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.

First Night

The time we landed, it felt like midnight in Seattle. It basically felt like I'd been up for almost two days with maybe about 6 hours of sleep. We landed in Incheon airport, which I'd passed through to and from my way to Vietnam, but had never been to previously because we'd always flown out of Gimpo before. It's about three times further from Seoul and very, very big. It's considered one of the best airports in the world, but I'd still say that Singapore is better. I haven't been to Hong Kong after the remodel, but at a previous visit about 20 years ago, it was still nice,

There are four ways to get to Seoul from ICN. First the commuter train, which stops about 9 times between ICN and the Seoul Station, including Gimpo. This train is probably the cheapest at 4,150 KRW, but the slowest, taking an hour, and it is a subway, so if you have a lot of luggage, good luck. Also, if the Seoul Station is not where you want to be, you have to get on other line or catch a cab.

Next is the AREX train, which is a direct line from ICN to the Seoul Station. It's faster than the above, only taking 43 minutes, but it's 8,000 KRW and you still end up at the Seoul Station.

The next is the limousine buses. These are buses that will take you to a general area of Seoul and will drop you off at certain hotels. They take about the same time as the commuter train, but cost anywhere from 5,000-10,000 KRW. You have to know which bus to catch, and where to catch it, but it's a comfortable way to end up in the area you need to be.

The last is what we did, and just catch a cab. It took just under an hour, but we were exactly where we needed to be without trying to navigate the subway with four rolling bags. It was expensive at 70,000 KRW because we needed a jumbo cab. It would have been cheaper if we had arranged for a cab in advance.

We finally got to the flat we were staying in, which was a part of a huge apartment building. Incidentally, Seoul has twice the number of people as London, in half the amount of space, so I was amazed to find that a flat rental was a quarter the price. It was cheaper to rent a flat than stay in a hotel. We knew our flat number and the entry code, but couldn't figure out how to get into the building due to another keypad outside we didn't know the code for. I called the building super, trying to explain the situation, when a kind woman and her son walked by and explained in FLAWLESS English (seriously, when did that happen in the last 20 years?} that we were looking for the Officetel and needed to go to the other side of the building a look for a small revolving door. Bless that woman. Trundling four rolling bags, we FINALLY got into the apartment, late. I had gotten us a reservation at the N. Grill at the Namsan Tower and we had to hurry to Myeongdong to change money and then hurry to the cable cars to take us up the mountain. I hurried and changed and slapped some make up on, and we caught a cab because it would be faster.

If possible, change any currency in Myeongdong as it has much better rates than the airport, but we got a rate of 1047 KRW per USD, plus the exchange cost and 1080 KRW per USD in Myeongdong with no commission. So, it's really only the difference of a few dollars. We later walked up the road about 10 minutes to the Namsan Oreumi. The fastest way to the cable cars is just to leave Myeongdong Station, exit 3, and walk up the road, veering to the right, but it's easy to get lost, and it's a bit of a hike. The easier way to go by the Oreumi, a free standing elevator that rises at a 45 degree angle up the mountain. This map is roughly the path we took (I had the crappy, smaller camera, so please forgive quality of the pictures):

Namsan tunnel #3, this is the tunnel we'd take home to Itaewon

I took a picture of this because I thought it was a monument to a person or an event, but now I've read it, and all it says is Namsan Tunnel #3. I feel like an idiot.

Namsan Oreumi 

The view from the cable car station, Those are the wires on the right. 

Have some blurry pictures of Seoul. I got a picture from the cable car. It's amazing; it feels like you're floating over the city.

Namsan literally means "South Mountain" meaning it was south of the majority of Seoul a long time ago. Now it's in the middle of Seoul. It's a nature reserve with a pool, library, and miles of walking paths. Someday I plan on hiking it, but since Bukit Timah in Singapore nearly killed me a few years ago at 163.63 metres (537 ft.), I better get into shape before I attempt Namsan at 262 metres (860 ft). It is the highest point in Seoul.

In 1971, the Namsan tower was built, and in 2005, remodeled and renamed to N. Seoul Tower, but no one I know calls it that. There's a small park at the base of it where you can see where the original fortress wall was, the warning beacons (which I didn't get a picture of, sorry!), the 남산 팔각정 (Palgakjeong), an 8 sided pavilion, some art, and the lovelocks.

남산 팔각정 (Palgakjeong)

The tower lights up at light and plays a show with music. They were playing Maroon 5 and I wondered if it was because they're coming to Seoul later this year.

There are 7 love lock "trees" that you can hang your lock on.

Before we left, I arranged for a lock with Justin's and mine Korean names on it along with our wedding date. This is uncharacteristically sappy of me. I did it because I like to think there's a little of us in Seoul all the time. You can buy a lock at the gift shop for about $10, but I had ours engraved, and it ended up costing more than that. Oh well. Hopefully it lasts a long time.

We had a really hard time finding a place to put it, and then getting it locked on. We didn't want to hook it to someone else's lock because they usually get rusted and break.

This is where you are supposed to deposit the keys so people stop tossing them over the side of the mountain.

Have a terrible, blurry picture of me.

Long way from home. A reservation at the N. Grill comes with free entrance to the Observation Deck. 

View is pretty awesome

Our dinner was at the N. Grill, which is a haute cuisine restaurant on the top floor of the tower. It's about $100 a plate for some pretty good food, but the view is incredible. The floor rotates a full circle over the course of an hour (about the same time as your meal) and even the basic course we ordered came with 6 courses. Unfortunately, at this point we'd been awake for so long, and we so jet lagged, that we kept dozing off between courses and would jump every time the waiter would bring us something. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but Google N. Grill and plenty of other people have.

Afterwards we took the cable car down, but couldn't figure out the best way to get back to the flat. We hadn't gotten our subway cards yet, and I didn't know the best place to catch a cab so we just started walking in the general direction we were supposed to go. I hailed down one cab (no cabs would stop for Justin) but we'd walked so far, that the cabbie told us we should just walk. When I pointed out I was in HEELS, he said he'd do it for 10,000 KRW (three times what it should have cost) and I told him to get lost., He drove off in a huff and we continued walking. We finally somehow wound up at the City Hall station, and bought some T-Money cards. Unfortunately, this station was on a line that wouldn't get us anywhere near our flat, so we continued walking. It took about 30 minutes, but we got back, exhausted and ready to catch some much needed Z's.

My fitbit report for that day.

Preface II

So after the medical fun with my eyes (which I will say fortunately happened enough time before our trip to take care of problems) we had a slight misfortune the weekend we were due to leave that resulted in us having to call an emergency plumber to unclog the main line from the house. Adventures in house renting, yay.

We decided since our flight left so early, it was smarter to drop out kids at my brother's the night before so we didn't have to get them up early that morning and so my brother and his wife weren't presented with two grumpy, under-slept kids right off the bat. We came home to an empty house, and I can say, their presence was very much missed. The house felt so empty and sad.

I got about three hours sleep before we left because I never sleep well before trips. We got up at some ungodly hour and drop to long term parking before hopping on a shuttle with three bags, a carry-on, a backpack and a laptop back (yeah, it gets worse too). I was bring some stuff for a friend in Korea, and I also don't pack lightly because I have a tendency to plan for the worst and try to bring the kitchen sink.

At this point I'm going to sound like a snot and mention that we went business class. We come into some extra money early this year, and rather than do something responsible, we decided to use the money to be more comfortable on airplane ride. I get panicky on airplanes and also 3 out of 4 of my previous long haul flights, I had been incredibly uncomfortable due to someone halfway into my seat. The cheapest business class flight  from Seattle was Air Canada who flew routed us through Vancouver but flew on the new 787 Dreamliner, something I was curious about. I will also say that Korea seems to be one of the last few places a business class ticket doesn't cost an arm and a leg, just the arm.

After checking the bags, we headed towards the business class lounge which is where we discovered that our tickets on the puddle hop to Vancouver were listed as economy and they couldn't let us in, Seriously, it was an airplane that seated 26, there is nothing but economy. But this turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise because we just headed to the gate and waited, only to be approached by the flight attendant there who informed us our flight had been cancelled (!) Fortunately due to Star Alliance, they just switched us an Alaska Airline flight that actually left earlier than our flight would have. I was worried about our luggage, but the airport worker assured me it would get there. We then boarded the SMALLEST airplane I'd ever been on (about 40 seats). Never been on a turboprop before and I'd really like to avoid it from now on.

We made it to Vancouver and entered the business class lounge there without any troubles. The Maple Leaf lounge is okay. The food wasn't terrific, but there was plenty of it, and it was relatively quiet. We later board the famed Dreamliner and I have to say, it was impressive. Business class is made up of personal pods which lay flat. It was the most comfortable I've ever been on a flight. Due to me taking my Dramamine at the wrong time, I woke up after a few hours and spent the rest of the flight groggy, watching Guardians of the Galaxy (good, but anyone else felt like it was basically Star Wars?), Into the Woods (weird, but it's a weird musical), and the last Hobbit (bad, very bad).

We finally landed in Seoul, along with our luggage (bless you, airline worker).

Justin doesn't care what class we're in, just as long as he can charge his phone

Indulging his crazy wife at this point.

Preface I

So my trip to Korea needs a little bit of a preface. About a month before we were due to leave, my eyes started to bug me. One Monday, they felt a little bit itchy; Tuesday, they hurt; Wednesday, they stopped hurting but my vision was blurred, and on Thursday, they were back to hurting AND my vision was blurred. I finally broke down and went to the immediate clinic near our house. It was also incidentally Alana's birthday. (Sorry, baby girl....)

There the PA looked in my eyes, but ultimately couldn't find anything odd. He said that it was best to go to an ophthalmologist and get my eyes dilated. I didn't want to try to find an ophthalmologist on short notice and knew that my optometrist at the local Costco could also dilate and had the necessary equipment. Fortunately, Justin had decided to work from home that day and I asked him if he could drive me over and home afterwards because you're not supposed to drive. Luckily, Justin has the most understanding manager and he just took the rest of the afternoon off. I managed to get an appointment shortly after noon.

I love the optometrist at the Costco because she's has a good sense of humour and is VERY competent. She took a look in my eyes, and I started babbling about how I was pretty sure it was just allergies and nothing, but I just wanted to make sure. She pulled back and looked me straight in my aching eyes and said, "You have granulomas."

I busted out laughing, which she TOTALLY didn't expect because that's not a normal reaction. Pfft, normal is overrated, apparently. I explained my medical history. She told me that the granulomas in my eyes had caused them to swell, which then in turn had my iris get stuck on my lens, which why they hurt and my vision was blurry. I asked her point-blank what's the worst thing that could happen at this point. After hemming and hawing a little bit because she didn't want to tell me, she said that it was possible I would have partial vision loss.

She didn't want to dilate my eyes because she wanted it done in a controlled environment and a ophthalmologist (doh!) to do it because it was likely my iris would tear slightly when forced to contract. I said okay, I'd get on that tomorrow, but no, she wanted it done TODAY. She ended up calling a specialty eye clinic near us and brow beat them into getting me an appointment for 3. She was very nice about it and insisted to the front desk that we didn't have to pay, which made her a hero in my book.

At this point, I have to say that Kübler-Ross clearly knew her stuff. I left the optometrist with a "You have got to be kidding me" sort of attitude that then quickly descended into a "You have GOT TO BE F'ing KIDDING ME."

I had to be at Alana's class at 2:15 with birthday treats for her class, so we dropped off treats and beat a hasty path to the car to drive to the clinic. Justin dropped me off and then drove quickly back to school to pick up the kids while I waited for the doctor to come in. The ophthalmologist fortunately turned out to be very nice. She listened to my history and prescribed me a couple different steroids to put in my eyes 4 times a day (!) and another drop that would keep my eye dilated. She then dropped in some lovely orange liquid that numbed my eyes, and then dilated my pupil. Fortunately, my iris didn't tear or cause any bleeding. She offered me some lovely medical shades (good thing I had my sunglasses) and let me go. By this time Justin had brought the kids over and we were all too tired to try to come up with dinner. So Alana's birthday dinner was sushi, which fortunately both my kids love, Sorry, baby girl. One of these days I'll try not to have food poisoning or strange eye problems on your birthday. The Costco optometrist also called me later that night to make sure I was okay and that my eyes had dilated without an issues. (seriously, hero)

So the upshot was that I've been having to drop steroids into my eyes for the past month, including the time I was in Korea. I also had to come back to the ophthalmologist weekly, but she said the pressure in my eye was safe enough to fly so as long as I remember my drops, the trip wasn't an issue. My last appointment was a week ago, the day after we got back, and the granulomas were gone, so now I'm working on weaning off the steroids completely and getting my life back on track.