Sights in Seoul (3)

After our weekend trip in Busan we came back to Seoul. Thanks to Saeyeon we had fun things planned everyday :)

Day 8

First things first, when we got back we went to the mall and I invested in a selfie stick. Using Mina's in Busan was fun so I wanted to get one for myself :) 

We then spent the day at the National Museum of Korea. It was organized by kingdoms and time periods. It was relaxing to wander around learning new things. 

  

After a bit, we took a break to get something to drink because I was starting to get one of my headaches. Saeyeon's was a fruity one that I have never tried before. I believe it was called omija. It was tasty! 

 

The round desserts were filled with red bean paste.

    

We left the museum and Saeyeon's dad was kind enough to drive us to Itaewon. It is a really cool neighborhood. This is one place where all the restaurants are very international. And can you believe it? We found a Greek restaurant!! I never thought I would eat spanakopita in Korea :)

 

Another American restaurant I found in Korea! We didn't eat here, but I had to take a picture for Mom :) She loves the Dorito tacos at Taco Bell.

 

After we ate we headed back to the bookstore. We visited this store about four times during our trip haha It had everything, music albums, books, and cool inventions. The thing I am wearing on my head is supposed to massage your temples. Perfect for headaches they said. At the same place Saeyeon found her favorite hand massager :)

To finish the day we stopped by Gangnam. Yes the namesake of one of the most popular videos on YouTube, Gangnam Style. Kristen and I embarrassed ourselves by doing the dance in the subway station but it was fun :)

Day 9

 

 

Wearing hanbok was one of my favorite things we did in Korea! These are traditional outfits that are worn for special occasions. We found a shop that allows you to rent them for a few hours. It was across the street from Gyeongbokgung Palace so we went over there to take pictures. The main section was closed but we were able to get some good shots on the outside. We felt like princesses :) 

 

Underneath the dresses we wore a hoop shirt of sorts which is what makes them more round. The store had many designs to choose from. I think we got colors that fit our personalities :)

 

Now this is a small world story. When we were in Busan, on one of the nights Mina and I relaxed in the hotel while Saeyeon and Kristen went to the club. They made friends with a kid from Hong Kong but they forgot to get his contact information. Later when we were at the train station waiting to go back to Seoul, they saw him again! He was going to Seoul as well! Saeyeon friended him on FB and then we met up with him a few days later! His name was Brian and he was really nice :) 

We visited Gwangjang market together. It has lots of yummy street food. 

This restaurant we went to was special because it shares the name of one of my aunts, SoonHee! We got Korean pancakes here and they were delicious! The ones we had were made with mung beans. 

This is probably one of the most adventurous things we did during our visit. We ate... live octopus! We had been wanting to try it and we found it at the market. The lady selling them was very excited when we came over. She took the octopus out of the tank, let us touch it, and then started chopping it up in front of us! It was still moving when she gave it to us on the plate... I told myself I would regret it if I didn't try so I took a bite. Surprisingly it wasn't that bad! The flavor was ok, but the texture was not pleasant. You could feel the tentacles and it was rubbery like chewing a rubber hose. I'm glad I tried it though! My friends were braver than me and ate the rest :)

 

I treated myself to an ice cream filled waffle afterwards ;) 

Selfie stick adventures! 

 

Brian had to leave after a few hours to meet up with more friends and we headed to Seoul Tower. The walk there was pretty much straight up a hill. Thankfully they had an incline that took us the rest of the way up. The view from the top was beautiful! 

 

 

I'll finish up our adventures in my next post!

Thanks for reading!

♥ TTFN, KARISSA