Day 7 (The Story!)

Day 7 had an early start (yet again…) after having a nice breakfast at the Hotel with K Jin and Melly we had to met Un-ni (our Tour guide) at the Lobby around 9:30 because we had lots of things to do, the 1^st stop was the National Museum of Korea, this was a MUST, either you are a Museum person or not  (like me) this was a place I was very excited to see, a few days before flying to Seoul I watched a TV Show about this museum.. well I actually didn’t watch it all because I didn’t want to ruin the fun of seeing it all for the 1^st time…. We started with a perfect weather, not too cold and cloudy (Just how I love it), the driver took us to the Museum and when we got there we found 100’s of Kids/Teens running around the HUGE Museum, we saw just a couple of Exhibit Rooms because of the tight schedule we had, after visiting the 1^st rooms (where Un-ni explained lots of things about Korea, the War and Dynasties) we went to the top Floor where we had about 45mins to look around on our own and that’s how we found the “Pensive Bodhisattva” room, it’s a Dar room and it just has a sculpture of a Thinking Buddha, the room is calm and quiet (unlike the rest of the Museum), we just sat there for a few minutes to enjoy the quietness (Again, there are Plenty of places in Korea where despite the crowd, you’ll find peace and serenity to enjoy some time for yourself…) since it was almost time to go to our next destination it was SHOPPING TIME!! So K Jin, Melly and Me went to the Museum Gift Store to get something for our friends/family, after spending 1billion wons (lol not really) we went to  a the Tea House inside the Museum on the Top Floor, unfortunately we took a long time thinking what we wanted and just when we were about to order, K Jin received a call from Un-ni saying it was time to go u_u …we had to hurry because it was Lunch time (I feel like it was ALWAYS time to eat in Seoul….) and so we went to a place close to Insadong where walked for a bit trying to find a place to eat (let me just say we weren’t really hungry since we had breakfast around 8am and it was just noon), I wanted to have Noodles… Spicy noodles so we found a place that didn’t look very crowded and was sort of hidden, it was a small cozy place, each order a different dish so we could all try them, I had Jjamppong  짬뽕 and believe me… it WAS Spicy (This coming from a Mexican Girl who loves Spicy Food), the flavor was so intense I couldn’t stop eating it, that until I couldn’t feel my mouth and I had to stop (I only ate about half of my noodles L ), K Jin had noodles with this black (bean?) sauce that was kind of sweet, Melly had Kimchi Rice w/egg and I think Un-ni ordered a seafood stew (me and my bad memory…I know!) in addition to the Banchan  : Sweet Potato baked with honey?, Pickled Radish, something between a Roll and a Dumpling, Fried Ginger (AWESOME!!!!) and I think that’s it…. Again with a full belly it was time to go… next we had to go see the Traditional Korean Houses, we thought we were going to a Villa or something like that, but NO!! it’s just in the middle of the City (a walking distance from the restaurant where we had lunch) and this Houses are real…and by Real I mean.. people live in them and all!! Since it’s a “real neighborhood” there are signs asking people to be quiet and respectful , the place is the Bukchon neighborhood of Seoul, when we arrived there it started snowing (I wish my pics would show how beautiful that place looks when snowing!) after taking 1 million pics (okokok about 200 K) it was time to go again, this time we had a meeting for a Traditional Tea Ceremony, the driver picked us up and off we went, when we got there we were received by a Korean Woman in a Hanbok, to us, she looked perfect, once we took off our shoes outside and before we could freeze we ran inside and she began to explain how to make the Tea, honestly… I don’t really remember everything she said L *shame on me* but I remember we had to pour water in one pot and then pour the same in a diff pot and then pour the Tea and transfer the Tea and stuff… again IM SORRY I can’t give you the details, I promise I will look it up (or if someone knows how to do it…and is looking to write a “Guest Post”, you are MORE than Welcome J ), after the ceremony, the Tea and the sweets (Yum!!) it was time to change into a Hanbok, I honestly never thought I would get to wear one so I was thrilled to try it on!, after some photos it was time to move onto the Kitchen where we would learn how to make Kimchi Pancake….we didn’t really learn how to prepare it, they already had the batter ready and we only put it in a Fry Pan and cook it, it’s a mix between a Crepe and a Hot Cake, is as big as a Crepe but thicker…. It has Spring Onions, Kimchi and it’s really good, we made one each…after this we cut the Pancake and put it “to go” as a “gift” for our driver for being so nice (Remember he gave me a Japanese Chocolate the 1^st day??), after cleaning the table it was time to learn to do this Paintings (Again I don’t remember the name…) it’s a piece of carved wood and you have to put ink with a huge brush and then put something I believe it’s rice paper on top of it, and either use your hand or something else to pass it all over the paper and Ta-Da!! The image will transfer onto your paper, after this you have to put a Seal with the Family Name and something else (LOL!! SORRY!!!!!!) …and guess what!...it was time to RUN again… literally RUN! We had to RUN because it was snowing, we were late and the driver was already waiting for us… this time it was time to go see the NANTA SHOW, we had VIP Tickets and were supposed to meet the CAST and take pictures, but we were late L so we didn’t have time to do it, if you don’t know what NANTA is, is like a Cooking Stomp…if you don’t know what STOMP is ..well… there’s something wrong with you so go Google it… ok, so basically there are 5 Characters, the Restaurant Manager, the dumb nephew (the new guy), the HOT guy, the HOT girl and the CHEF, they have to cook the food for a wedding and in the process they have to teach the Nephew how to cook while they play music with Knives, Casseroles, Pans and all that junk you can find in a Kitchen…hehe .. and of course ME  being a foodie LOVED the show,,, I wish they had I <3 Nanta show tee’s …lol but I did get my cup and a handbag J …after the show it was time to leave AGAIN and guess where we going…. To EAT…it was Dinner time and we went to the Seven Garden Restaurant, dinner was Buffett Style and since we weren’t really hungry we just ate a lil bit  of everything, and of course.. Ice cream as dessert YUM!!!, again it was time to go so the driver picked us and we went back to the Hotel where it was time to relax and make some space on my suitcase :$ …….

And that was the end of DAY 7, ahhh how I missed writing the blog… it feels so good to think about something else for a change and just remember what a great time we had in Seoul J

I’ll try to post about the rest of my journey soon!!

-Gisela V.