The Last EPIC Journey Part 8: Snowy Seoul

N.B. I am already back home and these journals have been delayed as we were superbusy and I was very sick at the tail end of the Korean trip and into the Philippines...so sick, we almost didn't make it to the Philippines! It will be in the journals later on.

The Last EPIC Journey Part 8: Snowy Seoul

Thurs. Feb 11/10

Snowy Seoul & Beewon Guesthouse
When we arrived in Seoul it was snowing. The many Japanese people who were on our flight were ecstatic and taking photographs. Japan has not gotten much of it. We found our bus and bought our tickets and were soon on our way to our guesthouse. When we arrived at Beewon, we checked in. The girl at the desk remembered me from previous travels there. Luckily we had a 2nd floor room, because our luggage has already started getting heavy.

While Chris took a shower, I ordered 2 orders of ja jang myun (noodles with black bean sauce and vegetables) and an order of fried mandu (dumplings) delivery. This only cost $11.00. I always order this at some point during my trips to Seoul. So we quickly gobbled this down and got ready to meet Tito Eric and Tita Cynthia. Tito Eric was dad's best friend in school and they only reunited last year. Tito Eric and his wife coincidentally were spending a few days in Seoul for Valentine's Day weekend. We had arranged to meet two days and I would be the tour guide.

Lost
We made it to the Cerestar Mall where the hotel was attached, but we were confused as to where the hotel entrance was. We somehow got lost in the floors in between and were in and out of staircases. I finally asked another person how to get to the right elevators and we were directed to the hotel elevators. We got to their floor, but there was no lobby, so we went back in the elevator and Chris noticed the lobby floor. We finally found them!!

We took them to Myeongdong, since Tito Eric was looking for shoes and we thought Tita Cynthia might like shopping there. It was crazy as always. We popped into CT Records - my friend Song's store. Song and Jin Young were working and we shopped around. I introduced them to Chris and Uncle Eric and Tita Cynthia. Song gave me a free Boys Over Flowers poster for Tita Cynthia.

Chris and I did some shopping and I was able to snag a poster of Hyun Joong who starred in the Korean drama version of Boys Over Flowers for Tita Cynthia at a store called Tony Moly. Apparently we had to spend 10 000 won to get it, but I asked the guy at the cash very nicely ;) Chris has finally seen me in action, using the "dizon charm" to get my way hahaah. She's a fast learner as you will read.

K-BBQ FEAST
We window shopped and power shopped where necessary LOL. Tita Cynthia and Tito Eric were very patient! We stopped by two bakeries to look for snacks. Eventually we got hungry and looked for a restaurant. They had mentioned that they wanted Korean BBQ, so we tried a new restaurant. For some reason we were treated extremely well at this restaurant. I don't know if it was because they were nervous because we were English speakers or what. They called a specific waiter in and he served us the whole night cooking or food, constantly changing the grill and re-filling our side dishes. I used my limited Korean but it seemed that the staff kept checking in to see how we were doing. There was a really random moment when Chris got up from her chair and it tipped and hit the glass wall where we were sitting (probably b/c she had her heavy stuff hanging on it)...well a few of the staff rushed in all worried. I don't know if they were worried about the wall, or if they thought Chris collapsed or something. We were so full afterwards.

We took them back to their hotel in Dongdaemun and then we scooted to the Doota department store. We rushed through as we were tired - Chris especially. We rested for a bit with some smoothies and then headed back to Beewon. We watched a bit of TV before sleeping.

-Sam ^__^