Justin's samgyetang juk
My abalone porridge.
After breakfast, we headed to Itaewon, the area we lived in. We actually lived in three different places. The first was a high rise apartment that I didn't look for this time around. The second was in a type of apartment called a villa, which only has a few apartments per floor. The last was in a duplex house, but we occupied both the ground and upper floor. There is now a subway stop on both end of Itaewon which wasn't there when we lived there. Itaewon is the most "American" area of Seoul due to it's proximity to the Yongsan army base. In fact when we were there, there were plaques in the sidewalk with different counties, and walking up one of the streets, there were signs in Arabic.
It's changed, but I remember when they put this McDonald's in. I think it was the second McDonald's ever in Korea, the first being in Gangnam.
The beginning of Itaewon. On the other side of this hill is the Yongsan garrison, At the time we lived here, it was a blank retaining wall of stones, but since then, trees and flowers have grown.
The base of the street we used to climb up to get to our house. I believe there used to be a post office where one of those stores used to be. There was also a small store near here than my first nanny/maid bought me a doll hanbok as a goodbye when she left to get married.
The hill from the other side. This street gets really icy in the winter. One time my sister slipped and accidentally threw her trumpet case down the hill.
Yeah, it was a bit of a hike. We traveled it both ways everyday to get to the bus stop.
At the top of the hill, and before you turn to get to our street, there's the 부군당 (Bugundang) shrine. It's a very small shrine, but it was peaceful and had a fantastic view.
A view of Seoul. You could see everything from the river up to Namsan.
Namsan tower.
Around here, I got lost. I turned down the wrong street and nothing looked for familiar. I headed to what I thought was the right direction. I used up at a playground that was at the end of our street, so I ended up going to the villa that was our house from the wrong direction. It was still nice to wander around
Climbing up yet another hill, I finally got to Samho Villa, which I'm pretty sure was where we lived. I actually once found a listing for the apartment we lived in. It was $5000 a month listing, but everything looked the same. Sigh.
Where that chicken store on the left was, there used to be a small convenience store where we used to buy yogurt drinks and ice cream.
We headed off to the other and last house we lived at. This is the top of the neighbourhood. The dome on the left is this giant house. I also believe this was the street where some friends lived that would hire my sister to pet sit their devil cat, Clifford. He bit me on the wrist one time. I have obviously never forgiven him.
Heading down into our neighbourhood.
The street we used to live on.
I was 50% sure this was the house we lived in. The reason was there was a window in the right place that was my sister's and my room. The bathroom also looked to be in the right place. I took a lot of pictures, which I'm use the current residents appreciated.
That window was the really small room Gwyn and I occupied.
The gate looked right but I don't remember there being a smaller gate and I thought the door was facing the wrong direction. I also thought there was a tree in the front garden where we buried Watson, our pet parakeet. Either I got the wrong house, or they've taken them down.
At the end of a trip down nostalgia lane, we headed back down to the base of Itaewon and stopped a store called Harubang. I was looking for a Korean nativity like the one I had grown up with. It's hand carved by a artist and sold by his son. Unfortunately there's a three month waiting list. When we had booked our tickets in January, I had emailed the store asking about the possibility of buying one in April and was assured this was not going to be an issue. However, since I hadn't been there to make an order in person, they didn't have one for me and were going to turn us away. I still had the email to prove to them I had inquired three months in advance when the owner of the store walked in. He looked at my email and instructed the shop attendant to sell me the floor sample. He ended up being my favourite person we met on our trip, not only because he let us have the nativity, but he also called me "agasshi," the equivalent of Miss.
On the way back from Itaewon, we stopped again in Dongdaemun to look around during the day. I didn't buy anything, but I wish I'd had more time to look at the fabrics and sewing trims. Oh well, something for the next trip.
