Vlog: Seoul Day 2

July 17, 2013 by greysuitcase in Travel, Video

Seoul Day 2: Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain

July 17, 2013 by greysuitcase in Travel

After dinner, we took a taxi and headed to Hangang Park to see the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain. This is the longest bridge fountain in the world with nearly 10,000 LED lights that run along both sides of the bridge. The fountain operates from April to October so we got to see how it’ll light up.

When we got there, the taxi ahjussi were telling us “No light! No light!” and we were like “What?? Why??” And the ahjussi were just like “I don’t know.” We’re trying to ask if there’s no light tonight or just right now (because there are certain hours that the fountain will light up and when we arrived there we were ahead of the scheduled time). But the ahjussi seemed to not understand what we were saying. But since we’re there already, we thought we should at least give it a try and wait for the show time. If it’s true that there’s no show that night, we’d still have a good time just walking around the park (and burn off all that meat that we ate earlier).

Turned out, the ahjussi was telling us there were no light when we arrived because 20 minutes later, the show began. And you know what, we thought the lights are going to be on both side of the bridge, but oh boy, we were wrong. So once the show began, we were running like mad to the other side of the bridge so that we wouldn’t miss the show. It’s just become one of the things we surely will remember from our trip :) For 15 minutes we just sit there, looking at the lights while listening to the music playing and enjoying the cool breeze of spring.

On our walk back to the subway station, I saw this on the wall.

Seoul Day 2: Garosu-gil, Apgujeong, & Gangnam

July 17, 2013 by greysuitcase in Food, Travel

After we got our stomach full, we headed to the subway station to go to Gangnam. The subway station is quite different than the ones we’ve been to. And we got lost this time. I wasn’t quite sure where we were, but we were definitely not at the place that we intended to visit. It was pretty funny because we wandered off to a fairly quite area. But, we made the best of it and just laughed it off. What is traveling without getting a little lost right?

On our way back to the subway station, we went through what probably the longest escalator we encountered yet in subway station. I’m amazed on how deep underground the subway system goes in Korea.

Also, I saw this interesting advertisement. Not sure what it’s for or what it means, but it looked intriguing.

After that, we arrived at the famous Garosu-Gil (가로수 길). We were sweating bullets from the hot sun and decided to make a quick pit stop at Caffe Bene for some cold treats.

The area is filled with restaurants, shops, cafes, studios, and galleries that are pretty upscale. So we just started strolling down the street and walked in to some of the shops that interest us.

We saw something that’s totally unexpected: a couple of guys walking donkeys on the other side of the street. Seeing something new everyday here.

After Garosu-gil, we headed to Apgujeong (압구정) also known as the Rodeo Street. The area has a lot of foreign brand shops that are very familiar to us. We just took a quick look around the area since the brands we saw are available in the States.

Afterwards, we took two taxis to Gangnam because our feet kinda gave up on us from all the long walks in the past 7 hours. I have to say Gangnam has some pretty cool and interesting buildings. Tall buildings here and there and kinda reminded me of financial districts in the States.

We were meeting Bella’s college friend for dinner since he worked around the area. He took us to this one awesome samgyeopsal place that I forgot to pay attention to the name of the restaurant, partly because I was tired AND hungry. So as soon as we arrived, we just walked in and sat down on the tables that have been prepared for us. The meat was excellent and we also tried some makgeolli. We also ordered their naengmyeon and ate until we were stuffed.

Seoul Day 2: Gwangjang Market

June 23, 2013 by greysuitcase in Food, Travel

Day 2. We started our our day with a delicious breakfast at the Gwangjang Market (광장시장). We got there around 10 am and might have arrived a little late because some of the stalls and shops were closed. Even so, many were open, so we got to sightsee the market for a bit. For a market, I think the place is very clean and organized. It felt very different than the markets I've been back home in Indonesia. We ate and tried a couple of different things and after we're done eating we just walked around the market.