Seoul (part 2) with a guest appearance

After our fun afternoon in Hongdae (and a short rest) we met my friends Adrienne & Abel who had flown over from Singapore to combine a weekend with us, seeing other friends and some business. Our first stop was dinner and we were keen to try another traditional Korean dish - bibimbap, a combination of rice, a selection of vegetables, some chili pastie and a raw egg which you mix together quickly to combine all the flavours and served with side dishes similar to those served at the BBQ. We headed to a local restaurant that was known for this dish and it was delicious (unfortunately we were talking too much and forgot to take a photo). We then moved on to one of the many nearby teahouses for a round of tea. I had an apricot tea which seemed to be made from two apricot stones and had a surprisingly strong apricot taste.

Apricot tea

The next morning we all headed to Changdeokgung Palace, another of the city's royal palaces. However, this palace had an enormous secret garden (not so secret now) which covered an enormous area behind the palace. I'd read that you have to book a tour of the gardens. Having navigated the online booking system to discover that the advanced tickets had all gone we made sure we arrived at the palace in good time to get "on the day tickets" for an English speaking tour. Once we arrived at the start of the tour we found out that for one month it was possible to do self-guided tours without booking! We decided to remain with the large group and tour guide and started to explore the gardens hearing about how the gardens were developed and the symbolism within each small garden. One garden included two rows of stones placed at an angle to each other which we were told Korean men from the elite class used to practice a certain style of walking in their wide trousers to prevent the material from moving too much. I could easily imagine how members of the royal family would have enjoyed the peace and tranquility of walking through these gardens.

The secret garden

Whilst much of the blossom had arrived early this year there were still bursts of colour throughout the gardens from blossoms, petals and coloured leaves. 

Colourful blossoms and leaves

After spending the morning in the palace and the gardens we headed to the nearby Bukchon Hanok village, with a quick stop at a restaurant that specialised in chicken (in various forms) along the way. The village consists of many beautiful old houses that date back to the Joseon dynasty and are built from concrete, wood and bricks around internal courtyards with intricate roofs and chimneys. Whilst the houses look simple they also look quite stylish by modern standards. Some of the houses have been turned into galleries and cafes, but many continue to be lived in as ordinary houses whose streets are filled with gawping tourists on a daily basis. There were a number of signs up and people walked round carrying signs asking visitors to be silent.  It was also another popular place for people to rent and wear the traditional Hanbok outfits.

Traditional houses 

Costumes for hire

After a brief pause at the hotel we were back on our feet and out for the evening. After the success of our food tour in Cape Town we had booked to attend a night time food walking tour. We joined four other tourists and our guide and headed to our first stop which turned out to be the BBQ restaurant we had been to on our first night! Fortunately we were very happy to return and it was just as tasty the second time round. We had an interesting addition of a local drink involving a large glass with a shot glass of coke inside, with a shot of soju (rice wine) sitting on top and the glass was topped off with beer. It had to be drunk quickly in one go to get all the flavours to mix. One was enough!

After a short walk we were at our next eating establishment for topokki which is a broth that is heated on the gas ring in the middle of the table and had many floating bits! We had a spicy version with seafood, scallops, rice dumplings and noodles and a non spicy version with beef, rice dumplings, vegetables, stuffed dumplings and noodles - delicious, although tricky to eat without making a mess!

Our next stop was for chicken (one super garlicky and the other sweet and sour) and beer. Whilst this seemed to be a popular restaurant this was not our favourite dish, possibly because we are lazy and like eating white meat without picking around the bones.

Our final stop was at a teahouse just around the corner from our hotel for another Korean favourite - bingsu which is shaved ice (ours was black tea flavoured) with condensed milk, nuts and red beans. It was quite a tasty and refreshing end after all the other food we had eaten! The teahouse was in the style of a traditional Korean house (like we had seen in the village earlier that day) and we decided we would return the next day to sample the extensive tea list.  

A night full of food

After all the eating it was time for an activity - norebang (karaoke)! Our guide found us a local singing house and negotiated a room for an hour. We had two difficulties: 1) working out how to use the complicated machine to choose songs and 2) finding songs that were known by everyone (a Brit, an America, two Colombians, an Aussie and a Russian). To make it worse the system rated our attempts - we scored 0 more than once! The biggest success was Gagnam Style - although we had to call in a member of staff to help us find it in the Korean section of the list of songs.

Karaoke fun!

Eh sexy lady...!

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to explore more of the city. We started walking down the river which was lower than street level with stepping stones and large fish. It was a popular place to be on a sunny Sunday.

River views and a heron action shot

Our next stop was Kwonjang market where there were many foodstalls serving ingredients, ready to eat food and busy restaurant stalls. One stall sold only kimchi which is made from salted and fermented vegetables, traditionally made from cabbage and radishes this stall had many varieties. We then followed our noses walked a few streets over and found a flower market. Walking further still we came across a section of the city wall that was still in existence and then a covered market that sold nothing but shoes, there must have been at least 50 stalls selling every type of shoe you could think of.

Colourful food market

Colourful flower market

Then it was time for lunch! We had a picnic by the river purchased from a selection of different market stalls including a sausage and fries on a stick, breadcrumbed fried dough stuffed with sweet or savoury fillings (some with interesting spellings such as cleanly tasted potatoes), rolled seaweed stuffed with lettuce and various forms of protein (we are still not sure what was inside the one described as "boiled at altitude") and doughnuts. On the way back I also found a stall selling the small pieces of sweet bread with a small fried egg on top - it was delicious!

Sausage and fries on a stick - a convenient meal

Our final stop was back at the teahouse bu the hotel for tea (the table came with its own kettle for top ups). the teas we tried included the pine needle tea and the colourful blossom tea.

Drinking tea with Abel & Adrienne

Lots of tea!

Feeling a little exhausted we found our bus stop and headed back to the airport after a fun few days in Seoul. It is a city of contrasts and it would be interesting to go back and see more of the city and the rest of the country. 

- Jess