We woke up today with low expectations, as it is one of Korea’s largest national holidays, but we didn’t know quite how low our day would get. We got out a little late, planning less in our day today as so many things were closed.
We did have some plans tonight to meet back up with Henry and Emma, the couple we had met back in Kyoto a few weeks ago, and a few other plans, but it was going to be a light day today. We walked around some and decided to grab an early lunch. Most restaurants were closed, but we found a Korean BBQ restaurant that was open not far from our hotel. It was pretty crowded, but we were seated on arrival and handed a Korean menu. We quickly noticed that the table just next to us was definitely enjoying their Chuseok. We thought it was four people with two in the restroom, as there were at least 6 or 7 empty green bottles of soju at the table. It turns out that the two tiny women sitting there were responsible for all of the damage. One of them was visibly plastered, talking very loudly with some erratic body movements. We picked out what we wanted to eat, and tried to flag down one of the staff. They were clearly extremely busy, as only 2 or 3 people were working up front for a large restaurant. Eventually, an older lady came by to take our order. We point at the two items and she shakes her head “no” and makes an “x” with her arms. We try to ask what is wrong with our order, but she walks away. At this point, the women next to us try to help us, however they spoke essentially no English and insisted to keep trying to explain in Korean. The drunk woman was the most interested in trying to help us, but when we showed her our phone translation app (where we can press a button and have her speak while it automatically types in English) she said “shy” and refused to try it. Eventually after multiple translations of the menu, we kind of piece together that we needed to each order one of the most expensive meat options. We were looking around trying to find a server, when our drunk friend noted that we seemed ready. She loudly started screaming for a server to come over, flailing her arms wildly. We were a little embarrassed, but figured everyone knew that we clearly had not asked her to do this and we did not know her personally. Eventually a server comes over and we order a portion of pork cheek and pork neck. They come back with the most pitiful side dishes we have ever seen – literally some kimchi, a few pieces of lettuce, and some tofu. Many people around us had the standard side dishes, with quite a few more and some more diversity, but we didn’t care much as we had been waiting for at least 30 minutes trying to figure out the menu and get help and were quite hungry at this point. The meat arrives and we get to grilling. It was pretty good and we were happy that we tried two new cuts of pork.
We pay and head out towards the Gyeongbokgung palace. We grabbed a few cold coffees from a convenience store along the way, drinking them quickly to get us ready to keep our energy up today.
We passed by quite a few Chuseok festivities along the way, eventually seeing an Indonesian festival as well that seemed like a lot of fun. Caitlyn began to notice that those mosquito bites she got the other night felt pretty uncomfortable. We took a look and they did not look like mosquito bites anymore. They were reddish-purple, almost like a bruise, and almost raw and painful to the touch. They were clearly bug bites, with a pinprick center, but this was a strange reaction that Caitlyn has never had before. David decided that we needed some more serious medication than the Benadryl itch stick, so we went off to find a pharmacy.
We search in Naver maps and find a pharmacy west of the palace. We worm our way through the insane crowds out today and eventually find that the pharmacy seems to be located in a hospital. To our disappointment, it seems like the pharmacy was closed. We went inside and a security guard at the desk asked if we needed help. We told him we were hoping to find a pharmacy, and he was kind enough to show us on our phones where he saw a pharmacy that looked open on his way to work today. It was only a few blocks away, so we headed over. Thankfully, it was open. We grabbed oral antihistamines as well as a steroid cream and immediately took/applied the medications. David warned Caitlyn that the antihistamine will likely make her a little sleepy, but it shouldn’t be too bad and is definitely worth it for how bad and irritated the bites looked.
We went ahead towards Gyeongbokgung palace, realizing that a lot of the crowds were clearly going towards the palace. It turns out as it was free today, a lot of people decided to head there and check it out. It was a HUGE complex, and seemed quite nice, however it was so crowded that it was not even fun to explore. After about an hour, Caitlyn began to feel the effects of the medication. She became super tired, and started acting more like a zombie than a person. We walked painfully slowly around the palace, eventually deciding that we would leave and get closer to the hotel if she got too tired to want to do anything else.
We decided to find a cafe and grab another coffee to fight the sleepiness, and found a cool looking cafe not far from the palace. David got a drink called a “caramel Einspanner” and caitlyn got a black sesame latte and a slice of Jeju Tangerine Carrot Cake. We sat for a few minutes while Caitlyn had a few bites of cake before deciding to take our coffees on and keep walking towards the hotel. We finished them quickly, and Caitlyn realized that she couldn’t make it and could barely keep her eyes open and her brain turned on. It turns out she is extremely sensitive to this medication and just needed sleep.
Sadly, we had to postpone grabbing a meal with Henry and Emma as it was about an hour from when we were supposed to meet up with them, and Caitlyn was in no way going to be able to stay up. We headed back and Caitlyn fell asleep for about 2.5 hours (and David got a small nap in towards the end).
We got up and decided that tonight would be our street food night market dinner day. We first went to Namdaemun market and grabbed a grilled octopus skewer, a chicken skewer, and some dumplings. While ringing us up, they asked if we wanted some rice cakes in sauce, and thinking that it was a free offer, we said “sure!”. We quickly learned we were duped into spending an extra 3,000 won on rice cakes that were not very good and that we didn’t really want. The octopus was chewy, but not bad tasting and had a nice sauce. The chicken skewer was a complete lie. They always have examples of the food at the front of the stall, and this looked like a delicious crispy chicken patty on a stick. What they did was take one of these, cut it into a few pieces, microwave it for far too long, and then add a sickeningly sweet sauce on it. It was horrible and David needs to learn how to rebuild trust. Caitlyn did not like the dumplings, feeling they needed a sauce, despite the vendor saying no sauce for dumplings. David enjoyed them, though, and finished them up.
We then went to the Myron-Dong night market and shared a small cup of fried crispy baby crabs. This is literally a few handfuls of the tiny crabs like we saw all over the beach at Jeju with a little bit of a light batter and fried. They were delicious and so crispy. The shell was very easy to eat and nothing like some of the fried shell-on shrimp that we had eaten in Japan.
We walked around more and Caitlyn excitedly spotted a cheese tart shop. She had loved the cheese tarts previously, so we grabbed a few to-go for breakfast. Sadly, we later realized that at least half of the tarts we purchased were actually dessert quiches and not cheese tarts.
We finished off our market dinner with Caitlyn getting, of course, her glazed candy clementines.
We headed back towards home, and David wasn’t quite feeling like calling it a night, with how little we had done today, so we quickly stopped by a beer place a few blocks from our hotel called “trillion beer”. Ironically, they only had a few light beers so we stayed for one and left. It turned out to be a pretty light day with Caitlyn having to take the medication, but thankfully it was making her feel more comfortable. We decided to head to bed and hope that tomorrow would be a better day.
David’s thoughts of the day: Everyone in Seoul speaks remarkably good English. We had read online, and seen in person, that Koreans tend to not speak much English, and certainly less than Japanese. Seoul by far has the most in number and most impressive English speakers of any city we have been to so far.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: when saying no, many Koreans make an X with their arms. We have seen it numerous times now across all the cities we have visited. It can be accompanied by being told that a restaurant is closed, there is no fee to enter a site, in today’s case, we weren’t able to order what we are asking for, or even when having a conversation with someone and they are explaining something that they don’t do. We didn’t see (or at least notice this) while we were traveling Japan.
Steps walked: 20,822
Miles walked: 10.01
Bluming Travelers 