Shopping Day

A day with no sights, just chilling and shopping. First stop, breakfast! At long last, a proper breakfast returns to my itinerary. This morning I finally made my way to Gwangjang market for hand cut noodles from that Netflix street food show. The owner was there of course and she was so nice, even taking photos with us. The stand is easy to identify and while there's a line, it moves fairly quickly.

If you're super hungry, you can also try other foods in the market like pancakes, live octopus and beef tartare. Part of the market is known as pancake alley and you can see the stone grinders working mung bean into a paste. There were more pancakes than people!

Next stop - jimjilbang time! It's the traditional Korean baths, taken in your birthday suit. While saunas are "dressed" (robes/other spa provided clothes), for men and women, the bath itself is segregated. I checked out a women's only spa that was recommended and it was definitely a local experience. They didn't speak English but thanks to some lovely locals, I was able to muddle through and got heartily scrubbed to end up with super soft skin.

Next a little shopping at Innisfree Duty Free - had a bit of an adventure with this one. Starting with one duty free, only to find a counter, to checking out regular stores to see which was the best deal, to another duty free where I ended up buying way more masks than planned. There was a free gift after all. One thing to note is that the prices were in US dollars.

As for lunch? Well, that turned into dessert at Cheese Industry in Ikseongdong. A return trip to this area that I loved from my first visit. They make their own cheese and I ended up with a brie cheesecake that was wrapped in gauze, quite yummy and I nearly finished it.

Back to the pampering, time for a facial at Line Esthetics in Myeongdong. I found this place on Google earlier by searching facials near me. While I thought I'd just do a regular moisturizing facial, I ended up with a package that combined a few of the facials, which was one of the most popular offerings they had. They even made a paper mache like mask from during a mask and decorated it as well.

Dinner - another real meal - this time chicken ginseng soup at a Michelin place which surprise was also right by my hotel. I stumbled across this by accident the other night, but had missed last call. The broth was very flavorful and there's an entire chicken in the pot. Super hearty and check off another foods to eat in Korea.Read more