Our Last Excursion to Seoul (for now)

Well it's that time of year again. SUMMER VACATION! Last year for summer vacation we went to Jeju Island and had a fabulous time. This year we decided to make another trip to Seoul since we loved it so much the last time we were there. After I started planning our third trip up there, I quickly realized this will probably be our last time up there (for now) since we have no more vacations during our contract (besides our vacation to the Philippines next month). So here is the breakdown of our trip.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

After we finished working in the morning, we caught a bus to Seoul. The bus ride took about five hours (less than the travel time from Lewiston to Seattle) with a bathroom break after two hours.We arrived in Seoul around 6 and made our way through the crowded subways and underground shopping to our hostel. After we settled into our cozy, but cool room, and migrated the busy streets to find our way to a comedy show at a foreigner pub. A friend of ours, Wassim, is an up-and-coming standup comedian. This was the second time we saw him perform, and we were exploding with laughter!

 After the show, a few friends and Bobby and I made our way to a small store that sells a wide-array of imported craft beers. Bobby was in heaven and could have spent hundreds of dollars there (I did let him treat himself to a few select ones he hadn't tried yet). Bobby spotted an excellent cider that was on sale. So he grabbed some for us to try and OMG it was the best cider I've ever had. It is a dry cider, but it is creamy on the palate. It has a crisp and fresh aroma of apples with a uniquely refreshing tartness. It is almost like champagne, but better! Needless to say, we bought a few to bring home (Busan) with us!

(I think we are starting to sound like alcoholics, I swear we don't normally drink everyday, only on special occasions, which are most of the times I write blog posts). ^_^

We ended our night atop our hostel with good friends and homebrew we brought from Busan. We chatted and laughed the night away until sunrise.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

We started our Sunday morning by treating ourselves to some beef at a local western grocery store/cafe. Beef is pretty expensive here, and being the penny crunching travelers we are, we tend to only buy chicken. But when you are on vacation, you're allowed to splurge a little. I got a roast beef sandwich on homemade bread and I also found a Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost - a super gingery, lightly sweet carbonated beverage that excites my taste buds.

After lunch, we made our way to Namsan Tower AKA Seoul Tower AKA N Seoul Tower to meet one of our Korean conversation partners from LCSC, Jayeon (Elieen), who lives in Seoul. Normally you can see beautiful 360 views of Seoul from this tower, but it was a foggy day, so we didn't venture up to the top. But the surrounding areas were covered with lush green trees, well kept green grass, beautiful stone paths and the loud sound of cicadas buzzing through the trees.

Apparently a lot of couples go to Namsan Tower (which is on Namsan Mountain, the highest point in Seoul). The gates around the tower are covered with pad locks with couples names and short love notes on them. The idea is for two 'lovebirds' to write on the padlock and then link them to the fence and throw out the keys to ensure their vows are not broken.

We heard about this tradition for couples on Valentine's Day last year but at the Namsan Tower you can show your love for your significant other anytime of the year. I hope this next year during Valentine's Day Bobby and I can be apart of this tradition!

The pink lock below says, " Baby, I love you. Promise we are forever. I love you"

As part of the "love theme" they have angled benches that force couples to sit closer to each other.  

Next, we needed a little boost of caffeine. We found this awesome coffee shop that roasts its own coffee. 

The name of the shop translated into English is:

"A Sommelier's Coffee Shop".

After we were refreshed with caffeine, we headed to a famous makgeolli restaurant that we read about on CNN.com, called [ :h]. At this restaurant you can drink fresh makgeolli from every region in Korea. 

To start things off, we got a makgeolli sampler of the top 5 makgeolli's in Korea. 

Below you can see the descriptions of each one.

1: Lotus Root makgeolli from 충 청 도 (Chungcheong)  

2: Buckwheat makgeolli from 강 원 도 (Gangwon)

3: 개 도 Island makgeolli from 개 도 

4: Champagne Style makgeolli from 복 산 (Busan!)

5: Five Grain makgeolli from 충 청 도

Our favorite was #2. It was crisp and well balanced. We ordered a bottle!

Not only was the makgeolli amazing, but the food was the best Korean food we had ever had. We ordered traditional rainy day food: Kimchi Pajeon that had chunks of squid, green onion, kimchi. It was think and fluffy, but crunchy on the outside-just the way I like it. We also ordered a warm kimchi and tofu dish. The kimchi came in a mix with bolgugi (meat) and spices. It was sweet, spicy and salty. 
The perfect combo.

Monday, July 30, 2013

On Monday we make our way to the Korean Traditional Village. We were kind of confused by it, since it seemed like just a lot of modern clothing stores and shops. The highlight was this man. For 1,000 won (less than a dollar) he draws a portrait of you in less then a minute. We lucked out, because there were no lines on this day. I guess normally there are lines that go around the corner full of people eager to get their own pictures. 

Here are the portraits:

 
He also owns a small coffee shop that roasts their own coffee with cute hand drawn characters on each coffee bag.

Before we left Itaewon for the day, we did a quick price comparison on masks there and masks at the Traditional Village. Turns out, Itaewon was a lot cheaper and since there was no one else in the store we were able to haggle the price down.
So, check out our new masks!

Meanings of the masks:

(We can't find the meaning of the two masks on top. They are from a different village than the two on the bottom. When I do find their stories, I will update this post. But for now, here are the stories of the bottom masks.)

3:   In the twelfth century, the gods ordered craftsman Heo to create twelve masks, and he was to avoid contact with others until he was finished. Just as he was finishing the final mask, a girl peeked into his workshop, and he fell down dead. His final mask–Imae–was left incomplete, missing a lower jaw.


4:   Bune, sometimes spelled "Punae," is a flirty young woman. With her tiny, fixed mouth, smiling eyes, and apple-cheeks, Bune represents beauty and good humor. Her character is a bit shady and unrefined, however. At times, she tempts the monks and other men into sin.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Next stop: Dinner! 

Tyler and Natalie recommended going to a Traditional Korean Temple Restaurant called Sanchon. We weren't sure how to get there, and our Korean isn't very good, so we called the restaurant and gave the phone to our cab driver. After winding through small crowded streets, the cab drive stopped and said "yogi" (here). We looked at each other confused. As we got out of the taxi this man was standing there waiting for us and showed us to Sanchon. How nice. huh?!

As soon as we got there, they gave us slippers and put our shoes into a locker. A monk escorted us to a small sink, pointed and said "washe". We washed our hands and went to our table located right next to a dance floor. 

During our meal, we enjoyed three courses of vegetables that are only found in mountains here in Korea. Some were new foods we had never tried. Some were foods we are familiar with, but with a vegetarian kick. For example, they served three kinds of fritters of fried seasonal vegetable. 

We were curious eaters. Trying small bites from each bowl and letting it disperse in our mouths before we decided if we liked it or not. We found somethings to be very flavorful and full of spices, but there were other things that had bitter, dirty notes. 

Each course brought a new kind of nectarous teas. After doing a little more research on these tasty drinks I found a great link about traditional Korean teas.

The teas we had were:
 The first being a plum tea that our server told us was a fermented mixture of plums and pine needless-aged for many years. Plum tea helps prevent food poisoning and used to help upset stomachs.

The second was a cold pine tea for good health.

 Finally, the tea served with our desert, Omijacha, or five-taste tea. This tea has five tastes:sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and hot. It's great at relieving thirst and fatigue. Korean's believe "it is an essential dietary supplement during the summer." 

While enjoying our main course we got to watch a few traditional Korean dances. Unfortunately, my camera died while I was taking pictures of the food so I couldn't record the dancing. If you have never seen a traditional Korean dance then I recommend you watch this video. It is from the same restaurant (Sanchon), although they are performing different dances than the ones we saw. To see one of the five dances we saw, look on my Facebook page here and you will see a short video I was able to capture on my phone. 

Tuesday, July 31, 2013

Tuesday we slept in, enjoyed the cool AC in our room, ate some Vietnamese food, packed our bags and headed for the bus.

As we traveled back home through the beautiful green country side of Korea, I tried to soak it all in, remembering this might be the last trip across Korea, for now. I hope we can come back in a few years to explore the beautiful country side yet again!

Until next time,