Seoul - Day 12

Our day started with a trek up Nam-san ("South Mountain") where we aimed to climb the hill to the N Seoul Tower. 1,200 meters away.  It rises 236 meters (774 feet) in the air.  Completed in 1975 for television broadcasting, The Seoul Tower is still a communication as well as observation tower today.  A second transmission tower is what you see to the right.

As we continued along our ascent, you couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the Cherry Blossoms.  They were everywhere and on a beautiful day in Seoul, I was in photography heaven! 
 

Now we're talking! I finally am able to see this grand city from above.  Many people actually choose to go up Nam-san to the Seoul Tower. via cable car.  We actually tried to go back that way but the line was lengthy.

And here's the view at the top of the climb to the tower.  Of course, we couldn't have gone this far without paying the obligatory fee to ride the elevator to the very top.  We waited in a few queues for the observatory elevator, but once aboard, it claimed to be one of the fastest elevators in the world racing 787ft per minute.  And now some views from above...

For the evening entertainment, we decided to catch a baseball game since it was supposedly quite the experience.  Prior to going up the Seoul Tower, we actually went down to the Jamsil Baseball Stadium to pick up some tickets in case the game were to sell out.  However, when we got off the Metro, we noticed there were lines and lines of people so we weren't really sure what was going on.  We thought maybe these were lines to get in, but that seemed a bit ridiculous especially since game time was another 4 hours or so.  

Thus, we decided to scalp some really cheap seats and call it a day.  

Jamsil is home to both Doosan Bears and the LG Twins; however, tonight's game was the LG Twins versus the Kia Tigers.

On the second trip back to Jamsil, we passed the Olympic Park.  

It took us awhile to figure out where our seats were, but once we settled in, the entertainment was non-stop.  There were the infamous thunder sticks making a whole lot of noise for both teams.  There was also just a lot of people that were really into the game.  They hardly left their seats because most of them have been around the stadium for awhile now bringing in their own food and drinks. They literally carried in 24 packs of beer.

Not only were there thunder sticks but there were cheerleaders, what seemed to be a head cheerleader or ring leader, and even coordinated chants for each player that stepped up to bat.  There was always the default cheer that went something like "We want a home run"!

On our way back for some later dinner, we strategically passed the Dongdae-mun Gate ("Great East Gate") officially named Heunginjimun ("Gate of Flourishing Benevolence") was built in 1397, and reconstructed in 1869.  Nine gates punctuate the Seoul City Walls (built as a defensive perimeter surrounding the city) including a main gate located in each of the 4 cardinal districts, while four secondary gates were place amongst them.  The last gate was a water gate.


More pictures located here.  A map of our trip located here.