Day 12

Day 12 - Hongdae & Ilsandong


So when we woke up, it was raining yet again. We were kind of sick of this crappy weather because it was really limiting us from doing certain things and we were hoping it would stop raining for the next few days we were here (but we were wrong). But we're lucky and fortunate that we were in Hong Kong when the typhoon happened in Seoul or else that would've been pretty bad. We decided this day to check out Hongdae area. We woke up kind of late so we only had a few hours to check out anything before meeting up with CK so we decided on going somewhere close.

We heard that the Hondae / Hongik University area was a very lively area at night time. This is the area / subway station you head to if you want to go clubbing or check out the night life. We wanted to see what this place was like ensuring that we didn't miss any hot spots while we were here (even though daytime is not the time to go haha). So when we arrived, our first intention was to find a place to eat. Any first impressions? The fact that it was raining and there were many students (obviously at a University area station) and lots of coffee shops, restaurants, little stores and bars. I believe there are plenty of night clubs in this area too that were closed because it was a weekday afternoon.

So we walked around the area which seemed like an alleyway and road with shops and restaurants. We were extremely hungry so we were searching for a good place to eat. We saw many places that had the same table top cooking we always ate but we wanted to try something new. So we spotted a restaurant that had a really good deal for cold noodles. We went to the restaurant and ordered two bowls of this cold buckwheat noodle, one spicy and one regular. They both came with the cold noodles, broth, half of a boiled egg and some raddish. Also they give you a small plate to share amongst two people, grilled pork belly (yum). This was so good, it was different from other cold noodles we've had in Toronto. What was even better, the bill came to 9,800KRW, less than 10 bucks Canadian!

So after walking around a bit and checking the place out we made our way back to the hotel to drop off some things and make our way to Ilsandong. There was a bus stop in front of our hotel that went straight there so we hopped on the bus. The bus driver was pretty rude, I was trying to tell him to let me know when to get off because we never took the bus before and had no idea where the place to meet CK was and he just brushed us off. So we sat there not knowing when to get off but remembering that CK said that it took about an hour to get there. So we asked this man beside us (I showed him a paper that CK wrote in Korean that said "Please let me know when we arrive at Ilsandong") and luckily the man said he was getting off at the same stop so we were relieved.

CK was there to meet us when we got off and she took us to this big outdoor mall complex with a bunch of stores inside. We never really found anything worth buying (in our opinion) but it was still nice to check out all the deals and the prices on numerous clothing items. We were waiting for her friends until 7pm to eat dinner so we continued walking around. We went into this 3D movie simulation thing where you sit into the chair and it's like a rollar coaster simulation that moves. It was fun and felt pretty real and it was just 2,000KRW a person so it didn't really cost us much. We decided to take a little break and go for frozen yogurt at A Twosome Place. We ordered red bean bing sa with frozen yogurt to share which of course was delicious once again. It was getting late and time for dinner and we were wondering what we should eat even though there were tons of places around. CK asked us if we ever had Sam Gyup Sal. We said no, we didn't even know what that was. So she said dinner was decided then because she wanted us to try. It is basically pork belly that is cooked on a table top eaten with lettuce, rice cakes and accompanied by soju.

We met up with her friends who thought we were Korean but to their surprise we weren't. We had to force them to speak their English which I might add was pretty good! We went to the restaurant and decided on a traditional table where we had to remove our shoes and sit cross legged. This was slightly uncomfortable but was still good. They started grilling the pork belly and when it was close to being cooked, they cut them into the smaller pieces. This was eaten with either rice, wrapped in a piece of lettuce, or with a thin piece of rice cake and some sauces. This was an extremely delicious meal and having it with soju was even better! We had tons of soju and then when we were done with the meat we left half a bottle of soju. I asked why we left it empty, and Rob (one of CK's friends) said because there wasn't any food left. In Toronto, people would still drink up the soju whether there was food or not. Only because soju in Korea is inexpensive compared to Toronto.

So we decided to walk off the dinner and take a stroll in the park where CK and friends shared their stories with us about Korea, the military, their experiences etc. It was a really nice conversation learning about their lives here in Seoul compared to ours in Toronto. We came to this musical fountain which pretty much reminded us of the Bellgaio fountain in Las Vegas that moved to the music. It started to rain and was getting late so we decided to head back to the hotel. CK brought us to our bus stop and wanted to tell the driver to let us know where to get off but like I said, the drivers are mean and rude. He forced her to get on the bus with us and so she rode the bus with us for an hour until we got back which we were so grateful for but felt guilty. We got off the bus and waited with her for a different bus and we end up making plans to meet at Lotte World tomorrow (an indoor amusement park).



We slept and were looking forward to Day 13!