Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts

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This blog isn't going to be me saying how great Kimchi is, or how my second grade class can't pronounce the letter 'h' or how I just got a Korean girlfriend. That would be too similar to everyone else here that I met. Instead I will take you into the world of Seoul, South Korea. Here in Seoul you can get the great luxuries of life such as Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, and yes Taco Bell. It takes 45min by subway to get to the Taco Bell and the line is out the door in rain or shine, but it is worth it. Sadly they do not serve Dr. Pepper, but they brought something almost as great. Free refills, the first place I have seen to have this on my entire journey. Thankfully you can also buy Dr. Pepper in a can at the convenient store for only $1. Well worth it.

Most the time I did eat at local restaurants, it was just rather unsuccessful. I was constantly greeted with giggles from the girls at the place. I read the in the guide book that they do this out of nerves or something like that. I don't care why it's still rather annoying. I spoke with a German who had lived across the street for a year and came back to visit. She recommended an authentic restaurant to me, so the following day I went. I pointed to a picture and the guy went across the place to a table full of girls and brought one over. As they were walking over I could only think, great! I walked into another hooker bar, how do I keep getting myself in these situations? Turns out she was just going to translate, the server didn't feel that I would like what I pointed to and that I should try something else. OK, great I would hate another plate of duck heads so I told the translator that I wanted the most popular dish at the place. She asked what kind of food, I said Korean. They spoke with each other for a couple minutes pointing to different dishes and then they said ok and went off on their way. I few minutes later he came back with a plate full of fried chicken and sits beside it some kind of sauce and goes "this is very traditional Korean sauce". It tasted like sweet and sour sauce, and the fried chicken cost $15 when I could have gone to KFC across the street for $5 and had the same food. I guess that is what I get for listening to a German about authentic Korean food restaurants.

I purchased my train ticket for Busan ready to leave Seoul and continue seeing South Korea.

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