seoul

Cambodia was the last stop for the rest of my travel companions, they flew back to California while I continued on to Korea to visit family. The first part of my time in Korea would be in Seoul though, where I didn’t have any family. I still wanted to explore Seoul, so I ended up getting a hotel room for a couple of nights in the Gangnam district (hotel Gangnam Style!!!) using my Marriott reward certificate and some points.

When I arrived at my hotel I was not feeling very good. My stomach was still hurting from something I had eaten in Cambodia, and I had just come off of an overnight flight. And to make things worse, it was seriously cold in Seoul, it had snowed recently and the temperature stayed below freezing for the entire time I was there, so the sidewalks were constantly covered in snow and ice. I ended up sleeping most of my first day in Seoul, and was on the toilet for most of the rest of that day. It was a pretty miserable way to start my time in Korea, but thankfully my hotel room was very comfortable.

After spending a day recovering, I went to see some of the sights in Seoul. It was almost unbearably cold for me, but I think these ducks had it even harder. They looked miserable on their frozen pond.

For a little while I was able to escape the cold inside the Seoul National Museum.

My stomach was starting to feel better, so I started to eat again. I was curious about McDonald’s bulgogi burger, so I stopped by and tried one.

McDonald’s bulgogi burger was kinda nasty in my opinion. The combination of mayonnaise and bulgogi sauce doesn’t work for me. On a friend’s advice I tried Lotteria’s rice bulgogi burger. That actually tasted pretty good. Instead of buns it had two patties made of rice smashed into a bun shape. I’ve eaten a lot of burgers that have fallen apart as I ate them, but this one literally disintegrated because the rice “bun” didn’t really hold together.

One of my favorite stops was to Namdaemun, not so much for the gate that’s there, but for the market that’s nearby. I spent a couple of hours eating my way through the market. I’ll probably devote an entire blog post just to market food in Korea.

Bukchon Hanok Village was one of my favorite spots. It’s a neighborhood of old style Korean homes, but there’s a nice view of downtown Seoul from the neighborhood, so you can take a picture here that shows both old and modern Korea. If I had more time in Seoul I’d probably spend a night here, since there are many hanok houses that serve as guest houses which have Korean cultural programs.

Seoul is incredibly huge, so it took me a long time to get to the few places I wanted to visit. That plus the fact that I wasted a day recovering meant that I didn’t get to see as much of the city as I wanted to. I definitely need to return and really explore and eat my way through the different parts of town.