That being said, we try to knock down as much cool stuff as possible. Thus far, we've made 2 trips, equally eventful, fun, and packed with cool touristy stuff. Here are the best of the best, or at least the most interesting, from our first trek to Seoul, which was roughly the 2nd weekend (I think?) in October.
We took the KTX, the high speel rail, from Gwangju to Seoul, at 7:30 on a Friday night after a mad dash to the train station on the part of Erik and myself. And let me say...the KTX is really great--3 hours of smooth comfort, and a beer cart! After a while, you begin to notice things getting more and more urban, more and more lit up...and then you're in Seoul, a metropolis of over 15 million.
We finally made it to our desired neighborhood from the subway around 11:30pm, and began looking for a good motel. We had a couple of neighborhoods in mind, but because this was a popular weekend to visit Seoul (what with the coming Monday off from school), motels were hard to come by. After searching for nearly 2 hours, we eventually found a place and just called it a night. We were tired enough and just happy to be in the city. So we got off to an early start on Saturday morning:
Stop #1 was one of many tourist centers in Seoul, this particular one near City Hall. A good starting place to get some information on restaurants, sights, and transportation. And to pose with K-Pop stars.
Near City Hall, though we didn't know it at the time, is one of the 5 main classic palaces of Seoul. This is Deoksu Palace, which has been downsized in recent years due to recurring fires in earlier years. Nonetheless, it remains a really cool place with (as you can see) traditionally dressed Korean guards. About a half hour subway ride from our motel in Sinchon, it provides some amazing scenery on a clear day. At roughly $1 for admission, it's worth it for anyone walking by. It's also pretty hard to deny something that looks so cool, authentic and inviting, especially right in the heart of the city--traffic literally whizzes by these dudes all day as they stand and look awesome.
And they're really cool with tourists looking to take pictures. Here are Aaron, Erik, and myself with one of these studly guards.
Our walk around the palace lead us to this building--we didn't think it served much of a purpose (in fact, I literally think it built for bathrooms and nothing more), but it looked pretty cool, eh? The green and yellow are a nice touch.
Here's a great look through a grove of twisty, high pines at one of the many gazebo-like buildings on the palace grounds. It's difficult to see, but the tall buildings all around the palaces really give this palace an original look--classical Korean architecture of old set right in the middle of modern Seoul.
Beautiful day for a walk around the palace.
This photo helps to illustrate the modern architecture popping up along the palace grounds. This part of Seoul is where plenty of business (and especially city administration) is conducted.
With a huge grassy area and plenty of fountain mist, I'd imagine this park is loaded with folks during the really warm months of the year. I didn't get any pictures of them, but two of the buildings on the palace grounds even resemble university buildings, with their neo-classical columns and limestone--this is all a great change-up from much of Korean architecture, which is largely concrete buildings with little variation--any chance to see some traditional buildings with such incredible decoration is really a treat.
Like this.
The next stop on our day trip through Seoul was Namdaemun Market. Just a short walk from Deoksu Palace, Namdaemun, along with Dongdaemun, is one of two major flea markets in the city center of Seoul. Though there are probably hundreds of these such markets throughout the city, these two tend to dominate the map. And the photos don't lie--this market was PACKED. Plenty of great, inexpensive stuff to be found. A few of the highlights were a couple of nice shirts, some hip, thick-rimmed glasses (with totally fake, plastic lenses), and a hip new watch for roughly $5.
So many people on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Namdaemun Market.
One of my favorite steals of the day from the market--a sports coat that totally fit. Can't say I see myself wearing it all that often, but how cool does it look? The only thing that could've made it more of an attractive throwback is if it included the awesome professorial elbow-pads.
More people walking through Namdaemun, looking for deals. ("kaka chu-se-yo?" is more or less "discount, please?" in Korean.)
This dude set up shop right outside of our motel in the Sinchon neighborhood of Seoul. His spicy sausages were dangerously good. He had some pretty sick lettuce on that head of his, too--you don't often see an easy-going, long-haired Korean man...so it's best to live it up and give him some business when you do!
And here's the beast: mustard, hot sauce, slaw, sausage, and pickles. OH BABY.
And now we're moving onto Seoul by night. This is Seoul's most popular neighborhood for anyone between the ages of about 20 and 30: Hongdae. Hongdae is short for "Hongik dae Hakkyo," or Hongik University. Loaded with restaurants, bars, and clubs as far as the eye can see, any foreigner's eyes will absolutely light up in Hongdae, if not for the beautiful, young Korean women strolling around, then for the insane amount of nightlife available.
One sampling of Hongdae's nightlife. To offer a little perspective, this is one themed bar in Hongdae called, rather straightforwardly, "Ho Bar." There are 11 of them in the Hongdae neighborhood alone. Here are Nicole, myself, and Erik, sporting some awesome specs that we bought earlier in the day. If you want to dress like a trendy Korean, which I sometimes increasingly do, a good place to start is with some awesome glasses.
And here are Toni, Aaron, and Julia rocking the specs. Everyone passed them around and dug them.
This one goes out to my friends in Madison, WI. "Red Dog," a subsidiary of Miller-Coors, was the official beer of me and several of my roommates throughout my university experience. Red Dog is difficult enough to find in liquor stores across the upper midwestern United States, let alone Seoul, South Korea. But I did it. Thanks, Ho Bar!
The journey through Seoul's nightlife continues with Club Cocoon, one of Hongdae's largest and finest clubs. Though it cost us all a pretty penny for admission, it was the wildest, loudest, and sweatiest light show I'd been to in a long, long time.
Koreans absolutely raging.
Aaron, Erik, and myself...A. swagged out in our flannels, and B. swagged out in our cool specs. This is, unfortunately, the last you will see if Erik for the weekend, as he came down with some wicked food poisoning or a virus of some sort, and was down for the count in the motel room for the remainder of the weekend.
Sunday morning made for a nice opportunity to get out on my own a little bit earlier than usual and look for some cool stuff. Considering the Sinchon neighborhood is very close to the Hongdae (University) area, there are lots of cool little coffee shops and thrift stores, so that was nice to check out for a couple of hours. I also peered through the glass at a closed Nike outlet that just so happened to be airing the Wisconsin-Nebraska game, the first Big 10 meeting between the two teams. I must have looked ridiculous, staring through this glass at a T.V. in a dark store. Worth it.
This is getting a bit wordy, so I'm going to stop here and make this first Seoul trip a two-part experience for all of you. There's not too much else to discuss (the remaining pictures are relatively self-explanatory), but I should get some sleep and you should all find something else to read and check back in roughly 12 hours. Thanks for checking back in and reading about my life! Will update ASAP. Lots of love, and all the best,
Sam Teacher
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