Seoul Mates: Day 5 of 5

05 February 2012 - Sunday

Last day in Seoul! Neither of us can believe how fast time flew, but we accomplished a lot and have the pictures to prove it.

A massive icicle seen outside of Grape Garden Guesthouse.
A vent blowing up steam turned into ice!

You can't say that you've toured Korea without eating Korea's version of Mc'Donalds: Lotteria. There isn't much noticeable difference, but I reckon that the beef is slightly better quality. They also use different sauces that are more sweet than they are savory --welcome to Korea-- and portions appear smaller. Michele tried the bulgoki burger. I ordered my usual: a squid burger. The squid burgers are great. It includes a deep fried patty with bits of squid nestled between two buns with lettuce and a moderately spicy sauce. They also have shrimp burgers, which are more of the same, minus the spicy flavor.

By the end of this trip, Michele's spicy face is plastered on,
even when foods are not spicy

We did a wee bit of shopping in the Hongdae area. Every shop had a sale.

We initially took the same subway, but after a couple stops, I needed to get off and transfer lines. Gimpo International Airport is in the opposite direction from the Express Bus Terminal.

Waiting for the subway

The last picture that Michele took. Good-bye Dunkin' Donuts!
Oh hey, and there's a sign for Nanta.
That pretty much sums up our trip.

Seoul Mates: Day 4 of 5

04 February 2012 - Saturday

The weather is not nearly as cold, and we take to the streets of Itaewon. The area is foreigner central and abundant in Eastern and Western eateries.

In foreigner central, Taco Bell is never far behind

After eating some Middle Eastern wraps, we headed to Baskin Robbins. It's never too cold (or too early) for ice-cream.

3 Flavors: Twinberry Cheesecake, Cappuccino, Almond Bon Bon
in a waffle cone with chocolate syrup, brownies, chocolate flakes

I like my hair in this photo

nom nom nom nom: Where to start first?

We explored the street vendors selling everything from knock-off wallets, purses, scarves, jewelry, socks, and underwear. Basically more of the same from Namdaemun Market. Then we headed to Apgujeong for our spa day at Hill Spa.

Can you spot the foreigner?

We were greeted with herbal tea.
Those plumerias are fake.

We each got full body massages for an hour and a half. It was alright, nothing life-changing.

Traveled back to Hongdae and shared a Korean pancake (파전). It was good!

We made reservations for a popular show called Nanta Cookin' at 8pm. It's like the Wicked of Korea meets Vegas' Blue Man Group. Nanta has been performed since 1997, making it the longest running show in Korean history. It's about a group of chefs, who must prepare a laundry list of meals in one hour. While they cook, they create music with their various kitchen utensils (pots, pans, and yes, even huge knives). The show plays everyday in several places in Seoul as well as Jeju Island.

Entrance to the theatre

During the show, the cast selected people from the audience to go up on stage. I didn't volunteer, but I was chosen to go up and sample some soup. A fellow audience member and I were incorporated into the plot as the bride and groom whose wedding the cast was preparing for.

The guy looked like he was a tourist from another Asian country like Vietnam or China. He seemed confused the entire time...

Nanta took a Polaroid and framed my wedding photo. Nice! 

Went out for another bite to eat, which concluded our last night in Seoul~

Seoul Mates: Day 3 of 5

03 February 2012 - Friday


Good morning, Hongdae!

We are waiting for Dos Tacos to open, so we can eat Mexican food for lunch.

What is with the caricatures at the bottom?!

I ordered a potato burrito. Michele ordered a veggie burrito. We split a Nachos Grande. The food wasn't authentic or remotely close to the real thing, but at least some of the flavors were there and it was still good for what it was.

Next we traveled to Dongnimmun to visit Seodaemun Prison. The prison was built during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945). The site witnessed the torture and execution of Korean followers of the Independence Movement. Inmates constructed the prison itself and served as labourers during the day. Methods of torture included using sharp needle-like objects to prick prisoners' fingers, pouring boiling water into prisoners' mouths, hanging prisoners by their feet and dunking their heads in water, and bodily mutilation. If that didn't lead to mortality, the scorching Summers and frostbite-inducing Winters did.

Our visit felt sadly poetic because we came at the heart of Winter. The grounds were covered in untrodden snow. The indoor cells were freezing, even with our thick / puffy jackets, hats, scarves, and several layers of clothing. It was quiet because there weren't many visitors. The largest group of people we saw were an older group of Korean photographers, who seemed more interested in taking artsy photos than learning about the history. I think they had been there several times before because one of them kept telling us which way to go. He asked where Michele and I were from. He was surprised that such young tourists were interested in visiting a prison/museum, probably because it's not centralized on the map. 

The displays were a little bit freaky. Wax figures + cold prison = no bueno. In one building, the prison cells were pitch black, but Michele bravely peered in and saw wax figures sitting in each one. She took a picture with her phone and showed me. I couldn't see anything from where I was standing, so I warily stepped closer to see for myself. Then Michele jumped at me and I let out a scream that scared everyone else in adjacent rooms of the building. We observed people in pairs huddled much closer together after that.

Afterwards, we headed to Namdaemun Market in Hoehyeon. The large traditional market supposedly dates back to 1414 and is one of the oldest continuing markets in Seoul and South Korea. We bargained in my crappy Korean and got some pretty good deals.

For dinner, we ate back in Hongdae. Chicken & Cheese Dduk-Boki (떡볶이).

It was really spicy for some people ...

And a breach of dietary regulations for others.

Seoul Mates: Day 2 of 5

02 February 2012 - Thursday

Today Groundhog Phil saw his shadow and deemed that there would be 6 more weeks of Winter. That was an understatement.

We woke up to the coldest February in almost 65 years or since 1957; whichever source you believe, it was still -12/-16 degrees Celcius or single digits in Fahrenheit. Of course, we didn't know this when we woke up. Learning from Wednesday's chilly evening, we bundled up to brave the cold and headed out for our historical-cultural, 100% outdoor tour of Seoul.

Our first stop was the Lunar New Year Event at Namsangol Hanok Village in Chungmuro. We arrived early, so we wandered around in the untrodden snow.

Michele's 1st time in snow. wheeeeeeee~!!

Just one of many candid photos of Michele fascinated by the snow.

We made snow angels! Neither of us had made them before, so this was a fun experience.

Did I mention that it's -12 degrees Celcius outside? Our fingers could barely move to take pictures and our toes were searing in pain at this point. 

We decided to wait, warm up, and get breakfast at non other than a Paris Baguette. The bakery is very common in South Korea, much like 7-Eleven in America. They have little pastries and buns, so we grabbed some with coffee and thawed off.

According to the Tourist Information Center, the Lunar New Year Event was going to be on Saturday. I double-checked on my phone; the website definitely said Thursday. So much for that! Next stop: Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Michele rubbing her toes because they're numb & painful from the cold.

Gyeongbokgung Palace was bigger than I remembered when I visited in August during orientation. It was just as sunny, but frigidly cold instead of sweat-inducingly humid.

Greetings from the entrance of Gyeongbokgung Palace

I wish Chong Tours could give guests a historical background for every place that we visited, but it was better left to our imaginations. In other words, I have no concept of the historical significance of this Palace, but we knew that it was really, really important.

♥

A Palace right smack dab in the middle of the city.

getting artsy

Chongarazzi took some sneaky photos of Michele

Little did I know that she took some paparazzi photos of me ...

Me: Michele, start running around!

The grounds of the Palace went on FOREVER. We even stopped at a cafe just to sit down and regain feeling in our extremities and to mitigate the pain.

We discovered a more commercial area with Lunar New Year tents, displays, and hey -- free samples!

Some sort of traditional rice cake with peanuts & pine nuts.
We were starving, and it tasted delicious.

We look uncomfortable because:
1.) it's sunny 2.)  we're hungry 3.) it's so damn cold

In order to snag a sample of a traditional eggplant side dish, we needed to be filmed saying "delicious!" to this random dude with a camera. Michele said it in Japanese. The guy was not impressed by her language ability   =|

Year of the Snake

Also Year of the Snake

We were in a bit of a time crunch to get to our next destination, so we made moves.  We left Gyeongbokgung Palace through a different exit because after all of that walking, I wasn't going to trek back in the cold to where we began. As a result, we walked around aimlessly in the cold looking for the nearest subway exit, which was no where to be found.

COLD + TIRED + HUNGRY + LOST = this picture

We decided to postpone our tour of Seodaemun Prison. The place would soon be closed, and we still hadn't eaten lunch yet. We walked into this hole-in-the-wall ramyeon restaurant and ate some of the spiciest ramyeon's that I've ever had. If today was the coldest February day, then this was inversely the hottest food.

Spicy Ramyeon (람연)

Cheese Kimbap (치즈 김밥)

So we took a detour from our original plan and decided to hit up Dongdaemun Market for a bit of indoor bargain shopping.

For dinner, I was adamant about locating this soon dubu jjigae / stew (순두부 찌개) restaurant in Sinchon recommended by lonelyplanet.com, but it was nearly impossible to find. No, it was 100% impossible to find. We didn't find it. Instead, we walked into a random restaurant that served 순두부 찌개. While it looked good, I have definitely had way better in Korea (and America). Nothing special here.

Crab  순두부 찌개 

Tomorrow we would catch up with the itinerary and visit Seodaemun Prison followed by more bargain shopping in Hoehyeon.