So, on my last few days in Korea my mom and I took a bus to Seoul and headed to Namsan/Seoul Tower. 

This has been on my list of "Things to do while I'm in Korea" for a while now and it can finally get checked off.

My mom's friends told her that instead of taking a bus up to the tower in order to experience the tower the right way we should walk to the top, and walk is what we did.

We took a cab to the entrance point of the incline to the tower. I had been sleeping in the taxi since we had been walking around Seoul for a minute in the heat and I was a little bit drained. 

We got out and started up the hill. At first it wasn't too bad, the way up was pretty much shaded all the way through but, even the trees couldn't protect us from the heat. I was extremely hungry having not ate breakfast and had worked up a hunger headache and my mom was also hungry, her stomach growl attempting to match the roar of the cicadas. 

Tip 1: Eat a light meal and drink plenty of water before you hike up this hill in the humid Korean summer.

The incline wasn't that bad for most of the way it was pretty gradual. In certain areas you did have to dig a little deeper to make it up but, nothing too serious. But, again, in the heat even the slightest incline was draining. Not only that but when we started the walk I didn't even know how far up it was. I was basically thinking "It's right there it shouldn't be too far." Little did I know it was nearly a 2 mile trek. My mom was walking a little bit slower, for fear of being a hot, sweaty, mess before actually getting to the tower. I on the other hand was trying to get up to the tower as fast as possible, my main motivator being food.

Tip 2: If you are going to walk up to the tower in the summer time wear exercise or moisture wicking clothes. My mom and I were both looking too cute to be hot and sweaty.

Despite all of our ails we did stop and enjoy the views and learn a little bit of history on the way up to the tower. 

After an eternity of trekking up this hill we make it to the tower, bought our ticket, and immediately found a place to eat. We decided on a Korean buffet, the best part about a buffet is that you don't have to wait for your food to be cooked, you can eat immediately and get as much as you want. As soon as we walked in the host reminded us that this is a Korean buffet with Korean food. I'm not sure why but, I think Koreans believe foreigners do not like or cannot handle their food (Korean food can be quite spicy).  We assured him that this is the place we wanted to eat at, found a table, put our stuff down and immediately made a bee line to the food. 

With our bellies full and our energy renewed we headed up to the main event, the reason why we were truly there, we went to the very top of the tower. My mom handed the ticket to the ticket handler and then we waited in line to take an elevator up to the very top. Everyone was carrying popcorn and drinks, it felt like I was in a movie theatre. We waited our turn, and then entered the elevator, there was a LED screen on the roof of the elevator showing a video of us going up in to outer space. It felt like a big build up to something remarkable. 

 We stepped off the elevator and took in our surroundings and it was... underwhelming. 

I say this because I was basically seeing the same views on the lower levels of the tower. The differences being that we were a little higher up and that in the space we were able to walk around 360 degrees. 

After taking a couple of shots of the view, a failed selfie attempt (the lighting in there sucks), and about 10-20 minutes of walking around the circle a couple of times we decided to leave. 

Tip 3: Sometimes the journey is more fun than the place you are actually trying to get to.

We headed back down and walked around the base of the tower. My mom wanted to go see the trail where all the people in love write their names on a lock and hook it to the fence. All the colors were beautiful. There were probably thousands of locks, some of them looking like they had been there for over 20 years. My mom wanted to do the lock thing with her and my step dad but, her Korean friend warned her that everybody she knew that put a lock on the fence ended up breaking up. Who would have thought that a fence of love could be cursed? 

Anyways, my mom and I made our way back down, taking a bus this time, and then went on another bus headed back home and lived happily ever after. 

If you have been to Seoul Tower leave a comment and tell me your experience!