong (for those who haven't been there) is full of lovely arts and crafts, paintings, beautiful clothes, calligraphy & paper shops, tea houses, souvineers, and all sorts of street vendors. We all fell in love with the large round deep fried donut type breads, filled with a sticky honey and roasted peanut centre - yummo!

The mums all had a great time visiting lots and lots of shops, and we bought the girls matching long sleeve tshirts with korean hangul lettering - our bargain of the day! Beautiful quality clothing - with a tshirt each thrown in for free. (we love that upstairs plaza!).

Next it was off to Dongdaemun Market - a maze of hidden shops and stalls spread over many city blocks. We had a great lunch in a traditional (sit on the floor on cushions) restaurant, and had bulgogi soup - delicious. Our drama of the day was when poor Trixie locked herself in the toilet and all the tough dads were figuring out who would kick the door in (when the owner saved the day by producing a key!).

We weaved our way in and out of the markets, buying random things like swimming goggles, hats, socks, umbrellas, and a myriad of other things.

Doota department store was next - an upmarket huge, multi level store filled with gorgeous children's clothes, as well as some very strange, typical Korean over the top outfits.

Our last stop for the day was Itaewon - a foreigners tourist market, where we headed for some western food (Outback Steakhouse). The girls, of course, couldn't resist revisiting our old haunts (like Pony Jewellry  - which is now called Joy), trying on rings, and trying to find that special Korean item to bring home.

Our children were very well behaved today, and we walked them miles all over the city, up and down stairs, in and out of trains, through crowded markets and department stores, and they all had a great time playing together. Stay tuned - tomorrow we catch a plane to Jeju Island and meet up with our fellow travellers.