Heart & Seoul: Day 2

Krispy Kreme is so popular over there, almost everywhere i went had stands/stores. I couldn't resist this flavor which was New York Cheesecake. Just thinking about it is making me drool, so so good.

My aunty's friend had a train card for me to use (it says teenager but hey :3). The trains were so quiet and super clean. The distance between every stop is pretty big too. Every carriage has allocated seats for people in need - the elderly, pregnant ladies, children and disabled people. I remember someone telling me (the last time i was in Seoul) that if you're not any of those and you sit in those seats, you get shunned pretty bad. People in Korea are very respectful and courteous.

Starting my morning with my usual morning coffee from my favorite store - 7-11 LOL. So much choice i had a different coffee every morning.

The second day was ladies day. My dad and my grandpa took Charlie to Lotte World and i spent the day with my aunties and my mum around Ewha Womans University. This is a pretty popular shopping district as the clothing stores are more affordable and catered towards young women.

First stop: multiple korean make up stores. After swatching a bunch of products on the first day and going back to the hotel and reading up on them, i went back to pick up some goodies. I know it may look like i've only got one bag but i actually had smaller bags from other stores which i stuffed into this one bag LOL.

Before heading down to all the stores and side streets, we decided to have a big lunch to fill us up for the day. This was our view at lunch.

My mummy and I. Apparently i resemble her a lot :3 I got it from my mama

We ordered 2 large spicy hot pot stews, a soup and a chicken dish of some sort. Omg just looking at this food again is making me hungry. I love korean soups/stews.

Some snaps from the streets. Sock stalls were everywhere. How cute were these disney/dreamworks princess ones! There was so much choice when it came to clothing but I'm a really fussy person. I found most of the clothes to be too generic for my taste and i had to pay close attention to whether the clothes were made in China or Korea. I ended up only buying a skirt, a dress and 2 pairs of socks LOL

Got super excited about these eggettes because i used to love the HK ones growing up (hard to find good ones these days). These ones were super yummy, it had custard in the middle!

Afterwards we went to some massive massive supermarket/department store because my aunty had to get some stuff for her friends. Here's my mum and I mimicking the adorable wall decor.

Here i'm wearing a new lip color i bought and LOVE. Will be sharing with you all very soon c;

For dinner, we decided to go to Noryangjin Seafood Market. The sun was setting as we were walking to the market ^^

I have no idea what i was expecting but i wasn't expecting this! It was such a fun experience!! On the top floor are many different restaurants. After picking which place we wanted to eat at, we left all our bags there and my aunty watched our stuff while we went down to personally select and purchase the seafood we want.

The market stalls were endless, i have no idea how people decide which ones to shop from because there were just so many. We bought a bit of everything: fish, prawns, abalone, crab and squid.

This is where it gets interesting. All of these restaurants on the top floor don't really have a menu. After you buy the seafood, you tell the stall where you bought the seafood at - where you'll be dining and how you'll be eating everything so that they can cut it up according to how you are going to eat it.
We carried everything we bought ourselves back up to the restaurant except for the sashimi because the market stall workers personally cut and deliver sashimi to the restaurant. At the restaurant, you tell them how you want everything prepared and they will do it according to your wishes! They weigh everything to calculate how much it'll cost to bring everything out. These were the dishes that came out from the seafood we bought. The squid was so fresh, it was still moving even after it had be chopped up!

We were lucky because we got a private room away from everyone sitting outside. Here's me enjoying my fresh abalone. How pretty is the shell! I nearly wanted to keep it haha

The crab looked so grumpy, i had to take a photo. It probably wasn't very happy about being cooked and having its legs cut off.

THIS SPICY FISH SOUP WAS THE BEST THING I HAD ON THE ENTIRE TRIP. It was so flavorsome and yummy. It was really spicy, more spicy than i can handle but i couldn't stop eating it. Tasted so amazing *drools.

This was the night view on the way back form the market on the same bridge as where i had taken the other photos when we arrived.

Some more night snaps from near the station. I really love admiring how different streets look all over the world, at different times of the day!

One thing about Seoul that really amazed me is that almost every sales person speaks mandarin but not english. On top of that, hardly any english is written anywhere. Even on movie posters for western movies, everything has been translated into Korean and the english titles aren't even on the poster. I don't think i even saw a McDonalds the entire time i was there (I saw their equivalent - 'Lotteria') This indicates to me that they have a pretty strong culture which i found really interesting.

=('.')=

chloé