More familiar faces...
as after our checking in at a fairly late hour to Time Traveller's Relax Hostel, Dani received a message from Mel - her boyfriend Padraig, and friend Declan who all happened to be in Seoul for one more night only. Stu was fast asleep at this stage, but on Dani went full of excitement to meet up with them, where she was introduced to some Korean past-times, including:
Soju. This stuff is great, about ~€1 a bottle, different flavours (grapefruit is best), 13%. Dani was introduced straight away by Mel & co, and it fuelled the first, of quite a few, nights out.
Karaoke. Has to be done. Dani testifies that night one was of a much higher standard than our second trip, which we'll get to later...
A serious night out upon landing in Korea was very welcome, and Dani was absolutely chuffed to see a familiar face. (Shout out to Mellie and gang for the BEST night!)
We spent the next five days & nights continuing as the trip started in Korea, with general sightseeing and wandering through the different areas of Seoul (Hongdae - the university district where we were staying, Gangnam - famous for being stylish and having that song too... though Stu preferred Itaewon which seems to be the new place around town). No big tours or excursions, apparently the Joint Security Area of the DMZ was closed due to security concerns, so we didn't go up to see the North Korean border unfortunately. So we just stayed put and tried to see what Seoul had to offer:
Coffee for starts. There are coffee shops everywhere. E v e r y w h e r e. Really nice too.
Shopping. Markets are exploding onto the main streets, and there's actually some decent wares for good prices. If you ever head to Seoul, leave some space in your suitcase.
Arcades. Again, everywhere. And they're always packed. 40c a shot at the small claw games, its easy to rack up a few quid quickly trying to win a toy (which we did, of course).
The food. It's unreal, especially if you like it spicy. The hostel organised a BBQ night out, which we joined, though we were a little surprised at first at what we were getting. First, some forbidden soju (we thought you weren't allowed drink in the hostel, though we were being overly cautious)
Back to the food, and as we said, a bit of a surprise, as it wasn't the strips of meat over a grill that we usually think of when hearing Korean BBQ. Instead it was a hot plate in the middle of the table, and we were being served up Dak galbi - which is the most ridiculously unbelievably tasty meal we've ever had. Spicy chicken is fried on the hot plate in front of you with a mix of veg, and once cooked through one of the servers come over to unload a mountain of cheese to melt all over it. Served up with kimchi too for good measure. Once you've eaten half the plate, they come back with rice to turn it into a bit of a fried rice-type meal (we also requested extra cheese, for our sins). Insanely good.
We made our way to American brewery Goose Island's taphouse over in somewhat-trendy Gangnam one afternoon, didn't disappoint:
But later that evening we went to the real star of the show, Kyochon. Recommended to us by a guy at the bar, no less.
The fried chicken is up there as one of the best we've ever had - half soy/garlic, half Korean red pepper. We tried out a few restaurants, more than we'd like to publicly admit, but this was the pick of the bunch.
We did manage to fit in a bit of non-food/drink culture, namely visiting Changdeokgung, one of the temples/palaces in the city - it was actually really nice, but we're starting to feel little "templed out" at this stage (hence why we're mainly blabbering on about food).
After a few games of darts and the likes, we were accosted on the street by a very happy Korean man selling quite possibly the worst drink of all time, Makgeolli, a syrupy, fermented rice wine. We still bought a couple of bottles, but it was pretty much undrinkable.
It did however give us the courage to attempt our second night at karaoke (soju was also needed) - and it was absolutely as terrible as you would imagine. Rolling in the Deep by Adele was our song of choice, and I don't think we'll be able to listen to it again without cringing uncontrollably.
This took us to our last day, which we spent wandering Seoul of course. We found some nice street art, and one thing we did finally stumble upon, with very unfortunate timing, was Pojangmacha - or traditional tents on the side of the road, where food and drinks come fast and loose - and cheap. However we weren't in the mood to sit down and drink more, so despite looking for them all week, we gave it a miss. For shame.
On we went to catch our flight to our next stop in South Korea, Jeju - an island off the south coast. Seoul was brilliant, plenty to do, a lot of fun, and a little bit cheaper than Japan (always welcome). It's not somewhere we'd spent a lot of time researching, but it ended up being somewhere we both really loved. It unexpectedly had a very (very) American influence in a lot of the cafes/coffee shops/restaurants etc., but it still held on to some traditional Korean charm.
Onwards and upwards!
Big love,
Dani & Stu
Currently listening to:
as after our checking in at a fairly late hour to Time Traveller's Relax Hostel, Dani received a message from Mel - her boyfriend Padraig, and friend Declan who all happened to be in Seoul for one more night only. Stu was fast asleep at this stage, but on Dani went full of excitement to meet up with them, where she was introduced to some Korean past-times, including:
Soju. This stuff is great, about ~€1 a bottle, different flavours (grapefruit is best), 13%. Dani was introduced straight away by Mel & co, and it fuelled the first, of quite a few, nights out.
Karaoke. Has to be done. Dani testifies that night one was of a much higher standard than our second trip, which we'll get to later...
A serious night out upon landing in Korea was very welcome, and Dani was absolutely chuffed to see a familiar face. (Shout out to Mellie and gang for the BEST night!)
We spent the next five days & nights continuing as the trip started in Korea, with general sightseeing and wandering through the different areas of Seoul (Hongdae - the university district where we were staying, Gangnam - famous for being stylish and having that song too... though Stu preferred Itaewon which seems to be the new place around town). No big tours or excursions, apparently the Joint Security Area of the DMZ was closed due to security concerns, so we didn't go up to see the North Korean border unfortunately. So we just stayed put and tried to see what Seoul had to offer:
Coffee for starts. There are coffee shops everywhere. E v e r y w h e r e. Really nice too.
Shopping. Markets are exploding onto the main streets, and there's actually some decent wares for good prices. If you ever head to Seoul, leave some space in your suitcase.
Arcades. Again, everywhere. And they're always packed. 40c a shot at the small claw games, its easy to rack up a few quid quickly trying to win a toy (which we did, of course).
The food. It's unreal, especially if you like it spicy. The hostel organised a BBQ night out, which we joined, though we were a little surprised at first at what we were getting. First, some forbidden soju (we thought you weren't allowed drink in the hostel, though we were being overly cautious)
Back to the food, and as we said, a bit of a surprise, as it wasn't the strips of meat over a grill that we usually think of when hearing Korean BBQ. Instead it was a hot plate in the middle of the table, and we were being served up Dak galbi - which is the most ridiculously unbelievably tasty meal we've ever had. Spicy chicken is fried on the hot plate in front of you with a mix of veg, and once cooked through one of the servers come over to unload a mountain of cheese to melt all over it. Served up with kimchi too for good measure. Once you've eaten half the plate, they come back with rice to turn it into a bit of a fried rice-type meal (we also requested extra cheese, for our sins). Insanely good.
We tried to atone the next night, opting for vegetarian food at Chickpeace rather than more cheese-wrapped chicken, and it hit the spot just as much as the night's previous fare.
That one healthy night hopefully made up for the rest of our culinary choices (don't judge us), as for the majority of the rest of the time we went for our favourite of the Korean traditions: Korean Fried Chicken, and beer.
We made our way to American brewery Goose Island's taphouse over in somewhat-trendy Gangnam one afternoon, didn't disappoint:
But later that evening we went to the real star of the show, Kyochon. Recommended to us by a guy at the bar, no less.
The fried chicken is up there as one of the best we've ever had - half soy/garlic, half Korean red pepper. We tried out a few restaurants, more than we'd like to publicly admit, but this was the pick of the bunch.
We did manage to fit in a bit of non-food/drink culture, namely visiting Changdeokgung, one of the temples/palaces in the city - it was actually really nice, but we're starting to feel little "templed out" at this stage (hence why we're mainly blabbering on about food).
The three German lads we sat with at the BBQ organised by the hostel were checking out on our penultimate day, so we made sure to head out for a night at the arcades:
After a few games of darts and the likes, we were accosted on the street by a very happy Korean man selling quite possibly the worst drink of all time, Makgeolli, a syrupy, fermented rice wine. We still bought a couple of bottles, but it was pretty much undrinkable.
It did however give us the courage to attempt our second night at karaoke (soju was also needed) - and it was absolutely as terrible as you would imagine. Rolling in the Deep by Adele was our song of choice, and I don't think we'll be able to listen to it again without cringing uncontrollably.
This took us to our last day, which we spent wandering Seoul of course. We found some nice street art, and one thing we did finally stumble upon, with very unfortunate timing, was Pojangmacha - or traditional tents on the side of the road, where food and drinks come fast and loose - and cheap. However we weren't in the mood to sit down and drink more, so despite looking for them all week, we gave it a miss. For shame.
On we went to catch our flight to our next stop in South Korea, Jeju - an island off the south coast. Seoul was brilliant, plenty to do, a lot of fun, and a little bit cheaper than Japan (always welcome). It's not somewhere we'd spent a lot of time researching, but it ended up being somewhere we both really loved. It unexpectedly had a very (very) American influence in a lot of the cafes/coffee shops/restaurants etc., but it still held on to some traditional Korean charm.
Onwards and upwards!
Big love,
Dani & Stu
Currently listening to:
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