Seoul Day 2: Cat Cafe and Namsan Tower

 We decided on a slow start for Monday. We let everyone sleep in as long as they wanted. Some slept longer than others. Dan went out to explore somewhere and I went and watched Netflix with Maddie until Mandy was awake. Then we decided to go over to Myeoung-Dong, do some shopping, and find a cat cafe.

On our way to the Myeoung-Dong shopping area, we passed by the combination church and bowling alley which brought Dan amusement every time we walked by it.

We also stopped and took a less sweaty picture with the Seoul sign.

After a little shopping (makeup and jewelry!), we found a cat cafe and got a little snack: CAKE! 

And drinks.

Maddie got a cat treat tube and this guy got at it pretty aggressively. 

When we came in, we were told to change into slippers and put our purses etc. into these plastic bags to put in the little cubbies under the seats.

Good thing, too, cuz this guy peed on Dan's bag.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the cats. This fluffy baby liked to feel tall.

We were all missing our fur babies so this was fun. We even found an Ebony look alike!

Cat Benetar's doppelganger was a little less of a look alike, but she was very sweet. Even rolled onto her back for some belly rubs! 

Look at the little munchkin with the little legs! So precious!

Maddie made a friend with a little kiddo, bonding over cats.

At one point I sat down to pet a cutie pie and this little guy just crawled into my lap and made himself at home.

This baby got in Maddie's lap of his own volition and she definitely didn't haul him into her lap through force.

After having our fill of cat time, we decided we needed real food. We walked for a hot second and went to the first place we passsed. I mean, it had Micheline stars... that's gotta mean something, right?

We were ushered upstairs and into a table before being given a menu with a very limited selection. We got two bowls of soup and two platters of dumplings. Everything was super delicious.

Dan got an after lunch snack of a toasted marshmallow stuffed with ice cream. It was tasty.

We walked around some more, took a rest at the hotel, and then decided to get some dinner. BARBECUE. The first of many.

Here they use charcoal instead of gas which might be why it tastes so much better.

We got a lot of meat. And refilled the onions and salad a few times. At this point, we were definitely feeling the fact that we had eaten mostly meat and noodles in Japan.

Once we were stuffed full of meat, we had about 30 minutes before sundown, so we decided to hike (emphasis on HIKE) the hill up to Namsan tower cable cars.

The sun was just starting to hit the horizon when we got to the cable cars.

We took the cable cars up and up....

Then hiked a bunch of stairs. My god are there a lot of stairs in Korea.

Once we got to the top, we looked at all of the locks on the fences.

Putting locks on bridges and fences is nothing new. Couples do it a lot to show, like, undying romantic love (for cute) in lots of places. Unlike a lot of places, though, that tend to discourage this, Namsan Tower just kind of went with it. They will continuously remove and replace the chains making up the fences and then turn those chains into giant tree structures. It's really cool.

Mandy and I bought a lock, wrote our names and date, and put our lock up.

We didn't pay to take the elevator all the way to the top, but the view from the main observation deck is very nice. You have a great view of the entire city.

Maddie and Dan added their own lock to the fence, as well.

After looking around a bit more, seeing the pretty pavilion, it was time to head back down the stairs, take the cable car, and hike back home for some much needed rest.