Food
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Some Inwangsan evening, you may climb a mountain
Some Inwangsan evening, you may climb a mountain, you may climb a mountain to a panoramic view. The Seoul City wall has shown up in several of our past posts (Baegak Mountain Hike, Heunginjimun Gate in Dongdaemun, Naksan Park). The wall’s length means we have explored it section by section on several occasions. The wall is one of my favorite features of Seoul. The juxtaposition of its ancient stones against the steel and glass high-rises exemplifies Seoul. Hanyangdoseong, the ancient Seoul city wall, was originally built in 1396 during the reign of the first Joseon monarch, shortly after the capital was established in Seoul. Currently, about 70% of the original…
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Anmyeondo Island: Trekking on the Road of Sunset
Exploring Seoul has nearly endless possibilities and will keep us occupied for a long time to come. However, we are also ready to spread our wings a little more and venture to some sites outside of the city. Our first trip outside of Seoul was a weekend visit to Anmyeondo Island on South Korea’s west coast, south of Seoul in Chungcheongnam-do Province. I found very little information about traveling to and within Anmyeondo, so this whole trip was a bit of a mystery all the way through. Our post is in two parts because given the dearth of online information about visiting the area, I am going to give more…
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Noryangjin Fish Market: This Post May Not Be Suitable For Vegetarians
Just across the Han River from Yongsan-gu, our home away from home, sits the futuristic glass and concrete building housing the Noryangjin Fish Market. I think it looks like a cruise ship from above, and it certainly houses enough sea life to make this a fitting image! The old Noryangjin market was an outdoor, covered market, but in 2016 this updated, indoor version was opened. Parts of the old market still operated until very recently, but now the old market is gone and just the new building remains. It was easy to walk through the wide, well-lit aisles. We never felt crowded. I can imagine the old market felt much…
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A Private Tour Of Changdeokgung Palace and VIP Dining
When we arrived for our tour of the Changdeokgung Palace’s Secret Garden, we were welcomed by this sign: We had booked our tickets in advance after reading that it can be very difficult to get a tour, especially if you want the English-language version. Well, just prior to Seoul’s COVID shutdown our tour looked like this: Don’t get us wrong – we do not wish a COVID outbreak on any country for any reason. However, in the ‘making lemonade out of lemons’ category, the current situation here has meant that anything open is also empty. If we can see it outdoors in relative safety, we’re going while we can. For…
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How to Have a Cheap Date Night: Street Food for the Win!
My favorite thing in basically every city is to see it at night. The colors and the lights make everything so vivid, and I love the nighttime energy. Seoul’s neon vibe and large shopping districts lend themselves to evening strolls and people-watching. Added bonus: avoid the scorching sun and terrible August humidity! Over a couple of nights, we enjoyed an evening stroll to one of Seoul’s largest shopping districts, enjoyed several of Seoul’s many riverside parks, and most importantly – found some famous street food. As soon as we saw Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) during the day, we knew we wanted to see it at night. We were not disappointed!…
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Seoul from the middle ages to the space age
On August 15, Gwanghwamun Square was the site of a political rally estimated to have included 20,000 participants or more. Discussing all the politics connected to that event would take a separate post, so suffice it to say it was a very controversial gathering, particularly in the context of coronavirus concerns. Any gathering of over 100 people currently is banned in Seoul and the surrounding areas, so the city seems to have been very unhappy about the rally. By Monday – August 17 – Gwanghwamun was back to being deserted, and all we saw were some of the remnants of Saturday’s political action. We walked through the (extremely large) square…
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Is there anybody out there? Traveling through quiet Seoul.
Liberation Day, also called Gwangbokjeol in South Korea, literally means ‘Restoration of Light’ day. It is celebrated each year on August 15 and commemorates the Allied Forces’ prevailing at the end of WW II, which subsequently liberated the Korean peninsula from decades of Japanese occupation. It is the only Korean public holiday celebrated by both South and North Korea. Ordinarily, we might have looked for some public celebrations over the weekend, but with COVID circumstances being what they are, it seemed like the city of Seoul was really discouraging any event that might draw a big crowd. There was a huge political rally downtown despite the warnings, but we stayed…
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Where in the World is Yongsan-gu?
South Korea, you say? Quarantine for two weeks, you say? In a very small apartment, you say? We say – why not? We have felt really lucky that were are able to quarantine in our Airbnb apartment. It was a little tricky getting all our luggage up the narrow stairs when we arrived from the airport, but we’re happy for the view of the street that a small second-floor patio has given us. Plus, there have been flooding monsoon rains falling basically since we arrived, so at least we have no flood concerns on the second floor! We have a living area, two small bedrooms, and a galley kitchen that…
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Food Delivery in Quarantine: The Devil is in the Details
Being confined to our small apartment in Seoul has presented a number of challenges. Not surprisingly, our primary concern before arriving was making sure we would have enough food to eat. Thus, before we arrived, we had done some online research and had a plan in place. Our Airbnb host Han kindly offered to stock our kitchen with some essentials to get us through the first couple of days. We also planned to use the Shuttle app (similar to GrubHub) for delivery from area restaurants and Gmarket.com for groceries. Upon our arrival at the apartment we found that Han indeed left us the staples that we requested as well as…
