Wandering around Seoul
In my travels, I always want to do something traditional, something historical, and something current (I file shopping under this category) if I were to visit a city. I think I fulfilled this desire — I worked my way through the Lonely Planet with fervour on the plane.
After that delicious lunch that warmed me up suitably for a chilly wander through the streets of Seoul, I headed to the Namsangol Hanok Village in Chungmuro. The beautiful gardens and cerulean sky made me sigh in wonder.
Hidden behind the village is South Korea’s time capsule — a sunken concrete space surrounded by green slopes.
This wall explains that in four hundred years, the capsule will be dismantled and celebrate what was collected there in history. I didn’t get a good picture of the capsule itself but here goes.
On the surface are signatures of governors or mayors of major cities in the world, like Sydney, Toronto and Jakarta.
I decided I had enough culture for the day, so I headed to a famous market, called Namdaemun Market, which is located near Hoehyeon station. Soaking in the atmosphere, I didn’t think I would buy anything, until I saw these:
Fishcake sticks! May I say that Tokyo has sucky fish cake that is crumbly in texture (gross!) so this bouncy, deep-fried stuff was just like a piece of heaven in my mouth.
From this sprawling space of stalls, I found so many similarities between the Japanese and Koreans. They love their mushrooms:
They love their seaweed:
Tea, shouchu, beef, beauty products but Korea has an overwhelming supply of knock-off designer bags and ginseng:
This Chinese influence is a little different from the Japanese.
I also bought some DVDs — Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, Season Three for both. Ureshiiiii (Happy). I found Koreans to be so friendly and multi-lingual. From every direction, I could hear Japanese, Mandarin, Korean and English spoken. In fact, when I stopped by a wholesale Face Shop stall, the sales girl fired Korean, Japanese and Chinese at me to see which I would respond best to. Surprisingly, we bantered in Mandarin rather well and I walked away with yoghurt mask packs, blotters, soap and other knick-knacks for my female students.
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