Korea Days 2 & 3

 

Friday, July 13^th

Arrived in Korea.  Exhausted.  Bus from airport to Renaissance Hotel- should take 45 but it took 1 ½ hours.  Had no idea where the guesthouse was located so we trudged but the road, got lost, got directions, found the quest house.  We were hungry so we found a Starbucks and shared a sandwich.  Went back to the guesthouse, showered and went to bed at 8:30 PM. 

Saturday, July 14th

We our first night here we went to bed at 8:30PM, so unfortunately our bodies were ready to be up and going at 5:30 AM.  We decided to go ahead and get and get moving.  Twice Andy went out searching for breakfast food, but the stores were all closed.  Finally around 8AM the stored opened and we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks.  We had made plans to meet Elizabeth at 10AM so we still had a little time to kill.  We called my parents via Skype just to check in and let everyone know we were here okay. 

At 10AM we meet Elizabeth on the front steps of our guesthouse and we were off to explore Seoul.  She showed us to the closest metro stop.  Thankfully, I had navigated a metro system before, and there is a lot of comfort in the fact that metros are pretty universal.  This was Andy’s first experience with a subway system.  He was amazed at the efficiency of the public transportation. 

The first place we went was Insa-dong, a neighborhood with alley’s lined with lots of small shops and restaurants.  Some of the shops were clearly created to attract tourist, but some of the more unique shops were the fan shop, the calligraphy brush shop, and the traditional Korean mask shop. 

 

While in Insa-dong, Elizabeth to us to a small Korean restaurant for lunch.  We had a traditional meal that would usually be eaten at major Korean holidays.  The food is unlike the food from any culture that we have visited.  While there were a few dishes that we really enjoyed; it was not a meal we would plan to have again for a while.  After lunch we spent a little time at the National Museum of Traditional Korean Folk Art.. 

 

Next we headed to Changgyeonggung Palace.  It was originally built in 1484.  It has been burned and rebuilt several times.  We went on a free English speaking tour of palace.  The palace is painted with gorgeous patterns of bright colors; it was actually illegal to paint your house with these same colors and patterns while the king was alive.  The oldest part of the palace is actually the stone bridge in the center of the palace. 

 

At this point in the day the lack of sleep was catching up with us so we decided to head back to the guesthouse.  Elizabeth was a little apprehensive to put us on the metro by ourselves, but we assured her that we would be fine.  Once back at the guesthouse, we rested for a little while, glad to not be walking or standing.  We were planning to go back out and find dinner on our own, but gradually our eyes got heavier and heavier.  Unfortunately, we feel asleep at 6:30 PM.  That meant that by 3:30 AM we were awake. 

We awoke to rain coming down.  We aren’t sure what that will mean for our adventures today, but we are hoping that we will still be able to see some things.

 

Sunday, July 15

It has been raining here all day.  Elizabeth told us this is the monsoon season.  The city is covered in low hanging gray clouds.  It is taking all our will-power not to sleep the day away.  We weren’t meeting Elizabeth until noon today, so we had a lot of time to kill this morning.  Andy ran down the street and grabbed us some breakfast.  We caught up on some reading.  I poured over the guidebook Elizabeth had loaned me looking for things to do.  Unfortunately, most of the things that stood out to me were outdoor activities and the weather was still not cooperating. 

Andy decided to venture out around 10AM in search of a E-mart (the Korean version of Wal-mart) to find an electrical converter, the one we brought with us was the wrong kind.  Andy was very proud of himself when he came back from his little adventure.  He has successfully navigated through the maze of streets and shelves of Korean products to find exactly what he had set off to find.

At noon we meet Elizabeth at the Yeoksam Metro Station. She thought that we would be able to explore two markets today despite the rain.  We were grateful she was willing to brave the elements with us.  But before we started shopping she suggested we get some lunch first.  We stopped at Gangnam, a popular hang out spot for young people, and got to try some more Korean food.  Today we had Korean Barbeque, which we loved.  It was much more suited for our American palettes.   Each table has it’s own grill on which you prepare your own meat.  We had 2 beef selections, a pork selection, and a small serving of Spam (Elizabeth told us Spam is very popular in Korea.)  You cooked the meat on the grill along with garlic, onion, and mushroom.  Then once the meat was cooked you placed it on a lettuce leaf and added green onion strips, a spicy red sauce, and salt.  I have to say it was delicious.  I personally preferred the pork selection the best, and Andy liked it all.

 

After lunch we hit two different markets, Namdaemun and Dongdaemun.  Namdaemun was a sort of indoors/sort of outdoors market.  Dongdaemun, while called a market, was more like a mall.  Each floor of the mall had one item they specialized in- for example an entire level of women’s clothing, an entire level of men’s clothes, and an entire level of accessories. 

 

After the markets, we came back to the house to rest some rest and shower off before meeting another couple who is adopting from here for dinner.  We had a little bit of a struggle finding a place to eat, but eventually we settled on a restaurant.  In the end, we were all very proud of ourselves for navigating the streets and metro system of Seoul on our own. 

And now it is almost 10PM and we are still awake!  Yay!  Tomorrow we meet Anderson face to face.  We don’t get to bring him back to the guest house with our tomorrow, that won’t be until Wednesday or Thursday, but we are so excited to seem him in person.