Namsan

It snowed lightly this moring and by mid-day it had vanished from the streets of Seoul. But getting out from work early I glanced up and noticed snow on the mountains surrounding the city. As I had a few hours of daylight I decided to take a walk up to Seoul Tower, a 418 meter tower on a peak in a park in the middle of Seoul. Like similar towers elsewhere in the world, the Seoul Tower consists of an observation deck, a revolving restaurant and a bunch of antennas.




After about a 30 minute walk to what I thought was the path to the top I discovered myself in a nature garden with paths running up the side of Namsan Mountain…but not to the tower. Another 20 minute walk lead me to the first of approximately 250 stairs up the side of the mountain that lead to a walkway along a road that lead to the top. After pausing for a few minutes to catch my breath. I realized that there was still snow on top of the mountain. Being from the northeast US I felt obligated to make a snowball and throw it at a tree. Someone else had other ideas about what should be done with the snow.

I paid my 5,000 Won and rode the elevator to the almost deserted observation level. What a view! I can see the tower from my apartment so I spent a while finding my apartment from the tower and was successful. The view from the top was amazing. Clouds were rolling in, so visibility wasn't great, but it wasn't smoggy either. Seeing Soul from this perspective is amazing. It appears as though an immense city was dropped in a mountain range and it just filled in the valleys, leaving the peaks alone (with the exception of communication towers).







I lingered for a while and then made my way back down the windy path, down the 250 steps, back along the roadway and home. As I was leaving I noticed a sign that indicated the tower would be closed from March through October for renovations. Too bad.

Happiness of Eating

I've been lax in the snack department. Here are the latest offerings:




From the left there's a tube of potato sticks which were more like mini breadsticks than anything else. Next is banana milk which was different than what I was expecting. It was regular milk with a banana flaror added. I guess I was expecting some sickly sweet banana shake sort of deal. The carton read, in part "You can taste delicious banana in a fresh milk. It uses only excellent ingredients for a new generation who seeks for the best taste enjoyment. Good quality and great satisfaction guaranteed. A new type of modified milk-based product! Don't hesitate to buy. It will bring you happiness of drinking." How could I resist? I really love the way Koreans translate phrases into English. Don't get me wrong, I know English is tough. I have problems with it, but Korean translations often have a poetic aura about them. A bit off-kilter poetry, but poetry nonetheless.

In front of the banana milk is a "Nambu rice porridge with pine nut." Technically there were 8 pine nuts. Actually, it was pretty bad.

To the milk and porridge's left (your right) is my next excursion into the ice cream chest. This was not as exciting. It was ice cream in the middle of a shell made of a sort of rice cake. Not the sort of thing I would usually go for, but on the up side it kept your hands completely clean while eating the ice cream.




Moving from an area where it is illegal to eat on the mass-transit system, I find the selling of food in Seoul's subway refreshing. As I was making my way from one line to the next I was overcome by the smell of sugar, egg and flour being fried in hot oil. It turned out to be a small stand selling fresh mini donuts in the shape of ears of corn. I walked up, smiled and indicated I wanted a bag. The woman took my 2000 Won ($2) and selected a pre-packaged bag, opened it and put four or five fresh donuts on top. She then looked at me and said something in Korean. I envisioned that she said "You look like a nice American, so I will give you something special…some extra donuts that are fresh from the line. Enjoy them and go in peace." Only when I bit into one several seconds later and the cream filling that was approaching the temperature of molten rock gushed onto my tongue, searing every taste bud I had, did I realize that she probably said "Watch out, kid. These are hot." They were delicious, though. The sacrifice was worth it.

That afternoon I stopped by a market and a "Green Latte" caught my eye. Yup, it's a green tea latte. It grows on you. Very rich with a distinct green tea flavor.

More markets…more food

Today my explorations took me to two very different markets…Insadong and Namdaemun. The former is a section of street that is closed to traffic on Sundays. It's filled with shops selling paper, pottery, brass and Korean, Chinese and Japanese art. There are also food vendors lining the streets. Shortly before arriving in Korea I heard a snippet of an interview with Ming Tsai where he extolled the virtues of street food. His basic thrust was "It's all cooked to 200 degrees and that kills everything, so go ahead." I took him up on his offer…at least part of it. One of the things that you can buy on these carts is ppeondaegi…silkworm larvae. They smell like cooked bugs (go figure) and I was in no hurry to try them. Instead I first sampled some bungeo pang, egg batter with a sweet bean paste inside. Very tasty. Next it was on to hoteok, sort of like a donut with a brown sugar center. Very good as well…and only 500 KRW (about $0.50). After browsing the shops for a while I took the subway over to Namdaemun, a completely different experience.

Namdaemun means "south gate" and, sure enough, right next to a packed marketplace sits an ancient gate to the city of Seoul. The market itself is made up of dozens of streets and alleyways that are lined with vendors selling food, spices, tea, chocolate, leather goods, backpacks, purses, pants, shirts, sweaters, underwear, toys, shoes, socks, paper, jewelry, gloves, hats, ginseng, camping equipment, and much more. I picked up some chocolate and candy coated sesame seeds (sort of like peanut m&m's, but with a sesame seed and much smaller. It was starting to get dark and I was getting hungry as I wandered down "restaurant alley" where they have mock-ups of all their dishes out front. One ajumma tried to sell me on pig back soup. Although I've heard it's delicious I wasn't in the mood for meat, so I opted from bibimbap again. This wasn't as good as that I've had before, although it was the first meal here I had that's been served in the traditional stainless steel bowl. The kim chee was mediocre as well. But for about $4 you can't go wrong.




As I was wandering Namdaemun I saw this sign, which I first read as "Dream in porcupine love for baby." Popince is apparently a store or clothing line. I'm still not sure I completely understand it…but my version is funnier.

Yongsan Electronics Market

I decided to re-try the Yongsan Electronics Market today. Wow. There are supposedly at least 12 separate buildings housing the largest electronics market in Asia. I can't imagine anything larger. The first building I wandered into was 9 stories tall and almost every floor was full of dealers selling everything from air conditioners and self cleaning toilet seats (I kid you not) to digital cameras and mp3 players. There was one floor completely dedicated to cell phones. And the floors weren't small either. I'm vary bad at estimating areas, but it would take a good 2-3 minutes to walk briskly from one end of the building to the other. And that was building one. I found a second building through a long tunnel. That was 8-9 stories as well. That dumped you into a parking lot where people were selling pirated DVDs and other assorted merchandise.

I spent over two hours there and only made it into two of the buildings.

One more thing to think about...

Looks like the North Koreans have admitted to having nuclear weapons…not that this is surprising to most people. The Seoul Times has some…interesting coverage.

Happy Lunar New Year

It's the Lunar New Year, the holiday Koreans celebrate by packing the roadways out of Seoul to return to their families and eat mass quantities of food. That makes Seoul eerily deserted. Though I've only been here a few weeks, I have yet been alone outside of my apartment. I decided to explore the subway system, figuring the smaller quantity of people would help with any navigation problems.

The subway was deserted. The Noksapyeong station has a central atrium that looks like a large golf ball from above ground. There are four escalators that usually carry masses of people to and from the trains. I was riding the upper pair of escalators and looked around. Nobody. Not one person. It was a scene out of some sci-fi movie.

I've been told (and I freely admit) that I have an unhealthy fascination with subways. I've ridden the systems of Boston, Washington DC, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Rome, Sydney, and now Seoul. This ranks up there. Most of the signs are in English, lines are color and number coded and the stops are even numbered (something I haven't found elsewhere). This helps if you're not sure if you're going in the right direction...need to get off at stop 135 and you've passed 136 and 137...better get off and reverse directions.





On my way back, I again stopped in and picked up some snacks...more kimbap (actually samgak kimbab). This time it's chicken. Also picked up a bottle of what appears to be aloe drink, complete with pieces of aloe floating around inside. It's actually pretty good. I also grabbed a bottle of a rice milk drink. Similar to soy milk...sweet. To round it out, I grabbed a Korean version of chocolate digestives. On an impulse, as the clerk was scanning my purchases, I grabbed an ice cream sandwich from a freezer. This was the best yet. Coffee flavored ice cream between wafers that were more like sponge cake than anything else. Very good.

More Food

Today's trip to the store produced a can of white guava drink, a cup of ramen-type noodles and a bag of "Sweet Potato Snack." I had assumed that these would be chips made from sweet potatoes, which you can find in some places of the US and are usually excellent. When I opened the bag, however I discovered that the snack looked to be formed bowls or hats probably made of potato starch. The taste wasn't like any sweet potato I've ever had either. I think these were simply potato snacks that are sweet.




When I paid the clerk asked me if I liked noodles. I replied that I did and he noted "I think today is a good noodle day. Everyone is buying noodles." I told him I would be sure to enjoy them.

As I was leaving I thought I heard him ask me something about chapstick. I I looked at him, confused and her repeated "Do you have chap-stick?" Now Seoul in the winter is very dry and I have been battling with chapped lips, but this was the first time anyone had tried to push chap stick on me. I replied no, mostly out of shock as I had a tube in my pocket. He came out from behind the counter and moved toward the refrigerated food section. It was then that I realized that he was saying "chopsticks." I told him that I did and left. I can only wonder what he would have thought if I had pulled out my chap stick and said "Yup, got it right here. Don't need any more."

Laundry

There's a small hotel across from my apartment that has a rooftop clothesline. I hadn't thought much about it until this afternoon when I noticed a woman hanging blankets to dry. The hotel can't be that big...maybe 10 rooms. It looks like she just washed all the blankets for the hotel and is hanging them out to dry. What made me take notice is that she cleaned each of the lines with a rag before hanging the blankets up. The air can get pretty dirty here and in as little as a couple of hours a clean window or clothesline can develop a pretty good amount of dust and grime.

Car

I registered my car (a lovely green 95 Hyundai Accent) today and am now legally able to drive on the streets of Seoul. It's a bit overwhelming at first, as the signs are in Hangul, although many are in English as well. Like anything new the easiest way to get used to it is just to do it.

Food

I dropped by the local Buy the Way market this afternoon and picked up some Korean food. Whenever I visit another country I always try to look around a grocery store or convenience store. I think it gives an interesting view into the culture. Plus, it's usually tasty!

My run this evening consisted of some traditional green tea, a bottle of what I believe is carrot juice, a box of "choco-pies"--a sort of marshmallow cream sandwich covered in chocolate and what I believe is kimbap...sort of a big chunk of sushi. The picture on this package was milk and cheese, so I figured I'd be safe.

House Hunting

After three full days of touring various apartments in Seoul I decided upon one in the Itaewon section of the city. Itaewon is one of the international sectors of the city, mostly catering to embassy types and the Yongsan Army Garrison, located on the west side of Itaewon.

By the end of the second day the realtor that I used was calling me "picky" in broken English. Koreans are taught English as a mandatory second language in school, but because our alphabets are different and the sounds that the languages are built on are different it's much more difficult for a Korean to learn English than it is for a German or Italian. For example there is no difference between the English "p" and "b" in Korean.

At lunch between showings I had my first Korean meal in Korea...bibimbap (pronounced more like PEE-pim-pop). Its a bunch of vegetables cooked quickly and put on top of a bowl of steaming rice. Then a raw egg is cracked over the top, hot sauce is added and the entire mixture is stirred together. The heat from the rice and veggies cooks the egg. I've had it in the States (except the egg was fried), I've even made it myself, but this was better. Maybe it was the delivery, maybe it was that they seemed genuinely excited when I told them I'd had Korean food before, maybe it was just that Koreans do Korean food best. I'm usually of the mind to get something different each time I eat out, but I ordered bibimbap all three times.