I had a (very unexpectedly) busy day in Seoul today. My only plan was to go to the French Christmas Market in Seorae Maeul, but it quickly turned into a much bigger adventure than I'd planned.
I'd never been to Seorae Maeul before, and instead of simply taking the train (which is easy) I also had to take a bus. I don't like taking buses because I so often can't tell which stop I'm at and get off at the wrong one. This time I figured out pretty quickly that I'd gotten off too soon, but I got out my phone and tried to find out where I needed to go. I stumbled around in the snow for about a half hour, in the process finding the office of the people holding the event but not the event itself, before I realized that I'd gotten off TWO stops too soon (there were two Seorae Maeul stops). I finally made it to the right place and got a sausage, a pork tartine and some chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) as a quick lunch. I also picked up some cheese and a few raffle tickets that didn't win. (The money was going to charity, though, so I didn't mind.)
After the Christmas market, I figured that, since I was in Seoul anyway, I should really follow through with an idea for a Christmas gift for a friend here. I'd also been craving good Japanese ramen (Korean ramen, or ramyeon, is almost universally made from instant ramen packs), and I found a big bookstore and a well-reviewed ramen place right next to each other. I went to Gangnam and walked for a long, long time (most of the not-very-clear directions said to walk 500m, which was accurate) before I found the bookstore. (Bizarrely enough, another station on a different line was right across the street. Why everyone told me to go to Gangnam and walk half a kilometer instead of just going to Sinnonhyeon, I have no idea.) I got what I was looking for after some searching (finding it in English was easier than finding it in Korean), then went back outside to find the ramen place (Raw). I looked where the reviews said it would be (behind the bookstore), but couldn't find it anywhere.
Eventually I gave up and decided to look for another, better-reviewed ramen restaurant in Itaewon. It was on the way home, and I'd been thinking about going to the foreign food market again anyway. I traveled to Itaewon and tried to find the restaurant (81 Banya), but had no luck. Double checking on my phone finally found a single, relatively recent link that said it had gone out of business. Well, damn. I gave up on ramen and decided to go to a Nigerian restaurant I'd visited once before and had been eager to try again. Thankfully, it was open, and I got some fufu with egusi soup that was quite good. I also picked up a couple delicious soft cookies (peanut butter and oatmeal raisin) at a cookie shop I'd never passed before. The foreign food market, sadly, was out of the dates I really like, but I did get some tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.
I did go to a lot of new places today and saw some new things, but it was exhausting trying to find four new locations in the snow. It's a great example of how easy it is to hop all over Seoul on the subway, though I am glad to be back in my nice, warm apartment!
