Walking Around Seoul, South Korea
One thing I love about visiting a big city is the ability to just walk around and see what you come across. Jordan and I spent a week walking around different parts of Seoul, checking out the sites and looking for delicious food. You never know what you will come across when walking around a city aimlessly, and we found some pretty random fun things.
We stumbled upon a few temples where there was nice landscaping and people would come to pray or just sit and reflect. It was similar to Japan, except the ones in Osaka were much better groomed and taken care of (in my opinion). We came across fun architecture and old neighborhoods where you could see how people live. These areas were generally very well manicured, clean and taken care of. We also found some old palaces where people would dress up in the tradition clothing for free entrance (we did not). But it was fun to take pictures with some of the locals.
Of course we were on a mission to find all kinds of fun food. We ate enough meat at Korean BBQs to fill our yearly allowance of red meat. We found some pretty neat local places where we tried beef bulgogi and other tasty local dishes like bibimbap and japchae. We didn't care much for their beer and apparently neither do they. They have a drink similar to vodka called Soju that they would add to the beer to make it stronger. We saw a bunch of people drinking it and thought we should give it a try so we went to the gas station and both got a bottle. The lady kinda laughed at us because we clearly didn't know what we were getting into since one bottle was plenty for the two of us. Either way, we had fun drinking it, walking around the city and stumbling upon a random concert with the weirdest music you have ever heard, then ending up at a river walk where they had lit up lanterns for the holidays.
We took a Korean cooking class and while it was not as good as the one we did in Thailand, it was pretty fun to learn to make another type of food. The host was wonderful and welcoming and they had a nice place to cook.
Getting to know the metro in a foreign country is always fun so we used that mostly for our transportation. We did our fair share of walking and had sore legs every day when we got home.
Overall it was a great trip. I think the only disappointment was not getting to know any locals. We try to make friends everywhere we go, but no one wanted to give us the time of day in Seoul. The only other place we had this experience was in China. Not sure why, but I'm going to say that overall the people were not the most friendly we have come across. Either way, we had a lot of fun and I'd love to check out more of Korea.
We stumbled upon a few temples where there was nice landscaping and people would come to pray or just sit and reflect. It was similar to Japan, except the ones in Osaka were much better groomed and taken care of (in my opinion). We came across fun architecture and old neighborhoods where you could see how people live. These areas were generally very well manicured, clean and taken care of. We also found some old palaces where people would dress up in the tradition clothing for free entrance (we did not). But it was fun to take pictures with some of the locals.
Of course we were on a mission to find all kinds of fun food. We ate enough meat at Korean BBQs to fill our yearly allowance of red meat. We found some pretty neat local places where we tried beef bulgogi and other tasty local dishes like bibimbap and japchae. We didn't care much for their beer and apparently neither do they. They have a drink similar to vodka called Soju that they would add to the beer to make it stronger. We saw a bunch of people drinking it and thought we should give it a try so we went to the gas station and both got a bottle. The lady kinda laughed at us because we clearly didn't know what we were getting into since one bottle was plenty for the two of us. Either way, we had fun drinking it, walking around the city and stumbling upon a random concert with the weirdest music you have ever heard, then ending up at a river walk where they had lit up lanterns for the holidays.
We took a Korean cooking class and while it was not as good as the one we did in Thailand, it was pretty fun to learn to make another type of food. The host was wonderful and welcoming and they had a nice place to cook.
Getting to know the metro in a foreign country is always fun so we used that mostly for our transportation. We did our fair share of walking and had sore legs every day when we got home.
Overall it was a great trip. I think the only disappointment was not getting to know any locals. We try to make friends everywhere we go, but no one wanted to give us the time of day in Seoul. The only other place we had this experience was in China. Not sure why, but I'm going to say that overall the people were not the most friendly we have come across. Either way, we had a lot of fun and I'd love to check out more of Korea.
Exploring palaces.
Funny story here...I had no idea these guys were real until I walked up to one and put my arm on him to take a picture. He didn't seem to mind, but didn't change his body or face. They were super good at staying still!
This was a front door to someones home...but I couldn't resist!
Food, food, food!!!
Yes, I am in awe at all the deliciousness.
If I look amazed... it is because I am.
The never ending hike.
We stopped at many street vendors before one finally let us take a picture with these on.
Meerkat cafe. They had all kinds of 'cafes' where you could sit and play with animals. (cat cafes, dog cafes, etc. We picked the meerkat cafe because it seemed the most unique)
They also had a Wallaby (and a racoon, Coati and lots of other random animals living together)
Checking out the DMZ.
This is the neighborhood we stayed in.
Korean cooking class time!
I fell asleep on the metro. This is about how I felt every day on the way home from adventuring.
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