Tricky Times

Day three in Seoul started at the Trick Eye Museum. The Trick Eye Museum is not filled with artifacts, science, masterpieces, or even anything unique to Korea. The Trick Eye Museum is where one goes to fulfill a most basic desire: taking pictures of yourself.

Handstand!

My favorite picture of the day!

Okay, so I wasn't the only subject of the photos.  Sometimes the pictures featured Heather . . . and myself.

Admission to the Trick Eye Museum included admission to other nearby attractions, including an ice museum (a large freezer filled with ice sculptures).  A large freezer might be nice in the middle of the summer but because the temperature dropped quite a bit the night before, the freezer wasn't exactly refreshing.  Still, we took a few minutes to look around.

Santa, a staple in cold environments.

When it's cold out, I prefer something like this.

After an exhausting day of photographing ourselves, Heather and I sat down to rest awhile at a nearby Hello Kitty Cafe.  No trip to Asia would be complete without visiting someplace immersed in Hello Kitty.

In the evening, Heather indulged my desire to see the Han River up close.  We took a taxi to the river to watch the Banpo Bridge rainbow water fountain show (that's really what the show is called).  I liked looking at the city from the warm taxi. Normally, travel took place underground and this was the view:

Everyone was on their smart phone, all the time, even in the presence of a live salesman or a group of foreigners:

He's selling dusters with a telescoping handle.

The taxi driver took us across the Banpo Bridge to a park recommended for viewing the rainbow water fountain show.  By this time, it was around 6:30 pm, the sun was setting, and it was bitterly cold outside.  Not only was the temperature dropping into the twenties, but the wind had picked up considerably and the park was almost empty, except for the occasional insane jogger or biker.  Heather and I were very reluctant to let our taxi driver drive leave us; we had no idea how to get back to the nearest subway station and we knew taxis were unlikely to drive by the empty park after dark.  After a few minutes of coaxing, however, we finally exited the taxi and headed for the riverside.  We even managed to look happy and warm for a few seconds.

We look warm...

Banpo Bridge behind me, and N Seoul Tower in the distance.

Heather and I lasted less than five minutes by the water before we headed for a minimart a few hundred feet away.  The water show would not start for another hour and it was too cold to wait outside.  I was so relieved that the minimart had a warm, second story "cafe" area where we could wait.  Inside we found a couple from Japan who had also come to watch the water show.   As we sat down with hot tea, I felt a small amount of pride in thinking that I was about to experience something so intimate and private in such a dense city.  In hindsight, the fact that only four people had arrived to watch the show should have been a huge indicator that the water show was not going to happen.  I was not so intuitive, however, and after diligently waiting until the scheduled start time of 7:30, we learned that the rainbow water fountain show does not run in the winter.  Luckily, the Japanese couple knew the way to the nearest subway station, which would take us to our warm apartment, so I really wasn't very disappointed at all.  It was just too cold for a girl who lives in warm south Texas.