wonderboy416
Active Member
My friend from Toronto stayed over for 3 weeks in Seoul and left the morning of the 11th, all the great pictures he took in addition to the 29 degree weather (we jumped from winter straight into summer it seems) inspired me to dust the cobwebs off the 'ol camera with my friend Sul Gi.
The original plan was to take a bus up to Namsan tower to see the famous cherry blossoms but the queue was ridiculously long.
So instead we headed to 남산한옥마을, a park near the base of the mountain.
Apparently this was the last day to catch the cherry blossoms, they were quite stunning the previous weekend.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the fresh air and step back into the reality of being in an asian mega-city.
Egg delivery trucks don't seem to be refrigerated, I wonder how long the eggs will stay fresh this way? The scorching sun could not have helped.
We stopped by the crowded streets of MyeonDong. It's huge and rammed with people. All the major stores are here (sadly for me, no H&M - but there's a UniQlo which is close, Club Monaco is even here) with tons of street vendors selling the knock-off versions of the same items and crazy street food. Korean pop blasts from most clothing stores, it's truly a unique experience.
We left MyeongDong for Namdaemun market, on the way we went past this ultra swank Shinsegae department store.
Namdaemun market is a huge confusing mess of alleys and streets filled with people and vendors selling anything and everything.
Back to Myeondong for lunch, say cheese.
What was left of my delicious lunch.
Me posing like a dork. It seems as if the biggest trend in Korea these days is to have an SLR over your shoulder at all times, the bigger the better. I had to borrow my friend's SLR to try to fit in.
The ceiling of the coffee shop was mirrored... weird.
My friend...
Riot police seem to turn up everywhere downtown... not sure why. They don't seem very pleased that I'm taking their picture.
Time to say goodbye to MyeonDong and Sul Gi... it's been a great day so far.
On my way to Jongno I pass by the Cheongecheon river. The city blew up several km's of a run-down street to install this... it was very controversial at the time but in the long run it's given Seoulites a unique place to escape to within the limits of their own city.
Entering Jongno...
I couldn't find my friends at the HO Bar in Jongno, but they didn't tell me it was the HO Bar II I was supposed to meet them at! Thank goodness I didn't go to Hongdae where there are 6 more HO Bars. Also this is the famous piano street (the entire street is basically a piano where you can walk on the keys), yet the Piano seems to have been removed, I wonder what's in store...
Closeup of my friend Cindy enjoying her drink...
Me and my Cafri.
Darts.
I'm not a HO Bar HOLIC at all...
Ahhh.. a long day was over, home sweet Singeumho-me. The new Mr Pizza seems just about ready to open, I'm quite excited for this as my area has very little western food.
A few bonus shots of the North Korea vs South Korea world cup qualifier I went to a few weeks back:
Talk about a busy subway, you never get crowds like this in TO...
Notice the North Korean flag.
It was darn cold up there, but we managed to walk right through security with several beers and a few bottles of Soju in hand. Although security was asking us to stop and open our bags, we pretended not to understand and walked right through anyway.
They close off the stairs going down into the subway after the game, probably a really good idea...
Pure brilliance on our part going back, we went the opposite direction to backtrack on stop, then got on a nice empty train and found some seats before all the madness.
The End
The original plan was to take a bus up to Namsan tower to see the famous cherry blossoms but the queue was ridiculously long.
So instead we headed to 남산한옥마을, a park near the base of the mountain.
Apparently this was the last day to catch the cherry blossoms, they were quite stunning the previous weekend.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the fresh air and step back into the reality of being in an asian mega-city.
Egg delivery trucks don't seem to be refrigerated, I wonder how long the eggs will stay fresh this way? The scorching sun could not have helped.
We stopped by the crowded streets of MyeonDong. It's huge and rammed with people. All the major stores are here (sadly for me, no H&M - but there's a UniQlo which is close, Club Monaco is even here) with tons of street vendors selling the knock-off versions of the same items and crazy street food. Korean pop blasts from most clothing stores, it's truly a unique experience.
We left MyeongDong for Namdaemun market, on the way we went past this ultra swank Shinsegae department store.
Namdaemun market is a huge confusing mess of alleys and streets filled with people and vendors selling anything and everything.
Back to Myeondong for lunch, say cheese.
What was left of my delicious lunch.
Me posing like a dork. It seems as if the biggest trend in Korea these days is to have an SLR over your shoulder at all times, the bigger the better. I had to borrow my friend's SLR to try to fit in.
The ceiling of the coffee shop was mirrored... weird.
My friend...
Riot police seem to turn up everywhere downtown... not sure why. They don't seem very pleased that I'm taking their picture.
Time to say goodbye to MyeonDong and Sul Gi... it's been a great day so far.
On my way to Jongno I pass by the Cheongecheon river. The city blew up several km's of a run-down street to install this... it was very controversial at the time but in the long run it's given Seoulites a unique place to escape to within the limits of their own city.
Entering Jongno...
I couldn't find my friends at the HO Bar in Jongno, but they didn't tell me it was the HO Bar II I was supposed to meet them at! Thank goodness I didn't go to Hongdae where there are 6 more HO Bars. Also this is the famous piano street (the entire street is basically a piano where you can walk on the keys), yet the Piano seems to have been removed, I wonder what's in store...
Closeup of my friend Cindy enjoying her drink...
Me and my Cafri.
Darts.
I'm not a HO Bar HOLIC at all...
Ahhh.. a long day was over, home sweet Singeumho-me. The new Mr Pizza seems just about ready to open, I'm quite excited for this as my area has very little western food.
A few bonus shots of the North Korea vs South Korea world cup qualifier I went to a few weeks back:
Talk about a busy subway, you never get crowds like this in TO...
Notice the North Korean flag.
It was darn cold up there, but we managed to walk right through security with several beers and a few bottles of Soju in hand. Although security was asking us to stop and open our bags, we pretended not to understand and walked right through anyway.
They close off the stairs going down into the subway after the game, probably a really good idea...
Pure brilliance on our part going back, we went the opposite direction to backtrack on stop, then got on a nice empty train and found some seats before all the madness.
The End
