Seoul Weekend: Bring on the Food
It's been a busy week, marked with amazing surreal experiences (this is Korea, after all) and delicious food (yay).
On Friday, Monique hosted a bunch of us for supper (The usual suspects: Me, Ty, Garrett, JP, Sloane, Jessica, Alex) where she served three different kinds of Kraft Dinner and tater tots. This is exciting stuff when you live in the land of kimchi.
Bright and early on Saturday morning (like, waking up at 5 am), Ty and I caught the KTX high-speed train to Seoul. Ty is heading to South Africa for a month before starting his new contract, so we decided to spend a weekend in Seoul before he left.
Our first stop was Itaewon, which I would liken to Chinatown in Toronto - except that it's Americatown in Seoul. You see mostly foreigners walking around, of all different cultures and races. It's a refreshing change from all Korean, all the time. We hit the major spots (for me): Starbucks, What the Book (a used bookstore) and Marrakech Nights - the best Moroccan restaurant ever, and a place that I go to every time I am in Seoul.
We then went to the Hongdae University area, which is a cool street with lots of shopping that I'd visited with Karen a few months back. The main reason for going there was the Doc Martens store, where I bought Ty a pair of Docs (late birthday aka going away present). Once again, it was just fun to see things that were different from Mokpo/Suncheon/Gwangju.
From there, we headed up to Sinchon to find a hotel. We did quite a bit of lost wandering before finding a suitable Love Motel to stay in. I was trying to hit a few of the same places I'd seen with Karen, but I couldn't find the same hotel we'd been to.
We'd planned to go out in the Hongdae area, so we headed back there, first for supper (Mexican - yum) and then out on the town. The funny thing was that we were both trying to drag each other to "this one place that I know you'll like" - of course, once we got there, we realized that we were trying to take each other to the same place. We headed down to a dank, smelly, dodgy basement bar that had some live music and free cocktails. While we were there, we befriended/were repeatedly bumped into a group of Canadians and Brits who were out for a friend's birthday. We decided to join them at a small 80s dance club (that I'd been to with Karen too), where we danced to appalling music for about 2 hours. From there, we said goodbye to our new friends and went back to the dank basement place to watch some more live music before almost crumbling from exhaustion (we'd been up since 5, remember) and heading home.
Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day. We went back to Itaewon to the Rocky Mountain Pub (a Canadian-themed bar with Hockey Night in Canada on the big screen) for the "truck stop breakfast", a classic 2 eggs-bacon-homefries-toast-beans sort of thing that is a real treat in Korea. Ty had to get gifts for back home, so we headed off to Insadong, which is a great street full of traditional Korean gift shops. It was super wicked crowded, and it was a bit frustrating, so we went to a small tea shop to relax. I'd been to this tea shop with Nicola on her last day in Korea last April. It's absolutely crowded with antiques and knick-knacks and featured live birds (little finches) flying freely around. It's truly an amazing place and a good escape from the Insadong crowds.
With a few hours to kill before my train back to Mokpo, we started walking down a few of the random streets around Anguk station. At one point, we found ourselves on a narrow, arty street that was full of museums, art galleries, wine and pasta bars and stores selling hand-made original jewellery. Once again, it was not typically Korean.
Choosing a random narrow staircase, we began climbing away from the street, finally stumbling upon a small, empty French restaurant with an incredible view of tiled rooftops, a pagoda (that the sun set behind as we ate) and a mountain top. Yeah - pretty much the most romantic possible place. While I chatted in French with the chef (who, by the way, had his Cordon Bleu certificate prominently displayed), Ty took a bunch of pictures -- most of the photos from that weekend are on his camera, not mine, so no pics really for the blog - except this one).
Our haute-cuisine meal consisted of potato soup served with warm crusty rolls, a salad dressed with sweet balsamic vinegar, followed by gratined eggplant and mushrooms, then duck with apples, and finally a small chocolate fondant cake thing. The food was amazing, the view was spectacular, and if felt like time had come to a standstill.
We arrived at the train station with less than an hour to go before my departure to Mokpo (Ty flies out to South Africa on Monday night) and happened upon a group of Peruvian musicians playing outside the main entrance. They reminded me a bit of a group that used to play in the Montreal metro - all long flutes and wee guitars and a bouncing rhythm.
But...my train was leaving.
I got back to Mokpo where I was attacked by Jakob for a full 45 minutes (punishment, obviously, for leaving him alone for a weekend).
It was hard to say goodbye for a month, but Ty is off to have a great time back home, visiting family and friends, spending a weekend (at least) at a game farm, and reconnecting with his homeland. I've got an upcoming roadtrip with about a dozen other people, and a Girls' Weekend in Busan coming up. It was a great weekend, and a nice way to say Goodbye for a few weeks.
On Friday, Monique hosted a bunch of us for supper (The usual suspects: Me, Ty, Garrett, JP, Sloane, Jessica, Alex) where she served three different kinds of Kraft Dinner and tater tots. This is exciting stuff when you live in the land of kimchi.
Bright and early on Saturday morning (like, waking up at 5 am), Ty and I caught the KTX high-speed train to Seoul. Ty is heading to South Africa for a month before starting his new contract, so we decided to spend a weekend in Seoul before he left.
Our first stop was Itaewon, which I would liken to Chinatown in Toronto - except that it's Americatown in Seoul. You see mostly foreigners walking around, of all different cultures and races. It's a refreshing change from all Korean, all the time. We hit the major spots (for me): Starbucks, What the Book (a used bookstore) and Marrakech Nights - the best Moroccan restaurant ever, and a place that I go to every time I am in Seoul.
We then went to the Hongdae University area, which is a cool street with lots of shopping that I'd visited with Karen a few months back. The main reason for going there was the Doc Martens store, where I bought Ty a pair of Docs (late birthday aka going away present). Once again, it was just fun to see things that were different from Mokpo/Suncheon/Gwangju.
From there, we headed up to Sinchon to find a hotel. We did quite a bit of lost wandering before finding a suitable Love Motel to stay in. I was trying to hit a few of the same places I'd seen with Karen, but I couldn't find the same hotel we'd been to.
We'd planned to go out in the Hongdae area, so we headed back there, first for supper (Mexican - yum) and then out on the town. The funny thing was that we were both trying to drag each other to "this one place that I know you'll like" - of course, once we got there, we realized that we were trying to take each other to the same place. We headed down to a dank, smelly, dodgy basement bar that had some live music and free cocktails. While we were there, we befriended/were repeatedly bumped into a group of Canadians and Brits who were out for a friend's birthday. We decided to join them at a small 80s dance club (that I'd been to with Karen too), where we danced to appalling music for about 2 hours. From there, we said goodbye to our new friends and went back to the dank basement place to watch some more live music before almost crumbling from exhaustion (we'd been up since 5, remember) and heading home.
Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day. We went back to Itaewon to the Rocky Mountain Pub (a Canadian-themed bar with Hockey Night in Canada on the big screen) for the "truck stop breakfast", a classic 2 eggs-bacon-homefries-toast-beans sort of thing that is a real treat in Korea. Ty had to get gifts for back home, so we headed off to Insadong, which is a great street full of traditional Korean gift shops. It was super wicked crowded, and it was a bit frustrating, so we went to a small tea shop to relax. I'd been to this tea shop with Nicola on her last day in Korea last April. It's absolutely crowded with antiques and knick-knacks and featured live birds (little finches) flying freely around. It's truly an amazing place and a good escape from the Insadong crowds.
With a few hours to kill before my train back to Mokpo, we started walking down a few of the random streets around Anguk station. At one point, we found ourselves on a narrow, arty street that was full of museums, art galleries, wine and pasta bars and stores selling hand-made original jewellery. Once again, it was not typically Korean.
Choosing a random narrow staircase, we began climbing away from the street, finally stumbling upon a small, empty French restaurant with an incredible view of tiled rooftops, a pagoda (that the sun set behind as we ate) and a mountain top. Yeah - pretty much the most romantic possible place. While I chatted in French with the chef (who, by the way, had his Cordon Bleu certificate prominently displayed), Ty took a bunch of pictures -- most of the photos from that weekend are on his camera, not mine, so no pics really for the blog - except this one).
Our haute-cuisine meal consisted of potato soup served with warm crusty rolls, a salad dressed with sweet balsamic vinegar, followed by gratined eggplant and mushrooms, then duck with apples, and finally a small chocolate fondant cake thing. The food was amazing, the view was spectacular, and if felt like time had come to a standstill.
We arrived at the train station with less than an hour to go before my departure to Mokpo (Ty flies out to South Africa on Monday night) and happened upon a group of Peruvian musicians playing outside the main entrance. They reminded me a bit of a group that used to play in the Montreal metro - all long flutes and wee guitars and a bouncing rhythm.
But...my train was leaving.
I got back to Mokpo where I was attacked by Jakob for a full 45 minutes (punishment, obviously, for leaving him alone for a weekend).
It was hard to say goodbye for a month, but Ty is off to have a great time back home, visiting family and friends, spending a weekend (at least) at a game farm, and reconnecting with his homeland. I've got an upcoming roadtrip with about a dozen other people, and a Girls' Weekend in Busan coming up. It was a great weekend, and a nice way to say Goodbye for a few weeks.
posted by Ms Parker at
7:34 AM
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