A Stroll Through Seoul

Today was Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving. I will postpone posting updates of today's events until I've caught up on my summer activities.

More than a month ago, Damo and I dedicated a day to stolling around Seoul. Unfortunately, we chose one of the hottest days of the summer. We started our day by seeking out the tranquil area of BuamDong. It's reported to have one of the best fried chicken restaurants in Seoul, which was my reason for going. However, Damo was in a different mood and could not be budged.

The chinese dumplings instead of fried chicken

Chinese Dumpling restaurant

After a thirty minute walk around a mountain to get to the quaint area located just beyond the noise of Seoul, we were soaked with sweat and very hungry. Because fried chicken was out of the question, we settled on eating chinese dumplings; inside the restaurant looked cool. The dumplings were delicious. They were also bigger than my fist. 

Once our stomachs were appeased with a bit of nutrition, we headed back into the sunshine and down a side street in search of an art museum that I'd read about. We choose the wrong street and walked for about twenty minutes, always sure that it was just around the bend. Eventually, we figured we'd taken a wrong turn, but had come too far to turn around having seen nothing. 

Temple Cafe

In front of us was a small mountainside temple. Shade. We walked in and had a peek around. After a few minutes, we were welcomed by the overseers and invited to sit around a bar. The priest's wife sat down behind the bar and began mixing drinks. 

The drink she handed me tasted like pickles with hint of some kind of flower. The first sip was a little off-putting, but second was less strange and the third even lesser. By the time I reached my last few sips, I was delighted  by my iced beverage. 

Inside the Temple Cafe

Prayer lanterns

Buddha figurines

 As we sat sipping on our beverages, in wandered the regular patrons of the temple cafe. It turns out, some people come every Saturday to drink at the temple. In true Korean style, the beverage is storied to do wonder's for a woman's beauty and diet if drank on a regular basis.

The pickle drink

After we departed from our (or more like, my) favorite place in Korea, two regulars of the cafe gave us a lift back to the main road. From there we continued our sweaty walk. Later, Damo looked up the temple on the Internet and found its website: http://cafe.daum.net/burna I love it when I stumble on a great find and when a day turns out so much better than ever expected.

Damo in front of the Temple Cafe

In the same day, we also walked to another area of Seoul called Insadong, which is a famous tourist area. At the entrance to Insadong, there's Tapgol park. The park is pretty small, but very quaint. Friendly looking old men hang about a pagoda located at the center of the park. 

Friendly looking old men puttering about the pagoda

Green illustrations that were probably once a copper color

Large green sculpted illustrations line one half of the park depicting stories from a long-ago war or uprising. Neither Damo nor I could understand which specific event was depicted. However, I think the main attraction was a plastic-encased pagoda that dates back to the 1400s.

Pagoda dated from the 1400s

And to end, I leave you with this image simply because I love the Engrish and the possibility that the owner/s meant for "Brian Factory" to be the name of there now-closed business.