To start the day, I went to the Leeum Art Museum, which is tucked into a very rich part of Seoul (a lot of Maserati's and fancy cars on the streets around it). The museum is three separate buildings connected by an underground plaza that is its entry-way. It was the first place in Seoul I went to as a tourist that I had to pay to enter as most of the sites were doing free admission due to Chuseok. Not a complaint, and it was still fairly affordable, but it was a jarring reminder of what being a tourist is normally like.
The museum itself was nicely laid out, not too many exhibits, not overwhelming in any way. There were three sections, one showcasing Korean traditional art (porcelain, jade, calligraphy, etc.) but in a sleek hall that was mostly black except for the color of the pieces. Another is a rotating exhibit, with the one currently being a showcase of a local modernist sculptor in Korea. The final one was modern art, again by Korean artists. Some of these were the standard modern art pieces where you wonder what in the world makes that "art", but others were stunning, moving and extremely picture friendly. The whole thing was quick, nice, held your interest even if art museums aren't your thing. Korea, and Seoul particularly, is a very art and fashion forward place so it isn't surprising they do places like this well.
To fast forward over a few steps that I'll return to, I ended up going to another art museum, this one the Seoul Art Museum - stylized as SeMA (I think trying to play of the MoMa type nomenclature). This wasn't planned - the actual final bit of tourism I was expecting to do was to go to the Deoksugung Palace, the last remaining palace within the Seoul city limits that I hadn't yet seen. But of course they are closed today because they were open yesterday for the Chuseok holiday (the place is normally closed on Mondays...). This was disappointing, but it was also starting to drizzle around this time, so quickly pivoting to the SeMA as the backup was at least useful in getting out of the rain.
The SeMA was similar to the Leeum in that it was pretty sparse. What was more surprising though was it was nearly in total a modern art museum, save for two exhibits that were more traditional. One of the two was featuring artwork of one particular Korean artist that traveled the world in the 60s and 70s, documenting her travels through art. The other was a showcase of art done by women around a women's rights movement in Korea over the last ~20 years. Both of those two exhibits were quite well done - in reality the others were too, but at some point looking at some modernist art piece or sculpture loses its impact if you aren't fully versed in that world.
Prior to the SeMA, I went to the last remaining neighborhood on my list to check off - Myeongdong, which is a lot like Insadong, in that it is mainly a commercial area with boatloads of shops lining pedestrian only streets. The particular focus of Myeongdong is fashion and beauty - a mix of cool clothing boutiques and countless number of cosmetic shops. Some were more makeup focused, but most were skincare focused. Skincare products is truly one of Korea's best known exports from a tourism perspective, and Myeongdong is the mecca for that. I went to a couple of the stores, choosing to buy products from probably the most commercial of them, Nature Republic, which has locations all over the country, but its flagship store in Myeongdong.
For a completely random aside, Myeongdong has the best use of AC in its stores of any place I've ever seen. To the point that I almost wonder if this is done intentionally as a technique to ensnare some people looking to cool down. Just walking by some of the boutiques and you;re hit with this incredible blast of AC. It didn't work to its full effect since I didn't go in to any of them, but man was it enticing.
The other notable aspect of Myeongdong is deep within its pedestrian shopoholic alleys is Myeongdong Kyoja, a Michelin guide rated place serving Kalguksu (hand-cut noodle soup). It was similar in frenzied layout to the spot yesterday that I went to for lunch, but on the whole better. Most of the people there were seemingly working folk getting a quick lunch. I was lucky a 1-seater in the extreme corner of their facility was open. For 10,000 won (~$7), you get a giant bowl of spicy, flavorful soup with a bunch of hand cut noodles and minced pork in the middle. It was delicious. It was the right type of place to have my last traditional meal in Korea, with dinner tonight at Mingles.
From the second museum, I hopped back over to Mysterlee Brewing for some final craft brews in Korea. I was hoping to try another place, but was foiled by the fact that most brewery spots only open at 5pm, and with my reservation at Mingles for 7:15, I wouldn't have enough time. Anyway, Mysterlee was great as usual, though fairly empty - not surprising given this was a Tuesday afternoon working day at 3:30pm when I got there.
Mingles is situated in Gangnam, about three blocks away from Ryunique where I went two days prior. Mingles is a classic tasting menu spot, clean menu, great plating, some small bites, some more complex. They had two areas where you picked, yoiur primary main between a fish or lamb dish (I went lamb) and your primary desert. I'll write a separate post about each dish, but on the whole I do want to do a quick compare & contrast with Mingles and Ryunique. Both were excellent. Mingles on the whole was probably better, but it was also what you expect when you close your eyes and picture a tasting menu place. Ryunique was a bit edgier, a bit more audacious in their dishes, even if some went for style over taste. An odd comparison is overlaying these two restaurants over teh two speakeasy cocktail bars in Gangnam - Ryunique being like Alice, while Mingles was like Le Chamber - both are excellent, one os just more standard.
I don't know what this says about my ultimate preference between the two restaurants, but after dinner I hopped back to Alice to try a couple more of their signature cocktails, including one with a liqueur combination of rice and pear that was incredible. This was my last act in Korea, and while it was a bit sad to end the night, both because it was still rather early (11:30pm) and because it would draw my time in Korea to a close, I'm leaving knowing I've done Seoul well, and probably will come back someday to see Busan, Jeju and other parts of the country that escaped me this time around.
