Lunar New Year - Seoul Getaway

For Lunar New Year we got five days off and decided to head to Seoul. We booked our hostel in the Jong-no area called Fortune Hostel. It was great! Very convenient and close to the subway station. Only one train from the bus station.

We kept hearing about how it would be really busy to travel on this day but our trip was really smooth. We got there in 3.5 hours and no big traffic jams. After getting to the hostel, we decided to head out the Itaewon to grab dinner. We originally wanted to eat at a Thai restaurant but changed our minds and headed to Boiling Crab instead. BEST decision! It was delicious! 

After dinner we went to Tony's Bar for their stand-up comedy night. It was also very good. We'll definitely go back there the next time we're in Seoul. 

The next day (Thursday) we went to Gyeonbokgung Palace. It was a 20-minute walk from our hostel. Being as it's LNY, we got free entrance to the palace and there was also a festival going on as well. Too bad, the tour wasn't going on so that's another place I want to read up on or go again. I bought some treats at the various food tents. Next we went to find the dim sum restaurant Mong Jung Heon. It was nice and super fancy. The dishes were very expensive. The shrimp dumplings were delicious but the pork dumplings did not taste homemade at all. It looked and tasted like the ones I could buy at T&T in Vancouver.

Afterwards we headed to Seoul Grand Park Children's Zoo. It has been a long time since I was at a zoo and this one was pretty cool. During this holiday, it seems half of Seoul was empty and it's been remarked on by some comedians the night before. It was great because that meant we could sit down on the subway and the lines were not long to all the attractions, including the zoo. The zoo was huge! In fact, the whole park was huge! We spent at least two to three hours and there was a whole avian area we skipped (due to the avian flu warnings). We went back to the hostel to rest a bit before heading out for dinner.  We were going for Thai food (again, tried) but it was closed so we ended up across the street at an Irish Bar. Neil had some bangers and mash and I had fish and chips. It was okay.

On Friday, we visited the Seodaemun Prison and learned quite a bit about the Korean/Japan war/colonization. It reminded me a bit of the Alcatraz but less scary. It was definitely more educational. Next we went to the Coex Aquarium in the Coex Mall. Before the aquarium, we had some pho in the mall. The mall was beautiful! There's so much to see and it's just very pretty. The last time we were there, the renovations wasn't complete so we didn't see how beautiful it was. The ticket for the aquarium was pricey but we went anyways. It was interesting. There was a section where there were fish tanks in every day items like a fridge and a washing machine.

After the aquarium, we saw another Chinese restaurant so we went there to try their dim sum. It seems like this was another fancy restaurant too. The pork dumplings were much much better but the spring rolls were super tiny and meh. 

On Saturday, we had booked a DMZ-tour and the guide came to pick us up at our hotel at 7am. There were five other people in the tour with us. I really liked the tour, the guide was very thorough and gave a lot of explanation and history. She really took care of us. We took a van ride to a city near the DMZ (de-militarized zone) called Paju to meet up with other tourists with their own tour guides (mostly Chinese and western) to travel on a bus to the Third Tunnel. As this is not a UN tour, we couldn't go into the actual DMZ. That tour needs to be booked months in advance and cost slightly more. We did enter the DMZ through the third tunnel which went under this area. We gained a lot insightful information about South and North Korea. This tour was worth it and I would go on the UN tour to see more of the DMZ. 

After getting dropped off in Hongdae (after a gingseng store tour...) we went to find this sushi place my co-worker Rami told us about. The thing about Seoul is that there are tons of little and side streets that don't have names so it's a real challenge finidng anything! We walked around the area for at least 20 minutes before we finally found it! At one point I was going to give up but it was definitely worth it. We finally had salmon sashimi and it was sooooo good! We also got some "service" (=free) items such as a shrimp sashimi (I ate both and they were so sweet!) and a seared salmon.

That night after resting at our hostel, we headed to Itaewon again to do a bit of foreign grocery shopping. We also finally had some Thai food. It was a super pretty place (all purple!). The food was good but it wasn't excellent. It's too bad. We also dropped by a place called Ben's Cookies and bought half a dozen. We had them for dessert back at our hostel. It was delicious! One cookie was really filling.

By Sunday, we decided to do a little bit of shopping and then head home. However, we didn't find anything we wanted and just took the bus home. It was a very productive trip and there's only a few things we still have to do (i.e. rainbow bridge, fish market, etc.) Until next time Seoul!