Our little Korean adventure is made up of a few stages. I'm here for just about 3 weeks. Judy was here for a little over a week before I got here and will stay another week after I head home. This way she gets good quality time with her parents to start and finish the trip and we all got to see each other for the first few days I was here. To facilitate that we based in Gangnam to start, staying in an apartment in the same building where her parents live, very close to the
Eonju subway station. For the next stage of our time in Seoul we would be staying closer to the
Ikseon-dong Hanok Village. While the Seoul subway and bus system is pretty great at getting you around, the city is gigantic. So it still makes sense to have a game plan and tackle areas and sections versus ping-ponging around via long rides and multiple connections, if you can avoid it. All this is to say we kept our focus on Gangnam-related sights and activities for the first few days of our visit.
My arrival also coincided with the Chuseok holiday, so things were a bit quieter in general. On my arrival day we just sort of explored the handful of blocks around the apartment and then had dinner at
Galbi Sarang. The next day we zero'd in on one of the few places fully open, which was the
Starfield Coex Mall, where we browsed, shopped, walked, and ate a mediocre lunch before heading back to the apartment, where an afternoon nap turned into a 14 hour sleep. Oh well.
Next day, though, I was adjusted and we started the day by heading over to the combo of
Goto Mall and
Shinsegae Department Store Food Market. I remembered Shinsegae from my last visit in 2017, but I think the Goto Mall was new, though it is similar to the many other shopping set ups, with dozens if not hundreds of little shops lining the halls of a giant underground area.
To get there you head for the massive transit complex '
Express Bus Terminal' and then sort of follow the flow. With my back to the shopping center entrance I snapped some pics of the area, catching the contrast of nearby new and old construction, plus maybe a delivery robot / radio-controlled truck?
REMINDER: click into any foto for a higher res version
Immediately we were faced with a bakery,
Tous les Jours, which has multiple (many?) locations around the city.
So much bread and pastry in this city. And so far what I've had has been delicious. Here we just browsed as we had bigger fish to fry.
One of things that I enjoy about Korean retail is the random / odd utilization of English and brands that translate a bit weird to the native eye/ear. Quickly spotted a few such outlets on this visit.
(American Trailer ... fruit stand?)
Then we entered the arena. It's large. Scenes like this as far as the eye can see.
Gemini tells me that it's 880 meters long.
Unsure if that is total length of the circuit. I don't think so. I think the parallel corridors are each 880m long. Either way, that's 1/2 mile of sensory overload retail.
Lot of socks.
Saw a few of whatever these are (oven mitts?)
This snack shop lured us in.
And the guy did a nice job offering us some samples. We left with a bag of whatever these are below, plus some black sesame snack.
As we moved around it clicked for me that the concept is very, very similar to the tianguis we have in la CDMX, where on certain days of the week they have dozens if not hundreds of stalls lining multiple city blocks selling a lot of the same kinds of things we see here in the undeground shops. Writing this post prompted me to look up the one that we visit maybe once a month near us, which is
Tianguis Filadelfia. Not sure exactly how the dimensions compare to Goto Mall, but it is also large.
Vibe shots. Cabbages near the fire extinguisher safety poster. And a lady selling flowers.
Judy inspecting the parasol options.
And yes, I did buy the red hat with a white check mark on it. It cost $3.75 USD.
We spent about 90 minutes perusing the Goto Mall wares. This took us into lunch time, which led us over to Shinsegae. Not sure if you need to go outside to get there, but we did. Took some pics.
Made our way inside. It was busy. Think it's always busy. But this was Saturday of the Chuseok holiday weekend and it seemed maybe a little extra busy. Has the style vibes of 19th century train stations and retail outlets, like Harrod's or Marshall Fields (RIP).
We browsed some of the various dessert counters.
We did a spin through the gourmet grocery area.
Then, getting actually hungry and feeling a bit overwhelmed by how many of the stands were completely full, we snagged some takeaway 'sushi' from this place.
Salmon, bulgogi, and some spicy pork thing. Turns out that the protein layer was just what you see there. Maybe 1/4 inch of protein 1 and 3/4 inches of rice. Not great.
But I'm a little ahead of the plot. We needed to find a place to eat these. And Judy loves Five Guys. So we headed over to Five Guys. I squatted the table, which we snagged just ahead of some others who were circling / hunting spots like we were. Judy went to order her burger.
Took a couple of vibe shots while I waited. A giant, fancy food court.
During this interlude I was approached by a Five Guys employee who wanted to let me know that it was prohibited to eat any non Five Guys food there. He first addressed me in Korean, which was generous / optimistic of him. Then he tried in English, and I definitely understood his point, but was playing dumb. I had the Five Guys grape soda (tasty!) on the table while Judy was still waiting for the burger. So I simplly repeated a few times that she was coming with the Five Guys food. Eventually he gave up and politely said 'thank you' before returning to his other responsibilities. Net: I ate my sad sushi and we ate our Five Guys food, too. One Five Guys policy was infringed, but the Earth continued to spin, the sun continued to shine.
Fed and rested a bit, we were off to the next step of the day, which would be checking out the
Garosu-gil area of Sinsa dong, which I'll get to in an upcoming post at some point.
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