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We spent last weekend in Seoul, capital of (South) Korea. Thanks to friends Christina and Brian for showing us around!
The trip consisted mainly of eating, shopping, eating again, drinking, eating dessert, and shopping again. We both like Korean food, but Ash is a little more fanatic about it, so that combined with the shopping meant that she was left with a more favorable opinion of Seoul than I was. But the weather was great, and I wasn’t complaining about the ridiculous over-consumption. Also, it was my first time out of China in awhile and it’s nice to feel like you can eat raw fruit and drink tap water without fear.
We took a red-eye out of Pudong on Friday night. Despite the late flight and fact that I left straight from work, getting there on time was a disaster. Mostly our own fault, but we ended up sprinting through the massive Pudong airport just in time to board. We did notice, however, that we’re getting a little better at frantically communicating in Chinese. Things like “We have to go where?!?!? How do we get there??? Do we have time???”
We got to our hotel around 1 AM and immediately headed out to shop. You read that correctly. One of the “perks” of our hotel being near a major shopping district called Dongdaemun is that the malls all stay open until about 5 AM. It was surreal seeing how busy the malls were with mostly young people shopping as if it was the middle of the day.
They didn’t have much in my size, but I was surprised to see some Indiana University gear:
Ash bought some stuff…I’ll let her provide details (check the comments below) but she got some cool shoes that some of her Korean classmates wear, some socks, and other stuff pretty cheap.
Next day we got up and met our friends for a late breakfast. We passed some places of interest on the way:
And then we were off to the restaurant, where we sat on the floor and ate a feast of meat, kimchi, rice, acorn jelly, seaweed, and other pungent little goodies that are characteristic of Korean food. And, strange enough, potato salad. We ate with the traditional metal chopsticks and spoon.
After that we walked around a cool area with a lot of art galleries and cafes. Even though we were stuffed from lunch we couldn’t help ourselves from stopping in a convenience store to see what other local treats we could find. Answer: melon popsicles and banana milk.
Checking out convenience stores and grocery stores in foreign countries is one of my favorite ways of experiencing cultural differences. (I’m aware this doesn’t make me sound like a very deep person.) There were also full chicken drumsticks (bone in) shrink-wrapped on the shelves.
After a stop at a cafe for some coffee/tea, we went to yet another shopping area to walk around. There were a lot of high-end luxury brand stores and also people selling souvenir-type stuff from booths. We didn’t buy anything, but I did get something for free:
Weird. Then we went back to the area near our hotel. Our friends hadn’t seen the malls we were at until the wee hours of the morning the previous night, so Ash went with them again while I went back to the hotel and napped. A man can only take so much shopping (in my case, next to none).
Then dinner.
We went to a really cool restaurant for some beef grilled at the table. Pic is above (first one in the post) but here’s the outside of the restaurant.
The little vents above each grill suck the smoke up so that you (theoretically) don’t smell like smoke for the rest of the night. The food was amazing. We drank local beer called Cass. It’s better than it sounds.
In what’s becoming typical for us and our Shanghai friends, we went to a separate restaurant for dessert. We’d been excited to try a local favorite: Belgian-style waffles for dessert. Here’s Ashley demonstrating her excitement and sporting her new glasses from the Shangahi eyeglasses market:
I believe this one was the green tea waffle with green tea ice cream, topped with cashews and about a can-and-a-half of whipped cream. It’s one of four that we ordered for the table.
After that it was a night of drinks and dancing. We had a blast, but for some reason my stomach was bothering me. Writing this post, I can’t imagine why…
The next morning we got up and only had a half day before heading back to the airport. We went for brunch with everyone and I discovered something delicious called dukk mandu gook. Then we went to see the “fake river,” which seems to be a draw for locals and tourists alike. It was a hot day, and people were enjoying the water, or even a nap under the bridge. Here’s one last pic of us next to the fake river, just a few minutes before we started heading back…
…but not before eating one more thing. Here’s JT showing off the corndog covered in French fries that we bought off a street vendor. I don’t even think we ate half of it between the 8 of us, but of course we had to try.
Seoul was great but exhausting. If I go back I’m hoping to stay longer, shop less, and eat less.
Now we’re gearing up for our big trip back to the US!! Hope to see you soon.
Tags: communicating in Chinese, convenience stores, Dongdaemun, kimchi, Korea, Korean food, Seoul, travel outside of China
What fun! Good food with good friends….and SHOPPING.
Yowza! It’s good to have you here to keep the leftovers to a minimum or none existent. Enjoy your USA stay/visit. e komo mai