Insadong

Insadong is a touristy neighborhood in Seoul, full of places to shop for souvenirs, clothes, and just drink in the atmosphere, kind of like Georgetown or Old Town Alexandria.  We decided on a whim one Saturday to head up for the day.

 
  Isn't everything adorable?



For lunch, we popped into what we thought was a franchise of the famous Myung Dong Noodle Restaurant.  We found out later that it was not the real deal!  Oh well, the noodles and soup hit the spot on a cold and blustery day.



 The kimchi at the real Myung Dong Noodle house is so garlicky, it sets your tongue on fire.  The kimchi here was pretty predestrian.

                                                              

 


Ho Dduk!  Of course we had to partake!


For dinner, we called Sam's eldest aunt out to dinner.  We went to a popular Jajangmyun (black bean noodles) restaurant that is known for their spicy jajangmyun.  We had to wait for about half an hour to get in, but it was worth the wait!


After dinner, we walked over to Times Square.  A shopping center called Times Square that is like an American style mall.  This mall had Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Ferragamo, Burberry, Gap, North Face, and Starbucks!  The kids enjoyed a nice warm steamer.

 

Gomo's last day

One night Christina and I headed out into the neighborhood to take a walk and get some air.  We walked for a bit before we noticed that the only people we saw were men.  Inebriated men.  We decided to grab a snack at the local GS25 and head back home.

Our stash

 We managed a shot of ourselves before heading back home, the lights of Shin Sung Dong behind us.

Sweetened carbonated barley tea, anyone?  Yes, I drank this.  Will not be drinking again.

It was the last day before our beloved Gomo (Sam's little sister) had to head back to the States.  We decided to go sledding at a nearby ski resort, about an hour away.  Road trip!



Happy campers in the back

 A good snapshot of the Korean landscape - lots of greenhouses, high rise apartment buildings, with beautiful mountains as the backdrop

We're here!

 

 There were two sledding hills, one a bit more steep than the other.  Both were good sized hills.  It was a very orderly process where "sledding attendants" directed people when to go down, almost like we were racing each other.  Those poor attendants repeated the instructions and precautions before every single run.  I wanted to paint a placard for them, with the rules written on it.  Muju resort

 

Udon!

 

One Bum Per Car, please. :O)

Bye Gomo!  We love you!

Snow!

It has dusted snow here and there, but we got a good maybe two inches here on Wednesday.  It's so dry here that there's not much snow, and when it does snow, it looks more like dust bunnies.  We decided to go to the local Arboretum to play, we had the whole place to ourselves!

Our latest ride - a Hyundai I30 - we love it! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Year of the Golden Dragon!  I am thinking that I would do better to write an entry day to day and then catch up on past excursions when I feel up to it.  Whaddya think?  Let's go! 

Today my sister-in-law, Christina, who has been here visiting for two weeks, came down from Seoul after spending the weekend up there visiting friends.  After picking her up from the bus terminal, we headed out for a late lunch.  We ended up at an all-u-can-eat conveyor belt sushi place.  The food was yummy, and the revolving dishes proved to be excellent entertainment for Nathan. 

For dinner, we ended up going with the healthy option and eating ramyun and ddukbokki (spicy rice cakes).  We are, at carefully timed intervals, trying out the many options here, the kids love it.  Who doesn't love noodles, right?  The ddukbokki had a twist - the dduk had cheese in the middle!  It was a nice contrast to the spicy sauce.  Mmmmmmm.