Snippets of Seoul

I’m in Seoul for four days while Ben is home at the Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference. I could live here — there’s lovely outdoor space in the city, plenty of yummy veggie food, an excellent subway system, and not much smog! Now, if I can only find good thai food…

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Baskin Robbins has a poster up for “ice cream fondue.” They give you a pot of chocolate and then an assortment of ice cream balls n’ stuff to dip into it. Sounds like a great idea to me! Coming soon to a cold stone party near you…

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Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts are both “hipster” posh-ish brands here. With upholstered cushy cafe-style seating. Weird.

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Seoul has done a very good job balancing green space with city-space. Many hills and small mountains around the city are left as open space, right up next to high-density mixed-use housing and shopping developments. The rivers all seem to have running/biking paths or little parks along their banks, and I really wish I had more time to explore it all!

Stacy did make sure we had time for one little mountain hike; I really enjoyed my brief visit to 9 Dragon Mountain. It exemplified this excellent mixed-use; the mountain backed up on several neighborhoods full of high-density apartment/condo buildings (with retail on the ground level), and yet there was even a farm at the base of one part of the mountain — fresh produce for the neighborhood, and even conveniently available for hikers. Awesome.

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You know the shaved-ice-fresh-fruit-fro-yo dish we love at Gelayo Gusto? Well, here, it’s so omnipresent that KFC and Burger King serve it. Seriously.

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Dippin’ dots for $2! Yays! That’s what it used to cost when i was in high school.

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Crocs do not seem to be a thing here. Just in case you were wondering.

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Korean sounds like Japanese to my very untrained ear. Also, the phrase for thank you is too darned long. I just say it really quickly so they don’t notice I’m screwing it up in the middle.

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COEX = biggest underground mall in Asia…which I think pretty much makes it the biggest underground mall in the solar system. GEEZ it’s huge.

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I can get from my hotel all the way into my office building (via the subway) without going outside. That’s kinda creepy. I mean, this is a Class M planet,  right? The surface isn’t a poisonous wasteland, yet…

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Bread Talk has been superceded by “Paris Baguette” here. It’s not as good. But Merry would still be happy, there’s bread product available for purchase about every 50 feet!

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I just had the best chap jae of my life. I took a photo of it, it was so good. (And I do not usually photograph my food.) Apparently, Stacy called the (vegetarian buffet!) restaurant in advance to request that they make it for the buffet line tonight because she knows it’s my favorite! I had approximately one stomach-full of it. My rugae are distended. HURTS SO GOOD.

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Incheon International Airport is officially the nicest, cleanest airport I have ever been to (with the n.b. that I haven’t been to Tokyo or Dubai). Lines were minimal, wait-times super-short, everything labeled very clearly, plenty of convenient services, decent & plentiful food choices, and incredibly clean restrooms. The buildings themselves are light and airy, but not noisy or echo-y (are you listening, SFO International Terminal?!?), and are very simple to navigate. I am both impressed and embarrassed at the state of our local airports (oh LAX, when will you join us in the 21st century?).