Day 8: GyeongBokGung + Ikseondong Hanok Village

We needed some hearty breakfast to start the day. So, we settled on Eggdrop 에그드랍 which happens to be around where we stayed. It is a very instagrammable aesthetic breakfast. It was good but I actually prefer Isaac Toast! They are both really good options for quick, easy and affordable breakfast sets. After breakfast we quickly head over to our next hotel which is very exciting to us because it is the Line Friends themed room complete with cypress bath - more on this later but after dropping our stuff off and finished “ooh-aahing” about how cute the room is, off we go to GyeongBokGung 경복궁.

경복궁 was the main royal Joseon Dynasty Palace. The palace was built in 1395 and located in the Northern Seoul, South Korea. It used to serve as the home of the royal family and the seat of government. The walk over was really lovely. Sun was shining so it was a little less cold and we’re feeling pretty excited about getting to see this landmark.

One of the highlights of this Palace visit was definitely unexpected. We were trying to take a quick selfie but all of a sudden, a (I assumed) korean man appeared and asked if we want him to take our pictures. I was a little startled because he appeared out of nowhere but of course we agreed. Immediately after I gave him my phone, he dropped his bag on the ground (pretty hard, too) and proceeded to take so many amazing pictures from multiple angles of us. One time he was literally almost laying on the ground!!! Thank you so much for capturing a better memory for us, kind man.

**This is genuinely one of the best pictures ever taken for us during our trip. I am impressed.**

We didn’t have set plans for meals most of our time in Korea because it was quite difficult to reserve any restaurants. So this time, I asked Juan to flex his reddit power and find us a good lunch place and BOY, did he deliver. We went to this hole in the wall place - it was quite difficult to find but I am glad we persevered because it was so so so so delicious.
Hoony Dony is the name of the tonkatsu restaurant. I ordered their Bibim Guksu 비빔국수 (korean cold spicy wheat noodles) with a side of shrimp tempura to share and Juan ordered their very cheesy very tender Tonkatsu, which I think was their popular dish after looking around to see what others are eating. The lady of the shop was so kind to us and showed us how to properly eat the dish together, brought us some water and extra rice. We were the only foreigners in the shop, and it was so lovely that she made sure we felt welcomed. If we ever go back to South Korea, we’d go back it was so good.

Ikseondong Hanok Village 익선동 한옥마을

We ate so well so we decided why not take a long stroll and see what we find before we reach our next destination which is Ikseondong Hanok Village. I will say this many times over, it was so good to be walking all over Seoul. We tend to go do big “landmark” things especially in a new country, but walking has given us so many opportunities to peek into the less known spots around the city. We were also on the hunt for some dessert after walking for quite a bit. So we stumble upon this donut shop that turned out to be really good, which if i remember correctly kick-started our “let’s just snack the whole day instead of sitting down for dinner”.

I also found a sweet little shop selling croffles! This was my first time ever eating croffle and they were YUMMY. I wished I had taken a picture of the store front to remember the name of the shop, alas, I didn’t. The lady was so sweet, too. She had crinkly eyed beautiful smile. I think this was a sea salt honey croffle and I have been thinking about this ever since. It was really crunchy, sweet and salty on the outside and SO BUTTERY SOFT INSIDE.

Ikseondong Hanok Village felt like a maze of old and modern smashed together. There were an abundance of cafes, kbbq spots and of course, small shops filled with cute little bags and accessories. I think this was my favorite hanok village to walk through in Seoul. The cafes in Seoul are definitely on another level of aesthetic. I genuinely just enjoyed people watching in one of the cafes. Here’s a reel I made for that day.

Day 9 : SeMA & Hong Dae 홍대

First stop for us is Seoul Museum of Art. I might have mentioned it before, but government run museums in South Korea are free to enter for anyone. So we decided to visit SeMA. Kiki Smith was on display when we were there. I am not familiar with her work but after doing some reading, her work mainly is about figural representations of mortality, abjection, and sexuality. I am particularly drawn to her tapestry work that was on display.

After a couple hours at the museum, we walked out and greeted by gusts of wind. We decided to grab a kakao taxi because it was a bit too cold for us to walk all the way to Hongdae for our lunch. Kakao Taxi is pretty easy as long as you have the korean name for a specific place/area. English name is a bit tricky because the search hardly ever pull up any results. Thankfully I have learned myself a bit of Korean, especially writing and reading that I was able to use that during this trip!

Our lunch is at this Tuk Tuk Noodle Thai restaurant that came highly recommended by a travel vlogger I follow. It is a quaint spot with colorful street thai decor. The food was really delicious, although I have had better thai food in Seattle. We did get to try thai dishes we never tried before so that was pretty great.

We then went to an aesthetic little cafe I’ve been wanting to visit. Mostly because of the inside decor looking like 2d black and white art. This cafe would be a dream project for me to be honest. I mean, look at how cool! I also had my first black sesame latte and that was quite delicious.

After all that food and sweets, we really just have to walk it off by meandering around the area. We were pretty close to Hongdae from that cafe. Everything in Seoul is just so cute. The walkability of the city is something I deeply miss from living in places like Kuala Lumpur. It is so easy to walk, hop on a bus or a train from pretty much anywhere in the city. Why couldn’t we have more of that here in the States?

Anyway, here are some city scenes on the way to Hongdae. We plan to do a bit of shopping since we are nearing the end of our trip and we want to bring souvenirs home for our friends.

**A cool mural we spotted in alleyways around HongDae.**

To be quite honest, I was a little disappointed by HongDae. It was crowded which was fine, but the shops were pretty skewed towards more of the “American Apparel” bland-ness. Plain white tees, plain sweats, plain everything. Which, I guess works for some people, but I was genuinely more excited to find cooler and more distinctive items. A highlight though, we did find a shop somewhere outside of the Hong Dae area (because we left quite quickly) and I got Juan the coolest looking jacket that he wears all the time nowadays. BIG WIN. This was one of the slower days of the trip. We were pretty tired so we got ourselves some korean fried chicken before headed back to the hotel.

That night I treated myself with the bath that turned me into a bath person. The smell of cypress and hot water and the soaking was just what I needed for the last few days in Seoul.

Here’s a little reel from that day.

Day 10 : SeongSu 성수동 & Itaewon 이태원

Our last 2.5 days in Seoul. We love switching hotels when we go on trips because we get to explore different neighborhoods. Today we moved ourselves to Grand Hyatt Seoul. I don’t usually go for bigger chain hotels like these, but there was a deal running with my travel credit card, we thought might as well. One of the few perks about hotels like these are the shuttle to airport! I like the convenience of being picked up so we don’t have to struggle with suitcases. And of course the view from our room doesn’t hurt either.

But I am getting ahead of myself here. Today is the day we explore the up and coming neighborhood in Seoul! Which ended up being one of my top 3 favorite day in Seoul. This neighborhood is called SeongSu 성수동. We started the day with going to a popular restaurant aptly called: Seong Su Da Rak 성수다락. They serve Italian food with a twist. It is a cute little 3 floor restaurant. The line was already forming before they even open and I am so glad we got there in time. We got seated pretty quickly and they also have english menu which made ordering a little easier. The food was really good, and I highly recommend going. I had their omurice and juan had their spicy seafood pasta. Both were de.li.cious.

I wanted a quick coffee stop, and y’all, this is the best coffee I’ve had in Seoul. It was a special Jeju salted cream latte. As I’m saying this I find myself craving it again. I cannot remember the name of the coffee shop, and looking at google maps it looked like it had been replaced with another shop. :( I am glad I got to experience it.

We walked around the neighborhood for a bit. There were so many cute little cafes (yes, more cafes) and shops. And we randomly ran into a very popular spot we didn’t even know about until we spoke to our Korean friends about it. It is called NUDAKE. It is a bakery tucked inside a VERY industrial looking building. I thought it was an underground clothing store and I really didn’t know what to expect when I opened the door, but I did not expect this.

It was some kind of alternate universe of Avant Garde display of bread? Regardless, it was so strange that we had to go in and get ourselves some baked goods. The baked goods were displayed in this circular table where we had to jot down the assigned number and bring the paper up to order. We were so full so we got a small creme brulée type dessert and some microissant. Y’all, I am not explaining. See pictures below.

It was ridiculous in a way that I will admit, I love. Yes, it came in that small baggy and we ate ‘em quick. It was pretty packed in there so we didn’t want to stay for too long. So we left and found even more cute cafes. I genuinely love the korean cafe aesthetic, I feel like I’ve said that so many times but it satiate my designer self. More photos of shops we found along the way. It was such a lovely walking day.

There is a stationery store along the way that I really want to visit. It is called Point of View. It is a 3 story building filled with stationery ranges from upscale to daily use. We were directed to go up to the upper floor and make our way down to explore what they have. Y’all I could spend so many hours in this spot perusing all the paper goods. I was on the hunt for korean made items and found all the things I wanted in this shop.

The rest of the day was spent walking to different spots nearby Seongsu before we head back to our hotel for a much needed rest. This was a really lovely day.

Day 11+12 : Last couple of days in Seoul

I started the day feeling melancholic for having to leave Asia again. This isn’t my country but I felt really comforted being in culture that is more similar to mine than in the States. I had been feeling this a lot over the pandemic years. A kind of yearning to go “home”. I have been an immigrant since I was 11 years old, and “home” felt more like an idea than an actual place. Anyway, Juan was so sweet in trying to find a spot for us to get a nice little brunch to lift my spirit because… well, food. He always do such a wonderful job in cheering me up. I love him.

Next stop: Leeum Museum of Art 리움미술관

This was a really lovely museum. We got to see more of the traditional Korean art. A lot of pottery pieces that are delicate. The way they displayed the art AND the structure is pretty rad. We went to the top and followed the circular “stairs” down with art displays in each “floor”. The natural flow was great. They had an visiting exhibit but we didn’t know we had to get tickets ahead of time, and they were unfortunately sold out for the day.

Outside of the Museum we got to experience this cool sculpture.

Next stop is The Hyundai Department Store 현대백화점

I wanted to come walk around here just to see the beautiful architecture they have going on inside the mall. Most of the shops are “high-end luxury shops” so we avoided that and went straight to their Food Court to check out what they have. They have SO MANY FOOD OPTIONS. I think this was the first time I’ve ever felt so overwhelmed by the choices we have.

We ended up choosing one of the spicy Tantanmen “stall” and it was the right choice. The soup was spicy, rich and everything was cooked to perfection. Hunting for a spot to sit in the foodcourt was a bit of a challenge but we got very lucky. It felt really safe to be indoors at the time with a bunch of people because all of them put their masks back on as soon as they finished eating. They were respectful and considerate.

We went to Gangnam area right after this to check out the Figure Museum. It was generally just okay. Nothing too impressive that we have not seen before, and most of them are skewed more American Figures than anything else. There was a section for Gundam that was quite cool, but overall I would not suggest going to Gangnam area.

By this point we were really ready for our last dinner in Seoul. This was the only place I was able to make a reservation through IG. The name of the restaurant is Parc Seoul and I would highly recommend coming if you are in Itaewon area. The staff was really kind and helpful. They spoke great english and the food was home cooked korean food. One of the ladies working was so great. She came over and told us how long it takes for them to marinate the meat we were eating (48 hours! in Pears and Chillies!) She also showed us how to effectively use the scissors they provided to cut the meat. They do seasonal items so the menu is never the same for long. Anyway, great food.

**Our last hotel room view before we head to Incheon.**

With that, we wrapped up South Korea 2023. I am really grateful we got to go and experience this country together. Until next time.✌️My next blog will be for Southeast Asia!

Seoul서울 & Busan부산 2023 (part II)