Seoul Food

I next ventured to Korea, a trip that was extra-special because my sweet and wonderful boyfriend Melkon joined me. (For those of you who are wondering when I picked up a foreign boyfriend on my travels, Melkon is Armenian but grew up in the US, hence the name nobody can remember or pronounce. [You know when you write hearts and names in the sand at the beach? I misspelled his name {"Melkin"} in one of those during a beach date early on.....embarrassing. Thankfully he's managed to look past this grievous error, though he still teases me.])
Below:the quintessential couple selfie

Melkon only had a week in Korea, so we split our time between Seoul and Jeju, a small island off the southern coast that is known as the honeymoon island for Koreans. I'll focus on Seoul for this post, and Jeju the next.

We stayed in two different areas of Seoul during our four days: Hongdae, the young hipster neighborhood (think the Jamaica Plains (Boston reference) of Seoul) , and Myeong-dong, the classic skyscraper/shopping district. Hongdae was full of college students and late-night food, but the real party waited in Myeong-dong.  Glittering buildings and neon signs  lit up every square, and the N Seoul tower a 236- meter high tower topped by an observatory)  was visible from almost everywhere. The main shopping street featured skin product stores on almost every corner; I didn't know it before, but Korea's beauty products are becoming hugely popular worldwide. I might have caved and bought some overpriced face masks and lotion, but if never admit it.

Below:   Myeong-dong (first 2) and Hongdae

We didn't leave Seoul without checking the box on a few key activities: visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace, strolling around the traditional Bukchon Hanok area, walking down the National Assembly drive during cherry blossom season.  I also wouldn't let Melkon leave without taking a cooking class with me and singing in a Korean karaoke place. We also ate......a LOT. Korean food is amazing! My personal favorite is dolsot bibimbap, a rice dish served in a hot stone bowl. There's a raw egg in the center, occasionally with raw meat as well, and the heat of the bowl cooks both. The browned crusty rice on the bottom is dessert. Yum! The necessity to cook food yourself led to some scrambling the first time we tried, frantically scraping all the meat and eggs to the side and praying it cooked enough to ward off further episodes of the runs that plagued us in Korea. Further practice led to a smoother-looking cooking demonstration, but no less angst. Melkon's favorite food was the fried chicken, which Korea is also known for (to my surprise). We ordered garlic fried chicken, which ended up being fried chicken smothered in crushed garlic. Nobody wanted to sit next to me on the train after that--the power of garlic breath works wonders.

Below: amazing food, tea, cooking class photo

In addition to new Korean food, I tried something else hitherto unknown to me: a bidet. This generally strikes fear of giggles into the hearts of Americans, but I assure you, the experience is anything but scary. The, er, spraying implement is installed inside the toilet bowl, and retracts when not needed. It was quite overwhelming at first -so many buttons, all in Korean, all with mysterious functions which blasted themselves into clarity at the slightest touch. I did not know my hiney needed so much customization until this experience: temperature adjustments of the water and seat, nozzle positioning, water pressure (there are even oscillating and pulsating options). Once I found one with some English, the rest was history. I actually think it was more hygienic than the standard American protocol; I'd gladly start a new trend upon my return Stateside.

The Gyeongbokgung palace area was filled with people in traditional dress, mostly (it seemed) for the selfies. The women wore billowing large skirts in ten thousand colors, embroidered in gold or silver thread, while the men had long robe-like garments with tall black hats made from netting. Even teenaged boys were dressing up, impressive considering I thought that the least likely age group to be interested in either history or traditional dress, much less both. The palace was also beautiful; the underside of the roofs were painted in bright green, blue, and red patterns. The area surrounding the Palace contained many shops offering traditional dress rentals,  but much to Melkon 's relief,  we ran out of time to dress up.

Below: the palace

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the day we left Seoul was the day the cherry blossom festival began, so we had told we them the day before - much smaller crowds (yay),  but no free KPop concerts (boo). Nonetheless it provided us many opportunities for Instagram-worthy pictures.

Below: cherry blossoms, and Melkon is tired of me taking pictures

We spent a fair amount of time on the Seoul train system, which is a thing of wonder. It works! All the time! There are so many lines, and they are still adding extensions and improving it! I tell you, the results of infrastructure spending are magnificent to behold. The only possible negative, as Melkon noted, were the overly happy, very colorful, and slightly creepy signs everywhere telling you that you could do it and that life was full of pink cartoon roses showering from the sky.

Below: some odd subway spotting (do you see the mannequin head?) Also, when did white Velcro sneakers become popular again?

The subway was very necessary, because Seoul is enormous. It's one of the largest cities in the world in terms of population (look up stats), which shrinks apartments to the size of glorified closets, and still leaves an urban city center many times the size of Boston. Our AirBnB in Hongdae was a studio that managed to cram a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms, and our hotel room was even smaller.

A note on our hotel: we stayed in a nice hotel in Myeong-song which I was very pleased with, until we went downstairs to swim in the pool and learned it was a men's-only pool. Men only! Melkon had to drag me away whilst I howled "down with the patriarchy" into the lobby. (Don't worry, Mom, this is a joke.....although I did mutter about misogyny on the elevator back.)