Seoul. DMZ. Day 3.

After a night of restless sleep we woke up early to visit the DMZ. The tour was organized by the USO, so it was in English. The Joint Security Area was off limits today due to some military exercises. We did get to go into the third underground tunnel that was dug by the North Koreans as part of a plan to invade South Korea in the mid seventies.

Walking down, and up, 25 stories at a 20 degree incline is no joke. The hard hat you are required to wear is also a must for anyone taller than 1.5 meters. Once you got to where the tunnel stopped for tourists we were only a couple hundred meters away from 38th parallel. So we were inside the DMZ.

After the workout in the tunnel, our tour took us over to Dorasan train station, which is the last train station that still exists before the tracks take you to North Korea. Korea seemed to be very hopeful that unification could occur in the past, though, recent events have turned that into doubt. Immediately after the railway station we piled back on to the bus and drove for two minutes to check out a memorial for those Korean family and friends who got separated during separation. Reminicent of Buddhist prayer flags tiny steamers, with what I could only assume were people's names, covered various walls in a memorial garden.

We sat down to have a coffee before the tour bus took us back to the USO. Needing some more cash we made our way up to city hall via the subway to go to my bank of choice.

Not having had lunch we went to a great taco place Zach had been to before. I am still wearing shoes that are slightly to small so I walked in to a couple of shoe stores looking for some Sambas. No such luck. Apparently, US size 11 / EU size 44 is considered to be giantesque. The largest size they had was 10.5.

The rest of the night we had a good time playing some cards, drinking on the balcony and going for a late night burger.

Tomorrow we take the KTX to Busan.