The Last EPIC Journey Part 9: Insadong, Nanishow & Relaxing with Bonjuk...

The Last EPIC Journey Part 9: Insadong, Nanishow & Relaxing with Bonjuk...

Fri Feb 12/10

ON THE WAY TO INSADONG AND NANISHOW
I have discovered that, on most occasions, when I try to get to a place based on memories of when I was last here...I get lost. We decided to go to Insadong to shop at Nanishow, which is a store that sells really nice, unique jewellery.

My friend Sunny, actually owns the store. Well, I led Chris in the direction of what I thought was the right way to Insadong. After 15 minutes of walking, I realized I was going the wrong way...ooops! We headed back in the opposite direction and eventually found Insadong and the Ssamziegil building. I was happy to see Sunny there and she was happy to see me too. We quickly caught up and I introduced her to Chris. We shopped around her store. There are always so many things I'd like to buy there! I asked Sunny if we could plan to eat lunch or dinner together. Monday is the best day for both our schedules, so we made the plans.

Chris and I bought quite a few pieces and Sunny gave us each a free pair of earrings! She's so nice and am overwhelmed by her generosity. Our initial plan was to shop at Insadong and then go to Ehwa Women's University, but we dropped so much cash at Nanishow, that we didn't want to do anymore major shopping for the day.

Ssamziegil Building
We wandered upstairs so that Chris could see the works of other artisans. We went by the glasses shop again and took these hilarious photos with the glasses on. There is one pic of Chris that makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. She just looks so dazed and confused! Chris took pictures of all the great artistic pieces around the building and I showed her the walls where everyone left their mark and added their own graffiti. Chris and I added our messages and I tried to find the ones Nick and I left last time, but I couldn't remember where they were.

TEAstory
I dragged Chris to a tea shop and we had cinnamon tea and five spice tea with traditional sweets. Everything was great except for the green tea dark chocolate, which was superbittter. Chris was taking pictures of me eating it and we made a photostory of our experience there. We laughed as we took photos. The place had a lovely ambiance and we had a window seat overlooking Insadong street where the shoppers and tourists bustled along.

BONJUK
Ever since Chris saw a porridge restaurant featured in a Korean tv drama called Boys Over Flowers (based on a Japanese manga), she has been craving it. Not to mention, this specific place called Bonjuk were able to land two of the cast members as their spokespeople. Chris was hoping that if we ate there or ordered food, she could score the calendar that featured the onscreen couple. It turns out Bonjuk isn't only a porridge restaurant...there are porridge restaurants and regular restaurants with Korean food. We looked through the menu and selected some dishes. Luckily enough the girls that work there saw our disappointment at not getting a calendar, they gave us the special take out bags with them on it. Chris felt a little compensated haha.

SHWEEEETSS
We ordered food to go and headed back to the guesthouse. We also bought bath salts to take advantage of the tub once we cleaned it. On our way back, Chris noticed another UNIQLO. She loves this store! She walked on, but was disappointed to see that the prices were higher than in Japan. While she perused the racks, I dropped by a bakery and bought a slice of cake to go.

We dropped by another bakery and bought a green tea roll cake. It's vacation time, so we wanted to spoil ourselves. On we continued, until our eyes saw another Bonjuk sign. It turns out that it is a brand new location and won't open until the 16th. Chris wants to drop by and try the food kekeke. Chris also hit the GS store to buy some beer. She bought a few different ones to try them out.

PHONE CARDS SUCK
We told my friend at Beewon that we would come down later to drink together with her. She told us to start ahead as her boss would be coming by. We went upstairs to take baths, eat dinner and relax. We watched some korean tv - mostly music shows and then we headed down to do some drinking in the den. My friend wasn't able to join us and I realized that I had to call Tito Eric and Tita Cynthia to make plans for tomorrow.

It's a long complicated story and all I can say is that I was running in and out of the building trying to buy a phone card to call them. After a lot of wasted time, I ended up asking my friend, the receptionist, to help me call their hotel and connect us to their room! Ah thank goodness! Made the plans and headed back to Chris to drink and eat the vendor food we had purchased. Not too long after, we decided to call it a night. It was a productive day and we were exhausted.

Good Night,

Sam ^__^