Day 2: Insadong & Gangnam

Such an amazing day! After 15 hours of sleeping I woke up at around 8 am and was very hungry. There aren't many restaurants that are open this early in the morning and I hadn't done any groceries the day before so I wasn't sure what to do. Fortunately, Korea has tons of 24/7 convenience stores that offer a wide variety of food. Some of the major ones are CU, GS25 and 7 Eleven. There were so many convenience stores near my airbnb that it took only a few minutes to walk to one. I went to a CU and picked up several items that looked good for breakfast including baked eggs, egg buns, and banana milk plus a big bottle of water. The total for all the food was 5,500 won ($6.45)!

I sat out on the terrace of my airbnb for breakfast and had a nice view of Namsan Tower

Banana milk is probably the most amazing drink I have ever had. Unfortunately, I realized that it is actually just banana flavoured milk so I had to stop drinking it halfway through and does actually contain lactose. I thought it would be like rice or almond milk, but I think it's actually just a ton of cream/milk and sugar with banana flavouring. My plan for the day was to meet up with someone from Korea and explore with her for the day. We met at 11 am in Insadong (in Seoul). I took the subway all the way there without getting too confused or lost!

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Insadong

Insadong is an area in Seoul that is absolutely beautiful! There are lots of shops, restaurants, and small alleyways to explore and they all look so pretty.

I was concerned that it would be difficult to find foods that I can eat since I am not supposed to have lactose or gluten, but it's not! I have been able to find really yummy food that doesn't kill my stomach. For lunch we stopped and I had bulgogi bibimbap with pesto, which is beef, rice, and lots of different vegetables. We also stopped by a popular green tea shop that gets its tea leaves from Jeju and I got an iced green tea. On our way out of Insadong we found a cute street shop that was making kkul-tarae, which is a Korean dessert made of a honey dough filled with assorted nuts.

The baker started with a small lump of a honey mixture that is covered in corn starch and then twisted and stretched it into 16,000+ tiny threads. Then he ripped part of it off and filled it with a nut mix. He was kind enough to let me film the process and explained all the steps in English while he created it. The finished product was not as sweet as I thought it would be, but it was very yummy and chewy.

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Gangnam

Next we took a few subways to Gangnam (another area/district in Seoul). It is super easy to travel around Seoul and it does not take as long as I expected! I was able to take the subway all the way from Gangnam to my place in Yongsan-gu in less than an hour. When we got to Gangnam we went to SM Tower in the Starfield COEX Mall (a super big and fancy mall). SM Tower is a 6 floor building dedicated to everything SM (an entertainment company that has k-pop artists such as EXO, NCT, and Red Velvet). The second floor is a huge merchandise store full of albums and other fun things. There is also an artist themed cafe that has signatures from some of the idols as well as lots of candy and sweet foods.

I got a small EXO key chain as a souvenir and then we wandered around the mall for a bit. The mall has so many high-end stores as well as a huge, beautiful library, an aquarium, and a book store that sells albums from various artists and groups.

On my way home I had to stop and take some pictures of k-pop ads that were in the subway (it is common for fans to rent ad space in subways to put up an image for their idol's birthday). I have never seen anything like this in Canada and I am loving it.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

P.S. thank you to Jisu and her mom for being amazing guides and giving me several other new places to check out. Jisu's mom was awesome and showed me how to better understand the subway system.