Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Day 2 in Seoul trip


The next day we woke up, and since it was Sunday and a major holiday we weren't in a hurry.


I came out of our room and out into the courtyard. I could hear Bethany, so we started talking not knowing where the other was.


 I walked down a pathway to the back side of the house.


 There she was enjoying some sunshine in the garden.


 There was more to the guest house up the garden stairs.


The overgrown trees gave it a real oasis in the city feeling.


 The traditional roof top was towered over by an apartment building.


 As we got ready to set out for the day we were really glad to have such a peaceful place to stay.


 And then we were off to the other side of Seoul, but first a morning walk through our neighborhood.


 The view down the alley to our guest house.


 This building grows grapes.


 I thought this was such a charming entrance.


The flower on this plant was as long as my forearm.



 It smelled really sweet too.


 We walked into a small little shop where everything was so carefully presented. 


 One of my favorite parts about being in Seoul was that so many people could talk to us in English. I really miss being about to talk to a salesclerk, or ask if something was sweet or spicy. The woman sitting in the shop on that holiday morning was the daughter, sister and friend of the artists who had their things in the shop. Her specialty was making jewelry  Her sister sews and her mother made pottery. There were so many mixed media. Some of the jewelry was made from pottery and others from glass, there were tons of pins, bags and hand painted scarves and fans.
  

 It was such a sweet shop. 


But really they all were so unique and cute.


This was a tea house on our street, but it was never opened when we were around.


But now it was time for breakfast/lunch.


 We stopped down the street at the Funny Grill, mostly because it was cute and also because it was American dinner food.


 We placed our order with Mum and stepped out side onto the street, since the inside was already full. 


 Our breakfast table.


The roses were so bright and smelled so great, and I loved them in there coffee tin vase.


 Well in our case it was a paper cup.


 Then it was lunch time! I got a burger, Roland ordered pancakes and a sausage-egg-English muffin and Bethany ordered chicken fajitas.


It was good, but  I don't know what that red sauce was.


The owner had photos of her cat all over her shop and cute little stickers and sayings. She's doing what I wish I could.


 Full bellies and we are off!


The closer we got to the station the more lively the streets became with bike messengers with stands of flowers longer than their bikes.


 Bethany was excited for all the subway travel to do, since we were going to the opposite side of Seoul from were we were staying. 


 As the train stopped we snapped a quick picture of Gangnam station, just because the song was so popular.


To the COEX Aquarium! This huge many floor aquarium is housed inside of a huge multistory mall.
.

 The inside was decorated to give a natural feeling of the world where the fish were from.


 The cute nice fish were put in playful setting they even had some spa fish in a bath tub that you rinse your hands and could put your fingers in the water and they would nibble at you. It was so much fun!


 And then we went where you do not put your fingers in the water.


They had an entire South American fish room with fish that were incredible and tubes full of piranha swimming around and around.


The tropical fish area was so bright and so colorful.







 The Moray eels were as impressive and mean looking as ever.  


 Duh dun


Rawr!


That's right, they just put fish in front of a painting. Art!


 We caught the ending of the water show wishing everyone a happy Korean Thanksgiving. I liked that the scuba divers were all wearing traditional clothes. 
 (the sound on the video is really bad, I would just mute it if I were you)


This was the happiest fish there!


This is the shark tunnel at the end of the aquarium.


They had manatees, seals, monkeys, beavers, bats and the cutest squirrels ever! After we did a bit of shopping, got a bit to eat and found a Cold Stone Creamery and had some super tasty ice cream. Another few trains home and we just relaxed at our guest house the rest of the evening. It was starting to get cold, but it was a pleasant break from the summer heat.

Coming soon Day 3: Down Town!




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Our Chuseok Seoul Adventure 2012 Day 1


 My husband, Bethany and I had our first real vacation. We had 3 days off that connected to the weekend to make it 5 glorious days off, so we headed to Seoul to see the big city. Ranked the 11th biggest city in the world by population.

Please click on any pictures to see them larger!
 We finally we finished our one bus and 3 subway stations later we arrived in the area of our traditional guest house. The community was so sweet with lots of unique stores.

 Following the GPS on our phone we walked for about 15 minutes.

Looking up this popular street, we were so excited to almost be there. Then we found a wall the kept us out, we had to go around to the station and back up on a different road.

 Even though we had to start all over again, we were greeted with even more charming stores and interesting shop fronts.

 Finally we made it!  The Doo guest house.

 It was just beautiful, simple and charming.

 But we didn't stay long. We were starving!

 This Italian restaurant was just a skip away from where we where staying and smelled wonderful!

Bethany and I saw exactly what we wanted!

 And then we saw Dr. Pepper

 It was AMAZING.  Sure I live in another country and you would think "Hey why aren't you eating traditional food?" Well simply it's because that's mostly what Andong does, and I eat that everyday!

 But they found away to make my pizza Korean when they served it with honey with  toasted garlic flakes and pickles.

 The Dr. Pepper was amazing.

 The pickles were too!

 Roland ordered a calzone, it was really great! the sauce wasn't too sweet, which tends to be a thing Koreans do to Italian food.

 Mmmmmmmm... it was so good.

 After that we moved down to Insadong, the traditional Korean street market, though it wasn't very traditional. Along our way some nice elderly man showed us his painting.

 We also saw an old store that was being filmed by a TV station, It makes Ddeok (rice flour made glutinous . They all looked really beautiful, and delicate.

 These statues stand tall on the side of the street, just before the Insadong street market.

Ah there it is, Insadong.

 These 3 guys sing and make Ddeok. They had a sign with all the K-dramas they had been on.  

We kept seeing these ice cream filled tubes of rice flour.

 Roland still thinks they are super weird. It is a little strange to see people walking around eating them.

These were really interesting they reminded me of milk weed back home.

And then we saw it.... 

 The bubbling cauldron of silk worm pupae!

EWW!!

 And now,
 For something completely different!

 This dancing crew of all women!

 They had drums and flutes, and were dancing out a play, but we couldn't understand its significance.

 The market was full of touristy things but we found a side street of genuinely older things.

 This box of painting brushes was so bright and colorful, I loved them all.

 Street food was everywhere, but we weren't so hungry, but as we walked along the smells would pass us by.

 The noises and murmur were drowned out by this mans awesome fast hands as they beat on his steel drum.

We were happy, but getting tired from being on our feet for over 10 hours.


We thought about stopping at a cafe' but we took another side trip down a dark alley... 


 and found this. 


Wow, the most amazing cup of ginger tea I have ever had, Roland had plum and Bethany had the traditional green tea. The darkness of the Tea House coupled with the cozy sitting and the old building made for an amazing atmosphere. You could smell spices and it was really nice to get off our feet for a while.

 After our tea it was getting late, and we wanted to find some food and get back to our warm bed.
We found a pretty popular place and decided to relax and have some galbi or rib meat.

It was wonderful!

Bethany ordered some Dandelion wine, it was nice but not as nice as my yummy tea!


 After all was said and done, we were full, and ready to find our way home and get some rest for Day 2

Stay tuned for our next adventure!
 Do we navigate the treacherous subway systems?
Do we find Mexican food?
Does Bethany see her fishes?
Does Roland get the girl?

See you soon for another exciting installment of...
Our Chuseok Seoul Adventure!







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