Surviving Seoul

From our first weeks in Ansan, weekend trips into Seoul have been the norm. We are approximately an hour away by subway on Line 4. Using public transportation took some adjustment. There is foul rotten smell of the subway tunnels, the mass amounts of people crammed so hard into one train car that a person can barely breathe, and deciphering the complicated subway map in order to learn where to transfer to arrive in the most interesting parts of town. Luckily, I am great at reading maps and remembering important details.

The subway map of the Seoul metro area. Most of the exciting parts of the city are just north of the Han River that runs right through the middle of it.

We live on the light blue line - Line 4 - and get off at the Hanyang University stop. Our school is literally right across the street from the station and our apartment is only a 5 minute walk from there.

Our home station - Hanyang University. You sure have to have strong legs to live here. Just climbling the stairs to get up to the platform feels like hiking a small mountatin. But, the Koreans really do love to hike so they probably did it on purpose. You've got to counteract all that sitting in the train somehow.

View of the train on one particularly crazy night. The subway stops running around 11pm so this was one of the last trains of the night. Seems like everyone who spent the day in Seoul was anxious to get back home all at once. Seriously though, this was our first weekend in Korea and I really felt like I was going to pass out. Too many people were breathing on me.

By now we've visited most of popular areas of the city. We've been guided by our coworkers and have even managed to fly solo a few times. We now know our way to some decent western restaurants and the best areas for street shopping.

Last weekend we went to the Gangnam area (photo above) and had brunch at a restaurant called Butterfinger's. It's a western style breakfast food restaurant with some soups and salads thrown in. Everything on the menu looked mouth watering good, but I settled on some traditional bacon, eggs and pancakes. Holly and I intended to walk around and explore the neighborhood but it was so very cold outside that we figured we would be better off doing some people watching at one of the 4 local Starbucks. Unfortunately, one of the biggest draws of the city has been the chance to go to familiar restaurants. In addition to Starbucks, Seoul is full of places like Dunkin' Donuts, Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King and the occasional Subway sandwich shop. We've also discovered an On the Border mexican restaurant and have visited twice already. Everything is really expensive so it's a good thing we only go on the weekends or else we'd be out of money by now!

Gangnam at night - the neon is really overwhelming. It's always nice to go back to our sleepy little town after a long day spent in the city.

This is an area of town near the US Military base called Itaewon. It is where you can see the most foreigners of any area of town. Familiar restaurants abound and all the shopping is geared to the foreigners. We were excited to visit an English language bookstore and a small grocery store of imported foods. Along with all those benefits, it's location near the base also means there are many other shady things going on. Itaewon is one of the major prostitution areas in Seoul and even has a street nicknamed "Hooker Hill". Coincidentally, it's the same street that the bookstore is on, but we only visited during the day so it was quite safe.

Pictured above is one of the many open air street markets - Namdaemun Market. We went once for the experience and were bombarded by the yelling vendors and sheer amount of things they were selling. Anything you could ever want to buy and some you never thought of can be found in these type of markets. Strange and unusual street food also abounds. Namdaemun occupies a huge area where it is easy to get turned around walking the maze of streets or end up going down an alley to look at a purse and ending up completely lost. We've heard rumors of one market like this that stays open all night and offers special deals for those willing to lose a little sleep. We may have to check that out once the weather warms up. Any excuse to stay up late is always appealing to me!

Another of the more interesting parts of town is Insadong. This is where you can go to buy traditional Korean gifts of ceramics, handmade paper, artwork and quite a few Korea themed souvenirs. We went twice this fall and were able to buy many Christmas gifts there. There is one large main walking street where most of the shops are located but if you walk down any of the small side streets you feel transported back several hundred years. All of the buildings are in the traditional Korean style and are filled with restaurants and small tea shops.

By far, our favorite neighborhood of Seoul is the largely student populated area around Hongik University. We've made several trips for the abundance of cheap street fashions - scarves, hats, bags, jewelry and even shoes. Most things are very reasonably priced so we have to be careful not to go too crazy! There is a small park that hosts impromptu concerts at night and by day transforms into an outdoor art fair. We happily discovered the art fair one Saturday morning and were excited to learn it's a weekly occurrence. I took this graffiti picture of the restrooms located next to the park on that Saturday. Everything about the area is very arty, so we feel at home there.

I've always imagined the excitement of living in a large city, but never pictured myself in one that has a population of at least 10 million. I've grown accustomed to the faster pace of city life, but I'm glad at the end of the day to return to the slower pace of Ansan. If only we could ever get a seat on the subway ride home then everything would be perfect!