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Published: June 20th 2015
Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long!
Last week was pretty crazy, since Tanya had to leave on Thursday for her orientation (although somehow we have managed to hang out after her orientation activities are done for the day, and she has all day tomorrow to hang out. On Monday she goes away for a retreat, though, and I won't see her again before I leave on Thursday). Therefore, be forewarned that this will be a long post. ^_^
Last Saturday, we went to Gangnam, the fashion district of Seoul (most commonly recognized from the song
Gangnam Style by Psy that went viral a few years ago). When you first exit the subway station, you see lots of very brightly colored bear statues (kind of like the cow ones you find throughout the US). Each statue represents one of the major kpop bands. This is called K star road, and is definitely a tourist spot. But I'm a tourist, so it's okay that I was fan-girling over them while Tanya tried to pretend she didn't know me. Continuing down that main street, we passed lots of major brand-names, such as Prada, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Louis Vuitton
and even an Abercrombie & Fitch (which of these doesn't belong?). Besides K star road, I was also excited that Tanya and I were able to find the office buildings of JYP Ent., Cube Ent., and SM Ent. Excuse me while I freak out all by myself over in my corner here. The significance of these buildings is that these companies own some of the most popular kpop groups, as well as some of my favorites. Tanya thought it was stupid, but I definitely took pictures of the building names, and I was not the only one doing so. I take full responsibility for our Gangnam adventure day, because it was my chance to fan girl over the kpop stuff (which I am slowly but surely teaching Tanya. She resists it and it's slow going, but she's starting to recognize some of the current popular songs and can sometimes name the artists *tear* I'm so proud).
On Sunday, we spent most of the day on the subway, as we went to a stop about an hour away to get waffles. Yep, we rode the subway for an hour to get waffles. We didn't even leave the station. But oh
my god, the waffles were DIVINE. From the moment you first step off the subway, you can smell the delicious goodness of these waffles. For only $1, the woman slathers half of the warm waffle with this amazing waffle butter and puts honey on the other half before folding it and handing it over. They are crazy sweet, and we definitely couldn't eat more than one, but they were so worth the super long subway ride! After our waffles, we hopped back on the green line and went back to Hongdae to walk around some more. Since we hadn't eaten any real food yet, we stepped into this cute Japanese udon shop, and got some seriously good udon for only about $3.50. It was cheap and delicious, and a nice salty balance to the waffles we had eaten. We then went and walked around Hongdae for a while, going in lots and lots of circles, before finally getting ice cream pops. Mine was blue lemonade (although it reminded us both of the sea salt popsicles featured in the video game Kingdom Hearts 365/2 days), and Tanya got a mint choco chip one. We were both expecting it to taste like
mint choco chip ice cream, but it tasted more like one of those free breath mints you get at restaurants. The mint was super overpowering, but once she started eating it like a normal person and not biting chunks off, it seemed more manageable. Mine was tart and awesome, so I was happy!
On Monday, we went to Insadong in search of mandu. Mandu are the Korean version of dumplings/potstickers, and there was a certain chain shop we were searching for, recommended by Eatyourkimchi, the YouTube couple that made the cafe we were looking for previously. The exact one they went to had been closed by the time we got here, so we found another one in Insadong. The mandu were alright, although we stand by the fact that ours are better. After mandu, we walked over to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of the major palaces in Seoul (this is the one that they commonly film dramas in). On the way we stopped to get what Eatyourkimchi dubbs "penis ice cream," which was surprisingly good. It's basically a big, hollow J-shaped cornflake that they fill with soft-serve ice cream. A very tasty snack for a hot summer day! The
compound was HUGE, and we basically passed through gate after gate, and never seemed to find any of the outer walls. It was really cool to see all of the different buildings, such as the emperor's building, the queen's building, and the queen mother's section (she probably had more space than the king). Towards the back of the entire compound was an amazing pond, with a very nice pagoda in the middle. We didn't quite manage to see EVERYTHING, but we saw a heck of a lot and then had to call it quits due to dehydration, overheating, and sore feet. It was a really cool day though, and I'm glad we got to see such a great historical monument, smack dab in the middle of the city.
Tuesday we tried to go to the kpop museum, which is located on the grounds of the Olympic park. Unfortunately the museum wasn't open, so we couldn't go in, but we managed to make the most out of the trip by walking across the Olympic park (which is surprisingly large) to the other subway station that boarders it. The museum was nearby a rose garden, so we spent some time there,
and I drove Tanya crazy by taking pictures of her, again. After, we found this interesting strip of what we think is supposed to be like an acupressure walk thing (we saw it on TV). It is a path of rocks, which when we saw it on TV, there was a couple racing down it. They seemed to be in pain (like happy, laughing pain) as they tried running across it, and we originally thought it was hot, which is why they were having so much trouble (you take your shoes off before you walk/run down it). However, we tried it out for a bit and found that the rocks were not actually hot, but that they are really hard on your feet. They're not sharp, because they're smooth river rocks, but I can't think of a better word to describe them, because as you walk/run across them it feels like you are bruising the bottom of your feet with every step. Not pleasant. The rest of the park was very nice, though, and it seems as though it's been converted into an area where the general public can come and hang out, and we saw a bunch of elderly
Paper balloons
We stumbled upon a large Buddhist complex in Insadong, and they had these paper balloons hanging up in support of Nepal.people there exercising on the outdoor machines scattered throughout. We also noticed there were weird IV bags (like the kind in hospitals, but bigger) on all of the trees lining the paths, which we found really weird. After exiting the park (at the entrance, because we went backwards) and passing the Olympic flame, which still burns on, we hopped on the train and went back to waffles and Hongdae udon. The tasty food was our redemption for the museum fail, but was once again so worth the long subway ride.
On Wednesday we returned to Myeong-dong (basically a larger Hongdae; it's a very tourist-y area, and our first visit was the previous Thursday), so I could find myself some Kpop albums. I was weak and figured that since I'm in South Korea, I might as well buy myself a CD. I was torn between two, though (BTS and Infinite, for those of my friends who listen when I talk, and get to see kpop videos),because I felt spending $30 on CDs was too much, and Tanya was super nice and bought me the Infinite one for my birthday, on the premise that we won't see each other for a
year, and she won't be able to send me anything. (Although I'm totally going to figure out the mail system in China and send her something awesome for her birthday in November.) Anyways, Myeong-dong is known for its beauty shops, and for good reason, because they seriously outnumber any of the other shops 3:1 at least. Down a short street, you will pass at least eight makeup/beauty shops, and then you turn the corner and find the same eight shops plus a few more lining the next block. It is ridiculous, and totally not helpful to our awful collective sense of direction. All of the streets look more or less the same! And the salespeople are suuuper pushy, although many of them basically give you free stuff just for entering the stores and looking around. For example, we would be walking down the center of the street, minding our own business, to find ourselves accosted by salespeople putting free face masks in our hands, yammering at us in either Korean or Chinese, and steering us into the store. (On a side note, we definitely look Chinese, and they definitely get lots of Chinese tourists in Myeong-dong, because most of the
Queen's garden
This was the queen's view from her back windows. The chimneys (the small pillars) are the originals, back from before the Japanese invaded. As they are very old and have not been restored (and they still work), they are considered a national treasure. salespeople would approach us in Mandarin.) Sometimes even if you nod at them and look away, they will still come up to you and take your arm to steer you into their shops. And once you're inside, someone either leads you through the store, showing you the "in" products, or they follow you (like a step behind you), talking about things that you might stop to comment on or glance at. T and I have decided that we must have giant signs on our heads that say "suckers" because sometimes we would escape one store, only to be caught by the one right next door. I came back that day with at least five masks and one bag of stuff that I got just for going into the different stores. It's madness. For dinner that day, we went and got Shabu Shabu, the Korean style of hot pot. It was sooo good, although there were a lot of mushrooms and we must have been doing it wrong because at one point the lady came by and added more broth to our soup (although we thought we had plenty). It was very, very worth the fact that we've been subsisting on
Lovely pagoda on the pond
It's two stories and the floors could be heated. What more could you want, really? ramen for one meal each day in order to budget our money.
On Thursday Tanya had to go to the hotel where she would meet her orientation group (she is participating in a summer study program at one of the universities here in Seoul), so she packed and I rode the taxi with her to her hotel. However, the taxi driver must not have understood where she wanted to go, because he kind of dropped us in the general area (Insadong) and not in front of the hotel. We ended up having to ask someone where the hotel was, because our phones don't work without wi-fi, and she hadn't expected we would need a map to find the place. After asking a few people, we found someone who pointed us in the right direction, and we successfully managed to drop her things off. Since she didn't actually have to report in until the next morning, we hung around Insadong for the rest of the afternoon. Insadong is where you find more traditional arts and souvenirs, whereas Hongdae and Myeong-dong are geared toward younger generations specifically. That night we said goodbye, and I headed back to the apartment by myself.
However, it turned out that she finished orientation activities around 4 on Friday, so we met up and went back to Myeong-dong (again). We ended up going to this dessert cafe and ordering a super decadent Oreo ice cream dessert, which was really tasty, but wayy too much for two people. Today (Saturday), we met up after Tanya's orientation activities were over, got dinner, then came back to the apartment. She is spending the night because she has tomorrow off, so we are going to go try the kpop museum again, then we might head over to Hongdae to try on Hanboks (the traditional Korean dress), and get Korean BBQ. On Monday Tanya leaves for a retreat thing they are doing for orientation, and she won't get back in time to meet up again before I leave. After she leaves tomorrow I will probably just kind of lie low for a while and gear myself up for Taiwan, which I'm both excited and scared for. I'll probably post pictures of the Hanboks later, but this will likely be my last post before Taiwan!
Bye for now!
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