Saturday was a long day

So yesterday we started our long day by heading out to Namsan Tower. We rode a bus to the top of the mountain and then had to walk a short distance on a very steep slope (like 40 degree incline) to get to the tower itself. As seen in many kdramas, including the recent "My Love From Another Star", we wanted to lock a lock to the balcony of the tower and throw away the key. So we purchased a lock from a small store in the tower that sold almost nothing but the locks. They also kindly give you a nice pen for writing on the lock. We wrote our initials and the date on the lock and then locked it to the railing (actually all of the railing space had long been taken so we locked it to a lock that was locked to another lock etc etc to one that was locked to the railing). Can you find it in the second picture? Then we threw away the key in the little box they have for that.

When we came back down from the mountain we were already pretty tired from all the heat so we stopped to refresh ourselves with patbingsu - shaved ice. This one had mochi and this powdery stuff that people normally put on rice cakes. I'm not sure what it's made from but when it's in your mouth it had a similar feel/taste to peanut butter in powder form. Super delicious! Especially when you pour the liquid over it (I think it's sweetened condensed milk).

After our nice break we went to the royal palace and walked around for an hour or so. It was so hot I can't imagine how the employees there were wearing hanboks and full guard uniforms. Sorry there's only one picture, I used mostly my dSLR to take nicer shots of the palace.

We then took a long subway ride over to the other side of the Han river where we met my mother-in-law's friend who treated us to a big dinner. Dinner included a cold platter with duck and scallops and jellyfish, "Korean kung pao chicken" (there is a Korean name but this is probably the best way to describe it), jjajangmyun (noodles with black bean sauce), and jjambbong (seafood noodle soup).

Then our family friend kindly drove us to Costco (I just wanted to see it!) and this huge mall. More on those later.