Seoul suggestions?

[starlady]

I'm going to Seoul for a week on Tuesday. If anyone has any suggestions for things I absolutely must see/do/eat, lay 'em on me. I was in Seoul for a week almost five years ago, but I obviously didn't see everything, and obviously things will have changed.

Comments

[seichan]

eat at any bbq places where they let you cook in front of you.
eat street food...but not the fried beetles.
eat chinese-korean jja jjang myun (black bean noodles) at a place where they make the noodles in house.
eat buddhist temple restaurant food.

The palaces are decent...though since you've lived in japan, they are toned down in comparison.
Insadong and Myeongdong are nice shopping, busy areas. There are pretty cool not-really marked shopping markets inside the old buildings.
If you have time to go out of the city, http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/folk/english/index.htm this is a pretty nice day trip to see ancient korea...a lot of kdramas were/are filmed here. the park has pretty good food, too.

Sorry I don't have any specifics. I usually let my relatives drag me around.

oh yeah..just like Japan, go to a Korean bookstore and check out the awesome office supplies. :)
Hope you have fun!

[starlady]

I had the temple restaurant food. That is one of the places I want to go back, since my companions haven't been. Also the teahouse with the birds. I like birds.

Letting your relatives drag you around seems like an excellent plan. Thanks! :)

[oyceter]

EAT ALL THE FOOD!!!!! Oh also get hoddeok from street vendors! (Any specific foods you want to eat?) School Food has kind of fancy-ish updated versions of bunshik, like ddeokbokki carbonara and interesting gimbap and etc. Myeongdong Gyoja is famous for gyoja obviously but I also really liked their kalguksu. Er. Not sure how much you'll want to eat patbingsu given the weather. And trying to remember all the places I went to in 2010 but don't quite remember...

I can't remember if you watched Coffee Prince or not, but if you did, you might like going to the Coffee Prince cafe in Hongdae.

There's an English used bookstore in Itaewon called What's That Book or something if you want to go bookhunting.

There is also a museum of chicken art that I sadly didn't make it to. (Ditto the museum of toys.) The National Museum is always good and I think this year all the national museums are waiving their entrance fees. Also there is a kimchi museum! It is tiny but one of the final exhibits is an assortment of different pictures of kimchi foods, including kimchi hot dogs. There's also a free manhwa museum around Myeongdong; not a ton of stuff there, but they have early sunjeong magazines and a library you can sit at and read manhwa. Alas, this is only really useful if you can read Korean well. (I like random museums. Sadly I didn't get the chance to see the toy museum or the chicken art museum.)

I really liked walking around Samcheongdong, lots of cute little stores and cafes on a really windy road.

[starlady]

Chicken art?

I went to the National Museum last time and was just overwhelmed. I don't know how much time we'll have to spare for it this time (am going for a conference), but definitely will keep it in mind. Thanks! :D

[sanet]

Thanks for the post, will be stalking your comments. Buying a Seoul guidebook to read on the plane = the extent of my ability to plan non-academic stuff right now.

In food terms, I am excited for Korean BBQ! My tastiest meals out in Japan last summer were somehow always Korean BBQ.

One other thing: are you bringing a power converter? I've read that Korea uses European-style outlets and higher voltage than North America, but I've also read that you can buy converters over there super-cheap. I just wonder about the ease of access (e.g. finding the right one in a shop without speaking the language.) I might pick up a universal adapter here before going, since my old one died in Scotland.

[starlady]

I am bringing a converter for my Mac adapter (thanks for the reminder!), but other than that I don't normally travel with them.

I went to a Korean BBQ place when I was in Seoul and was really weirded out when they cooked it for us as opposed to doing it ourselves like at yakiniku. But yes, I am excited. And we will be going to the Buddhist temple vegetarian food, that is one of the best meals I have ever had.