Our last two days passed by too quickly…it was almost time to say goodbye!
Friday was a national holiday, so our DMZ tour was going to have to wait until Saturday. We used this day to finish up on our shopping during the day, go to the war museum, and prepared ourselves for the Trickeye Museum in the evening.
I was a little hesitant on the war museum as we’ve done a lot of museums already, but I was really glad we went. It was a well-done tribute to the lives lost in the war, and continued to show how much the war still kept families apart.
After getting lost on our way back to the station and getting bubble tea, we headed out to the trickeye museum, eager to pose by the sometimes tacky, sometimes campy tromp l’oeils.
The ticket into the trickeye museum came with a bonus ticket to the ice museum. I learned that the term museum applies very loosely when it comes to things in South Korea…
The locals shivered through covered in windbreakers that looked like cutting capes from a hair salon, but we were very much in our natural environment.
After shivering in a giant freezer, it was time for trickeye!
On our final day, we went on a tour of the DMZ.
We had wanted a tour of Panmunjom, but due to the flakiness of the tour agencies we were working with, and some hostilities between the north and south over balloons, we weren’t able to go up to the border directly.
The tour reminded me why I almost never do organized group tours…sort of rushed, and a bit hokey.
There was a group of Japanese tourists on our bus who had a much more informative guide than the English-speaking guide. She pointed out many more points of interest on the drive up, such as the history behind the bridges on the river Han.
The drive became progressively more militarized and we had to stop at a few checkpoints.
It was a bit bizarre – there were many places where you could stop and look across into North Korea. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was so sad that we were on one side, staring across with binoculars, at people who live in a nation that cares very little for their wellbeing.
After our slow return back to Seoul, we packed up and went out for one last night of fun. We got Thai food and did noraebang one last time
Had drinks and then took the next logical step: ate tacos and took pictures with my new selfie stick.
And met up with old friends!
We returned to our hostel after an exciting night out…and prepared for our very long journey home the next day.
See you next time, Seoul!
