First Official Day in Seoul

It ended up being a really, really random day, but that's the fun of life =)  My airbnb hosts first took me to an open flea market near their house, which is around Sindang station.  A very different feel than the usual Seoul, since the vibe of the flea market was kinda dirty and gritty.  Loads of different kinds of secondhand items being sold.

Don't know how they manage to thrift through that pile

Then on our way to the Seoul fortress wall we passed Dongdaemun.  omg....belts for $2?!  Like, seriously?  I LOVE SEOUL. lololol.  Walking up the fortress was kind of intense because of the steep incline, but I was rewarded with a frame from a drama.  The kind of scene where the main character walks forever to find a humble house.  Yea, I got to experience that.  keke.

Cute, but terrible stairs to walk up.

View from the fortress wall.

After walking around the fortress wall, we made our way down and ended up near the Hyehwa station, which is like the theater district with lots of cute themed cafes.  Apparently there's also a Malaysian/Singaporean market in the area, so we checked that out.  My first lunch in Korea was Malaysian/Singaporean food haha.

Since we walked around for so many hours, we decided to get some shaved ice, bingsu in Korean, at Paris Baguette (and free AC lol).  Was kind of disappointed as it wasn't as good tasting as the Taiwanese shaved ice.  The ice looked more flaky and like little shards of ice instead of the fluffy kind like the Taiwanese style.  The strawberry sauce tasted kind of like jam, too, and the strawberries weren't fresh.  I did enjoy eating the white things though.  Kind of like marshmallows, but firmer and sweeter.  The grape one tasted better than the strawberry one.  It had cornflakes, which actually goes remarkably well with ice, and peanut powder and red bean.

Strawberry shaved ice

 Changgyeong Palace was nearby, so took a walk around there.  It's kind of hard for me to distinguish between all the palaces since they look pretty much the same to me, just that each building is named differently.  This palace apparently was used as a zoo when the Japanese reigned, so the area was large, but the actual palace small in comparison to the other palaces.  

After touring the palace, we walked to the nearest station and I got to ride the subway for the first time.  Can you believe it?  We walked all around Seoul without taking the subway!  I think that's pretty rare. lol.  So far I haven't felt any huge culture shock as Seoul feels a lot like Taipei, except that everyone speaks Korean instead and there are nicer pavements.  Then again, I haven't had really exotic food yet either.  Maybe I'll check out the intestine soup, since it's famous in this area.  I did notice though that Koreans are on average a lot taller than the Taiwanese.  In Taiwan I'm considered pretty tall, but here I'm just average.  My self-esteem just fell a little.  

Well, so that was my first official day in Seoul.  Field trip to Gyeongju tomorrow with the Yonsei program!