Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 15 - Went for a ₩5,000 Korean Meal

Mar had a workshop today and it basically took the entire first half of our day. When we came back from the workshop, it was during mid-afternoon and we both were pretty spent. She was tired from learning all the new stuff from the workshop and I was tired from translating the stuff she was learning during the workshop. So, we decided to have a break/nap time before going out again for dinner.

After Mar woke up from her nap, we went out to look around the restaurants around the neighborhood. We weren’t really sure what we want to have for dinner to be honest but when we passed by this one restaurant that has meals with rice, soup and banchan (백반) on their menu, we wanted to try it. Well, I’m always down for eating rice and soup and Mar wanted to try it mainly because of the cheap price of the meal. I mean, getting all the things pictured on the banner in front of the restaurant for just ₩5,000 (≈$4) per person is a pretty good deal.

So we went in and was eager to order and eat (especially since we haven’t had any proper lunch yet and it was like 5 pm in the afternoon, so we’re pretty hungry). But then when we went in, nobody was there. The lights and TV were on and everything but not one person was in sight. We even waited for 5 minutes or so hoping that the owner or the server of the restaurant would appear but nobody showed up. So after a while, we left and decided to look for another place to eat.

Mar was suggesting that we should go get Naengmyeon (냉면) near the restaurant we went to with our friends the first day we were here. But neither of us remembered what the restaurant name was and how to get there. After walking around for a while and saw nothing that really interest us, we decided to go back to the first restaurant and try our luck the second time. And what do you know. This time, the owner was inside and we can finally have our meal.

We ordered 2 servings of the sundubu (순두부찌개) and they came with two bowls of rice, two pieces of fried fish and 12 different banchan that you can ask for more if you want seconds. The ahjumma gave us free fried eggs too which was really nice of her. We also got to talk with her for a bit when we were having our meal. She was wondering what are foreigners like us doing in this neighborhood since the area is not exactly a tourist spot. I told her that we’re visiting our friends who live around here and she nodded in understanding at that.

Anyway, for ₩5,000, I’d say this was a pretty good meal. The food tasted like a home-cooked meal for sure and it was really fulfilling. We even ended up walking around for a while after our meal because we were so stuffed before finally going back home.

---

Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 11.1 - Cherry Blossom & Gatcha Shop

The next day, we were pretty well rested and decided to go see the cherry blossom again before heading to Garosugil (사로수길) to run some errands. It was a little cloudy when we got there, which makes a nice lighting to shoot the scenery. The clouds didn’t linger around for too long though because minutes later, they disappeared and the sun took over their place instead. Luckily I already got some good shots before it got too bright. Mar and I walked around the park a little bit further than we did yesterday just to see what’s up there. We didn’t see anything that we haven’t seen from the day before so after a while, we decided to head over to the bus stop.

We did a little pit stop at the convenient store because Mar was hungry since we haven’t had anything before we left and she decided to buy milk to fill her stomach. We took the the bus and then the subway to Garosugil and stopped by a Gatcha shop near the subway exit because it’s probably one of Mar’s favorite thing to do when traveling (at least when she’s with me). She browsed around the store to look for the collection that she likes and decided on the Gudetama machine where she put in her coins in trade of a plastic ball containing a random Gudetama mini keychain. She was happy with the one she got although getting an extra ₩500 from the coin changer machine might also have contributed to her elated mood.

To be continued in part 2.

---

Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 06.1 - Wearing Hanbok at Gyeongbokgung

Travel Vlog

Today was Christina’s last day before flying back home and we decided to rent hanboks and visit Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) for her last day. Opting for a taxi ride this time, we headed to the hanbok rental place near Gyeongbokgung Station before spending our afternoon at the palace walking around and taking pictures.

More story and pictures from this excursion on this post. See second part of the vlog here.

---

Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 03 - Garosugil & Seongsu

Travel Vlog: Third day of the trip, we went cafe hopping in Seoul. From Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in Garosu-gil to Daelim Changgo in Seongsu. We also went to Common Ground and accidentally met a couple of celebrities when we were passing by an event that just finished.

---

After we finished exploring Common Ground (see the story here), we started to make our way to the next cafe we wanted to check out. And this was when an unexpected happy coincidence of meeting a couple of Korean celebrities happened. So we were walking to our next destination when suddenly we saw a bunch of people exiting a storage-like building that we just happened to be passing by. Since there were a lot of young and well-dressed people coming out from the building, we were curious on what’s going on and whether there was some kind of an event that just ended. So, we decided to just stand there and watch the people for a bit.

Soon enough, suddenly there was this woman and a group of people around her who was walking out in quite a rush. At first, we couldn’t make out her face since she’s still a bit far, but by looking at her entourage, we’re pretty sure she’s somebody famous. We just weren’t sure who she was. And then when the group was closer to us, we immediately recognized the woman. Turned out it was Choi Soo Young from Girls’ Generation! My camera hasn’t started recording when she was facing us, so I only caught a glimpse of her back when she turned for the alley. But we’re sure it was her. She’s pretty tall and her face is kinda hard to forget. And then minutes later, Minzy, former member of 2NE1, also walked out with her mom and her entourage. The girls were excited because they didn’t expect to see anybody famous on the street of Seoul, but there we were, just happened to saw two Korean celebrities who we recognized. It was definitely one of the exciting moment from the trip.

After we all came down from the excitement from minutes before, we finally arrived at our next destination, Daelim Changgo (click to read more about the place). The place was a bit busy, but there were still empty chairs to choose from since they have a very spacious seating area. We spent our afternoon there before heading back to Hongdae to get some dinner.

---

Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 02.2 - Sinchon, DDP & Hongdae

Travel Vlog

After we’re done with the wedding shoe shopping (see part 1 here), we headed to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) to check out Seoul Fashion Week that was going on (see more pictures and read the story here). We spent a good amount of time people watching before moving on to Dosan Tower, more well known as Doota (두산타워), one of the largest fashion malls at Dongdaemun market because Grace and Marshellia wanted to browse around and maybe do some shopping. By the time they finished browsing, the sun already set and we started to make our way to the subway station to head to our dinner plan.

But of course when the two spotted a street vendor near the subway entrance that sells a variety of street food, they had to make a stop and bought some. I guess the walking around we did the past couple of hours have burned all the food that we ate earlier because they said they were hungry enough to eat that and dinner later on.

Christina joined us again for dinner with Soo Zee and Leigh (see more pictures and read the story here). And after dinner was done, we stopped by the convenient store to buy some water and other things before going back to our Airbnb and calling it a day.

---