Seoul, South Korea-2012

Not long ago I went to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. I only had six hours in Seoul, since we were part of a tour from another area of Korea, and it had been a hectic week at work so me and my buddy decided to see where the bus dropped us off and figure out what to do from there. Turned out that the bus dropped us right off the Itaewon International Market Street. We got to Seoul at lunch time and were hungry after a few hours on the bus so we found a cafe that served Italian with a Korean twist. I got a pasta dish in a rose water sauce that was kinda spicy but really good and an apple juice that was awesome before starting walking again. Ever on the lookout for good jewelry or bead stores, I convinced my friend to go to the “fashion road” first. I was disappointed to learn that all the stores were merely boutiques of ready-made outfits by lesser known designers. My friend told me a fact that made me a little less disappointed at not finding beads. She said that she had looked on Google to see what was said about this street and learned that many designers try out new ideas in Korea before sending them out on the shelves around the world. I hadn’t known that and found it rather interesting. By now we had been walking about an hour without seeing anything worth buying and were slightly grouchy but once we got to Itaewon Street, we found an underground “market” and bought some souvenirs at good prices that got us in better moods. The underground markets on that street are large rooms with a number of stores but no walls. The stores are established there all year round, so it’s not like a market with stalls, but there are walking paths separating the stores and they are designed to be different shops that complement each other. Many of the markets sold jewelry and clothes but the one we went to had jewelry, souvenirs, blankets, baseball hats, and mens suits. We walked around for a few more hours and got souvenirs as well as seeing the International Food Street with restaurants like The Guinness House in Seoul, the Taco House, The Moon Club, My Thai House, Scrooge Pub, and Buddha’s Belly.
After a fun afternoon of shopping and window shopping we got back on the bus for a long ride back to our beds that night. I can’t say that I saw a lot of Seoul, but what I saw was what I needed that day and shopping therapy can be awesome some days.

Korea version 2 part 1

My first day in Korea was marked by fog. We couldn’t pull in because of the fog so we wound up sitting out in the sea for hours waiting to be able to see anything. I left with a friend, I’ll call her L, mid-morning and we went to what we call International Market. (I’m not sure what the real name is but that term fits.) The place is one of the typical places we can get buses to so whenever we stop here the market is an awesome place to get anything from designer clothes to vendor clothes sold in street stands to cheap jewelry to expensive jewelry to household goods to lighting fixtures. We got to the market by 11 and decided lunch was first on the menu so we found a Korean barbeque place. Now that probably brings to mind the sauce many Americans put on their grilling and call “bbq”. Not so with the Korean style. Korean barbeque is really food brought to the table uncooked and put on a stovetop put in the table. Many Koreans cook the food themselves but the restaurant we went to wouldn’t let us cook ours. They monitored the time and came back to stir our dish of meat, bean sprouts, and tofu pieces until they decided it was okay for us to start eating the dish. (That may have had something to do with the fact that we had a small squid uncut cooking under there to begin with. After it had cooked some they cut the squid into bite sized pieces and mixed it in to cook with the rest.) The food was good (the squid a little chewy but good) although I did learn something about the sauce. The longer it sits on the heated pan, the more liquid evaporates therefore turning a moderately spicy dish into an eye watering dish. (Mental note to self: stirring can be bad after letting it sit a while.) After we got done eating we went wandering around the market some. She was looking for clothes and a specific CD of a Korean band and I was looking at clothes, jewelry, souvenirs… Unfortunately the gloomy day didn’t help our mood. Neither of us were quite in the mood to buy anything. After about an hour of mindless wandering we finally walked to a Lotte Center which is like the Dias in Japan: a large department store that is more like a mall with all the separate designers having separate areas to sell things in. L figured it would be a good place to find a CD store or clothes she may like. Yeah, didn’t happen. There were no CDs or DVDs and the clothes were too expensive. ($130 for a pair of Levis? Not quite my cup of tea.) We wandered up six floors of the place before giving up and deciding to take the train to another Lotte Center this one was connected to a Lotte Hotel with a casino inside. After wandering for about an hour in the Center (she bought a jacket and I got a shake so we were happier) I commented that I’d never been to a casino. We were barely halfway through the afternoon so we went to the casino. It was small and barely occupied. Two of the four poker tables were being played, the roulette tables were closed, and only five to eight of the maybe forty slots were in use. There is a reason for that as it’s illegal for Koreans to gamble. The only reason they allow the casino is attached to an international hotel for tourists. I spent maybe twenty dollars and won at least half that back and lost it again before we left after another hour.
However, L got the directions to a CD store in walking distance and we headed out. We walked in to a book store thinking that was it. Nope, just a few levels of Korean books. We walked out the store on the second floor…right across from an art store. Yeah, we both got lost in there. She found special pens for drawing cartoons and bought them. She explained in the US they get bought for about $10 a pen, in the store they sold for about $4. Not bad. She bought 24. Combined with notebooks, cool Asian papers, lots of stickers and a few random things, she spent about $200 there. I managed to find thick gauge wire in black, green, and blue that I bought. Eventually I’ll make them into awesome chain maille jewelry or wire wrapped pendants. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for good gauge colored wire and decided to buy a lot since on thick gauges you get less length. Combined with some notebooks to organize my writings and stuff needed to organize study for work, my stuff came out to under fifty bucks. Much more conservative than my friend’s. However, the stuff she got was much less expensive there and she was happy with all her buys. (I’ve seen some of her art by her new pens and they do look pretty cool. Now if only I could draw beyond stick figures…) After that we went downstairs and she bought her CD and I found a set of ten female Disney movies for about twelve dollars so we left the building happy.
By then it was almost supper time so we decided to call it a day and went to Mr. Pizza for supper. Their motto is “Mr. Pizza Love for Women.” I know that because she had been saying that phase all week in her cute Korean voice. Luckily she didn’t say it so much that it lost the humor so going there for super was good. The point of that store is Korean pizza. That means corn on most of the pizzas which wasn’t too odd. The sweet potato filling instead of cheese in the crust was odd but not bad. We got a 4 in1 pizza that had their main four pizzas mixed on one pizza, two pieces per type. I must say that though it definitely wasn’t American, the meal was still pretty good.
All in all we had a good day out in Korea and I’m glad I went out. Until next time, this is Li’l B signing out and wishing you all a lovely week.