After yet another breakfast at the Korean Bakery Paris Baguette (hotdogs cooked into a bread/bun with mayonnaise...when in Rome!) we headed to our first stop Gyeongbokgung!
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| Gwanghwamun Gate |
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| Gyeongbokgung Guards |
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Christina's jumping photography skills leave something to be desired...
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King'sThrone-room
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Palace Grounds
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Bridge on Palace Grounds
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Year of the Tiger! ROAR!! At the Folk Museum.
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Hanbok Drummer at the Folk Museum
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Korean Funerary Box (It has some real name, of course...but I forgot!)
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After the museum it was way past lunch time. We decided to head to a restaurant in Insadong. We had kalguksu, mandu, pajeon and tonkatsu. No light eating this trip, that's for sure! After lunch, we wandered around Insadong for an hour and a half. Insadong is a great spot to look for Korean craft goods. Christina bought a lamp and some small souvenirs.
Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to head to North Seoul Tower on top of 남산 (Namsan - South Mountain). First off, to any Koreans reading this, I'd like to point out how ridiculous it is to have a "North" Seoul tower on top of "South" mountain.
Furthermore, Koreans, I'd also like to point out that when someone asks you where something is located, if it is closed, please point that out! On two separate occasions I got directions to something that was closed...once in a taxi and once from a bellhop, people who should know better! We were on our way up the hill to the cable car to the tower only to find out after 15 minutes of uphill walking that it was closed. Never fear! Taxi cab to the rescue followed by a bus ride to the top.
North Seoul Tower is a really cool spot. I was skeptical about visiting due to the poor air quality in Seoul in summer, but today was pretty clear and Christina really wanted to go.
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The Geographic Center of Seoul on Namsan
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It's Haechi! Seoul's Mascot! I love this guy!
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Seoul is Huge...and a bit dirty air quality-wise
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Dear You, Tone it Down.
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This place was kind of like a giant Korean love motel...but still cool
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The tower had a really strong love motif going on. There were benches that slant together to force you to sit on top of each other, a place to put locks that you write your lover's name on, and lots of stuffed animal bears with hearts. Blarg! Still worth the visit, but I'd only go again in the fall of winter when the air is cleaner, I doubt we could see more than 5-10km.
After the tower we went back to the hotel for a short break. For dinner we hopped a cab out to Hongdae for some dakgalbi at a restaurant named 춘천집 (Chuncheon house). Dakgalbi is chicken with gochujang sauce, cabbage, rice tubes, and noodles. I had it the last time I was here with Paul and Megan. You can't find this dish in Atlanta. A bonus ingredient this time around was cheese, which believe it or not, made this dish awesome! At the end, we got bonus rice to fry in our leftover gochujang/chicken grease. Tom promised to send me an email with how many pounds he gained this trip. My mission here is done. ;)
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Working hard for the chicken...
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| ...and the rice! |
Tomorrow, Christina and I are checking out and heading to Busan via KTX. We'll be in Busan until Saturday when we'll return to Seoul with a hotel in Hongdae. Today was Tom's last day in Korea. From here on out, it'll just be me and my sister. Hopefully, we don't drive each other insane... ;)
In other news, I've been craving patbingsu all day (see yesterday's post). It's gotten to the point that I created a song about it to the tune of Darkwing Duck. Luckily, there will be more opportunities for this frozen treat in Busan.
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