Day 2: 광화문 (Gwanghwamun) and 광장시장 (Gwangjang market)

After getting about three hours sleep and trying to sleep for another three, I finally gave up and got up. We headed out at seven for 광화문 (Gwanghwamun). This was the area we were staying in, so it was a 5 minute walk. Turns out it was the PERFECT time to go because we were the only ones there, other than some policemen. More on that later. I grabbed the better, but heavier camera, so hopefully the pictures are clearer even if the photographer isn't better. My neck is not thanking me.

Gwanghwamun is named for the large gate outside the place. Gwanghwamun also now refers to a large plaza that sits just south of the gate. It's a long narrow plaza with two statues, one for 세정 (King Sejong) and one for 이순신 (Admiral Yi Sun Shin). King Sejong was the person who came up with the hangul, the Korean alphabet. It's the only alphabet in the world that the creator is known and what year (1443). The adoption of it over the next few centuries lead to early literacy rates in both men and women. Sejong is the man on the 10,000 KRW note.

Admiral Yi Sun Shin was an admiral that managed to beat off four Japanese invasions in the year 1592. In 1597, he beat off the entire Japanese fleet with 13 boats against the Japanese 333. He was killed in 1598. He is also the creator of the turtle ship (which I'll talk about in a later post). Yi Sun Shin is the man on the 100 KRW coin.

광화문 Gwanghwamun

To the left of Gwanghwamun is Bukhansan, the mountain that marks to northern boundary of Seoul

Back of King Sejong

The letters of the Korean alphabet

The front says, Sejong, Great King or Emperor

The Sejong Center for Performing Arts

The three objects there are bronze representations. The bowl on the right is a sun dial, the middle cylinder is a rain measure, and the left is a spherical astrolabe. 

Behind Sejong's statue, there are stairs that go down to a small free museum that talks about the creation of hangul.

English translation

 Back of Admiral Yi Sun Shin

I couldn't read all of this. 1545-4-28 was when he was born (Apr 28th, 1545) and 1598-12-16 (Dec 16 1598) was when he died. The 1592 was the year of the Japanese invasion. But I have no idea what happened on March 8th and why it says Nov 19th at Noryang (the site of his death.)

During the summer, there are jets of water spraying from the ground, 23 for the 23 boats Yi managed to destroy.

At this point, I should explain the policemen. April 16th marks a year since the sinking of the Sewol ferry disaster. In the sinking, 304 out of the 476 people on board died. The cause was the boat was carrying three times the cargo it should have been, as well as the cargo not being secured properly. Protests since then have been due to the government's lack of regulation, the fact that fishing boats were able to rescue passengers a full 30 minutes before the coast guard or navy showed up, and an unfulfillment of a promise to raise the boat and retrieve the last 9 bodies aboard. Most of the people who died were students from various high schools. Yellow ribbons and boats marked the remembrance of those who died. The police were on high alert to keep the protests peaceful. We passed by Gwanghwamun several times and there were dozens of policemen shipped in from various parts of the area.

Faces of the people still not retrieved.

After Gwanghwamun, we hopped on the subway, made a transfer, and headed to 광장시장 (Gwangjang market). Gwangjang market is the oldest continuous market in Seoul. I'll be honest, I have no memory of coming here before, but it was one of my favourite places.

These are in all the subways. It's full of emergency rations and gas masks, a sobering reminder that Korea is still a nation at war. The Korean War never ended, continuing to this day with skirmishes happening every so often. 

I found out about Gwangjang from this episode of Running Man (the Gwangjang market bit is from 7:17 to 21:00 if you don't want to watch a hour and a half of a crazy Korean show). Running Man is one of the best shows, mostly because of it's complete absurdity and great cast. I love this episode because CN Blue is my favourite Korean band. They seem like a congenial bunch but some of their music videos crack me up. They sometimes try to be gritty and punk, and I'm sorry, but they're about a thug as a box of puppies..

Gwangjang looked interesting and while I had seen 빈대떡 (bindaetteok) at my local Korean grocery store, it always looked like a sad, soggy pancake. After watching them eat it on Running Man, I had to try it. Gwangjang is famous for a few things other than bindaetteok. They have a 육회 (yukhwey) alley, which is minced raw beef with seasonings, topped with a raw egg. 마야김밥 (mayak kimbap) is also popular here. "Ma" means magic and "yak" means medicine, so it's often called magic or narcotic kimbap. 떡볶이 (tteokbokki) spicy rice cakes, 어뎅 (odeng) fish, 족발 (jokbal) pigs trotters, 순대 (soondae) blood sausage, and 보리비빔밥 (bori bibimbap) mixed barley rice are all available. There's a food market where side dishes, seafood, kimchi, and fruits and veggies can be bought. It also has a LARGE textile market, some housewears, and lot of bedding available. But the number one reason I wanted to go was because I'd read that Gwangjang was the cheapest place to buy a hanbok. I don't know if that's true, but it felt like there hundreds of hanbok and hanbok accessory stores and stalls. I was determined to come home with a custom made hanbok, the first I'd ever had. All others I'd had were off the rack.

We got to the market at about 8 am, which was early (seriously nothing opens before 9, sometimes 10). Where does everyone go in the morning? Fortunately, a couple of the food stalls were open and we sat down (there's very little difference between prices and what they offer, just pick one that looks good and sometimes of the day, where you can find a seat). We ordered a couple of bindaetteok and two portions of mayak kimbap and the ahjumma there handed up a couple of bowls of odeng soup (I'm not sure if it was 어묵국 [oemukguk] but that's usually what odeng soup is).

마야김밥 (mayak kimbap), so good. My kids would have LOVED it.

어묵국 (oemukguk), I'm not a huge fan. Odeng is nice enough, but the broth freaks me out a little. Still good.

빈대떡 (bindaetteok) 

Bindaetteok is a shallow fried pancake made from ground mung beans. Ours had some onions and blanched mung beans cooked into it, and it was so crisp and think and heavenly, I will be sad if it's not a constant presence in my life. I've bought some dried mung beans at the Korean store to see if I can figure out how to make it. The best way I can describe it is that it's like a very good latke.  You better like mung beans though (which I do).

Funny story: When I first moved to the us, I went to the local subway sandwich shop with a friend. She asked me if I wanted "bean sprouts" on my sandwich, which was weird because I'd grown up in Asia thinking beans sprouts were either mung or soy bean sprouts. I said sure, and the sandwich maker put the smallest, most anemic bean sprouts on my sandwich I'd ever seen. I was shocked, but I figured that maybe bean sprouts were smaller in this country and never ordered them again. It wasn't until I was an adult later doing my own shopping that I discovered that they were ALFALFA sprouts, a totally different thing.

Gwangjang sits next to 청계천 (Cheonggyecheon), an artificial stream build that starts at Gwanghwamun and runs eastward until it meets 중랑천 (Jungnangcheon) which then flows into the Han River. I have a dream to walk the entire length someday as it's only 8.4 km. More on that later.

The hanbok market is on the second floor. Just walk down one of the main corridors until you get some stairs and a door that says hanbok market. Upstairs is a labyrinthine floor full of stalls that will offer ready made hanboks, custom made hanboks, hanbok accessories, or just hanbok fabric. Justin had to remind me of our limited luggage space and funds because I could have gotten into A LOT of trouble on this floor. 

We wandered around and I was starting to get a little overwhelmed, we picked a stall at random, mostly because the owner was there (at this point it was 9 am and people still really weren't there). So the stall we picked had a very nice ahjumma.... who spoke very little English. Fortunately between Justin's and my Korean and a lot of miming we got our point across. The ahjumma assured us that hanboks could be made before the following Tuesday and starting pulling out bolts of fabric. I had a very definite idea of what colours I wanted, but that's when Justin and I both realized we don't know all the colours (there are some very weird gaps in our respective knowledge). It came down to tell her I wanted a red skirt (fortunately I knew red) and her pulling out other fabric she thought I'd like. I had to talk her out of a green jacket (it was a very pretty green) when she mentioned I'd look like a watermelon (believe it or not, this is a compliment in Korean). We finally got a colour combination I liked (no pink!) in fabrics that I'd like. The majority of it was silk with some embroidery on the cuffs and neck. The ahjumma kept trying to talk me out of the silk saying it was expensive. Justin picked out his, all polyester. We talked about outer coats. I'd never had one before and I wasn't sure if they were made or bought. She just pulled out a pretty blue silk durumagi and told me she'd give me a discount because we'd bought a hanbok. Justin's would have to be custom made. His durumagi is silk, made in the traditional side tie while mine was open down the middle.

The bold of blue was my tie and the bottom of one of the skirt, the yellow was my jacket, the red with gold was going to be the other skirt. The dark blue was Justin's durumagi, the red embroidered his jacket and vest, the white is the shirt, and the sliver of blue on the end was his pants. 

Hanboks ordered and paid for, we beat a retreat out of Gwangjang because after an hour and a half of arguing negotiating with the hanbok ahjumma (Koreans have a blurred line between arguing and being helpful) and concentrating on speaking Korean for that long had left me with a headache and the verge of a panic attack. As we left, I spied a four storey hanbok store full of luxury, modern hanboks. We started to walk north towards the palaces.