I love you Seoul [Korea]
Witty title credits go to Kim Namjoon of BTS, with the lovely song "Seoul."
When Henry, Richard, and Alfred mentioned they were going to Asia for their grad trip (a year later due to engineering co-op programs), I was presented the opportunity to join them in Korea and jumped on it. This was a bit of a motley crew. We had actually never hung out as a foursome in high school, but Henry brought us together for a memorable omakase meal in Toronto at Yasu in January 2019. I have to hand it to Henry for being a master at bringing people together. From there, Richard invited me to his birthday party. Then we all made a trek to Waterloo for karaoke and a MOT. Before I knew it, I was booking a ticket to Korea on points!
One regrettable thing was that this was deep in my anti-kpop era. Much like my time in Japan, I felt it in my bones that a past version of myself (or in this case, a future version as I type this in 2023) would've appreciated visiting this place so much more than I did. I was a second-gen kpop fan during the era of Big Bang and SNSD. I then had a 10-year dark period before embracing this interest again upon the release of BTS's "Dynamite" and the phenomenon that was "Crash Landing on You" in 2020. If I were to go back to Korea now, I'd be able to get around a bit more easily (thanks to Duolingo, TTMIK, SKIK, and Bangtan Academy). Although really, I think I'm a bit over the hump again — the interest has started to wane after I started my MBA last summer.
I started off the trip by flying Eva Air (goat status) with a long layover in Taiwan. I fantasized about spending a precious day in Taipei, but a storm foiled my plans (and also caused a bit of a delay). At least I could console myself with xiaolongbao and niuroumian at the airport. Oh Asia, how I've missed you!
By the time I touched down in Seoul, it was already time for dinner. We got some chicken barbecue in Hongdae with Richard's friends, Johnny and Omar. I don't exactly remember how he has friends who live in Seoul, but it was nice to be led around by some locals. From there, we went to nb2 (a hip hop club!) and nb1 right beside it. Soju is seriously cheaper than water at convenience stores in Korea. We also stopped by for some late night fried street food to line our stomachs after a night out.
Han River and neighbourhood-hopping
The next day, we got beef bone soup to cleanse the soul. Personally, I think it's not as good as pork bone soup, but the banchan made up for it. It was interesting walking around Hongdae — there was a huge line for Tiger Sugar, which was a new hyped-up bubble tea place (both in Korea, and for me personally at the time). Now, it's really expanded everywhere and lost some of that lustre.
We then made our way to Yeoudo Park at the Han river, where we had a fun afternoon taking copious pictures with the Seoul sign (and random waterways), biking, and grabbing convenience store frozen milkshakes in a bag. Henry and Richard rode tandem since Richard doesn't know how to ride a bike (you will soon discover this will be a common theme while traveling with this bunch). Spending an afternoon at the park like this felt so liveable! The locals must really think so, since a ton of them were even camping by the water. Possibly fun, although slightly reminiscent of tent cities for the unhomed in California and other parts of the US (yikes).
As usual, Henry takes any opportunity to clown around.
Next, we headed over to Dongdaemun — a cool, hip design area that had been at the top of my list! Here, we stumbled upon a food truck featured on Netflix's "Street Food" series, serving the baked baffle. It unfortunately tasted pretty bad. We quickly moved on to go shopping at a large mall. I felt too nervous to buy anything though, because they didn't allow try-ons. I tend to be a high-volume tryer, so even though the prices were good, I wasn't brave enough to buy anything. The assortment was also overwhelming — much like thrift shops and flea markets, I struggle to buy clothes when I have to hunt for them. This is why there's a markup at stores with five artfully displayed articles of clothing. I am that sucker.
For dinner, we ate at food trucks around the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a cool black spaceship-looking structure. I got food from "Shorty's food truck," which again, sounded better than it tasted. Korean's love "snow" on their snack foods, aka cheese on random meats and fried things. We ended the night with delicious blueberry cheesecake and strawberry matcha bingsoo at Sulbing!
Shop 'til we drop
The next day, we continued exploring more neighbourhoods around Seoul. We grabbed some spicy braised chicken and cheese in the morning. It was too spicy for my liking, but I found it interesting how they'd mix rice in the pan afterwards as a "second course." Afterwards, we washed it all down with some Gong Cha. Gong Cha in Korea has different flavours, but it's still not my fav (way too sweet and syrupy for my liking).
This was the damage.
We then headed to Myeongdong, the makeup and skincare mecca. We bought a TON of cosmetics, with Omar as the resident guru. He got me on that Sulwhasoo train, which I have yet to be able to hop off (my wallet cries about it every year as I replenish the First Care Activating Serum, which DOES adjust for inflation). We also bought clothes at 8 Seconds, which had some nice workwear pants.
In the afternoon, the four of us (minus Johnny and Omar) headed to Ikseon-dong, which is a super hipster area. We spent time taking "Korean beauty-filtered" pics in a cute cafe (where I hopped back on that blueberry cheesecake game), mediocre dumplings with a super long line (in the rain!), and some moody LIT PHOTOS!! I love a fun photoshoot. We also took photobooth pics and found ourselves at a Samsung activation. They very kindly gave us a loooong demonstration (for naught, since we weren't in the market for Korean phone plans), then gave us some discount coupons for use in the area. We got some mochi snacks with it.
We ended off the night with my favourite: karaoke with a view! I love the willingless of this crew to throw caution to the wind and sing our hearts out even in a small group, sans alcohol. Quick, queue up "Clarity" by Zedd!!
A whole new world
After staying up planning Instagram posts and admiring my skincare haul until 3 am, we woke up to a beautiful day the next day. Walking through Ehwa women's college, I threw caution to the wind and bought two dresses (despite not being able to try them on). To be honest, I probably wouldn't have purchased them if I could try them on, but I wear them a bunch now that I have them. We grabbed thick and thin japchae noodles with spicy braised chicken (again, smh) and fried rice near a One Piece pirate ship, then grabbed some ice cream bars from Paris Baguette.
Then we took the metro to Starfield Coex Mall of k-drama fame. The library situation there is truly an aesthetic dream — inside a mall!! And what's with the outdoor veggie installations?
After that, we journeyed over to 1Million Dance Studio for a dance class. This was SO MUCH FUN. We did Boy With Luv by BTS, and I wasn't even ARMY at the time (ergo, I didn't know the song). This opened up a whole new world for me and inspired me to get back into dance after a long break during high school and undergrad. Soon after this visit to Korea, I became a member at the Underground Dance Studio in Toronto. Big ups to Richard for rallying the troops with this activity.
After the class, I opened up a whole new world again with my first taste of exquisite Korean barbecue at Handam. I was shocked into a stupor. We have NOTHING this good back home in Toronto, with our lame thin cuts of marinated bulgogi. Samgyupsal in Korea is a thick cut of pork that truly allows the meat to SHINE. We were joined by David Park and Jessie for this and the subsequent karaoke excursion. Su Karaoke is interestingly themed like an ornate house filled with thousands of flowers everywhere. I kinda preferred the small room with a view.
Naturally, David Park had to pose with the DPARKS shop.
We ended off the night at King's Crossing, a Harry Potter-themed bar open until 5 am! They served butterbeer, which I thought you could only get at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Itae-WON over my heart
For our last day in Seoul, we visited Itaewon: by far my favourite neighbourhood in Seoul, which is fitting because it's full of expats (caveat: I never visited glitzy Gangnam, so who knows if my penchant for bougie areas would've won out).
We got lunch at Parc, which is truly just like... a GOAT-ed restaurant. The galbi was melt-off-the-bone. I trust Henry and Richard especially with food recommendations (like, with all my heart), and we've started using Parc as a litmus test (e.g., "Dan and Sunny have whack taste in food because they didn't like Parc").
After doing a bit of window-shopping at Comme Des Garçons, we headed over to the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. The upper floors of this museum were kind of meh, but I LOVED the bottom floors and the stairwells full of ~ LIT CONTEMPORARY ART!! ~
Finally, we made our way to Gimpo airport, where I must give a shoutout to Henry and his extremely flexible(?) stomach. Next stop: Jeju!
Trip date: May 16-21, 2019