Day started off pretty standard, this time around, but now we had a charter to take us around rather than having to do public transport. As grateful as I am to be able to travel efficiently using the subway lines for cheap, I’ll admit, the walking is a little tiring!
We started off with Suwon Fortress. It was a really cool place to do some sightseeing before our business day. We did some archery (I suck and only landed one arrow, ha), walked around a bit, marveled at the tall steps and low ceilings, and then bussed our way over to the palace area. I was admittedly a tiny bit distracted from the sights, but it was a gorgeous thing to view.
Emma, Kali, and I ended up getting lunch in the area—we found a place with a HUGE amount of dumplings (we got fried and steamed) for super cheap, so we were pretty happy. It was pretty good, but if I had thought those were, I was in for a surprise a couple of hours later.
The next location was the Samsung Innovation Museum (SIM). I was a little skeptical, at first, as I’m not typically a museum person, but this was so cool. The interactive activities they have within the museum, despite their minimalism, are so entertaining and educational that you’re able to appreciate them more with the added minimalist environment keeping you from being distracted from soaking all the information in. One thing that kind of stood out to me was Seoul’s use of automatic escalators in certain buildings—first the City Hall, and now in SIM. They automatically start when you get close, and I found that kind of neat. Probably because we don’t have a ton of those in the US, and while they aren’t common in Seoul either, it was still kind of interesting to notice.
At the end of the tour, we were dropped off back near our hotel and let go for free time. A couple of us ended up staking out the Shinsegae Department Store (essentially, a designer apartment store. There was Dior, Prada, YSL and such on practically every other floor) to wait out the rain before walking over to Nandaemun Market. Once we realized there was no point in wandering a department store you can’t afford anything in, we ended up leaving and just dealing with the rain. We made a couple stops at some various shops on the way (and I picked up an umbrella after 5 months of not having one… oops); hitting the market was pretty fun. We ended up accidentally negotiating with a lady at a stall to get sunglasses for 20,000 won instead of 35,000 after talking out loud and discussing what the conversion rate was, which was funny. I picked up a new necklace and we went to a popular dumpling place, and they were SO. GOOD.
I kid you not. We bought 5 kimchi dumplings to start, as there were 5 of us and it worked out, and they were AMAZING. Soft, warm, good taste. We ended up buying like 10 more (5 kimchi, 5 plain meat) and it was so inexpensive too. Totally worth it—if you see a guy on social media talking about exploring the market during a layover, listen to him; he knows what he’s talking about!
Afterwards, Emma, Kali, and I ended up walking over to the Myeong-Dong night market area. I picked up a souvenir for my brother (finally), and we ended up getting our hair done. I originally had some money pieces at the front of my hair that were starting to grow out, and I wanted to get my scalp cleaned (as one does), dyed, and cut. They did such an amazing job—the scalp treatment was so nice I accidentally fell asleep in the massage chair. We had a really nice time, and I think it was worth every cent. Overall, definitely a fun day!
No themed title for this one; couldn’t find a fitting song with a not-so-weird sounding title.
