d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 10 (2005-08-05) / Day 11 (2005-08-06) / Day 12 (2005-08-07) 
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Day 11: 2005-08-06 (Saturday)
I decided to visit Namsan (Seoul) Tower after lunch. I was unaware of public transport options to get there, so I took the subway to the closest station, which was Myeong-dong (424) and began walking in the general direction. I had my map book with me, so I wasn’t completely lost! I found my way up the road leading to the summit, and after a long climb, I eventually reached the tower. There were many people there, but the tower itself was closed for renovations, so I was unable to go in. I took some photos of Seoul from the top before walking down the other side of the mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, there was a statue of Paikbum Kim Koo (백범 김구), a famous Korean political figure who had died about 60 years ago. He had been actively promoting the unification of North and South Korea immediately after World War II, but was unsuccessful in achieving this.
I wandered in the direction of Seoul station and found it without much trouble. I needed to buy my ticket to Daegu, so I was looking for an ATM to get some money from my Australian bank account. The only ATM I found at Seoul Station would only let me withdraw from a credit card, so I had to go somewhere else. I took the subway to Dong-daemun and began hunting for another ATM. I tried about 5 or 6 locations as I wandered around. Eventually, I found myself in Eul-jiro 3, and I found a machine which accepted my card and would let me withdraw from savings. But there was a problem – the ‘0’ key did not work, so I was unable to enter my PIN, which contains a zero. The search for yet another ATM continued only a little longer; I found a similar machine not far away in perfect working order, so I withdrew W250K.
Now that I was cashed up, I returned to Seoul Station to buy the ticket to Daegu. As I came out of the subway at Seoul, I could not avoid noticing a huge plasma screen overlooking the forecourt showing advertisements. The screen was affixed to the side of a building and must have been at least 30 metres wide and 10 metres high – it covered about four storeys of the building. It was simply the biggest screen I had ever seen! I used my camera to record some of the advertisements, most of which were for KR (Korea Rail) or mobile phone companies.
I went inside, paid W34,900 for a KTX ticket to Daegu on 2005-08-09, then I returned to the guest house and paid them W60K for four nights. This time, I didn’t get lost going back to the guest house!
Day 10 (2005-08-05) / Day 11 (2005-08-06) / Day 12 (2005-08-07)
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