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Published: March 20th 2007
Yongsan Electronics Market
Rows and rows of everything electronic Well, Third time lucky!
After losing my work on the blog, twice, (about an hours worth of work) my all-knowing, ever-loving decided we should go out for a walk for some fresh air and maybe stop in somewhere for something to drink. We'd walked about a block when we found a cosy looking, stress relieving place that offered coffee and cocktails on it's outside menu. Although cocktails would have been perfect, they had none to offer... and if they did we couldn't have afforded it! So we settled for a cup of coffee instead. The place had really comfy couches, so we figured the R24 we had to pay for the 'normal coffee' would be worth it.
Well, it was different... the beautiful rose printed elongated china tea cups were half full (ever the optimist!) and served without milk. The 'coffee' tasted like a combination of green tea, filter coffee, hazelnut and a third mystry ingredient! You can fill in the blank I liked it... D wasn't so sure, although I'm not sure he was all there after the waiter offered him scotch for R400!
Just to make sure we got back to the backpackers completely unwound,
Yongsan from outside
The multi-storey market building we decided to see if we could find some more of the surprise-on-a-stick we'd had for lunch. This endevour proved unsucessful, however we did stumble on a gem of a vending machine which served the most fantastic strong coffee for R1.50 a cup Altogether, a good time out!
Because we work in a theme park type facility, our busiest days are Sat and Sun, thus we get every Mon off and on every other week we get Tues and Wed off too. This week is our long break. (Yippee!)
We headed off into Seoul today on the train (we missed the bus, again. This time we were early enough to see it driving passed the station when we were about 200m from the stop!) For a change we decided to take the train... by process of elimination. I liked it. It allowed us to see a bit more of the land and the development going on in the area as opposed to going through the towns on the bus route. We, in our oober adapted brains, managed to get to the Electronics market without much hesitation. And after a few ums and ahs over the various
Gwanghwammun Palace
This front gate wasn't letting anybody in options, I BOUGHT A CAMERA! I got a Casio Exilim, 3X optical zoom, 6mega pixil digital camera with a extra battery, 1gig memory stick and a strap onto your belt carrier bag for... and this is the tingly bit... R1700! Wohoo!
Then we got 4 DVDs for R80. not bad for a day's shopping
We decided to head off to a palace at Gwanghwammun (writing it is easier than saying it!). We got these really great T-money cards that work like a bus and subway credit card. You put money onto it and then instead of getting a ticket at every station, you swipe it passed a sensor and voila... you're in!. But the palace, as our luck had it, is closed on Tuesdays! So we headed to the biggest attraction in Seoul. The Dongdaemun market. We figured out later (after walking blocks and blocks through stalls looking for it) that it's the whole area of Dongdaemun that's the market. But wow! What an experience! There were stalls lining the streets for everything from manakins and hangers, to electrics, to pets (iguanas, puppies, ferrits, birds, rabbits...) and then all the other animals, also alive and also in cages,
Dongdaemun
The street stalls in a less busy area of the market but outside the restaurants! We actually saw live squid and sole and eels doing their thing in their tanks next to the menu!.
Whatever you can think of, they were selling it. We hazarded one of the food stalls round lunch time. It turned out to be a really good surprise sandwich! It was a egg and cabbage (are you surprised?) omelette with a piece of cheese and a piece of meat (assumably ham, but who knows) with secret sauce and spice. Yum! The other pot luck food we had was a bit of a surprise on a stick, also yum, cheap and filling. The one was chips around a vienna and the other was crumbed bread around a vienna. D wanted to try squid tentacles fried in peanut butter but decided he was too full after all the above. We'll let you know what it tastes like once we've gone back to try it!
To save time and to try make most of the day tomorrow, we've booked ourselves into a backpackers bed and breakfast in Seoul. In true Korean style there's a take your shoes off before you come in rule which is the best feeling
In the middle of town
On a bridege over the (unpronounceable) river that runs through dongdaemun ever! Can you imagine, there's a rule to make you walk around in your socks... if only my mother knew -the down side of course, is that a whole bunch of tourists who've been walking around the city all day in their tired shoes are now airing out their unwashed smellies!!
What an amazing day!
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Burgert
non-member comment
heyheyhey!
Hey guys! I lovew reading about the adventure you're having, and the loads of smileys I dig! :) Just had a braai and going to hit the books for a test on Friday - yes, that's what we do here in Stellies - may you have many more awesom experiences! I'll try to attach a pic next time I leave a comment again (if that's possible, else I'll just mail it) Take care!!! B