Seoul is a really confusing place...mainly because everything is in Korean! My initial reaction to entering the city: It's smoggy...and it's pretty amazing to imagine all the people that live on this tiny piece of land (relative to the US). The weather has been pretty humid. Apparently it was really cold up until I got here, so there's a thick fog/smog covering the city. When I went up to Namsan Tower, there wasn't too much of the city to see. I'm thinking I'll go back when the city clears up.
Namsan Tower: I took a bus from my uncle's neighborhood to Namsan Tower. I was going to ride the cable car, but then decided it'd be more fun/affordable to walk up to the tower. I don't actually know how much the cable car was, but the grandma I ran into said it's not a bad walk up to the top, so that's what I did. We got to Namsan Tower and paid to ride up to the Observatory Tower, where you get a 360 view of the city. That was nice to see, but I don't think I'd pay to go see the view again. I got to see all of the locks surrounding Namsan Tower! I didn't try looking for the C-Clown lock, but I read a couple of the other locks as I was walking past them. Most of them just ask for good health, etc.
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| Locks at Namsan Tower |
Myeong-Dong: After coming down from Namsan Tower, I walked around Myeong-Dong, which is the "Old Gangnam" as my uncle describes it. I didn't get a really good look at anything, but there seemed to be a lot of clothing stores, cafes, and a LOT of cosmetic boutiques. I got to see the different types of street food that Korea offers. Most of them are just variations of fried potatoes. I saw a lot of corndog looking food and a french fry ball! When I walked by a deokk bokki stand, I had to try it of course! My first Korean deokk bokki was not bad!...but I don't really have anything to say about it other than that. It just tasted like deokk bokki. A little sweeter than I'm used to and the sauce was thicker. It didn't have any ramen or vegetables - just deokk and tempura. Next to the deokk bokki, I did see soon-dae (Korean style sausage) dipped in deokk bokki sauce...I was too afraid to try it though.
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| Deokk-Bokki (far left: spicy korean rice cake) |
I saw two girls walking around with their heads completely wrapped in bandages from cosmetic surgery. I think they had their jaws trimmed down ::shudder:: - but that was interesting to see! I guess I give them brownie points for being able to walk around like that in public. (Side note: There are a lot of advertisements for plastic surgery everywhere: on buses, on trains, everywhere. I think they're trying to tell me something.). Other than that, I didn't get to explore the area too much, but I'll definitely be back in Myeong-Dong to get a better look at some of the cute things they were selling.
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| Streets of Myeong-Dong |
You didn't try the soondae dipped in dukbokki sauce? Even though I mentioned it to you... Aww I wish I saw the pictures of the girls with bandages around their face. How do normal Korean people think of plastic surgery? Do they think it's normal or do some of them not approve?
ReplyDeleteHaha yeah, no. Soon-dae in dukbokki sauce just doesn't sound appetizing at all. I wanted to take a picture of the girls, but I thought it would be rude =P. I'm pretty sure most people in Korea don't really think much of getting plastic surgery, but when I told family about the girls, they were surprised that they were walking out in public like that.
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