First Trip to Seoul

So to continue my post on this past weekend, I went to Seoul on Saturday! It takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour to get there from Songdo by the Metro. Or Subway. Or Underground. Whichever you want to call it. And it is extremely cheap to travel within South Korea, I have no idea why, but it is so nice.
Anyways, Cassy and I were up bright and early on Saturday to go into Seoul. First stop: Hongdae Area.
This is where a major university is so think University town kind of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. It is definitely one of my favorite areas of Seoul that I saw. Very fun, unique shops and cafes, along with some very familiar ones (Auntie Ann's Pretzel, Del Taco, Nike, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Taco Bell, Zara, Mango, etc). So they have a little bit of everything for everyone. Spotted a really cute Hello Kitty cafe there, here's some pics:

Cute little drink menu:

Fun mirrors:

Didn't eat or get a drink there, but plan to once it get's cooler out. They have really cute souvenirs too of the kitty dressed in the Korean Hanbok and such.

Next we traveled to the Business District of Seoul where Gyeongbok Palace is preserved right in the heart of a modern area:

It's hard to see how massive this place is by these pictures, but this is just the inner courtyard, beyond that building is an even larger courtyard with the main palace area. And as you can see, just like Songdo, Seoul has woodsy mountains surrounding it.

If you've ever seen the changing of the British guard in London, this is the South Korean version of that:

And me with the guard:

And I took a video of it, not sure it will work but worth a shot:

After the palace we went to an area called Myeongdong, which is a HUGE shopping area. When you think of Asian countries and all the bright flashing neon lights, thousands of people, street food and store vendors, this is that place. They have all kinds of stores, from american and european brands (Forever 21, Adidas, H&M, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, London Calling) to all the korean brand stores, shoes, knockoff stores, just everything you could possible imagine. I also took a picture of some street food:

Corn dogs fried in french fries:

Fruit on a stick:

Every kind of sausage:

It was starting to rain again at this point so I couldn't take any pictures of the dried seaweed and squid, or of the live octopus. Next time. It rained pretty much off and on the entire day, but it didn't slow us down at all. So after Myeongdong we tried to walk to Itaewon but ended up hiking accidentally up this massive hill almost to Seoul Tower, which is the highest point of Seoul and it is absolutely beautiful up there. It's all hiking and nature trails, so I will definitely be going back there in the fall once it cools off. But Cassy and I were literally dripping buckets of sweat (lovely) by the time we got up there, it was ridiculous. We decided after that we would just catch a cab to Itaewon from there haha. Just like all Korean transportation, it's really cheap, so it wasn't a big deal.

Itaewon is known as the place where the foreigners hangout. There's a large US military base nearby it, so that's how it started catering to English speakers in the first place. So it has very big US chain restaurants and stores also, along with English book stores and foreign food (black) markets. And a lot of foreign food restaurants. Saw an Austrian Deli/restaurant:

Looks slightly sketchy and old, but everyone says it is reaaally good and worth trying. I also saw a greek restaurant there that I would love to go back to.

 We had some Coldstone Ice Cream in Itaewon (yummy) and hit up 2 different black market foreign food shops. Yes so they have American goods for a price (a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese is $3) but if you're really craving something from back home this is where you go. Since Cassy has been here almost 3 months now, she was the one who really wanted some food from back home, and I picked up a few things as well.

Nice blacked out bag they give it to you in:

And my goods (which I'm saving for those future days when rice just won't cut it anymore):

Notice the pretzels. Pretzels are non-existent here. I look for them everywhere I go, but they are one thing that they just don't have here, and it makes me sad because I love snacking on pretzels!

Some more random pictures from around Seoul:

Cassy in the subway station:

Found a Texas bar (old west theme: check!):

If I pass through this arch it says I will live a long time but never age:

Ah and a random sign with my name:

We passed this building on the street in Hongdae and Cassy says: "Look, it's Azkaban!" (from the Harry Potter books). I knew there was a reason we clicked:

So it was a very long and very fun day, and I can't wait to go back! But this is a long enough post for now, next time I will tell yall about the baseball game we went to! Sorry if there are a lot of typos in these posts, I'm just trying to get them out as quick as I can! (Mostly that was for you Lindsay, I know how much incorrect grammar and spelling bother the English teacher in you!)