While I wish I had taken
more advantage of the lack of responsibility and time I had before I
start graduate school, I am glad that I am taking this trip.
I
have put significant more time and effort into planning and organizing
my trip to Korea. I am sure there was probably a more efficient way to
plan my trip, but I am new to this.
They
say you learn about yourself when you travel, and one lesson I've
learned glaringly clear over and over again is that I am terrible at
planning.
Photo credit: Mom!
I flew Singapore Airlines to Seoul. I flew on Singapore Airlines because it was the cheapest flight I could find, which is how I choose all of my flights. In Europe, this meant spending five and a half weeks flying low budget no frills airlines whose only job was to get you from point A to point B. Anything beyond that cost extra.
I felt so spoiled on the Singapore Airlines flight. They gave out free headphones, blankets, and pillows. Free food, snacks, and alcohol. They even gave out hot towels!
I landed in Seoul Wednesday evening and took the train to the stop closest to my hostel. I used the directions I had screenshotted from the hostel website and got very close, but couldn't figure out exactly where to go. My hostel is in the area of Seoul called Hongdae, which is near Hongik University and is a really trendy area with cafes, bars, shops, clubs, restaurants, and a ton of young people milling around.
I overheard some people speaking English, so I asked for their help in finding the hostel. One of the guys was very friendly and helpful. He was Korean, but had gone to university at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He called the hostel and walked me to it so I wouldn't get lost.
Traveling reminds me how much of my life is easier because I maintain my lifestyle. When I travel, everything gets disrupted. So I spent the first night reorienting myself. In this order I needed water, a bathroom, food, a shower, clean clothes, and sleep. It's like the travel version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
The hostel has a terrace with a great view
No shoes indoors, here is the shoe 'closet' outside the hostel.
Fingers crossed no one steals my shoes!
This hostel is quite different from the average European hostel I've stayed in. In
western hostels my grungy backpacker look blends right in. In 20 people
to a room coed bunks everyone has the same lack of privacy. So I walk
around in a towel, or I walk around in my pajamas, and no one even looks twice. While both single and mixed gender rooms are available both in Europe and in Korea, from what I've seen, it seems like single gender rooms are more common than mixed in Korea, while the opposite is true in Europe.
This hostel has Korean style mattresses, which are thinner and firmer than the average American mattress. People are also more trusting here than in Europe, or things just get stolen less. There are no keys for the bedrooms and no one uses the lockers.
Also, most European hostels charge for extras, like renting towels, doing laundry, buying soap. Here it's all free. They have communal soaps, shampoos, and toothpaste in the bathrooms free for anyone to use. A laundry machine, and complimentary towels. (Although they are hand towel sized.)
It's a pretty small hostel, only 18 beds. There are several girls who are staying here long term. Some are from France and one is from China. They are here for several weeks in this one hostel and have made it their home base. I think the longest I've ever stayed in one hostel is four or five nights.
I do like hostels though. As much as I get freaked out by safety or cleanliness, I like meeting and talking with other travelers. It's usually a pretty laid back place to stay full of other young people.
It's a pretty small hostel, only 18 beds. There are several girls who are staying here long term. Some are from France and one is from China. They are here for several weeks in this one hostel and have made it their home base. I think the longest I've ever stayed in one hostel is four or five nights.
I do like hostels though. As much as I get freaked out by safety or cleanliness, I like meeting and talking with other travelers. It's usually a pretty laid back place to stay full of other young people.
My first day I decided to explore Hongdae. I got to see a lot of Hongdae because I got lost a lot. The maps I have are proportioned disproportionately, so some parts are a lot closer than they appear on the map and some are much, much farther.
There are a lot of cute shops in Hongdae. There are clothing stores, jewelry stores, lots of cute sock stores, and all types of street food. It all seemed very trendy. I really like Korean fashion.
I went to a Hello Kitty cafe for a necessary caffeine fueling. It was cute and very pink and everything down to the water pitcher was Hello Kitty.
Even the bathroom!
While I was shopping, a Korean guy approached me and asked if he could walk with me to practice his English. I agreed and walked with him until the train station. He was nice, but spoke very little English.
I then took the train a few stops up to shop at a street called 'Street You Want to Visit' near Ewha Woman's University. There were also a lot of cute shops here. While researching Seoul, a lot of websites mentioned that the shopping in the city is superb and I just assumed that meant that there was a lot of it. The shopping really is superb here and it's more than just a quantity of shops. There definitely is a quantity, but there is also quality and variety. From what I know about capitalism, Seoul really seems to excel at it. Employees at stores seem to really care about their jobs, or at least customer service. I walked into one cosmetics shop and was handed a mini shopping basket and a complimentary bottle of water.
Selfie encouraging art installation on 'Street You Want to Visit'
I then took a walk along the river which turned out to be a lot longer walk than I planned because there was a very large park with no access to the street. The park was lovely though, with bike paths and walking paths running parallel to the river.
There was a guy waterskiing on the river too!
My feet hurt immensely after all the walking, so I took a break at the hostel before heading out to see North Seoul Tower. My plan was to go a little before sunset so that I could see the view during the day, see the sunset, and see the view at night. It turned out that everyone in Seoul decided to go to the tower Thursday night so it took a lot longer to get up than I actually budgeted.
There is a cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain. The view from the top of the mountain is also really great. There were lots of restaurants and families and couples hanging out. There was even a live band for a little bit.
I then took an elevator up Seoul Tower. There are 360 degree views of Seoul. The window panels have the names of cities that are in that direction and how many miles it is to them. It was packed up there.
Seoul is SO BIG. It is one of the largest, most sprawling cities I've ever been to. And there are so many skyscrapers and lights! Seoul reminds me a bit of Paris. Paris has one fifth of the population of Seoul, but they're both cosmopolitan feeling cities with great and extensive metro systems.
And I could see for miles, miles, miles
My hostel lends out free selfie sticks, hence the higher quantity of selfies (major downside of traveling alone is not having anyone to take your picture). Luckily, I blended right in, almost everyone, even those who weren't alone, was carrying a selfie stick.
I started my day at Gyeongbokgung Palace. I spent awhile walking around the grounds.
Selfie Sticks are also for discouraging aggressive pigeons
I then walked through Bukchon Culture Village, which is very hilly but also right next to the palace grounds. It was very cute.
I went to a 'Tea Museum' that charged 5000 won entry fee (5 bucks), but came with a free cup of tea, however if you wanted to see the exhibit you were charged extra fees. I stuck with the tea and the view. I thought the juxtaposition of the old city to the new one was very cool.
I then went shopping in Insadong and had dinner. Insadong is fully of tourist oriented shops selling all kinds of kitschy souvenirs.
Then I went for a walk along the urban stream, a renovated waterway in the middle of the city. It's called Cheonggyecheon Stream. You can normally walk the length of the 11km stream, but they closed all of the staircases because of the rain (I asked at the tourist information booth).
Food and Alcohol
So far, the most challenging part of being in Korea is the food. The majority of this problem comes from the language barrier. I can't read or speak a word of Korean. So I am unable to go to restaurants that don't have English translations or pictures. I could, but I'm not a very brave eater, so it would be quite risky. There are not a ton of restaurants with either translations or pictures. Seeking out the ones that do is challenging. I order food by pointing and smiling and hoping for the best.
There is tons of street food and I haven't put a dent in trying it all yet. My first day, I got an assortment of seaweed rolls from a street vendor.
I tried not to think too much about what type of meat was in them, but then I found these little guys and that was the end of that meal.
I cheated last night and got a chicken kebab from a Turkish food stand and it was absolutely delicious.
Yesterday for lunch, I got an egg and pumpkin sandwich. I like egg, and pumpkin, and sandwiches, although together it was interesting. And a lot crunchier than it should have been.
For dinner I ordered a very Korean meal. The main dish I ordered was a pureed soy bean stew, I think. It came with all of this, and for only about 8 bucks.
I had no idea what it was or how to eat it.
I'm sure I looked like an idiot trying to eat it all with the chopsticks and spoon they gave me.
There was rice, seaweed, several types of kimchi, stew, and rice wine. It was wildly spicy and mildly sour. I think it was all you can eat, because I finished one dish of kimchi and the waitress came back with a fresh dish. I couldn't finish all of that food though. I definitely have a western tongue and my palate hasn't quite adapted to the Korean flavors yet.
I drank a whole jug of water to wash down the spiciness.
I really try to avoid all American chains while abroad in order to use every opportunity to try local cuisine. American chains are not prolific (with the exception being 7-11), but I've seen quite a variety. I've even seen knockoffs (a store that looked exactly like a Ben and Jerry's but was called Monsters) and ones like these:
Rain
Before I left, my weather app told me that it would be 80 and rainy on and off while I was in Seoul. 80 was fine, but I was really looking forward to the rain. When I got here, I checked the weather forecast again and it was sunny all week. I am the bringer of drought, apparently. It's been 80-90 degrees since I've been here, sunny, and humid. It's super sweaty weather. Today I saw a glimmer of hope in the dark clouds growing overhead. It sprinkled a little bit while I was at the palace.
When I was at Insadong, it started actually raining and everyone lost their mind. I was so surprised at everyone's reaction. For a country with a several month monsoon period you think people would be better equipped to handle the rain. This wasn't torrential downpour, either. It was like a sprinkle on steroids. The raindrops were fat, but were sporadic at best. People covered up their stands in plastic wrap and closed up shop. People dove for cover under overhangs. People ran down the street holding whatever they had overhead to block the rain, purses, newspapers, coats. They even went through the trouble of locking up all the stairwell entrances along an 11km stream because it was raining. I must have looked crazy to everyone else, just walking down the street like the weather hadn't changed at all. If anyone asked why I would possible want to walk unobstructed in the rain in a tshirt, I planned to tell them that I was from California and hope that would suffice.
When I was at Insadong, it started actually raining and everyone lost their mind. I was so surprised at everyone's reaction. For a country with a several month monsoon period you think people would be better equipped to handle the rain. This wasn't torrential downpour, either. It was like a sprinkle on steroids. The raindrops were fat, but were sporadic at best. People covered up their stands in plastic wrap and closed up shop. People dove for cover under overhangs. People ran down the street holding whatever they had overhead to block the rain, purses, newspapers, coats. They even went through the trouble of locking up all the stairwell entrances along an 11km stream because it was raining. I must have looked crazy to everyone else, just walking down the street like the weather hadn't changed at all. If anyone asked why I would possible want to walk unobstructed in the rain in a tshirt, I planned to tell them that I was from California and hope that would suffice.
After these last few days of so much walking, all I know for sure is my feet hurt.
