Trip Recap

Well, the trips over and we are back at home. Car was still there, house was still here, no hail damage, and I get to watch lost again in HD after downloading it on itunes overseas. Trying to stay awake until a later tonight and fight the jetlag a little bit. The last hour of the flight today felt like it took forever.

Let's see, when I get asked tomorrow what I liked about the trip here will probably be the top things.

- Meeting the family - obviously this was kind of the intent of the trip, but I was glad it turned out so well. We got some more stuff of their mom and dad's from their cousin today, but the suitcase is locked and we don't have the code. We have pictures though, and it was very nice of the cousin to give them to us.
- Taiwan was a whirlwind, but it was a lot of fun. We saw a lot in 5 days! Highlights would be Taroko gorge and the great scenery there, all of the temples were very cool, and Taipei 101 was great because you could go outside and view the city. We were also very well fed in Taiwan, which I was not expecting.
- I really liked climbing the mountain in Seoul and all of the stops along the way. Why they have workout stations on a mountain is beyond me, but it's awesome to be able to go someplace in a huge city that is so peaceful and scenic.
- The Dr. Fish cafe was a cool experience. One, because Laura and Steph were so freaked out by the fish cleaning the feet and two I thought it felt pretty cool.
- The downtime in Seoul was also nice, a lot of time to just sit around and relax, read a little bit, watch some Dexter on the computer and just chill.

Well that's about it. Back to normal life of work, twins, school, video games, movies, and looking forward to the next trip. I hope this was helpful for everyone, I know it should help me remember some stuff.

Later,
Matt

Last Day in Seoul

Yesterday was one of the better days on the trip. We got up kind of slowly and then went and climbed the mountain in the middle of Seoul. Lots of tourist pictures on the way up, but it was a long climb. At the top you could see an arial view of the city from the tower.

The girls wanted to take a taxi, but thankfully I advised we should walk up. We would have missed everything otherwise. I think Laura's going to want to start taking a taxi from work to our bus stop after seeing how easy it is in Korea.

We ate at one last korean restaurant and then headed back.

This morning we left at 7:30 for the subway. We should have left at 5. The subway took 2 hours to get there and it was slower than the buses on the street. It's ridiculous, trains are supposed to go fast. So for a 11:00 flight we got there at 9:45. Plenty of time. If you ever leave Seoul, take a taxi or bus.

I'll recap the trip tomorrow.

Random Thoughts

We are not really doing anything today since we are helping Steph move into her apartment. The previous owners did not clean the place, and it's really dirty. So Steph and Laura are busy cleaning, I argued that three people cleaning would just cause us to get in each others way, so I've just ran some errands when they needed them. So what follows are just some random thoughts of mine, so unless you are really bored no need to read on.

- There are a ton of people in Taiwan and Korea. No matter where we go in Korea there are thousands of people walking around. It's like having 1000 Minneapolis sized areas right next to each other.

- This causes there to be thousands of little retail shops and I have no idea how they all survive. Food, clothes, shoes, bags, watches, jewelry on every street corner.

- Kids go to school too much here. A lot of them go from 7 AM to 10 or 11 at night for school. Getting to a university is really important, but it seems like it comes at the expense of being a kid as well

- Those restaurants where you sit on the floor are crazy. We ate at one last night and let's just say I don't quite fit.

- On the other hand, public transportation is excellent here. You can get anywhere you want for like $2 bucks.

- You know that point of the trip when your ready to go back, I'm there. Not sure if Laura is. I'm at the point where I'm not even really interested in going sightseeing other than the Seoul Tower.

- I'm ready for a cheeseburger, some Old Chicago, Andrea's Pizza, my HD TV, video games, recliner, and Twins games.

- We will definetely be back to Korea at some point in the next year hopefully, need to find a good credit card with miles, but we'd like to explore more of the mountains and go to where Laura grew up.

One day left and then the long flight home and work the next day, hopefully I don't fall asleep the first day back, might be a little rough until we get to the weekend