Shana and Kyle and Korea: Last Day in Seoul

On our last full day in the enormous city of Seoul we took an umbrella in the light rain to explore the alleys of Bukchon Wanderings. This is a neighborhood of about 900 hanok, traditional Korean homes. These homes are protected by the government and although several have been converted to small museums, most are inhabited by families. We did not get to enter into the homes but just walked through the streets- some of which shared the walls to the palaces. The hanok is uncommon to live in now as the vast majority of Koreans live in apartments (as written about in previous entries) and villas (which is the type of apartment we are living in).

After running into a clown on the street (yes, random), I went to take a nap and Kyle was off to enjoy the sweet aroma of... the fish market! When we reunited Kyle reflected that he could smell the fragrance from his first step off the subway, and that he was the only non-Korean present... and the only one not there to grab some anchovies or octopus!

We met at Dongdaemun Market- a market which consisted of thousands of indoor and ourdoor vendors... open until, well we don’t even know what time they closed as they were still open as we left the area at 3am! We shopped for a bit- many vendors once again selling knock-off hand bags and clothing, cartooned socks, and street food including fried squid, processed fish on a stick, and a hotdog covered with tater-tots! After our fill of shopping we walked along the beautiful man-made stream called the Cheonggye. This stream is probably a good 30-40 feet below the main and very busy roads. There is a path along the stream and various areas to just sit and lounge, which is exactly what we did! Till the early hours of the morning we sat and basked in the moonlight, perfect temperature and feet dangling into the flowing water.