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Published: August 17th 2009
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First full, un-jet-lagged weekend in Seoul! So much to do and so little time!
Saturday I spent with my friends Karl and Andrew, official expat extraordinaries. (Am I an expat too? A temporary one? The Milli Vanilli of expats?)
We started out by feasting in Insadong at a great little place down a side street. We then walked all around, looking at the great shops and merchandise that Insadong has to offer. I didn't buy anything though, I'm scoping everything out before making my decisions. Insadong is home to the "traditional" crafts of Korea. Basically a lot of pencil cases, masks, calligraphy brushes, fans, paintings, celadon pots, etc etc.
When we reached the end of the street we went down to the Cheonggyecheon. Cheonggyecheon is a stream that has recently been redeveloped in the heart of Seoul (and has the greatest name ever!). It was the pet project for former mayor and current president Lee Myung-bak. It's really cool and definitely brings some much needed greenery to the downtown streets of Seoul. It's also a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen. There are these places along the stream where you can cross to the other side on stepping stones,
inches from the swiftly moving water. They could never do this kind of thing in the States.
We walked to the "headwaters" of the stream where they have this huge, red, curly, monstrosity of a sculpture that I didn't take a picture of for some reason. Probably because my camera would have exploded if it was forced to photograph it. Sorry, I'll take one before I leave. Because you have to see this thing.
We walked down to Seoul Plaza by the City Hall that they're redoing. Not much to report. A 100 mile (or 100 km?) marathon had started out from the Plaza 7 hours earlier, so there wasn't much to look at in that respect. We did see a guy take a bad spill over one of the guide-wires holding the start/finish banner up. That was painful to watch.
Having spent quite a few hours walking, we repaired to a bar called Texas for some refreshment. I ended up with a South African beer that was quite tasty.
Karl split off at this point and Andrew and I walked up the Cheonggyecheon again to Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun is one of the huge city gates that
once served as entry points into Seoul. A little farther on we met people at Dongmyo station and ate at an Indian/Nepali restaurant. It was really good food, but unfortunately Andrew, I found out later on, suffered an allergic reaction to some of the food and ended up in the hospital. So that kind of taints the memory for me.
Sunday I spent with my friend Chrisie, who is a Korean expert, having done Fulbright in Korea a few years ago. We had probably the best meal ever in Insadong, all for only 15,000 won a piece. I mean, the table was entirely covered with food! I didn't think we would ever finish it all, but we did. That's the weird thing about Korean food I've found. I'm able to pack it away by picking on a bunch of different stuff over the course of the meal in a very schizophrenic way, but then a few hours later, much sooner than I think, I'm hungry again. I guess because it's a lot of veggies?
And speaking of food and cravings, I haven't found myself craving any particular Western foods yet. I mean, when I was in France I
was seriously craving peanut butter and Twinkies. The only thing I'm craving right now is old movies for some reason. Like I could seriously go for some John Wayne western or a Hitchcock thriller. "Random Harvest" with Ron Coleman and Greer Garson too. Seriously, if you have not seen "Random Harvest", you need to.
But I digress. Anyway, after wondering around for a bit, we went to Unhyeongung Palace, which is really small compared to some of the major palaces, but it was a really hot day, so it was perfect for our purposes. I highly recommend visiting. Excellent, pocket-sized example of traditional Korean royal architecture.
After Unhyeongung, we decided to visit Namsan and Seoul Tower. There's a cable car to the top if you don't want to walk, which we didn't. There were lots of Korean and Western tourists and hikers about. They've got a nice complex at the top, with an observation deck below the actual tower. On all the fences surrounding the observation area there were hundreds and thousands of locks that people had attached. It was so cool to see! It was very much like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence which you can read
about
here .
I have since discovered that this area and the cable car that I rode down in play a very special role in my new favorite Korean drama (ok, the ONLY Korean drama I've seen) Boys Before Flowers. Very cool!
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