Well, this weekend we had a couple days off due to Children's Day. I had thursday and friday off. I planned to go to Seoul with some girls, Katie and Breann, I met at church. They, did not have friday off. So i left Friday morning and met up with my friend from college, Abe. I met him in Myeong-dong which has amazing shopping and many places to eat. We went to a typical Korean place. We had kalguksu. Just sound it out and you got it: kal-guk-sue. Its a delicious soup with noodles (a traditional noodle made only from water and flour), a tiny bit of green vegetables, and dumplings. I love this soup! And then we had some more dumplings on the side. The dumplings are like oversized pot stickers. I happened to be the only waygooken in this restaurant. I didn't really care, it kinda felt like i was on the inside for once. After soup, we headed over to a expensive shopping complex called Shinsegae (shin-say-gay). There is a very small sculpture garden on the roof. There are pieces by Henry Moore, Calder, and some others that are well known and yet i can not remember. But the main reason we went was to see Jeff Koon's piece, "Sacred Heart." If you are at all familiar with contemporary art you know this name. He actually spoke at my college graduation. He attended MICA but he never finished, but thats a different story. The piece was bought for $30 million. No sweat for Koons. Here is the "Sacred Heart"
again, $30 million.... Please.
And here am i touching it:
After we saw this thing we went into the shopping area and grabbed some Korean dessert. Its like the new fad over here. Its a dessert where the bottom is shaved ice, then there is a layer of slightly sweet red beans in a sauce and then topped with ice cream. We chose to go with green tea ice cream. It all sounded good in theory, kinda, but it wasn't that great. Abe wasn't impressed either. He said it should have tasted a bit better. The ice part tasted fishy, literally.
After that we strolled along an area (that i for get the name of) where there is an open market. You can buy things dirt cheap there and barter too! They have everything: food, clothes, plastic stuff, toys...... any sort of Korean paraphernalia. It reminded of walking to school in Italy (which Abe also went to the same time as I did). Every morning we would have to walk through the leather market to go to class. Except this time no one was tenderly speaking, "Ciao bella," with a sly and repulsive grin. No one cared i was even there.
After the market craziness, we parted ways in the subway and he told me how to get to Insadon. Which is now one of my favorite places in Seoul. Its a cute little area away from big traffic (once you get off the main drag) and it is full of handmade goods, art galleries, and a couple antiques places and a couple of touristy stores.
Since its Budda's Birthday in May there are lanterns of all kinds all over.
And then there are lanterns lining the sidewalks too.
So here are some of my findings in Insadon.
They apparently serve tons of coffee
The store is called
"The art of Natural Dyeing"
i do love a dying naturally?!
Reminds me of Intro to Fibers
I forgot the name of this place too. It is an outside mall, but all the stores only sell handmade items. They had some really cool finds.
At the top is a super cute cafe. I happened to be there at the right time due to rain so i got a latte in a cute cup and my receipt in a potion bottle.
This mall is unique due to the fact that you don't need to use the stairs. The floor is built in such a way that it just spirals up. It has a slight slant. But there are stairs if you want to exit quickly and in them you will find these
Giant roses growing all the way up to the fourth floor. They are so strong they even withstand graffiti.
And here is a view of the shopping area from an art gallery across the street
I doubt you can see it but there are giraffes grazing on top of the building. Immobile giraffes.
After shopping and coffee i wandered into some art galleries and this is what i found:
really?!
This guy had the best paintings of all. I know Korea isn't winning awards with their art, but at least this guy can know he is making something good. Most of the art i saw reminded me of everything i saw in college. Nothing terribly new or exciting.
And then i roamed the streets some more and found these:
So cute! I dont know why i like such stupid things. But i really enjoy these lanterns, and even the old box the brass one is sitting on! The best part was that it came with a 4 inch hook that was in the shape of of monkey. One arm hung onto the lantern while the other arm hung onto a hook on the ceiling. Amazing.
And then i found this guy who was either waiting for a hug or welcoming me to Insadon
I have no idea why he is here.
After Insadon i took the subway back to Myeong-dong to do a little shopping in a super cool store called "A land." Its like Urban Outfitters without the trashiness. More hip. Then i went back to the airport to pickup Katie and Breann. We then headed to their friend's place which was about an house outside the city. We stayed with a couple who Breann vaguely knew from her church back home. They had a gloriously homey apartment with all the amenities i dearly miss. Like a dishwasher, a bath tub with an overhead shower, but mostly, an oven. They were extremely hospitable and showed us around the city all day Saturday and Sunday.
Overall, Friday was a great day for me. There are much more exciting things to come like a lantern parade and traditional Korean music and ribbon dancing!!! Yes, ribbon dancing ;)
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