Day 2: Seoul-Searching

After a bumpy arrival, day 2 in Seoul did not disappoint. This city has both the urban sprawl of L.A. with the sky-scrapers of NY. Stepping into any alleyway is like walking right into a Blade Runner film, in terms of richness of saturation of neon signs and bustling shoes paired with a marriage of the high tech, and the dubiously practical. There is something or someone around every corner that is picture worthy in a way I’ve never experienced before. Like in the US, everyone you meet is a character, just infinitely more friendly. This was a day for sightseeing, but also people-watching at its core. While searching for our destination after getting off at the wrong bus stop, we ran into a group of ladies running a fruit stand. They were enamored by Bunmi’s hair and firm grasp of the Korean language, and scandalized by my crop top.

We stopped at Dongdaemun market, a place that is akin to the Westlake Center or 5th Ave of Korea. Beauty product shops line the streets next to bubble tea cafes and tteokbokki stands (a popular street food made of spicy rice tubes….think escargot in texture, but magical in taste). After hunting for department stores to get our shop on, we found the mothership we were looking for….Hello APM; a store filled with 5 stories of clothing, accessories, and fabric stands (and a bowling alley assumed to be the place for husbands to wait for their wives to finish their shopping sprees).

As we finished exploring that extravaganza of dangerously low prices, we stepped outside greeted to a beautiful sight for sore Seattlite eyes….umbrellas. A drizzle of rain refreshed us as we made our way back home, providing us with a stark look at how much more Koreans value umbrellas than the average Washingtonian.

Now on to day 3!