Seollal in Seoul, part 2

So I know I've been a bad blogger and haven't finished my blog of Seoul, but here is part two! I will try to fit all the high lights into one post this time rather than like 3 or 4 haha.

Our second day in Seoul we went to Gyeongbokgung palace which turned out to be crazy busy, strange since it was also Seollal day or not strange at all since the palace was free that day. Probably because they wanted to give at least some of the staff the day off.  I was not actually prepared for how large the palace grounds were. For some reason I'd always imagined it as just the huge main building and a few other smaller ones around, but no, it never seemed to end. It was huge and beautiful, full of the traditional Korean architecture I've seen at some of the other historical sites I've visited. See all those wonderful pictures I've been posting on facebook guys!

We wandered around the grounds for awhile, saw the palace and various peoples house and buildings. There was a beautiful little pond in front of Chuirojeong pavilion which is huge, according to me friend you can go in it in the summer but it was closed off while we were there. Being on the palace grounds also felt like an escape from the endless city because they were large enough that you could almost forget where you were. Also, the mountains towering around the palace in the background made it feel even less like it was in the city. 

After we wandered around and looked at some more buildings and gardens we went to the Korean Folk Museum which is pretty much just your standard museum. It had history of Korea, a contemporary exhibit about jeans and a bunch of celebratory stuff for Seollal. which we approached the museum there were tons of white tents set up for various things. You could buy traditional snacks, make crafts for the kids and get your fortune told, we by passed the tens because they were really busy. First, we found a cute little imitation town which I think was supposed to show Korea before the Korean war then we went to see the folk museum. On the way in we passed a bunch of giant drums set up outside the palace and a sign saying there was going to be an activity at 1. I think it was around 11:30 when we went in? Or 12? I'm not sure, but we definitely came out after the drum show started, but it was still really really amazing. 

The loved seeing how past people in korea led their lives, all the artifacts from their daily life and what they did for fun and so forth. I don't really know what to tell you about the museum it was pretty much your standard type. They did have a really cute exhibit of sheep for the year of the sheep, it was probably one of my favourite things it was so simple, but so interesting. It had different depictions of sheep and they talked about its signification in Korea society. 

I ended up spending way more time in the museum than I intended. And around the time the show outside started I was busy watching a video of traditional Korean weaving, which looked really cool and I happened to like weaving and textile arts. So finally after reminding me of the time Julianne and I headed out the see the drummers, luckily we barely missed anything. The drummers were amazing, I took some videos I'll have to post later. It was so intense and the drummed so fast. Everyone was really engaged with the performance (for the most part) and enjoying themselves so it made the atmosphere really great.

After the museum and palace we were both pretty hungry so we went to find some food and walk towards Cheonggyecheon river. Unfortunately because it was Seollal a lot of restaurants and businesses were closed so we ended up grabbing some food at a convenience store along the way. Next we headed down the river, which was a beautiful walk towards the subway station to go to another part of Seoul. the day before Julianne's friend had told us she had a bunch of old clothes sitting outside of her apartment she was trying to get rid of. Excited at the prospect of free clothing we both agreed to stop by and take some of the stuff off of her hands. It was a good decision. Not only did I briefly see Lotte World or at least the building its in, but I also got a cute dress and skirt.

After we hit up another grocery store for supplies for the evening. We decided to get a few snacks and drinks, luckily the day before we planned for the chance we might not be able to find a good place to eat by buying ramen cups and drinks so we were basically set for the evening.

The next day we went to the I'Park mall for the Studio Ghibli exhibit which was so so worth it in my opinion, despite the 15,000 Won entrance fee. They did a really creative and beautiful job of bringing the movies to life. It made me so happy to be there. After we found lots of open restaurants (thank god) and had some delicious tteokbokki which is really famous korean street food. We had it at a restaurant and with free fried rice, gosh that's a mouth full! It was delicious and cheap so that was awesome. After that we went to a market and I desperately tried to find some different shoes, without any luck. Julianne has size 10 feet (I believe) so finding shoes in Korea is basically impossible for her.

Since we'd had a little bit earlier start that day and I was feeling sluggish I suggested we go back to the hostel and rest for a little bit then go out for dinner and visit the Namsan tower. So fast forward through our resting we decide to try out this chinese restaurant in Myeongdong because I saw soup dumplings on their poster and I was desperate to try them (Julianne's version of events may differ slightly in that she may claim that I talked about dumplings the entire time, but really, I swear, it wasn't like that!)

Well unfortunately, as these things go, the dumplings turned out to taste pretty bad. i don't want to say they were the worst dumplings I'd ever had, but they were pretty high on the list of bad dumplings... they tasted like they'd been in the freezer for awhile, ie no flavour at all and the wrappers had tears in them, which if you know anything about soup dumpling this is the ultimate faux-pas. You cannot, I repeat, cannot have holes in the wraps. All the freaking soup pours out before you even get them to the edge of the steamer basket. So sad. The last problem was the soup itself. It was also pretty tasteless. I know I sound awful, but soup dumplings are special, like they are really special dumplings. They are like little meat-y, liquid-y jewels of flavour in your mouth. I have only had them one other time, in Vancouver, right before I left. I made Jon find a dumpling shop with me and it was amazing. So happy and delicious and omg. I just looked back and realized how much I just wrote about the dumplings... so this is awkward and I'll be moving on now.

Although the dumplings weren't great the rest of the food was pretty yummy. After eating we headed to the Namsan tower. It was really cool. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the line, going on the gondola was pretty fun. It is definitely worth going up Namsan at night because seeing the city lights and just how far Seoul stretched out was pretty amazing. I loved it up there and despite all the people it still felt really peaceful and happy. I wanted to go up the actual tower too, until Julianne told me it was 25,000 won (about $22 can) so never mind on that. We just went up the hill that the tower is on, not the actual tower. I do plan to go again next time I'm in Seoul and if I can afford it I'll probably go up the tower and I will also probably walk up the hill rather than the gondola, but neither of us could handle it after being on our feet for three days straight and walking everywhere. After that we called it a night because it was already getting pretty late we almost bought ice cream up there too, until we realized how expensive it would be then decided to get ice cream at the GS25 (popular Korean convenience store) which we never ended up getting.

The next day would be our last full day in Seoul and we were going to Hongdae! A popular university district. But that, I'll save for a new post because I just realized how long this one is... why do I need to describe everything, I don't know? I guess since I went on this trip almost a month ago my recall is getting a little foggy and I feel like adding in all the details. Anyway, last post about Seoul is on it's way, I swear! Then I'll have some posts about the graduation for the grade 6 students, and the first day for the grade 1 students and some other stuff, when I remember what it is.... I swear some other cool stuff did happen. I'm just tired now and blanking. 

Oh the foods you will eat (Korean food part one, the intro)

I know I've probably mentioned in a couple posts that I like Korean food. You know, maybe.

Well I do. I love it.

Korea has some of the most delicious, unique food I've ever eaten. They love two popular flavours sweet and spicy, those flavours often go together. Although it is not only sweet and spicy foods here, they have many kinds of food you could never experience outside Korea. An array of different kinds of soup and fish, a billion side dishes. My favourite are the ones that have green leafy veggies and lots of sesame oil on them. Yummy.

Of course there's also kimchi, which is most westerners image as only be pickled cabbage. It's not. There are actually different types of pickled vegetables, not all called kimchi, but some them are. My favourites are the radish kimchi and the sweet pickled radish. Radish kimchi is super crunchy and juicy. It's not sliced like you'd imagine, but the radishes are cut in half with the tops left on in most cases and pickled with left over kimchi sauce. Or they are cut into fairly large cubes. Either way they are delicious.

Another thing that you probably already know about Korea food is the BBQ. There are different kinds of BBQ meals like bbq'd pork slices called samgyeopsal and then bulgogi the Korean classic. Both are delicious as they look. Usually when you eat Korean bbq they give you lots of side dishes, soup (there is soup and side dishes with every Korean meal traditionally) and various leafy greens to make wraps with for the meat. Seriously, the leafy greens are the way to go. So delicious. You gotta put some garlic and a Korean bean paste called doenjang in them and maybe a little kimchi. It is seriously so tasty.

The last thing that most people know about Korean food is the street food. It's very popular here. Any market you go to is gonna have dumplings (called mandu in Korean and my personal favourite), tteokbokki which is basically rice cakes (not actually cake, there's more like a chewy noodle made out of rice flour) and fish cakes (again not actually cakes) in a steaming hot, spicy and sweet red sauce. Koreans at work were worried this dish would be too spicy for me, but I handled it fine. The last really popular street food is fish cake soup. It has fish cakes on sticks that boil in broth. you eat the cake off the stick and drink the broth. It sounds kind of strange, but it's really good, I wasn't a huge fan of it the first time I had it but, since trying it again I've come to love it.

Moving on the some lesser known Korean foods... there is duk galbi which is a chicken dish cooked at the table. I've posted a few pictures of it. Actually, I've probably posts a few pictures of most of the dishes I've mentioned. It is spicy and has a variety of veggies, rice cakes and chicken in it. Most good places make it at the table in a large flat pan so you know it's freshly made. After eating all the chicken and veggies they will bring you steamed rice and seaweed to sop up all the yummy sauce left in the bottom of the pan. Be warned though, this dish is spicy and can mess up your clothes cause if it's too hot then the sauce splatters.

I feel like I could easily dedicate a whole blog to Korean food, but I think I will only high light one more dish for today. There are still many many things I haven't even mentioned and many more that I haven't tried. Korea actually has a lot of regional cuisines, which Koreans are fairly proud of. This past weekend three of my friends and I went to Jinju, a city about an hours drive from Changwon to see a castle. According to my Korean friends we had to try this special bibimbap (a mixed rice dish, it's very pretty and fresh) with thinly sliced raw beef on top and a yummy soup with it., The meal did not disappoint. It had the yummy red chili sauce that is also a little sweet and a bunch of veggies, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts... and on top of it all in a neat little mound was pile of thinly sliced, small slivers of beef. The soup with the meal was also pretty good. It had some blood cubes in it which didn't really taste like anything to me and liver which I actually don't like that much.

All in all Korean food is good. Really good. Don't be fooled into thinking it is just BBQ and rice dishes. I mean I didn't even talk about bean paste soup, Korean pizza, the fried chicken, soondubu jjigae, Korean Chinese food (yes, it's different, yes, it's good), kimbap (rolls that look like sushi rolls, but taste nothing like them) and many other things. I think this post will have to be part of a series? This can be Korean food part one, the intro. So look forward to Korean food part two, jiggae, kimbap and regional cuisine.