KOREA
SEOUL - DAY 1
We officially arrived in Seoul! A brand new country for me, and Hunter's second time visiting this wonderful city (although his first time was 20 years ago)! Leading up to our arrival we were doing some research on what we should be sure not to miss. The place that really stuck out to the both of us was a fish market called Noryangjin. It's supposed to be one of the best fish markets in the world, where you buy whatever fresh live seafood you desire, bring it to one of the many restaurants surrounding the market, and have them prepare it for you. This place did not disappoint! I was amazed. The first section of the market that we came across was the old market in a run down building. There were rows and rows of vendors selling everything and anything you could imagine from the sea! We had never seen lobsters, crabs, or shrimp as large as the ones being sold at this market. There were all different types of fish, octopus, eels, shellfish, even creatures I didn't know existed! The building next door was two more floors of the same amazing fresh seafood for sale, but in a cleaner, newer building. This building also housed many of the restaurants that cook your freshly bought, still live seafood. These small restaurants don't even have menus, they just work with what you give them.
Deciding what to buy was close to impossible. We ended up getting four baby octopus, a small lobster (which was very hard to find since they were all MASSIVE), abalone, shrimps, and scallops. We took our, well, pets for a lack of a better word, to what seemed like the friendliest of the restaurants. They steamed our lobster, abalone, and scallops, which all turned out amazing! Two of the octopus they cooked wok-style with some veggies. The other two came out freshly chopped up, still wiggling around! Picking up a moving, slippery tentacle is a lot harder than you'd think. You dip the dancing limb in a mixture of sesame oil and salt, then pop it in your mouth and try to forget about the fact that the octo-body part is still trying to escape. Once you erase that from your mind, it's delicious! Our shrimps they literally did nothing to- they just transferred them from the bag in which we brought them to a bowl. These guys were still very much alive and very much unhappy about their situations. We were told to peel them and eat them sashimi style. PEEL THEM ALIVE. I couldn't do it. Hunter managed to do one for me and one for himself. They were very good and very sweet, but Hunter said they were too hard to peel and I just couldn't watch that anymore. We had the rest of those guys fried to their death in the back where I didn't have to see them boil. When we met again, they were crispy and delicious.
Our next trip to Noryangjin should definitely be in a large group! That way, we could all go in on one of those giant lobsters & crabs! Plus, we could buy a lot of other little things to taste and share. Definitely a place worth visiting.
SEOUL - DAY 2
This morning, Hunter and I started off with a half day tour to see some more of Seoul. Our first stop was the old palace near our hotel, where all the kings had lived. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and was really able to take us back in time with all of her detailed stories of the kings of the past. From there, she took us to an old Buddhist temple. The city had just celebrated Buddha's birthday, so the outside of the temple was decorated with thousands of lanterns! I'm sure it would have been amazing to see at night. We then went to grab a quick bite, something traditional. Hunter got the bulgogi, I got the bibimbap, and we both got a boatload of kimchi. As we slowly wandered back to our hotel, our guide made sure to take us down some of the older shopping streets. We passed by a place that specialized in green tea, so we had to get some green tea treats! Hunter and I split a green tea shaved ice, and our tour guide got a green tea ice cream with green tea extract that you pour on top, and it freezes when it hits the dessert. So tasty! We also made a pit-stop to see one of the wise women. Similar to a fortune teller, this woman takes your date of birth, time of birth, asks you some questions, looks at your right palm, and tells you some things about your personality, future, present, and past. Our guide insisted, because the last time she took her tour to this woman, her clients (two sisters) were told they had a brother. When they insisted they didn't, the wise woman told them to call their mom and ask. Turns out, they had a freakin brother.
This woman didn't tell us anything mind blowing like that, but she did insist that Hunter was very distrusting of people, he would have his own successful business by the time he is 40, and his scar on his hand was indicative of good luck in business. I, on the other hand, was told that I was going through a hard time and have been since I turned 20, I will have tons of fights with my future husband and consider leaving him from the ages 35-40, and I should be a teacher. Hm.
Back at the hotel, Hunter and I took a pre-dinner dip in the pool. The jacuzzi was nuts! It had underwater lounge chairs that blew bubbles, making you float. There was also a metal cage you step into that blows bubbles on your whole body and tickles like a mofo, and a giant water faucet that ejects high-pressure cold water at you. Perfect for waking you the heck up to go hit the town!
After a tasty dinner of Korean bbq'd beef, we decided to do some exploring. We were told to go visit the night markets that are only open from 8pm-5am. Crazy strange hours! On our way there, we came across a beautiful garden filled with fake LED roses that light up at night. It was so mesmerising! Now, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting the night market to be like. Maybe similar to Thailand's night markets, where they sell a variety of clothes, knick-knacks, souvenirs and street food? Well, this night market was NOTHING like that. Imagine if someone had taken a giant department store, say, the size of Nordstrom, and just filled it with extremely average-looking cheaply made (but not cheaply sold) clothing. Then multiply that by 5, or more, because that's what this night market was! Just tons of these weird buildings. The strangest part was the amount of people actually there to shop for bad clothes in the middle of the night! I just don't understand it! Oh, and there were tons of plastic bags on the floor of every little store section in these buildings, stapled shut. I have NO idea what was inside of them, and I am soooo curious! Everyone was buying them and walking around with them! And, out front on the streets, sketchy outdoor vendors had hundreds of duffle bags, filled with these stapled shut plastic bags that again, people were buying. So bizarre. Hunter and I still have no idea what we experienced.
