Seoul - Day 2

Recap of my trip to Seoul, Korea, on Thursday, 17 March 2016.

Namsan, Hanbok-wearing Session, Itaewon & Pumpkin

Today may be my second day in Seoul but it would be the first day my friend starts her official sightseeing. For breakfast, we had pancake at a lovely cafe in Myeongdong. We then went to Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center at M-Plaza to book our slot for the free hanbok wearing session. We booked a slot at 2pm. We also reserved tickets for the Changdeok Palace Secret Garden tour the next day. We were planning to just buy the tickets at the palace when we go there but decided to reserve the tickets since the number of tickets for the English tour was limited. I then showed my friend all the free maps that were available in several languages at the centre. I was very thankful for the free maps; the subway map was particularly helpful.

My friend decided to take me to Namsan (Nam Mountain) which was about a 10-minute walk from Myeongdong. We had earlier discussed if we wanted to take the cable car up but decided to be frugal and hike our way up Namsan. My friend is a runner so it was no problem for her. I wanted to save money, so it was no problem for me. To reach the peak of Namsan, we had to pass a few buildings on the slope. Some were houses and I wondered what it would be like to live on such a charming slope in the middle of the city. As we passed one house, I think I could smell food being cooked.

I know I was okay with hiking up Namsan, but the journey was further and higher than I thought. It didn't help that I hadn't been working out for the past two weeks. I had to take a few rests. Namsan is only 262 metres high but I felt like I got a headache as we got nearer to the top. Don't know if it was altitude sickness or something else. I was quite literally winded once we reached the top but it was worth it. We were in time to see the lighting of the beacon of an ancient fortress. The hexagonal pavillion at the top had breathtaking architecture.

 

The roof of the pavillion. Apart from the pavilion, there was the N-Seoul Tower, a platform which had hundreds of love locks, an ancient compass and an ancient map of the city. Of course, there were many spots where you could gaze at the vibrant city of Seoul.

Descending Namsan was a breezy affair and we saw many office workers hiking their way up. It was lunchtime so we weren't surprised to see them but we were surprised at their dedication to hike up a mountain during lunchtime. Of course, if the weather back home was as cool as Seoul's and there was a mountain in the middle of the city, I'm sure we could hike up during lunch hour :P I also commented how we didn't see a single cat in Seoul and wondered if Seoul had cats.

  For lunch, we decided to when in Rome, do as the Romans do. We queued up at the sandwhich place on the same street as our hotel because we saw a lot of people lining up there. We figured the food had to be good. As we checked the menu, I noticed most of the sandwhich came with meat but there was an egg sandwhich so I ordered that one. It tasted pretty good but it was sweet as well. Surprisingly, honey goes well with a hot egg sandwhich but I'm pretty sure the meat sandwhiches were tastier.

We had our hanbok wearing session next so we headed back to M-Plaza. The staff at the cultural centre helped us into the hanboks but we had to take the pictures ourselves. Not surprising considering they let us wear the hanbok for free but I saw a guy taking photos this morning and assumed he was the centre's photographer. He was probably taking photos of his family. We took turns to take photos but for the last one, we asked one of the staff to help take a photo of the two of us :D

After the hanbok wearing session, we went back to Sejong Hotel to pick up our luggage which we left at the concierge after checking out earlier this morning. We lugged our luggage ten minutes away to KW Hostel Myeongdong. Thankfully, it was quite near the main road. Once we checked in to the hostel, we then had to carry our luggage to the third floor. Our room was way smaller than the one in Sejong Hotel but you get what you pay for. The attached bathroom was small but complete. The room also smelled strongly of cigarette despite it being a non-smoking hostel so we left the window open. We then took a short nap to recover from the morning's activities.

We went back to Myeongdong after our nap to window shop at the numerous cosmetics shops there. I enjoyed looking at the products at Innisfree. I had just bought their sunblock online a few weeks ago. My friend was looking for a whitehead remover for her mom, she had a merry time asking if they had any whitehead remover. Some said no while some did not seem to know what whitehead is.
Next stop was Itaewon for one of the halal Korean food restaurant I had researched before coming here. I also had the direction from the site that recommended the restaurants but the directions were rather simple so I used Google map to find the Seoul Central Mosque (the restaurants were near the mosque).

From Itaewon station, we walked straight down and then turned left up a hill. The street seemed a bit shady and because we started to get weird vibes we decided to walk back down. My friend saw a scantily clad lady emerge from on the shops at the side of the street and started to gyrate as some men passed by. OMG, we were in the red light district! I did see a scantily clad lady as we walked down but I did not see any gyrating. We saw a few folks who looked like Malaysians and asked for directions. They said we should go down the hill and walk upwards on the main road and we should be able to find the mosque. He said we could still walk up this street but we'd rather not. We followed the direction but it was quite a walk. My friend was getting tired and I told her we'll just walk a bit more; if we don't see the restaurant we'll head back. Not long after, we found Makan restaurant. Hurrah!

Once again I looked for jajangmyeon but they didn't have any. I ordered a meat dish while my friend ordered fish. Our meals came with several banchan (side dishes) and it truly tasted like a traditional Korean meal :D

On the way back, we heard a meow as we passed the parking lot right before the hostel. We stopped and found a slightly bigger than average ginger tomcat. He wasn't cute in the conventional way but he was cute in his own scruffy looking way. He meowed incessantly at us and my friend's heart went out to him. She said we should buy food for him. I said okay and we went to a nearby 7-11 and bought a can of tuna. We opened it up and placed it at the pavement at the side of the road. The cat jumped on the pavement and straight away started eating. Awww, the poor thing was hungry. We felt bad that we had to leave him in the cold but at least he won't be hungry for a while. My friend decided to call him Pumpkin :)

  p/s: Seoul does have cats! :D