Falling in love with Seoul
We had very mixed expectations of South Korea. Cam was desperate to go, mostly for the DMZ tour but I on the other hand was not as keen. I quickly changed my small narrow mind after a couple of hours in the country and very soon it became our favourite place in Asia. It’s not just K-pop, Kim Jong threats, and Gangnam style (which is actually a song about Gangnam, the most upmarket district of Seoul where the young and rich go to buy their £500 bottles of vodka and drive their Ferrari’s). We had originally only planned to stay 2 or 3 days, but ended up extending our stay to a full week and still didn’t want to leave!
Food and Drink in Korea
We can honestly say that the food here is the best we have tasted in all of our Asia trip so far (just our personal opinion). Firstly, there’s just so much choice and variety of foods here that you’re bound to find something you like, though we liked ALL of it). Seoul was kind of a culture shock to us, there’s very little English used in the restaurants here (Koreans strongly believe that foreigners should learn some Korean rather than them having to speak your language – fair enough) and the food looked so different from anything we’d had in Asia before. After arriving in town and searching for a place to eat, we settled on an authentic looking Korean BBQ restaurant and pointed to two things on the menu, a Bimibap at ~£6/8553 won, possibly Korea’s most famous and extremely healthy dish which consists of a bowl of vegetables such as pickled cabbage, bean sprouts, lettuce, spinach, hot rice and a fried egg, and a deliciously comforting and warming pork stew. The food here is served in hot bowls so the food is still sizzling when brought to the table. We were asked by the kind waitress if we would like a fork to use (though it took us a while to realise that’s what she was offering) but we opted for chopsticks. The style of chopsticks here are notoriously difficult to use, firstly they’re metal which already makes using them more difficult, but secondly they’re very thin with flat edges. We struggled through, out of politeness, but we later heard that they’re considered so tricky that even native Koreans often ask for forks!
One thing we really loved about Korean food was the side dishes. No matter what you order in a Korean restaurant it will be served with numerous side dishes with as many refills as you want, a kind of Korean tapas if you will. The most famous side dish which you’ve probably heard of is Kimchee, a fermented spicy cabbage which on first taste can be a bit odd but gets seriously addictive! Along with kimchee some of the best sides we had were shredded cabbage dowsed in a sweet mayonnaise, quail eggs soaked in soy sauce, pickled beans sprouts, onions in a wasabi sauce and spicy sautéed spinach.
We ate Korean BBQ on more than one occasion, for around £13/18535 won we got a big plate of boneless beef ribs, and a huge chunk or pork belly(no cheap burgers or sausages here). The BBQs are built into the tables here so the waiter turns on the gas, throws on a grill and away you go! The culture here is to not play around with your food, only flip your meat once or twice and don’t try to cook it too rare, it’s more about the flavour of the meat than how it’s cooked. You’re provided with a bowl of lettuce leaves which you’re supposed to use to make a kind of wrap with the meat and sides, it’s fun but messy if you’re not used to it! You’re also provided with plenty of garlic to throw on the grill too, to really get the flavours going. The meal included all the delicious sides and this restaurant, like most others, had all their side dishes out so you could go up and grab as many refills as you want! It took us a while to get the hang of it and we ruined a few grills much to the amusement of the staff, but they were all so helpful and showed us the ‘right way’ to BBQ!
The drink of choice here is a kind of vodka rice wine called Soju, which you drink in shots between what seems like every mouthful of food! You can also get flavoured ones such as grapefruit, which is a lot easier to down! A bottle costs around £3/4277won in restaurants but you can also buy it from the 7/11 for about £1/1425won! Bargain! Korea has a big culture of drinking and socialising, maybe that’s why we felt such a connection with the place. It definitely reminded us of our home town of London. It’s very common to see men in suits stumbling out of karaoke bars after too much Soju, and the plastic restaurant tables that line the streets are always full of groups of workers having dinner and drinks every night of the week (and into the early hours of the morning!). Alcohol is reasonably priced here but don’t expect South East Asian prices with Beer costing around £4/5703won a bottle.
As well as booze, Koreans love their coffee, so much so that everywhere you look you’ll see a coffee shop. What’s really fun though is their love of mixing good coffee with novelty. There are loads of themed coffee shops in Seoul, including one with a rollercoaster theme, a cafe that has raccoons you can pet (take that cat cafes!) and even one dedicated entirely to poop. Yes, you heard right. We stumbled across a sweet cafe in Ambok in which the walls were covered in love notes written on napkins from previous customers. We also opted to visit a cafe we’d read about online near Hongdae station called Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20, or the ‘2D’ cafe as it’s known. As the name would suggest, everything in here is designed to look like a 2D cartoon, the chairs, the walls, the mugs, even the bathroom! The cafe only has two tables and we had to queue for around 40 minutes in the cold but once we were seated we could stay as long as we wanted and we practically had the cafe to ourselves. Their coffee is delicious too, we had a marscapone latte and a mocha which were both hot and comforting after our long wait in the cold. If you’re going there to take a photo though be aware they have rules about every person buying a drink before any photos can be taken (which seems fair given how small the place is). There are loads of cafes, restaurants and fun bars round this area, so it’s definitely worth a visit even if you don’t fancy queuing 40 minutes for a latte!
Street food in Korea is also a huge deal. If you’re on a budget you could quite easily live off the many street foods to offer as there’s so much choice and it’s seriously cheap at around £1/1425won a dish! We tried fishcakes that are stuck on a long stick and cooked in a deliciously salty fish broth, potato twirl which is kind of like a mega long curly fry, yet it’s got a sweet casing on the outside, deep fried mozzarella balls, the best tempura of squid, sweet potato and vegetables, Kimbap which is Korea’s version of sushi rolls but with ham and chicken instead of fish, deep fried tofu, sweet bread with quails egg in the middle and one of the ridiculously tall ice creams you get here (seriously, they are huge).
Where we stayed
We stayed at the Shire Inn hotel in Jongno, a district very close to famous attractions such as the Gyeongbokgun Palace and Bunchok Village. The hotel cost £25/34218won per night, had excellent WiFi, a modern private bathroom and comfy bed. We were also situated in a maze of little backstreets playing host to trendy coffee shops and wine bars, vintage clothes shops and jewellery shops. (The Koreans are super stylish and all dress impeccably, we saw lots of feet in Balenciaga trainers!) There are also plenty of hostels in this area, some just for foreigners and some just for Korean starting at around £17/24997won a night and most had vacancies even at short notice.
Gyeongbokgung Palace
Seoul has not one but TWO palaces within the city. We opted for Gyeongbokgung Palace as it’s the biggest and they also have a folk museum attached to it along with an old style village which you can walk round and see what life was like in Seoul in decades gone by. The palace costs around £3/4283won to enter, which is a bargain price considering how long you can spend there. They also run performances of Korean dance in the evenings but they have limited tickets for foreigners so you need to be quick to get one.
The palace is huge and we spent the best part of a day strolling round. It’s divided into different time periods with multiple styles so it’s like seeing 10-12 palaces in one, all of which are beautifully and elegantly decorated (and make for some gorgeous photos). The grounds themselves are lovely to stroll round, we considered ourselves very lucky to be there in the Autumn as the red and orange colours of the bushes and trees were simply gorgeous.
You can witness the historic changing of the guards, which is more like a historical reenactment with the guards wearing traditional costumes. And there are also lots of girls walking around in Hamboks, the traditional Korean dress, which you can rent from one of the many costume rental shops dotted around the attractions, though we later found out that hardly any of these girls were actually Korean, but instead tourists! You can also rent the traditional dress for Korean men, however I couldn’t manage to coax Cam into playing dress up.
Once you exit the palace, there are also numerous pretty bakeries, boutique shops and food stalls, so be sure to have a stroll around, we found a place nearby called ‘Eat Paradise’ selling Korean fried chicken smothered in butter and soy and deep fried prawns, we paid about £3/4283won for both dishes which were seriously good! You have to try this if you visit Seoul.
Everland
Seoul is also lucky enough to have two theme parks! (Lucky Koreans eh?). Lottie Land, an indoor theme park which has a kind of a Disney’s magic kingdom vibe, and Everland which is a huge outdoor theme park hosting one of the tallest wooden rollercoasters in the world! Everland were also hosting a zombie style fright night for Halloween so we simply had to go!
The theme park is located on the outskirts of Seoul in Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, which can take up to 2 hours to reach depending on where you are staying in Seoul. It’s a simple journey though as you can get a direct bus from Gangnam. Take exit 5 from Gangnam Station and head to the bus stop which is in the middle of the two roads. Grab Bus No.5002 which takes about 55 mins. The driver will announce when you’ve arrived, which makes it easier. The buses are spacious, modern and cheap, and take travel cards. We pre-booked our tickets online the night before and paid £20/28554won each with a tour company called Voyagin, (they run tours all over Asia) you can pay at the door here but you will pay full price which is £30/42832won.
They have some pretty fun rides here, with maybe 4-5 ‘big’ rides and the rest being interactive, VR or smaller more fun fair style rides. It’s a huge park, we arrived at 1pm and didn’t leave until close at 10pm and still hadn’t been on all the rides. The wooden rollercoaster is by far the steepest, most terrifying and most fun wooden rollercoaster we’ve ever been on. The park is decorated a lot like Disney but in no way looks like a cheap rip off, they’ve really put the effort in here and the design of the park is really fun even if you’re not into rides as there’s so much else to see. Plus walking around with zombies jumping out at you is always a good laugh!
We had a slight issue on our journey back from the park as we’d ran out of money on our travel cards and the bus driver refused our money due to having ‘no change’ even though we said he could keep the change! Luckily a kind Korean girl had words with the driver and then offered to pay for us with her travel card and we paid her the money instead. Apparently some of the older generation are not too keen on foreigners, and there is definitely a feeling here that Korean nationals come first. We’ve heard stories about Koreans blocking foreigners from getting on the subway, though we’re not sure how true this is as we had locals approaching us to offer us help with directions, assist us with finding the right train, offer us sweets on the bus and really going out of their way to be helpful and welcoming. We even got chatting to two Koreans who had studied at English universities who seemed to be truly excited that we were there and to hear how much we loved Seoul. Maybe our bus driver just happened to be a particularly grumpy bus driver!
Bunchok Village
If you’re looking for more traditional, authentic sights to see, then Bunchok Village is a must. Bunchok, situated between Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace, and Jong Myo shrine is an original Hambok village built in 1392 which is still in use today. The village is a stunning example of traditional Korean architecture, built according to the rules of Fung Shui with the mountains behind it and the river flowing at the front. Its free to walk around and there’s a viewing platform at the top of the village providing a stunning view of the mountains. It’s still home to many local people, so they do ask you to keep the noise down and be respectful, as technically you’re nosying around peoples homes! You’ll also find a tea museum, a Korean artefact museum and shops selling traditional crafts and souvenirs in between the houses. It’s fun to go exploring the alcoves and the little windy streets, the little snickets and alleyways also provided good cover for us when the heavens opened! FYI the weather in October is cold, really cold, and it rains so bring your winter clothes and a rain jacket!
We’ll be back!
We’re not sure if it was the shared culture of socialising (or drinking) giving us a sense of familiarity after being away from London for so long, the incredible food, the fascinating history and current political situation, the friendly locals who made us feel so welcome, or the stylishness that the city can’t help but ooze out – maybe it was a combination of everything. What we do know, is that we will definitely be back here to experience the rest of this country and we implore any one having doubts about visiting to go see for yourself what an incredibly cool country South Korea is.