All good things come in 3.5

In theory, it was so nice: a precise plan of when I wanted to do something. But in practice, there was the weather that didn't play along, stupid opening times, traffic jams, long queues and my own energy level that put a damper on my plans.

My plan today was to visit the Changgyeoggung Palace with its secret garden after school.

And that was the reality: Before I could start, I first had to go to the train station, then bring my heavy backpack with the four books home and eat something small.

At around 4:30 p.m. I was ready to visit the palace. But when I got there I discovered that the secret garden, my main reason for visiting, could only be visited by guided tour, and the last tour started at 2:30 p.m.

So plan B: off to a café/interior design store nearby. I used Naver Maps to navigate me, but once again I was faced with the same problem: this place doesn't exist! There's no sign on the building, and the doorman in the lobby had never heard of the store.

Then plan C: escape from reality and enjoy the view from high up on the Namsan Tower.

Fun fact: The N Seoul Tower, also called Namsan Tower, is a television tower. It is located in the middle of a huge park on Namsan Mountain (243 m above sea level) and is 236 meters high. Seoul's landmark is illuminated in different colors, with the colors indicating the current particulate matter pollution (blue = good, red = very bad, etc.)

This is my 3rd attempt to climb this tower. The first time I was in Korea we found the park but couldn't find the way up to the tower. The second time we were up the mountain but the tower was closed for construction.

And today I almost failed to buy a ticket. You need an app to scan a code, to fill out a form, to create a code that you then show at the checkout?

To be honest, I didn't feel like doing that. But after I had taken a walk around and admired the tons of love locks, there was suddenly a real person there who I could ask. And so it turned out that there was a normal cash register and this app thing was just for a discount.

We took an elevator up to the two-story viewing platform at breathtaking speed. Whether the €14 entrance fee was worth it — hmm, well, that's a mystery. But at least I finally know what it looks like here.

I took the cable car back down. I decided to walk home and ate some soup with rice cakes and small dumplings in a small restaurant on the way. After the cold wind up on the mountain, it was just the thing.

There are no classes tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be good. My plan is to go for a little hike. But who knows what will actually happen... we'll just have to wait and see!