Thank you!

A great big thank you to my team, who treated me to a wonderful dinner at Tang.
It was a dark and stormy night.  Yet we managed to get all the way across the river and to the restaurant in time.  I'm not sure I've seen it rain that hard here before.  And there was thunder and lightning to add some ambience.   So we were all a bit soaked by the time we got there.

We had the fixed price menu, which came with the option of green fried rice or pho as the main entree.  We had some appetizers, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera.  We'd pretty much inhaled them.  The first one had kind of a thick rice paper wrapper and the second was fried spring roll.  Then we had this dish with noodles, broth, and salad with a dish of pork on the side.  You dipped the pork and noodles into the broth.  Salad, too, if you were so inclined.

Noodles and salad with broth

Pork with green onion like vegetable

Pho, with beef, rice noodles, green onions, and sliced onion

Dessert, tomato sorbet (I think)

Thank you to my team for a wonderful dinner!

Seoul at night

I will miss Seoul.  I'm looking forward to our next stop, but I will miss Seoul.  It has been home for two years.  I've figured out the subway and the bus.  I've learned how to squeeze myself into an already full bus or subway car.  My sense of personal space has changed.  I've learned that walking down a crowded sidewalk is a contact sport.  I will miss the lunch options... Turkish kebab, Korean bulgogi, Mexican taco, Austrian sandwich, American burger, Indian curry, Paraguayan empanada, Italian pasta, Chinese noodles, Japanese teriyaki, Vietnamese pho, Thai fried noodles.  

I will miss the fact that there are a gazillion restaurants within meters of the front door of my apartment building.  And the 7-11 right across the street.  I will miss the four different seasons but I won't miss the freezing cold of winter.  I will miss watching Namsan Mountain turning yellow and red in fall.  I will miss watching the ginkgo tree leaves change color.  

But most of all, I will miss my friends.

Looking towards Seoul Tower

Looking east

The Tomgi Hotel starburst sign.

More lanterns...

Here are more lanterns at a different Buddhist temple in the Samcheongdong area.


Lanterns at night along one of the smaller streets in the Samcheongdong area.

dumplings and noodles

Seoul is filled with little restaurants that specialize in one or two items. No matter which direction you go, there are small restaurants with a few tables, a few signs on the wall with the menu with 5-6 items, and self serve water or tea and side dishes.  A few weeks ago, we saw a couple of restaurants that looked worth trying, so tonight we went back. One served dumplings (meat, seafood, or vegetable), and the other served fried noodles, fried dumplings, and a dumpling soup. We saw people with dumplings in the noodle restaurant, and people with noodles and soup in the dumpling restaurant. But we couldn't figure out the magic words to get noodles in the dumpling restaurant. So we had dumplings first, then went to the second restaurant for our second course. Next time, we'll start at the noodle restaurant and have the dumplings second.

Meat dumplings:

You get 6 steamed dumplings per order. Meat is a pork mixture. Vegetable had baby leeks, finely chopped noodles, and a touch of tofu. Next time I'll try the seafood.

Fried noodles (aka yakisoba). Has onion, finely sliced carrot, green onions, and a bit of meat.

Lanterns

Spring in Korea means lanterns!  They're bright and colorful, and fun to see strung up along the streets.  Or at Jogyesa, where they string them all across the open plaza area in front of the temple.



Looking straight up:


Side of Jogyesa building:


Corner of rooftop.  I love the colors!

Statue in a park behind Jogyesa.  I have no idea who this is.


Octopus, it's what's for lunch.  A tank full of octopi outside a restaurant.


Statues outside the arts center.

Spring in Seoul

May 5th this year was Children's Day here in Korea.  Which means it was a holiday.  And I had the day off from work.  Early in the day, before the hordes came out, we went for a long walk towards Independence Gate and Seodaemun Prison.  The weather was beautiful.

Independence Gate:


Some beautiful spring flowers in the park.




More flowers.

In the same park as Independence Gate is Seodaemun Prison.  This is where the Japanese incarcerated and tortured Korean resistance leaders.  It is now restored and can be walked through.  Seodaemun Prison is depressing, and full of horrific examples of what people can and do to each other.  But it is worth seeing because of the role it played in history here in Korea.






Outside the prison, in the park, there were more beautiful flowers.

Sign for a coffee shop.


Moving statue.

Haebongchong Walk

The other weekend, we headed out for a walk.  Now that slightly fewer layers are needed to brave the outdoors, we've been more inclined to go outside and check stuff out.

Here's the Alice in Wonderland themed area in front of a building near Cheonggyechong.  I can't remember which building it is, but I'm always fascinated by all the bright colors here.  Especially during winter when there isn't much else around.


Here's a piece of art made of car headlights.


A traditional Korean building, sandwiched between two modern buildings.

On this particularly bright, sunny, yet still a bit on the sharply cold side, we headed south towards Namdaemun Market, then to Namsan Mt.  Here's part of the wine display at the Hilton Hotel.  Yes, that's Meridian.  It's not quite the same as the winery in Paso Robles, but at least I know I can get a bottle if I really want one.  Anyway, on our way to Namsan, we cheat a bit.  We could take the practically straight uphill road to Namsan Park.  Or, we could go through the Hilton, entering via the lower level parking garage and taking the elevator to the main lobby.  

Once out the front door of the Hilton, the road up to Namsan is straight in front.  Here's one of the many view from the road that goes around the mountain, heading towards Haebongchong and Itaewon.

Seoul Tower


One of the statues along the way.  There is a library up here, along with a few other facilities.


A phone booth, with a real paper phone book.


Another statue.


View of Seoul


Another view of Seoul further up the road.

View of Seoul, over the Haebongchong area.


Haebongchong heading down to Banporyo, which is the main drag my office is located off of, is pretty much a straight down descent.  Let's just say I wouldn't want to have anything more than a glass of wine before trying to go either up or down the street if I lived here.  Here as well as in Itaewon, there are houses with decks and stairs and often a pooch or two hanging around.


The kimchi pot gate.

And there ends our walk to Haebongchong.  At this point, we dodged a few motorcycles, crossed under the street, and caught the bus home and took a well deserved afternoon nap.