Republic of Korea

Oh hey! Long time no write! I haven't posted for so long because I have been wanting to post about or trip to South Korea in May before I post about anything else. I have waited so long because most of the pictures we took in Korea have been ruined. I don't know how?? Most of the videos and pictures we took have been corrupted, and we're pretty sad about it. Actually, not just our Korea pictures, but all of the pictures we have on our external hard drive were corrupted. At least I have posted about lots of those other pictures in the past, and they are saved because of good ol' Blogger. So, if anyone knows of any ways to fix videos and pictures that have been corrupted, please share!

Anywho, I decided to post some that are just mildly corrupted, and ones we just took with our phones. Thank goodness for smart phones, too! This post is mostly of our wanderings and foods.

 We got to Seoul a day later than we had originally planned, and our first night there wasn't the best. We had made a reservation at a hostel for two nights, I had emailed them to inform them we wouldn't be there the first day, but still planned to stay the second day. When we arrived at the hostel, the guy working the desk said that we had cancelled, and considered our email as a new reservation. He then told us it was a holiday and our stay would cost almost double than the price we had originally booked the hostel for. It was late and we had no idea how to get around and we just wanted to sleep. So we pretty much ended up paying for the two nights anyway, and decided to stay there. One cool thing about this hostel was that there were lots of people from lots of different countries staying there.  We met people from Finland, France, India, China, and some other places. These people also happened to be the types that like to stay awake all night and sleep all day. We tried to sleep, but were woken up around 1 am to a guy yelling and swearing at us to get out of his room. I guess the nice guy at the desk put us in the room where the staff sleeps? ahdshksdhfoae!! They made room for us somewhere else, in a room with about 6 or 8 other people. Still had no luck sleeping with all the partying going on, we decided to get up around 5:30 and leave the lame hostel with all the sketchy people. We wandered the streets and learned the maps, and felt so happy to be out of the hostel!!

 Wandering through markets and shopping areas was definitely a favorite. 

 Namdaemun Market was my favorite thing we did. It's a huge outdoor market swap meat type place that spans between many blocks downtown. Tons of food, entertainment, and vendors selling about anything you can think of. People yelled stuff at us like "yummy yummy in my tummy!" and "mister, big size, big size lady!" and if I would look at something too long, sometimes someone would grab my wrist and pull me towards their booth.

We tried lots of street food!! This was our very very favorite thing to buy from the street vendors- hotteuk! Oh so good when it's hot and fresh! It's like a really soft, sweet dough with nuts and sugar and maple in the center. (sorry again Kylee :( !!)

 Everything you order in Korea comes with lots of sides. Usually a hot soup, rice, kimchi, and other stuff we never knew what it was. This dish is called Bibimbap- a Korean favorite! It's cold rice noodles and veggies with a yummy sauce and an egg.

 EEEERRRYBODY has nice phones in Korea. Mostly everyone has a Samsung Galaxy. Korea is home of Samsung! Experiencing Seoul's subway system honestly made it totally worth it to go to Korea. It is SO EFFICIENT and easy to use! It truly is incredible. Each subway station is huge, and each one is so different. Some have a full on underground shopping mall attached. Some have art museums, some have food courts, it was amazing. People watching on the subway was so cool. While the subway is moving, it is very quiet. People shush the children! Everyone is always dressed so fashionably too.

 Each subway station has about a dozen of these babies. They are emergency supplies like gas masks, helmets, and first aid kits! So interesting.

 At night the streets line up with little food tents. You open the flap and there are about 6 metal stools. You sit down and point at the food you want and they fry it up for you right there! They mostly serve tempura type foods and those little red things called Topokki which are spicy rice cakes. They were gross.

 Sweet Hema sold one of his guitars so he could buy a go pro for this trip. He had it strapped to his head or chest almost all the time! Hopefully we can revive the videos he captured!

 I ordered this soup at one of the markets we went to. It was called "spicy beef soup". I think there was one little baby piece of beef in there about the size of a dime. That's how most of the dishes we ate were- mostly veggies and hardly any meat!

 The thing on the top of our must-do list in Korea was to eat at a real Korean BBQ place! They are very unique. Each table has its own grill built into it with a vent coming out of the ceiling to suck up the smoke. Oh. My. Heavens. It was better than we expected! The meat was some of the best we'd ever had. The gentleman that was our server was so kind to show us through pictures how to eat the meat with each of the side dishes that were provided. It was divine!! If we ever go back to Korea, we will definitely budget to eat at a Korean BBQ place every night. 

Each day we walked and walked and walked. Jet lag and no sleep the first night made us suuuuper tired around 7, which is when we'd always head home. We were always in bed and asleep by 9 pm!! This is us waiting for the subway ready to fall asleep, looking like you know what (poop). Oi! Oh and our cool badges got pinned on us by a lady on the street who explained they were for Buddha's birthday!