My parents arrived to a hazy and overcast Seoul on Friday 23rd March. We've done a great deal of site seeing over the past 2 weeks and we've had a fantastic time. On their first night in Seoul, we took my parents to a restaurant in Itaewon, Gecko's Garden. It's a Western style restaurant and they weren't required to use chopsticks or anything of the sort. On the Saturday we thought they needed to experience some of the local culture and we took them to Insadong, a popular and quaint shopping region. They were able to explore some of the ceramic, paper and traditional craft shops and then we took them for tea at a traditional tea shop. It's called the 'Bird Flying Tea Shop' because there are lots of little birds that fly about inside the shop. At first we were seated on the floor, which didn't really suit my parents so we moved to a place where we could sit on old logs around a glass table. It's the quaintest and sweetest little tea shop. It's really small and it's got wooden floors and old furniture and it reminds Brad and I of something you'd find in a Harry Potter style world. The tea is good and they bring some traditional rice cakes with it.

Looking at the street stalls in Insadong

Looking at the ceramics

Outside the Traditional Tea Shop

Inside the Traditional Tea Shop with birds flying around us

If you approach one of these people they will do exactly as their sign says - give you a hug for free.

Then we took my parents for dinner at a Korean Restaurant. We went for Galbi (Korean barbeque). The meat is barbequed in the centre of the table (there's a sunken area that holds coal and it heats the grill where the meat is cooked). You then take small pieces of the meat and wrap it in a lettuce or sesame leaf together with some other vegetables and a bit of hot sauce. You then put it all in your mouth at once. The lady at the restaurant was very attentive; they don't get many foreigners eating there and she paid special attention to my mom and dad. She would wrap their meat up for them and even feed it to them. It was very amusing.

Eating Galbi