Seoul Searching

I finally went to Seoul last Saturday! It was not what I expected. I had always pictured Seoul to be a big metropolitan city with big skyscrapers, but was just all apartment buildings. Everywhere.

After a 2 hour bus ride, and a 30 minute subway ride, we found ourselves in Insadong. Insadong was a really cool arts district with cobblestone roads and lots of shops with traditional Korean paintings, pottery, and sculptures, along with tourists traps with "I Love Korea" t-shirts and key chains. When we reached the main shopping street on Insadong it started pouring so we took cover in a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant, where we both enjoyed jigae, a Korean stew.

Umbrellas everywhere in Insadong

When the rain calmed down we ventured back out to the main street.  We stopped at this really cool shop with scrolls that the shop owner hand painted, they varied from landscape paintings, to paintings of flowers or birds, to sayings written in Korean script.

There were also a lot of street vendors making and selling various foods. We stopped at one stand with two Koreans guys who were making a desert called kkultarae. They started with a big block of honey, then put a hole through it so it was like a donut of honey, then the guy continued to wrap the honey in loops so he ended up with thousands of strands of hardened honey that were dipped in flour. With those strands, they stuffed jam or chocolate and nuts inside so it was like a little pocket with the filling. They were so cute and friendly and had such a cute song to go along with their demonstration that I had to buy it. For my fellow Persians, it tasted a bit like Pashmak, but slightly thicker and sweeter.

The Korean vendors making KKultarae

After Insadong we went back on the subway to check out Myeong-dong. Myeongdong is a shopping district in Seoul with lots of local shops and international shops. They had a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Zara, Puma, and get this: a four-story Forever 21! It was like heaven's gates opened right in front of me. Myeongdong was incredibly crowded and had random people dancing and dressed up in animal costumes, a 'magician' who blew bubbles to the crowd, and a group of old people singing songs. There were a lot of foreigners here too, which was a big change from Inje.

Creepy pig who scared me

Umbrellas and people everywhere in Myeongdong

Overall, Seoul was pretty cool, but a little dissapointing. There's still so much more to see in Seoul so I can't really judge it now, and the rain and miserable weather put a damper on everything.

The Forever 21 with four floors!