Day 11 - A Small Slice of The Megacity
Seoul is a massive city. The traffic ironically is fairly manageable when you get in the city, but when you are going to Seoul from Busan by bus, beacuse you waited too late to book train tickets, you have to deal with the traffic "into" Seoul, which was a nightmare. It turned what should've been about six hours to play with in Seoul being closer to four. I should say to play with meaning the tourism and site portion of the day. The night time activities, from dinner at Mingles, through cocktail bars and ultimately Club Faust, would still exist.
Seoul encountered a historic snowstorm (for them) a few days prior, so while things were back to nromal, there was a beautiful layer of snow throughout most of the city. The city was still quite cold, but bearable. The main site I centered my day aroudn was the Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of hte two main palaces in the northern part of the city. Technically, I was hoping to do the other one, but that was closed due to the weather, while the Gyeongbokgung was still open. The palace grounds are large, ornate, and with the layer of snow still on the roofs of all the palace temple buildings and pagodas, it was a magical setting.
Close by was the Korean National Palace Museum, a free museum with some really nice exhibits around life in Joseon-era Korea - from stylings and furnishings of the buildings, to kitchenware and palanquins. Truly not sure how I missed this last time, given it is basically on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung, but at least I didn't make that mistake again.
From there I walked down the alleys of Insadong, one of the main shopping areas of Seoul, towards Ssamzigal and the shops around it in the pedestrian only "Insadong Shopping Alleys". These alleys have a great combination of tea stores, kitchenware and ceramic-ware stores, kistchy stuff, and cafes. It is a truly great place to get lost in for a bit. I didn't have much room for souvenirs at this point, but did a find a few small knicknacks that I could still squeeze into my suitcase.
From there, I walked back towards my hotel - I had a few other spots on the checklist if I had more time, but probably none would be too additive to my experience (e.g. shopping for Soju, checking out another craft brewery, etc.). Seoul has so much more to offer than what I saw. In the end, I would say there is 50% of me that says i would have been better off staying a third full day in Busan and figuring out a way to get from Busan to Tokyo Narita on Sunday. That said, the other 50% of me that would win out had the advantage of (a) not having to fly into Tokyo Haneda and then transfer to Narita, and (b) getting a night in Seoul.
About a night in Seoul - first dinner was at Mingles, their top restaurant (or at least last time I checked), Much like this year, in 2022 I went there for my last meal in Korea. The place is pristine, and perfectly well managed. A few things I loved about this meal, which will likely end up with me ranking it slightly higher now was (a) they changed basically 11 of the 12 dishes from last time, and (b) they have a creative "Korean Liquor" pairing option that is cheaper than a wine pairing and far more interesting. Most are just various niche productions of rice-wine based liquors, so not all that strong and all super interesting. The best dishes of the day were (a) a brilliant preparation of Korean beef or (b) an inspired crab risotto, or finally (c) their various desserts. Just a great spot.
As are Seoul's cocktail spots, all offering a bit more flair, inventiveness and surprise than where I had been in Busan. The first is Alice, located like Mingles in Gangnam, which is Alice and Wonderland themed and perfectly inventive in the crazy flavor combinations of their drinks. Yes, there is a gimmick, but that gimmick is played out perfectly. They also have a really ncie set of snacks taht they give every person that comes, alogn with a welcome drink cocktail (this one based on lotus root as the underlying flavor). Of course, they charge 10k won (~$7) for this, but its worth it.
The next stop was Cobbler, which is down an alley in a fairly staid part of town not known for nightlife - well, except for Cobbler. The place has a log-cabin type vibe, where you sit in these big plushy chairs with wood everywhere, and bartenders who ask you a few preferences and just make cocktails up on the fly. They're all crisp, sharp and strong. Mine were all whiskey based, except one which was mezcal version of a old fashioned, but all were interesting.
The final stop of my night aroudn town was back in Itaewon, at Faust, which was every bit as dark, strong, hype, loud and great as I remember. It was actually more crowded than I remember it being in 2022 - again maybe a lasting effect of us being even further away from Covid. The place was super lax on their stated "no drinks on the dance floor part" which was nice as well. Technically they have music in the bar area but its super mellow house with no real area to move. The dance floor is large, dark, flashing lights and heavy, heavy stuff. The place is great, Itaewon is great, Seoul is great.
Finishing up my time ravaging a gyro from Alpedo Kebab (one of my Top 10 Late Night Food Spots), I'm more glad than before that I did push for this last night in Seoul. Traffic was an issue (I didn't even talk about my near miss for Mingles because I had to walk five blocks to get a cab), the weather was an issue, and Seoul is fairly imposing. But behind that is a golden city.
Day 12 - Home
Nothing really to say - Asiana (ICN-NRT) was fine. The Asiana lounge was big and pretty, but breakfast food fairly average. The United Club at Narita was gorgeous - not sure why they can't have that level of styling with local touches (this had a bunch of sculptures and paintings and stuff) at US locations. The flgiht back was fine - didn't get upgraded but still slept for probably 7h30m of the 11h30m flight. Back home, I'm happy I pushed through this random trip that didn't make much sense, but was amazing. Combining returns to some of my favorite cities, with adding two new ones and seeing what is starting to be one of my favorite countries even more.
