A weekend in Seoul

It is a rainy morning here in Ulsan with a little dog curled up on my lap so what better time to write about our recent trip to Seoul this past weekend. This trip was made possible by the fact that Dennis didn't have to work Saturday, we have great friends who took Arnold, and I was dying to get out of Ulsan for a little adventure!

We flew out of Ulsan on Friday night and after a short 40 minute flight we arrived is Seoul. Thanks to Dennis' handy Seoul Metro Iphone app we found our hotel in no time. By the time we had checked in, cleaned up a bit and were ready to go it was around 9pm. Now I know many of you know me very well but for those who don't when I get hungry I get cranky. So by 9pm I was very hungry and very cranky. After the hotel told us that there was no sushi restaurants close to the hotel we decided to hit the pavement and find our dinner. Most restaurants looked open but upon further inspection they didn't open till 10, which just wouldn't do. After walking around for what felt like forever Dennis spotted a "Tuna and Sake" restaurant and we ran across the road dodging traffic to get in! We decided on the set menu for 2, some warm sake, and a Guiness for me. Now each time I go for sushi anywhere in the world I compare it Hana sushi back in Calgary Alberta (yes land locked Calgary), Dennis can testify that this was the first time I have said "ok this sushi is better than Hana", and was it every amazing! We started with raw beef which we cooked on a mini coal bbq brought to the table, then a thinly cut octopus course, sashimi, sushi, tempura and of course miso soup. After a couple of beers and cups of sake, and me back to my normal lovely self we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up for the next couple days of exploring Seoul.

The next morning I woke up very early as I was so excited to get the day started, Dennis was less excited to be woken up by me. Dennis bought a couple cinnamon buns from "Paris Baguette", I made us some instand coffee and we had breakfast in bed. We took the hotel shuttle to the Namdaemun market in Downtown Seoul. I really didn't know what to expect but knew the market was huge! As we arrive pretty early we got to be there as the little kiosks started to open, within a hour the market was full of people. The market mostly sold knockoff bags, luggage, party supplies, food, shoes, and lots of jewelry stores. We had a great time walking around looking at everything and of course doing some people watching. Dennis suggested that we take a look at the underground shopping centre. Downtown Seoul is full of underground shopping as that is how travel across streets as you can't do it above ground with all the traffic. After looking around for a bit we decided to head up above ground again and at the top of the stairs Dennis fell and sprained his ankle! He claimed he was fine and that we should continue on with our sightseeing. Here is a picture of the market:

This is the underground market:

After a quick coffee and survey of the damage Dennis did to his ankle (it was getting bigger by the second) we were off again to Myeong-dong for some shopping. Myeong-dong is still in downtown and is where all the young people and tourists like to go shopping. There are many recognizable labels there including Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Lacoste, GAP, etc and they all have american sizes!!! After walking all over we decided it was time for lunch. We decided on a western favorite of ours...California Pizza Kitchen! While Dennis was in Texas he had bought many of their frozen pizzas and we decided that it would be nice to have a little slice of home. We throughly stuffed ourselves on pizza and mojitos and we were on our way again.

Our next stop was to Insa-dong which is the art and antiques district.

Insa-dong is full of art galleries, antique shops, souvenir shops, and tea shops. This area was so beautiful and I love stopping in as many stores as I could. This area is full of tourists as it is the perfect place to find a little gift to bring home. I know that when we come back to Seoul we will be going back to this street. Also anyone travelling to Seoul must go here!

So after many many hours of walking on a sprained ankle Dennis had had enough and we headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. Lonely Planet suggested a great bbq restaurant so we decided to see if we could find it. A ride on the metro with one transfer later we found ourselves in a very strange area where no restaurants were open, no one in the streets, and it was just kind of creepy all around. After searching and searching we finally found our restaurant.

This bbq restaurant specializes in smoked black pig. The chef would smoke the pig in the oven outside and then bring it inside for us to finish cooking on our bbq in the centre of the table. We have eaten at many a bbq here and none have done pork this well. The restaurant was similar to most bbq restaurants here in that they bring you many side dishes to eat with the meat. It is also customary to order lots of beer and soju. Soju is essentially watered down vodka and can give you one heck of a hangover! I have started to pour my soju into my beer rather than shooting it, which does not help on the hangover front.

The next morning we did breakfast in bed again and headed out to see the palace of Changdeokgung. As Dennis ankle has swollen to three times the size we took the metro to the palace.

After walking around and taking many pictures we decided it would be best to go eat lunch and head back to the hotel. We had planned to take the train home from Seoul but we decided that since we were so exhausted from walking around so much that sitting on a train for 4 hours would be terrible. D made the executive decision to cancel the train tickets and buy plane tickets. It cost us about $0.40 to cancel the train tickets and another $30.00 to buy plane tickets and we would be home in 40 minutes.

We had a great weekend but were happy to come home to our life here in Ulsan and of course our Arnold. We look forward to our next trip to Seoul and hopefully we both will be healthy for that trip.

Both of us are thinking about all of you regularly and miss you lots. Please keep us updated with what is going on in your lives.

miss you all,

J