The new neighborhood isn’t exactly suitable to the active lifestyle, with too many major roads full of cars and no easy access to parks or running trails. Nonetheless, some pretty serious pollution blew into Seoul, so I won’t be able to run for a few days anyways.
After a glorious nine hours of sleep, I was feeling somewhat human again, and puttered about the hostel for a few hours in the morning. There isn’t really a common area, just a single chaise lounge and table in the reception area. At least there is a water machine with hot water to make coffee. Since the hostel sucks to hang around, I’m itching to go out and about, but the pollution makes it difficult to do any real hiking or exploring.
However, this new location is close to the War Remembrance Museum, Hangul Museum, and National Museum (all of which I’ve been too before), but being free and indoors, it seemed like a good idea to revisit one. The irony of the plan was that I still spent more than half the day outside. First, there was the 25 minute walk to the museum, where I only spent about an hour looking at art before venturing outside to find food (another 20 minutes), then 20 minutes to a Starbucks I passed on the way down.
I was spoiled for choices in the block between the museum and the Han river, so it took a long time to decide on what I wanted. I found it strange that roughly half of the restaurants were Japanese, so I wonder if the neighborhood is known for that. I picked an udon place that was so popular I actually had to wait a minute outside to get a seat at the counter.
I spent a good several hours in the Starbucks, which for the price of a cup of coffee is only right. It was really warm in the afternoon, both outside and in the Starbucks, and I realized at night that I was pretty seriously dehydrated.
After I couldn’t stand the Starbucks soundtrack any more, I briefly popped back into the hostel to shower and rest a bit before going out for dinner. I headed in a second direction finding the streets where I had met friends on previous trips to Korea.
The only dining option that stuck out to me was a dumpling place with clouds of steam billowing out the front window. A cursory glance at the outside posted window showed that it was cheap enough, and I supped on a basket of kimchi dumplings and a basket of meat dumplings. I’m definitely adjusting to life in Korea, where I’m not thinking paying 36 kuai for two baskets of steamed dumplings is reasonable, but I’m still reaching for the vinegar and being shocked to find its soy sauce.
I watched another episode of Iron Fist wishing there was more actual Chinese in a show set in Chinatown, and went down a rabbit hole on Instagram (I need to dedicate a post to this sometime) before wresting the phone out of my own hands and letting myself sleep.
| Udon | 6500 |
| Starbucks (venti drip) | 4800 |
| Dumplings (16) | 6000 |
| Total: | 17300 W (104.6 RMB) (USD 15.57) |
Running Total: 6524 RMB
(USD 971)
Daily Average: 261 RMB
(USD 38.84)