I was told that if you went back 20 years, everything would be closed, but that isn't the case. Seoul will be quieter than normal, with a lot of people heading back to visit family and the like (picure NYC on Thanksgiving), but most tourist attractions, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc,, would very liekly remain open. To some degree I'm taking this on faith of multiple people telling me this basic version of events to come - including the bartender on Wednesday Night. Judging by how open everything was in Jeonju in my limited time here Friday morning, I would say they're likely right.
I woke up without too much left to check off my Jeonju checklist of activities. In this case that wasn't a bad thing, as it basically allowed me to take a fairly leisurely approach to my last day here. This is probably the last slow day of my trip, or at least the last day where I can get up and feel well rested. I did havea few locked in things I needed to do, first of which was drop my suitcase off of at the train station. That was quick - and before I knew it I was back on my towards the center of historic Jeonju. A quick pick-me-up coffee later and I was walking on the last remaining side of the Hanok Village towareds the Omokdae Shrine, which is the highest point in the center city limits.
To be honest, you can skip this. It was a pleasant hike, and the views on the way there were nice, but the shrine itself is surrounded by trees so you get no real benefit of it being the highest point in Jeonju. The far better sight is the one I kind of lucked into after lunch. I noticed bare-wood and white laced shrine/temple looking buildings down the street from where I got lunch (will cover it later) in a direction I hadn't been. I didn't have specific things to do and had some time to kill before Nomadic Brewing would open to grab a few last cold ones.
It's called the Jeolla Gamyoung, which is the site of the old government of the Jeolla Province. I truly didn't really come across this on my few last minute attempts to figure out what to do in my time in Jeonju, but I really should have. The site is government related but is as peaceful, serene, tranquil and thoughtfully designed as any temple or shrine. The layout had three main buildings, some nice decoration in the walls that separated the two areas, and great greenery. The style was all white and bare, beautiful wood. It was truly one of the better sites within Jeonju that I'm glad I happened upon.
Prior to the Jeolla Gamyoung I had lunch at my fainl bibimbap stop within Jeonju - this time dipping my toe in the most known spot for bibimbap - Hankook Jib. Given how known it is, it also has its fair share of detractors. I will say that the meal yesterday was probably better, but here it was more of a professional operation - the place styled more nicely, the details all a bit more sharp. They also had a better set of kimchi and small plate options. The bibimbap itself here came already with the spread of meat and veggies placed on top of rice, instead of you adding in fresh steaming rice like we had yesterday. That may have had a small effect. The only other difference is me going with the tartare option for meat instead of cooked beef. Tartare seems to be the more popular one so I did want to give it a try.
From there with about three more hours to kill before my train back to Seoul, I decided to laze around the Hanok Vilalge some more. Th eplace was very busy, with many families having their kids wer the traditional Korean holiday/feast dress with them posing for pictures. It was all nice to watch because it seemed genuine. The Hanok Village set-up does look a bit commercial but since at times like this it is largely locals actually enjoying it, the setting comes off more genuine than it otherwise would.
My last couple stops in Jeonju were a quick trip to Nomadic Brewing's garden location for a couple last brews (truly, very impressed by this place), and then one last first, a stop at a Ttoekgalbi joint, where they cook thinly sliced beef rib in front of you. The rib was so soft and juicy, the sauce worked well. I didn't have most of the various kimchis and small plates given I was still fairly full, but having htat list bit of Jeonju food was a great sending off point. The train itself back to Seoul was quite uneventful, though I am happy to take this by train as already the roads leading into the station were jam packed, mostly with people returning to Jeonju rather than vice versa.
Dinner my first night in Seoul was in a tucked away little hamlet up on a hill, bordering (e.g. some flights of steps cut into the hill) the not so quiet hamlet of Hongdae. The restaurant is Miro Sikdang, which is written up for serving elevated "comfort" food, and I can attest to that. Because it was Chuseok, the place was far emptier than normal - they don't take reservations. It only has about 5-6 tables, of which I grabbed the only empty one adn was greeted with a menu proudly only in Korean - though the waitress spoke very good English and could guide me through it.
I ordered a dish that translates (per Google) to "Seafood Promotion", which was a seafood and veggie fried pancake type thing which was really fresh and delicious. The waitress described it as a fried seafood salad, which is a pretty fair and apt description in reality. My main was a galbi beef rib (short rib) stew, but in reality it was more of a soup with short rib strips in it. And it was incredible. I'm sure it wasn't all that healthy, though the meat itself was fairly lean for being short rib. The broth though was the sweetest beef bone flavor I've ever had. The bottle of soju I got to accompany this treated me to some slow drinking, in the end I finished about half of it. I left Miro Sikdang fully content and set to explore two of Seoul's three most notable night spots in Hongdae and Itaewon.
Hongdae was a few flights of stairs and streets away and you are immediately met with lights and a lot of young folks. Not as young as the mostly university crowd in Jeonju last ngiht, but it was a good young crowd. Hongdae is a bit more commercial than Itaewon, and the place I initially looked up seems to have since closed. So I went to my backup in teh area, which was The Factory - a whiskey based bar quite similar to the one yesterday in Jeonju. This one was a bit more traditional in set-up to the strange but nice decor the day before, and their collection of whiskey based cocktails was more voluminous.
After a couple cocktails there, I grabbed a beer at the craft beer pub (weird combination, set-up is defintieyl more pub than taphouse, but they served their own tap beer - Whale Brewing - nonetheless) before heading over to Itaewon. So far, even at night, and it was about 12:30 when I made that trip, the Kakao app seems to be working well. The last stop of the night was Club Faust in Itaewon, which is about the happy medium of Seoul's notorious nightlife (like many places, they're open until 7am and only open at midnight) but with less glitz (the place is classic techo/EDM, with dark lighting and definitely not a place people would go to "be seen". The place itself was a traditional set-up of a bar room and a music/dance room, and while there was signage about not bringing drinks into the dance area it wasn't really followed all that much. I stayed until about 3am, the place being far busier when I left than when I arrived at 1am, and had to bribe a taxi driver to pay 30k won (roughly 2x what the fare would have been) to take me home, but home I reached, ready for what will probably be the slowest day of my trip.
