Fri night at Apgujeong

And the weekend's here! Unfortunately it looks like it may be a bit of a soggy one. How is it possible that I travel literally to the other end of the world from Seattle, and it STILL follows the old familiar pattern of "sunny weekdays, soggy weekends". Bother. Well, here's hoping the weathermen here get it wrong. It did rain today though - a gorgeous short wild monsoony storm with lots of lightning and thunder - lasted just for an hour in the afternoon, which was absolutely perfect coz then it made the evening wonderfully cool. I don't really mind that kind of short downpour. Anyway, so I decided to head out after work to Apgujeongdong, which is the ritzy happening part of town. Taking the subway at rush hour is quite the experience - now I know what sardines feel like. Not too bad though. I got to the Apgujeong station at about 7-ish in the evening, and then walked around getting increasingly lost - even had to come back to the subway station several times to check the neighbourhood maps on the walls there.

After about an hour and a half of walking, I found what I'd been looking for - Seoul's very own Rodeo Drive - it's even CALLED Rodeo Drive. And it's this gorgeous alley filled with fancy little boutique stores and big brands and a ton of very fashionable people. Very neat, and tons of fun to browse around in. Though I'm very proud of myself - I didn't buy a thing! I've decided to save suitcase space for genuine traditional korean souvenirs, not branded stuff that I could get in Seattle anyway.

I'm not in any of the snaps coz I'm the one taking them - and the one time I asked someone to take a snap of me, I got a snap of some random people walking in the foreground. So I'm not about to bother anymore. I look quite a mess anyway - half an hour in this heat and humidity and the only people who still look great are the Koreans. The tourists mostly all look pretty drained.

Other updates... letsee... I'm getting rather familiar with Korean bakery products - they make the most amazing vegetable scones here. To die for, totally. I had seven at one go for breakfast! They also make really interesting "gelatinous rice balls" - which are kinda like round bun type things with some kind of red bean paste or something inside - they're really nice and they have the exact same rolling capabilities as golf balls. I would know coz I spent a few very embarrassing minutes chasing one around the bakery - so the way bakeries work here is you walk around with a tray and pick up whatever you want and take it to the counter where they ring you up and pack your stuff. I put one of the rice balls on my tray, along with some other stuff, and then I bent down a bit to pick something else up and before I knew it the darned thing had made a mad dash for freedom. Mortification!! And plenty amusement for the lady at the counter. Oh well.

And I saw this particular sign in an alleyway - it's priceless and I had to take a picture.

To think we go looking for the Vietnamese kind back in Seattle. Evidently we're missing out.

I also found out what I ate on Tuesday when I ventured into the restaurant at Insadong with no clue whatsoever what I was doing - it's called Bibimbap and it looks a whole lot more intimidating than it is. I had it again today at lunch, this time with the whole team, and it wasn't bad at all - I think they got me the less adventurous version today though - coz what I had on Tuesday was pretty intense, and today was definitely a lot nicer.

That's all for now - here's hoping for sunshine tomorrow - I'll probably go check out some of the royal palaces and the surrounding areas.

Maybe I should buy an umbrella anyway...