Still feeling
giddy about our Han River Cruise
experience,
we hired a cab going to Insadong to
cap off our night by buying some
pasalubong
and warming
our (yet again) almost empty and cold stomachs.
Insadong is a large shopping and food area in Seoul. Unlike Myeongdong wherein most of the shops sell
high-end products and labels,
Insadong is the low-key version with its charming
little stores offering trinkets and authentic Korean
products. And since we were
on a “trip-id”,
this was such a perfect place
to buy stuffs to bring home.
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| If you still
don’t know by now, here’s a little trivia: Ahne is the ultimate (unpaid) model/endorser of Starbucks. And
since that is the case, we didn’t pass the chance to drop in on the one and only SB store in Seoul in which the characters of the store’s name has been translated to Hangul, the
official language and form of writing of South Korea. While the temperature caused my teeth to chatter everytime I spoke and had caused all my neck
muscles to overly work from uncontrollable shivering, it definitely didn’t stop Ahne from enjoying her frapped coffee. Told
yah’, ultimate (unpaid) model/endorser! |
A travel
isn’t complete without eating on the streets. There is something about eating on the
streets that appeals too much to me. Blame it on my SILAK days when we had to
go to places on a tight (Take that literally!) budget---- that we had to look for places to eat at an affordable price without forgoing quantity and quality. And what better place to look for these ultimate food bargains but on the streets! Eating
on the streets can teach you a lot of things that fine dining couldn’t. It is a
great place and opportunity to interact with the locals, hunt for authentic
local foods (at a very affordable rate), mingle with some other travelers (Make friends,
if you’re lucky!), and just be still momentarily when the whole world is in full buzz all around you. Now who couldn’t be hooked?
 |
| Look at my
dopey-faced look! That only means I was too happy
to gobble up what was for dinner! We
had a bowl each of yummy nori-seaweed noodles, some fried eggs, and spicy rice
cakes. I can live eating these kinds of food every day, swear! |
 |
| An ethyl -alcohol toast for the biology
majors! Yes, soju smells like
ethyl alcohol and probably tastes
exactly the same
had we been crazy
enough to taste ethanol during
one of our experiments. It was one thing to drink soju on the streets
of Seoul that would make you nostalgic and giddy, but
it would be another thing to let
me drink it just for the
sake of drinking. Now I can relate to the
“aaaaaahhhh” sound everytime there are soju
scenes in Korean dramas. Only that, mine is coupled
with an unglamorous grimace. Definitely
it was the first, and the last of my soju-tasting experience. Kombe! |
 |
Here are two bubbly and pretty
Korean girls whom we made friends with while eating our dinner. When they overheard our
conversation and realized that we are Filipinos, they did not hesitate to talk to us, telling
us that some of their friends and family members have already went to the
Philippines to study. The other girl, whom Ahne and I found
to be so charming, kept on saying,
“I love Philippines”.
|
 |
This man, was selling
ice cream
on an almost uncomfortable less than 10 degree chill. Just how cool is that, huh?
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