Socks and vegan food - Seoul Trip Day 11
31/5 22:57
Helloooo. Today was a super slow day as I've sort of ran out of things I can think of doing (which I'm aware is ridiculous in such a huge city like Seoul, but a lot of the stuff that's cool here is cooler with friends present). Basically I just wanted to go to Myeongdong and eat a hot meal somewhere, which, fair enough, did take all day (but mostly because I left at like 4pm).
The reason I wanted to go back to Myeongdong is because the underground shopping center has the best deal on socks ever. Legit, it's 10,000 won for 11 pairs and they're really good quality! That's 7 pounds for 11 pairs of socks, I'm almost tempted to go get another 11 but I won't fit it in my suitcase.
Another reason for Myeongdong was the Style Nanda Pink Hotel. Style Nanda is a huge Korean fashion chain that also has it's own make up line called 3CE. It's fairly expensive, but I wanted to go for the aesthetics. The whole building is 6 stories tall, decorated kind of like the hotel from Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. Every floor has a theme, and the fifth floor is a cafe with the 6th floor being a rooftop area. I rushed through the shop bits so I could check out the cafe. I bought a berry-ade (it's by far the easiest thing to order instead of having to explain decaf coffee) and walked upstairs. It was so beautiful! I mean, aesthetically it was super pleasing though the view wasn't incredible since there were wee trees all around the rooftop. Basically big beanbags were laid out on both sides of the rooftop terrace and people were sitting and having their drinks, or rather would be normally. Today it was clearly a photoshoot day for a lot of tourists because there was three separate groups of people who were doing like, fashion style photoshoots against all the cool backgrounds and on the pink beanbags. If I had someone to photoshoot I would have totally taken photos too, so I understand where they're coming from!
I sat and drank my berry-ade and scrolled through my phone enjoying the breeze and the relative calmness of the rooftop for a while. I had decided where I wanted to go eat and figured it was late enough not to get absolutely wrecked on the subway so I made my way back down.
The restaurant I wanted to go to is called Oh Se Ge Hyang and it's a vegan traditional Korean restaurant. It wasn't too far away so I took the subway and changed over, getting out at Anguk! It makes me feel so local to recognise subway station names. The restaurant was in Insadong, a traditional area where there's a lot of old school restaurants. I found it easily enough and stepped inside! You had to take your shoes off and put them in a wee cupboard. I was seated in the corner, thankfully, and sat down on a small pillow. The tables were levelled so you could eat crosslegged.
I ordered some type of soft tofu bibimbap mostly because I was curious about the side dishes that come with the food and a lot of the other options were spicy. For me things that aren't even marketed as spicy in Korea are spicy so I wasn't gonna take any chances. The food arrived pretty quickly and I spent my meal eavesdropping on the table next to me which was a Korean man who spoke English and two Chinese tourists. I don't know what relation they had to each other but they spoke English so I followed along inconspicuously.
The food was alright, the actual soft tofu stuff was not great and after having two bites of it the smell of it made me feel kind of ill. Out of the side dishes there was nice fake meat cubes and kimchi that were yummy, but I didn't touch the seaweed soup because I can't deal with the smell of seaweed. I know, I sound super picky but if something puts me off a food it's really hard for me to try it again. I ate as much as I could before the smell of everything just made me feel gross. I had paid before the food arrived which was a good decision because I didn't have to face the shame of not having finished all of my meal.
I had carried my camera in my bag all day and, after having gone to Daiso super quick after the Style Nanda hotel my hands and bag were full so I made some space in my bag by hanging my camera around my neck. I got over the touristy feeling pretty quick and took a bunch of photos on my way home.
Not excited about going back on the subway in case it was crowded I decided to walk to the nearest green line station where I would be able to get back to Hongdae without having to transfer. Turns out the easiest way to get there was by following the stream I visited a few days ago! I had meant to visit it anyway but thought I wouldn't have time so the fact that it was on the way was cool.
I descended down to the walkway by the stream and took my time walking a few kilometres and taking photos. I messed around with the settings on my camera but it was quite dark already so things weren't turning out great. I finally arrived at one of the green line stations and after a wrong turn and an underground walk to the next station I got on the correct subway.
Korea is the kind of hot at this time of year that doesn't even hit you right away, but when you walk a little bit or sit down and get back up you realise you're incredibly sweaty. My deodorant is apparently useless so I've been the smelly foreigner on subways today. It's the worst when you don't have a seat and have to raise your arm to hold onto the railing and you can just tell the old men are judging your sweat stains. I'm only human!!
I got back and set down all my stuff and took my shirt off which was a huge relief. The thing is, I was getting kinda hungry again and knowing I'd be up until 3am again I knew I'd need some sustenance before sleeping. Against all odds I did change and go back out only half an hour after arriving back to the airbnb. I wanted to go get a panini and something from a cafe, but the panini place was closed. I decided to walk a different route to see if there were any cafes that seemed like they did yummy stuff for take out but alas, nothing. I think I mis-walked at least once because I found nothing and when I tried to get back it was quite the maze. Yes, I do know the location of the bakery from a few nights ago but I wanted to see if there was anything else. By the time I found my way back to the correct street I was kinda over it and just got something from the Seven-Eleven nearby instead of walking over.
I'm finding such joy in buying souvenirs for my friends but then also getting a bit stressed about not finding anything suitable for some of them. I know people are going to be happy with anything but I want to make sure I get something nice for everyone, and then if I get more things for one person it's gonna be a whole thing, so. Yea, getting stressed out about stuff that isn't a big deal, it's my job apparently.
I don't know what I would've done on this trip without my earphones. Honestly, most of the time I'm not even listening to anything because I'm too self-conscious about the music bleeding through but just having my earphones in makes me feel like I'm not completely vulnerable. Like, I'm doing something and people are less likely to bother me or think that I'm bored. Korean people seem to be always doing something on their phone on public transport so just sitting there makes me feel like the odd one out and also kind of bored so it's definitely a safety mechanism for me. It's also a way to distance myself from my discomfort with the language barrier if I wear them when I shop or do similar things because I'm more likely to be left alone.
I think tomorrow I might just go to a cafe, there's a franchise called A Twosome Place and I spotted a super cute heart shaped cake in their shop when I was with my friend on Saturday and I've been meaning to go back and try it. It feels weird to be homesick at this point but honestly I need some discussion and cuddles. I'm gonna research some day-trip type things that I could do that would take up a whole day so I don't end up randomly wandering and buying things I don't need. The last thing I want is for my suitcase to be too heavy.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to see how I'm doing!
Cheers,
Becks
Helloooo. Today was a super slow day as I've sort of ran out of things I can think of doing (which I'm aware is ridiculous in such a huge city like Seoul, but a lot of the stuff that's cool here is cooler with friends present). Basically I just wanted to go to Myeongdong and eat a hot meal somewhere, which, fair enough, did take all day (but mostly because I left at like 4pm).
The reason I wanted to go back to Myeongdong is because the underground shopping center has the best deal on socks ever. Legit, it's 10,000 won for 11 pairs and they're really good quality! That's 7 pounds for 11 pairs of socks, I'm almost tempted to go get another 11 but I won't fit it in my suitcase.
Another reason for Myeongdong was the Style Nanda Pink Hotel. Style Nanda is a huge Korean fashion chain that also has it's own make up line called 3CE. It's fairly expensive, but I wanted to go for the aesthetics. The whole building is 6 stories tall, decorated kind of like the hotel from Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. Every floor has a theme, and the fifth floor is a cafe with the 6th floor being a rooftop area. I rushed through the shop bits so I could check out the cafe. I bought a berry-ade (it's by far the easiest thing to order instead of having to explain decaf coffee) and walked upstairs. It was so beautiful! I mean, aesthetically it was super pleasing though the view wasn't incredible since there were wee trees all around the rooftop. Basically big beanbags were laid out on both sides of the rooftop terrace and people were sitting and having their drinks, or rather would be normally. Today it was clearly a photoshoot day for a lot of tourists because there was three separate groups of people who were doing like, fashion style photoshoots against all the cool backgrounds and on the pink beanbags. If I had someone to photoshoot I would have totally taken photos too, so I understand where they're coming from!
I sat and drank my berry-ade and scrolled through my phone enjoying the breeze and the relative calmness of the rooftop for a while. I had decided where I wanted to go eat and figured it was late enough not to get absolutely wrecked on the subway so I made my way back down.
The restaurant I wanted to go to is called Oh Se Ge Hyang and it's a vegan traditional Korean restaurant. It wasn't too far away so I took the subway and changed over, getting out at Anguk! It makes me feel so local to recognise subway station names. The restaurant was in Insadong, a traditional area where there's a lot of old school restaurants. I found it easily enough and stepped inside! You had to take your shoes off and put them in a wee cupboard. I was seated in the corner, thankfully, and sat down on a small pillow. The tables were levelled so you could eat crosslegged.
I ordered some type of soft tofu bibimbap mostly because I was curious about the side dishes that come with the food and a lot of the other options were spicy. For me things that aren't even marketed as spicy in Korea are spicy so I wasn't gonna take any chances. The food arrived pretty quickly and I spent my meal eavesdropping on the table next to me which was a Korean man who spoke English and two Chinese tourists. I don't know what relation they had to each other but they spoke English so I followed along inconspicuously.
The food was alright, the actual soft tofu stuff was not great and after having two bites of it the smell of it made me feel kind of ill. Out of the side dishes there was nice fake meat cubes and kimchi that were yummy, but I didn't touch the seaweed soup because I can't deal with the smell of seaweed. I know, I sound super picky but if something puts me off a food it's really hard for me to try it again. I ate as much as I could before the smell of everything just made me feel gross. I had paid before the food arrived which was a good decision because I didn't have to face the shame of not having finished all of my meal.
I had carried my camera in my bag all day and, after having gone to Daiso super quick after the Style Nanda hotel my hands and bag were full so I made some space in my bag by hanging my camera around my neck. I got over the touristy feeling pretty quick and took a bunch of photos on my way home.
Not excited about going back on the subway in case it was crowded I decided to walk to the nearest green line station where I would be able to get back to Hongdae without having to transfer. Turns out the easiest way to get there was by following the stream I visited a few days ago! I had meant to visit it anyway but thought I wouldn't have time so the fact that it was on the way was cool.
I descended down to the walkway by the stream and took my time walking a few kilometres and taking photos. I messed around with the settings on my camera but it was quite dark already so things weren't turning out great. I finally arrived at one of the green line stations and after a wrong turn and an underground walk to the next station I got on the correct subway.
Korea is the kind of hot at this time of year that doesn't even hit you right away, but when you walk a little bit or sit down and get back up you realise you're incredibly sweaty. My deodorant is apparently useless so I've been the smelly foreigner on subways today. It's the worst when you don't have a seat and have to raise your arm to hold onto the railing and you can just tell the old men are judging your sweat stains. I'm only human!!
I got back and set down all my stuff and took my shirt off which was a huge relief. The thing is, I was getting kinda hungry again and knowing I'd be up until 3am again I knew I'd need some sustenance before sleeping. Against all odds I did change and go back out only half an hour after arriving back to the airbnb. I wanted to go get a panini and something from a cafe, but the panini place was closed. I decided to walk a different route to see if there were any cafes that seemed like they did yummy stuff for take out but alas, nothing. I think I mis-walked at least once because I found nothing and when I tried to get back it was quite the maze. Yes, I do know the location of the bakery from a few nights ago but I wanted to see if there was anything else. By the time I found my way back to the correct street I was kinda over it and just got something from the Seven-Eleven nearby instead of walking over.
I'm finding such joy in buying souvenirs for my friends but then also getting a bit stressed about not finding anything suitable for some of them. I know people are going to be happy with anything but I want to make sure I get something nice for everyone, and then if I get more things for one person it's gonna be a whole thing, so. Yea, getting stressed out about stuff that isn't a big deal, it's my job apparently.
I don't know what I would've done on this trip without my earphones. Honestly, most of the time I'm not even listening to anything because I'm too self-conscious about the music bleeding through but just having my earphones in makes me feel like I'm not completely vulnerable. Like, I'm doing something and people are less likely to bother me or think that I'm bored. Korean people seem to be always doing something on their phone on public transport so just sitting there makes me feel like the odd one out and also kind of bored so it's definitely a safety mechanism for me. It's also a way to distance myself from my discomfort with the language barrier if I wear them when I shop or do similar things because I'm more likely to be left alone.
I think tomorrow I might just go to a cafe, there's a franchise called A Twosome Place and I spotted a super cute heart shaped cake in their shop when I was with my friend on Saturday and I've been meaning to go back and try it. It feels weird to be homesick at this point but honestly I need some discussion and cuddles. I'm gonna research some day-trip type things that I could do that would take up a whole day so I don't end up randomly wandering and buying things I don't need. The last thing I want is for my suitcase to be too heavy.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to see how I'm doing!
Cheers,
Becks
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