I decided to start my vacation week off with a sightseeing trip to Seoul National Cemetery on Monday. This is where many of the Korean soldiers have been buried, as well as the ashes of thousands of unknown soldiers from the Korean war and three past presidents. It's quite a beautiful place, kind of tucked away from the city noise with a lot of greenery. Unfortunately, my trip on Monday was very poorly planned. When I arrived in the morning my phone already said that it felt like 108 degrees outside and there was 80% humidity. The cemetery is on a hill so to see it you must hike up and down the hill all the way through. There are very few shade-producing trees. Let's just say it was hot. Really, really hot. I walked around for almost two hours and was completely drenched in sweat by then. I was really interested in seeing the tomb of former president Park Chung Hee but it was a little hard to find and after a while I couldn't walk up and down anymore steep hills so I left. I would like to go back again but I will definitely be waiting until late fall or winter. So needless to say any other day trips I had planned to take this week are off and I have been sitting at home for the most part with the fan or a/c or both- reading, crocheting, watching TV and being a housewife! We are very ready for our last summer in Korea to be over- even if that means winter is just around the corner.
This memorial altar is dedicated to all of the foreign countries who helped liberate Korea from Japanese rule.
The tomb of South Korea's first president Yi Seung Man (1948-1960) and his wife, first lady Francesca Donner. (I was quite surprised to find a president from that long ago had a foreign wife when even today it seems Koreans have a hard time accepting inter-racial marriages but that's another story.)
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