Location: Seoul, South Korea

I was a very cliché tourist today, by which I mean I grabbed a giant paper map of Seoul and had it out like a dummy all day long. I sat down for cheap happy hour coffee with my giant map and a list of recommendations from friends and family. As usual I started by making my way to the tallest point- Namsan Park, on top of which stood the North tower. I opted to ride the Gondola, as it was cheap and fast and a significantly better option for a lazy person like me. They smushed as many of us as humanly possible into the cart, meaning I was pressed right up to the glass for the whole ride. I’m not scared of heights by any means, but I probably didn’t need to be that close to the edge! When I got to the top I had a beautiful view of the city from a small park where every single ledge or fence was covered in love locks.

I spent a lot of time overlooking the city and people watching. One thing about South Korea is that everybody here is so beautiful. Men and women alike are all fashionable and put together. It feels like everything is intentional. Even people dressed frumpily look sharp. Makeup is a unisex thing, seeing it on a younger man is as commonplace as a woman. Men wear dangly earrings or hoops, with one often being longer than the other. I’d say about 90% of women wear the same shade of reddish coral lipstick, with the other 10% opting for a more traditional red, but it’s rare to see none at all. I’ve also never seen so many crazy patterned socks before. Wearing pants that are too short and interesting tall socks is a thing. Even tall socks with dresses and skirts!

I walked down to Namdaemun Market, a busy few streets filled with Korean food stalls and fake brand name merchandise. I seriously laughed at a few stalls because someone is buying enough of this stuff to keep them in business. Gucci underwear? YSL socks? You got it, for only a dollar. I wandered the stalls, paying particular attention to what food was being sold the most, as that’s a pretty good indicator that I should try it at some point. There were huge green or red pancakes everywhere, sticks of squid, and tons and tons of meat slathered in bbq sauces.

I saw on my huge map that there were a few interesting buildings nearby, so I walked and gauked the afternoon away, before stopping for dinner at Nu Look +, a restaurant recommended to my by Pauline. (Once again she comes in clutch!) I stopped in for a beer and some of those pancakes I had seen earlier. The green was a leek pancake and the red was a kimchi pancake (kimchi is salted and fermented vegetables like cabbage and radishes). The waiter at the restaurant was particularly concerned that things would be too spicy for me or that I wouldn’t know how to eat them so he sat down to teach me how to tear the pancakes apart, and brought me extra water even though there was only the tiniest hint of spice in the homemade soy sauce. Everyone seems surprised when I say I like spicy food! One girl even asked if I had ever eaten anything spicy! What like… ever in my life?

It was still pretty early (too early to go home to bed!) so I walked over to Deoksugung Palace (Once again, it was a point of interest on the map). It was dark out but the low buildings were lit up beautifully, and I could see the painted details of the underside of the roof extremely well. The whole complex was made up of old red and green and beige Korean buildings built originally in the 13th century, flanked by Western European ones built by King Gojong in an attempt to ‘modernize’ in 1900.

I had been out and about walking all day long, so I hopped the train back towards Hongdae. I was surprised to see on a Sunday evening it was equally as busy as Saturday! I wandered around again, enjoying seeing things a second time around now that I have my bearings and am not as worried about getting lost!

I can’t wait to see where my giant map takes me tomorrow!

Sav

P.S. Pauline also excitedly made me a Kpop playlist of music and sent it to me, so all day I was listening to some pretty intense and catchy music. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this makes it into my music rotation when I come home! I actually really like it!