Markets

When I first came to Seoul, I was really bewildered by the lack of homeless people around the city. Whenever you go to big cities in America, like New York or even DC, there are homeless people everywhere! But here, you really don't see too many of them. Apparently in Korea, instead of begging along the streets, there are a lot of homeless people at the larger transfer points for subway stations. Not that I really wanted to see the homeless people, but I was kind of thinking "Where do they all go?" I think that Korea's police do a careful job of keeping them out of the "more aesthetically pleasing" districts (I'm watching my word choice here, haha). So anyways, my uncle took me to Seoul station, which is a large transfer point, and there I got to explore the other end of Korea's population. The part they don't show you on Psy's Gangnam Style video! When I saw them, I think I felt a sense of relief. Like, "Ah~ Korea's not perfect."...not that I really thought Korea was perfect to begin with.

After that, we walked to Seoul city hall, which looks a little funny to me, because they put this crazy modern addition onto the old style city hall building. The inside of the new city hall addition has a Sky Plaza coffee lounge on the top floor, which pumps out a lot of A/C - we took a nice break from the heat by drinking an Ice Americano! It was Memorial Day in Korea the day we went, so there were tons of people in front of the city hall building, so I did some people watching from the Sky Plaza cafe.

The old city hall in front, with the new addition in the back (the glass wavy bit)

Inside the new Seoul city hall addition - first floor

Then we walked to Cheonggyecheon-Ro, which is a street that's been recently remodeled. I believe what happened is that it used to be a really low-end part of town. It had makeshift houses (they called it a "shantytown") and the streets smelled and were dirty and nobody wanted to look at it, so the government (or someone) covered the area in cement...Now there's a man-made stream there that pumps water from the Han river. It's very nicely redone!

Cheonggyecheon-ro

Cheonggyecheon-ro: People sitting along the man-made stream

Then we walked to Nandaemun market and Gwangjang market, which are old-style street markets. There were so many people, so I can't really tell you what was there. It seemed like there were a lot of older people's clothing stands, fried food stands, imported goods, etc. If you need something, you can probably find it in one of the two markets. I got shoved by lots of elderly ladies trying to get me out of their way...and ate bindaeddukk (I don't know how to describe this...mung bean pancake?) and drank makgeolli (alcohol)! Before that, I had a fish stew thing with my uncle, but I really don't know how to eat fish, so my uncle was laughing at me...sad.

Gwangjang Market

We did so much walking around, I was really tired by the end of the day. Today, I went to Kilsangsa Buddhist Temple and took it easy at J's cafe, which is a cafe in the middle of nowhere with an amazing view of the city. I was thinking about doing a Temple Stay at Kilsanga Temple...but I have to think about my self-discipline first...but what other opportunity will I get? This weekend, I'm going to Jeju Island, so I will write something when I get back! (It's supposed to rain all weekend at Jeju...)

Kilsanga Temple

View from J's Cafe

Sno...something from J's Cafe: Chocolate ice cream with meringue