Alright, yesterday's post took wayyy too long to write out, so it's time for the bullets...
Breakfast: Kimchi fried rice, tuna salad, chicken with soy sauce, sugar coated sweet potatoes, fish cake soup
Subway wouldn't let me on (said I had already swiped on...), so I walked back to hotel to get help Their solution was "try again." Eventually just used the handicapped entry to get in.
Alllllll the way to Jamsil, which had a couple large shopping malls but none of the small shops like there are in the markets towards the inner-city
Wandered around Olympic Park
Walk to gangnam, saw car dealerships
Feet hurting after walking so much, take subway back (rush hour, so it was packed), get off too early and had to wait for the next train to come get me.
Went to hotel to google where to eat
Decide to eat mandu and then go to Seoul Tower
Exchange money at hotel - worse exchange rate than I got at the airport (shorted by ~2000 won)
Eat mandu at Myeongdong Kyoja, decide to wait and do tower tomorrow at dusk since it would take ~40m to get up the hill to the tower (and the sun was already setting)
Go get patbingsu from Seulbing in myeongdong
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Intro to Seoul
I woke up at 5am. The good news about doing that here is that it's 2pm back home, so there are plenty of people to talk to. I tried laying in bed for awhile, but eventually gave up and started texting, wondering if the sky would ever get brighter (it had been pretty dark when I got here, mostly due to the low clouds and sleet).
Around 7:45 I went to get the complimentary breakfast up on the 21st floor of my hotel. On the plane ride here they had served noodles for breakfast, which I thought was odd, but apparently what I consider to be strange food is the norm here. The breakfast buffet had sausage, scrambled eggs, french fries, mushroom salad (sliced mushrooms + lettuce + oil), udon noodles, cole slaw, and "porridge" (but I'm pretty sure there were carrots and peas floating around in it...). Meanwhile, they were playing english christian music (like this song in the background). Interesting.
Anyway, I went back down to my room and gathered my things. My original plan had been to walk, but since it was already 8:30 and the hop-on, hop-off tour buses start at 9:00, I thought it best to get there as soon as I could. The receptionist told me to purchase a T-Money card (re-loadable metro card) at the 7-11 next door, and when I went I got my choice of pokemon to get on my card (I went with Charmander, of course)
I've realized that one of the things I do when I'm alone is walk confidently whether or not I'm really sure where I'm going. I went the exact opposite direction from the hotel, and got several blocks before deciding that it wasn't working out and something had gone wrong (the stop should have been half a block away).. Somehow I managed to get on the right train to Dongdaemun, but one time I did have to get out to check the stop name and dart back in before the doors closed. If anyone was paying attention to me, I'm sure this was amusing to watch.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize Dogdaemun is a whole area, not just the single place I was trying to get to. When I got to the stop I decided was right, I (confidently) walked out and realized I had no freaking clue where I was. So what did I do? I kept walking. The good news was that I didn't have to go far before I felt good about the direction i was going. I saw the wonky building that I had seen in google searches for where the bus stop was. But making it to the building posed another question: which side was the bus going to stop on? That took about an hour to solve, because I didn't see the stop until the double-decker bus was next to it.
I started riding the tour bus with the intention of completing the full 1.5 hour loop and then going back to check individual things out. That went out the window when I saw Gyeongbokgung Palace, and knew I would want to come back to it anyway. The palace is at the end of a long boulevard with a mall containing a statue of "a war hero" (that's all the tour bus recording had to say about him) and one of the inventor of hangeul (the korean alphabet). I happened to be there when the changing of the guard was happening, but once the ceremony was over, all the tourists kept going up and taking pictures next to the statue-like soldiers. I didn't pay to go into the deeper plazas of the palace, but got to go in through the first gate before heading back to the bus stop. Two things I became very aware of at this stop: It is DAMN COLD, and the people walk SO SLOWLY. The whole day I felt like I was the only person with somewhere to be, but my pace also reminded me several times that there is a sheet of ice over many sidewalks and traction is not a thing.
When I got back on the bus, I took it the rest of the way around and took a pit stop at Dogdaemun. The next place I got off was at Seoul Station, Grand Central Station for the city's trains. I had heard that certain airlines (mine included!) let you check your luggage and check in all the way from the train station, but with my flight leaving at 8am, I will be too early for the trains. First one is at 6am and they will not service people who aren't at least 3 hrs away from their departure. I'll figure this out with the receptionist at my hotel tomorrow.
The next place I got off was the Jongmyo Shrine, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. I did pay to go in this one, because there wasn't much of anything to see outside the walls. My understanding is that this shrine is the place where the spirits of emperors would be "buried" after the 3-year mourning period following their death. The main doors were never used by any people, because they were supposed to be only for the spirits to come in. There were even rules with the old sidewalks, where the middle, elevated part was used only for those carrying relics, whereas the emperor had to walk on the side.
From Jongmyo, I was walking distance from Gwangjang Market, which I made several passes through before honing in on what I wanted to eat. Each vendor (almost all of them seemed to be older women) in the main part had the same typo of sign with 4-5 items listed and their prices, but I only had a moment to take in each sign before the crowd would push me along. People would sit at the table where the vendor was, and the throngs of people wanting by would pass right between the backs of the seated people on either side of every aisle. I wanted to take a picture of the inside, but the paranoid tourist in me didn't feel comfortable pulling out my camera or phone with this many people pushing past each other. Fortunately, Google's got my back:
I got a Mung Bean Pancake, which looked and tasted kinda like a potato pancake. It was more filling than I thought it was going to be! When I sat down at the table, I was surprised to find out that she had strapped heating pads to the tops of her benches! Koreans really get the heated seating thing.
Instead of waiting for the bus to take me all the way around the loop, I walked from the market past Jongmyo to Insadong, which had another narrow and densely-crowded street like almost all the other markets I had seen in passing that day. I'm really not sure how I would tell them apart...
After waiting for the bus to pick me up at Insadong for longer than I was expecting to, I reached in my pocket for the timetable and out came my loose change all over the curb. 100 won fell into the gutter (guess Amy can't have a souvenir now...:) )
Looking at the timetable made me realize I had the wrong stop time in my head. I tried running to the previous one at Jonggak with the 8 mins I had, but got stuck at a big cross-walk. I showed up right as the bus left, so I went over to look at the building at Jonggak. Apparently it's used for some kind of celebration to usher in the new year (not sure what else).
Seriously guys. The temperature. It was so cold that my phone quit on me and died (from a "36%" charge...). Even though I was semi-stranded (well, until the nexe bus would come in 40 mins), I felt like I knew where I was enough that I could make my way back. By following the route where the shuttle had come from, I found an easily recognizable building (with large LED snowflakes on it) we had passed in Myeong-dong. This was right across the street from the Ibis Ambassador, so it was a route I had traversed the night before. I had daylight to spend, so I tried getting to my hotel a different way than before, and boy did that NOT work out. I stumbled upon the Myeong-dong Cathedral, which reminded me of the time I spent discovering random beautiful churches in Europe.
Remember when my phone died? I put it in my pocket and left it there because it wasn't going to do me any more good. As I've trained myself to do while out and about, I got the notion to lay eyes on my phone, and when I reached for my pocket...it wasn't there. Remember when Aladdin tells Abu this is no time to panic, then conceded when it seems there's no way out? This is how I felt as I frantically tried to retrace my steps while putting my hand in every pocket I had. Start Panicking. By some stroke of something, I just started rubbing my hand all over my torso and I felt my phone in there! Did you know I have a secret pocket? I did not. Nor do I have any clue how I managed to get my phone in there. I couldn't even find the opening, so I kept my hand on it the rest of the way to my hotel, just to be sure it didn't fall out somewhere.
Being lost is all a matter of perspective. Before the phone incident, I felt fine knowing that I wasn't exactly sure where I was or where I was going, but afterwards, all I wanted was a place to take my jacket off and examine how in the hell I had hidden my phone in it. Winding through the throngs of people in Myeong-dong ("the shopping mecca of Seoul," and also the neighborhood my hotel is in) was now more disorienting than it had been before, and I realized I was walking in circles. I picked a direction and just kept walking (turns out if I had picked the other direction I would have found the hotel within ~200 paces). This led me back to the snowflake building, so I repeated the known path I took yesterday to get from the Ibis Ambassador to the Ibis Styles Ambassador.
So finally I am here in my hotel room again. I found the pocket, which has now been closed and should not be opened again, My shoes are off and I'm rubbing my sore feet (my fitbit says I took ~26000 steps today, 11.5 mi), and once again feeling pretty tired as I did this time last night. Getting ready to turn in and do it all again tomorrow, probably checking things out south of the Han River (the part of the tour bus schedule that's closed off on Mondays...). Night, y'all.
Anyway, I went back down to my room and gathered my things. My original plan had been to walk, but since it was already 8:30 and the hop-on, hop-off tour buses start at 9:00, I thought it best to get there as soon as I could. The receptionist told me to purchase a T-Money card (re-loadable metro card) at the 7-11 next door, and when I went I got my choice of pokemon to get on my card (I went with Charmander, of course)
I've realized that one of the things I do when I'm alone is walk confidently whether or not I'm really sure where I'm going. I went the exact opposite direction from the hotel, and got several blocks before deciding that it wasn't working out and something had gone wrong (the stop should have been half a block away).. Somehow I managed to get on the right train to Dongdaemun, but one time I did have to get out to check the stop name and dart back in before the doors closed. If anyone was paying attention to me, I'm sure this was amusing to watch.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize Dogdaemun is a whole area, not just the single place I was trying to get to. When I got to the stop I decided was right, I (confidently) walked out and realized I had no freaking clue where I was. So what did I do? I kept walking. The good news was that I didn't have to go far before I felt good about the direction i was going. I saw the wonky building that I had seen in google searches for where the bus stop was. But making it to the building posed another question: which side was the bus going to stop on? That took about an hour to solve, because I didn't see the stop until the double-decker bus was next to it.
I started riding the tour bus with the intention of completing the full 1.5 hour loop and then going back to check individual things out. That went out the window when I saw Gyeongbokgung Palace, and knew I would want to come back to it anyway. The palace is at the end of a long boulevard with a mall containing a statue of "a war hero" (that's all the tour bus recording had to say about him) and one of the inventor of hangeul (the korean alphabet). I happened to be there when the changing of the guard was happening, but once the ceremony was over, all the tourists kept going up and taking pictures next to the statue-like soldiers. I didn't pay to go into the deeper plazas of the palace, but got to go in through the first gate before heading back to the bus stop. Two things I became very aware of at this stop: It is DAMN COLD, and the people walk SO SLOWLY. The whole day I felt like I was the only person with somewhere to be, but my pace also reminded me several times that there is a sheet of ice over many sidewalks and traction is not a thing.
When I got back on the bus, I took it the rest of the way around and took a pit stop at Dogdaemun. The next place I got off was at Seoul Station, Grand Central Station for the city's trains. I had heard that certain airlines (mine included!) let you check your luggage and check in all the way from the train station, but with my flight leaving at 8am, I will be too early for the trains. First one is at 6am and they will not service people who aren't at least 3 hrs away from their departure. I'll figure this out with the receptionist at my hotel tomorrow.
The next place I got off was the Jongmyo Shrine, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. I did pay to go in this one, because there wasn't much of anything to see outside the walls. My understanding is that this shrine is the place where the spirits of emperors would be "buried" after the 3-year mourning period following their death. The main doors were never used by any people, because they were supposed to be only for the spirits to come in. There were even rules with the old sidewalks, where the middle, elevated part was used only for those carrying relics, whereas the emperor had to walk on the side.
From Jongmyo, I was walking distance from Gwangjang Market, which I made several passes through before honing in on what I wanted to eat. Each vendor (almost all of them seemed to be older women) in the main part had the same typo of sign with 4-5 items listed and their prices, but I only had a moment to take in each sign before the crowd would push me along. People would sit at the table where the vendor was, and the throngs of people wanting by would pass right between the backs of the seated people on either side of every aisle. I wanted to take a picture of the inside, but the paranoid tourist in me didn't feel comfortable pulling out my camera or phone with this many people pushing past each other. Fortunately, Google's got my back:
I got a Mung Bean Pancake, which looked and tasted kinda like a potato pancake. It was more filling than I thought it was going to be! When I sat down at the table, I was surprised to find out that she had strapped heating pads to the tops of her benches! Koreans really get the heated seating thing.
Instead of waiting for the bus to take me all the way around the loop, I walked from the market past Jongmyo to Insadong, which had another narrow and densely-crowded street like almost all the other markets I had seen in passing that day. I'm really not sure how I would tell them apart...
After waiting for the bus to pick me up at Insadong for longer than I was expecting to, I reached in my pocket for the timetable and out came my loose change all over the curb. 100 won fell into the gutter (guess Amy can't have a souvenir now...:) )
Looking at the timetable made me realize I had the wrong stop time in my head. I tried running to the previous one at Jonggak with the 8 mins I had, but got stuck at a big cross-walk. I showed up right as the bus left, so I went over to look at the building at Jonggak. Apparently it's used for some kind of celebration to usher in the new year (not sure what else).
Seriously guys. The temperature. It was so cold that my phone quit on me and died (from a "36%" charge...). Even though I was semi-stranded (well, until the nexe bus would come in 40 mins), I felt like I knew where I was enough that I could make my way back. By following the route where the shuttle had come from, I found an easily recognizable building (with large LED snowflakes on it) we had passed in Myeong-dong. This was right across the street from the Ibis Ambassador, so it was a route I had traversed the night before. I had daylight to spend, so I tried getting to my hotel a different way than before, and boy did that NOT work out. I stumbled upon the Myeong-dong Cathedral, which reminded me of the time I spent discovering random beautiful churches in Europe.
Remember when my phone died? I put it in my pocket and left it there because it wasn't going to do me any more good. As I've trained myself to do while out and about, I got the notion to lay eyes on my phone, and when I reached for my pocket...it wasn't there. Remember when Aladdin tells Abu this is no time to panic, then conceded when it seems there's no way out? This is how I felt as I frantically tried to retrace my steps while putting my hand in every pocket I had. Start Panicking. By some stroke of something, I just started rubbing my hand all over my torso and I felt my phone in there! Did you know I have a secret pocket? I did not. Nor do I have any clue how I managed to get my phone in there. I couldn't even find the opening, so I kept my hand on it the rest of the way to my hotel, just to be sure it didn't fall out somewhere.
Being lost is all a matter of perspective. Before the phone incident, I felt fine knowing that I wasn't exactly sure where I was or where I was going, but afterwards, all I wanted was a place to take my jacket off and examine how in the hell I had hidden my phone in it. Winding through the throngs of people in Myeong-dong ("the shopping mecca of Seoul," and also the neighborhood my hotel is in) was now more disorienting than it had been before, and I realized I was walking in circles. I picked a direction and just kept walking (turns out if I had picked the other direction I would have found the hotel within ~200 paces). This led me back to the snowflake building, so I repeated the known path I took yesterday to get from the Ibis Ambassador to the Ibis Styles Ambassador.
So finally I am here in my hotel room again. I found the pocket, which has now been closed and should not be opened again, My shoes are off and I'm rubbing my sore feet (my fitbit says I took ~26000 steps today, 11.5 mi), and once again feeling pretty tired as I did this time last night. Getting ready to turn in and do it all again tomorrow, probably checking things out south of the Han River (the part of the tour bus schedule that's closed off on Mondays...). Night, y'all.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Made it to Seoul
Seoul was sleety and dark when I got in at 5:30pm. As soon as I walked out of the plane, I heard lots of shouting in Korean from some people behind a table halfway up the walkway to the building. I thought maybe it had something to do with customs papers, but not many people were stopping, so I followed the herd. After taking the train to the main terminal and waiting in the winding immigration line, I exchanged a 20 and found my checked bag in a pile near the carousel (guess immigrations took too long). Then I set out to find the 6015 bus to Myeongdong Station. There were several guys with gray jackets who kept asking where I was going, but I wasn't sure if they were taxi drivers trying to lure me in or there to help tourists like me, so I just kept saying "limousine bus." I wasn't doing myself any favors...this system was confusing to me! I went back inside and found an information booth and was told abotu the general vicinity of a ticket booth. Once I found it and got my 14000 Won (~$12) ticket, I looked at the bus numbers (the buses themselves didn't have numbers, so I just had to trust that the right buses had stopped at the right places), but they all seemed to be in a random order. Several tourist SOS questions later, I found the right bus right as it was about to pull out! It was about an hour drive to get into Seoul, and the bus stopped at the Ibis Ambassador Hotel, so I got out. Little did I know that the Ibis Ambassador Hotel and the Ibis STYLES Ambassador Hotel are not the same, so I've already had my first lost & wandering experience of the trip (and in sleet to boot!). I'm writing this post from the TINY hotel room way up on the 19th floor, where I just had my first fancy bidet experience (with a dryer and a deodorizer built in?!). Feeling pretty tired and a little nauseated after all that time travelling, and it's 9pm now so I think I'll let myself go to bed. More tomorrow!
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Ready to Go
I expect most of my posts will just be bullets of things I've done for the day, but for this one I could sum it all up to: Went to airport. I'm waiting at the gate for boarding in about 10 mins, my bag is checked, and I've downloaded everything I could think of that I might need. Not sure when I will next have wifi, but I don't think that's such an issue in Seoul. I'm glad to be starting my trip in another first-world country as I ease into things.
Edit: what's an international flight without delays?
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