OK let’s get this over with. The last part of the last day of the last trip to Korea. Sigh de la sighlalalalala ugh. I will try to make this one a short one.

We finished off the trip in Myeongdong. Henry wanted to get another small piece of luggage and Chooch and I wanted to do last minute shopping, so that’s exactly what we did.

I seriously wanted to buy everything in Butter.

We just don’t really have many cool shops like this in Pittsburgh and it kills me dead.

Finally got an egg bread! This is one of my favorite Korean street foods. It’s kind of reminiscent of corn bread, but then it has an egg baked inside of it. It’s so satisfying.

Not pictured, but I got a bunch of skin care at Innisfree and some gifts at Tony Moly and Artbox. Chooch bought a bunch of Seoul edition clothes at Adidas, including a pair of WHITE SWEATPANTS which he will obviously never be able to wear, as the reigning Stain King of North America.

LOL the very last night and Henry’s T-Money card had insufficient funds, so he was DENIED ACCESS. We had to wait for him to refill his card like old times. Why am I honestly tearing up at this memory.

I miss hearing these names being called out on the subway. I miss the subway. I miss the subway STATIONS. I miss the maps. I miss Henry and Chooch arguing in front of the maps.

Back at the hotel that night, we were supposed to be helping Henry pack but we were hindering and pissing him off bigly so we decided to leave him to it and we left for one last walk around the area. We stopped at two or three convenience stores for some farewell treats.

Saw this Japanese milk which cracked me up because that looks like Henry circa 2010 and we were like WE CAN’T ESCAPE HIM!!

Seodaemun – it was nice staying in this area! I’m pretty sure we had never been here on our previous trips but the location was very convenient. There was a subway entrance literally right outside of the hotel door.

Love you, Shilla Stay. You were good to us.

Korea, you’re amazing. You’re my second home. You are special and magical and gritty and shiny and historical and modern and creative and fun and and and….I could go on forever. I had such a wonderful visit, even though I was a little bitch baby at moments and having “departure date panic” in the back of my mind the ENTIRE time we were there. It was such a privilege to be back there, I am very grateful that we were able to get there, to accomplish our goal of getting married, and to bask in the beautiful Korean culture for as long as time allowed. Please, please, please let me make it back there again. It is never enough time. There is still so much I want to see and do. (I hope salt bread is still a thing the next time I go!!)

Sorry I was so annoying about these recaps. Did there need to be 187 posts for a 10 day trip? Nope, but this is me, Wordy von Doesn’tKnowWhentoStopenson. KOREA I FUCKING LOVE YOU.

I’ve been putting off recapping this part of the last day in Korea because I was such a CRA-BAPPLE and literally nothing made me happy (except for maybe that time when Henry tripped HARD on a sidewalk down there).

The plan was to go to Gentle Monster, Tamburins (Gentle Monster’s perfume brand) and Nudake (Gentle Monster’s bakery – lol, I’m a GM fangirl, OK? Leave me alone). So, off to Garosu-gil we went. This is probably Henry’s LEAST FAVORITE part of Seoul, just a super ritzy, uppity street lined with boutiques and haute couture and luxury brands, like walking down a lane of unattainable things.

It’s definitely not the same since the previous times we were there. Apparently, a lot of brands moved into the nearby Hyundai Mall, including Dr. Jart! This made me so sad because I LOVED THE DR JART FLAGSHIP STORE SO MUCH. It was like walking through a Mattress Factory exhibit but with samples of things to smear on your face. The one time we went and the top floor had turned into some crazy rest/lounge area with free samples of a vitamin drink.

Dr Jart has great products but I loved going there more for the experience.

And now there is only one Gentle Monster in this section of town, too! And it wasn’t even that fun or immersive, to be honest.

Tamburins was cool, though! Jennie from Blackpink is a brand ambassador so people were actually lining up to take pictures of this wall.

I…did not wait in that line, I just continued walking past and snapped this lol. Henry said that when I was in Tamburins, he walked outside and there was another large Jennie on another wall out there and he was given the collective death glare by a crowd of people when he dared to walk in front of it, lol.

Anyway, Tamburins was a great experience! I got really cool perfumed hand lotion for me and Wendy, who ended up REALLY liking it to the point where she was texting her perfume-aficionado friend about it. I have to say that the salespeople working there were very helpful, laid back, and pleasant. I was so clueless how to even work the applicator of the hand lotion and one of them very kindly took it from me and demonstrated in a way that somehow, against all odds, did not make me feel like a fat, stupid, ugly American. Glory be!

This is the one I got myself, BTW:

I wanted to go to the Haus Dosan Gentle Monster location after this to see if the aesthetics were better, but first, we went across the street to get some late lunch at Pizza Express:

Unlike the girls at Tamburins, the guy at Pizza Express was not as happy to fulfill his customer service role for us, lol. Maybe he was just disgruntled in general but he had a very “Please make this as quick and painless as possible” demeanor, haha.

This was my kind of pizza place, that’s for sure.

And the pizza was my style too! Thin and greasy! Sorry for the grotesque photo. I was hungry and snapping a visual memento came secondary here, fo’sho.

I love this place. I want chairs like this for my house!!

I love that Yoo Jae-Suk (the Nation’s MC) and the hilarious and talented rapper Jessi ate here!

On our walk to the Apgujeong area, we passed this big car wash so I had to talk a picture for Corey because there’s some weird cultural phenomenon in the local Facebook community for our hometown where anytime someone asks what’s being built in the area, a group of hecklers/trolls say “car wash” because the joke is that there are so many goddamn car washes in the area. But then it started to cause contention and the community SPLIT: there were the trolls and then there were the people who just wanted to have real talk without underlying carwash drama in the comments. Shit got real good when Corey discovered that OUR MOM was one of the car wash trolls!

Wow, that’s way less funny when I see it all typed out.

Anyway, it took us fucking forever to walk to this other multi-level Gentle Monster enterprise and we were all pretty les miz by then.

I found the sunglasses that I wanted and even had a salesperson write it up for me, but when I took it down to the other floor where you get them fitted and pay for them, I got REALLY FUCKING BIPOLAR. Like, out of the blue, just sat down on a couch and started pouting and then had a mild and quiet flip out where I said, “never mind, I don’t want these” because I was stressed out about leaving, bottom line. I wish I could be a normal person, haha. But instead, I let my impending sadness dictate how I was going to spend my last full day in my favorite fucking place in the whole entire world because I have the emotional age of a 13-year-old. MAYBE EVEN A 10-YEAR-OLD.

It ain’t cute, EK.

But I mean, I can sit here and pretend like everything was so magical and perfect and then you could be like, “MMM SURE IT WAS HUNTY.”

Of course, Chooch was mumbling, “oh my god here we go” while Henry was poking the bear by saying things like, “JUST CALM DOWN AND BUY THE GLASSES” because history sure has shown how much women love being told to calm down.

We did go all the way to the bottom floor to see Nudake Cafe which wasn’t even crowded but even that wasn’t enough to cheer me up and, feeling the need to punish myself even more, I said, “Forget it, let’s just go.”

Honestly, Henry was probably kissing his fingertips and offering it up to God because we left the entire Gentle Monster compound without spending a dime. (Don’t worry – I ended up getting the sunglasses I wanted at the Incheon airport the next morning LOLOL,)

We left and sat down on a bench at Dosan Park and watched several adorable dog interactions (I watched with a scowl still pasted on my face but my internal sane self was saying AWWWWWWWW) and then eventually made our way to Myeongdong for last minute shopping and streetfood, and can I just say that I used the public bathroom at the subway station in Gangnam and it was cleaner than some of the bathrooms in hotels I’ve stayed at? I know, I know, that might not be saying much considering some of the dumps Henry has had us stay in.

This portion of the last day was really nice, actually. After our Cari Cakes run-in, we continued walking to Bukchon Hanok Village. This time, we arrived there a different way, I feel like, because there were several moments when I felt super disoriented and nothing looked familiar?? It was a lot of walking uphill, I’ll tell you that much, with a quick stop inside a little shop to buy a hand-embroidered scarf off the cutest halmeoni.

Of course now I wish I had bought more.

After what felt like days, and lots of “SHUT UP YOU’RE SO ANNOYING”s being slung around liberally between our trio, we finally made it to the top of the hill/mountain and then LO! we started to recognize the area and eventually walked right into the hankok village. When Henry and I were there a few days prior, we didn’t venture into the heart of the hanok village but were just there for cafe-purposes. You understand.

Even though this area is EXTREMELY touristy, we have still included this on every one of our trips to Seoul. If you’re not going into it expecting a perfect Instagram picture with no one in the background, you’ll be just fine. And as luck would have it, when were there in 2019, it wasn’t crowded at all so we were able to get the “money shots” then. This time, I just wanted to walk through for old time’s sake.

This is the iconic street that everyone wants to get their picture taken on, usually dressed in hanbok.  As you can, ain’t happening on this day! Still, people were trying. Also, people live in these houses so there are signs posted everyone (like the one on the brick wall up there) reminding people to speak in a whisper, but you know that wasn’t being obeyed, sadly. Some tourists are monsters and give the rest of us a bad name.

There are also people patrolling the area in an effort to keep crowds quiet, kind of like docents. Would not want that job.

My favorite part of Bukchon is all the alleys! They are photo zones in and of themselves! I made Chooch stand here so I could show you an example. You’re welcome.

What you can’t see is the hordes of people on either side of us while I quickly snapped this.

And then we went to Granhand! I’m so glad that this is still there, nestled in one of the aforementioned alleys. Honestly, blink and you’ll miss it and you don’t want to miss it, especially if you’re looking for a nice gift to bring home for someone. And it turned out, I was looking for exactly that!

We came here in 2018, thanks to a glowing recommendation on Joan Kim’s daily vlogs that she was doing that year on her Joan Day YouTube channel. Granhand is a small local perfume shop and the really nice thing about them is that you can get the bottles personalized with the name of the recipient’s name. In my case, it was Sue! I just really appreciated that she reached out to the director of admin of our Seoul office to help me have a safety net in case things with the marriage details went awry. She didn’t have to do that! But she did because she is an amazing person and director who actually genuinely cares about the people in her department.

There was a really sweet salesgirl working who was helping me decide on a scent. She asked if we were there on vacation and I said that it was our third time there and that we came back to get married.

She was really taken aback, moreso than I expected.

“Here?!” she asked, and I explained that we just truly love Korea so much, it’s our favorite place and so special to us, and she said, “Oh my god, I don’t even know what to say! Thank you! Thank you for coming here!” and then she started to tear up so then I started to tear up, and Henry was just Henrying as usual.

This was one of the best moments of our whole trip. It felt so special, and I loved having someone there to share our story with! She was also surprised that this was not our first time shopping at Granhand and thanked us for coming back to there again, too.

I highly recommend this Korean scent line and am kicking myself for, once again, not buying something for myself here! The last time, I got something for my mom and regretted not treating myself then too. Ugh.

Anyway, I got Sue the CocoCay scent which was a limited edition seasonal offering, I believe.

(Sue loved it!)

Yo, then we came to Ossuloc for some tea! Previously, we had only been to the one in Insadong, but this one had a fabulous rooftop view.

Chooch grimacing at the view.

As opposed to my dreamily ogling the view.

I had to go for the matcha. I love matcha so much. I can’t remember what this other drink was and who ordered it. Milk tea latte of some sort?

The bathroom was impeccable.

View from the bathroom….porthole.

Then we went to Randy’s Donuts! Yes, apparently there is a Seoul location. This was also the first time during the whole trip that we ran into Korea’s strict “ONE DRINK PER SEAT” rule if you want to eat inside rather than take away. Originally, we were just going to get 2 donuts but the lady was like, “Oh no, you can’t eat here unless you get a drink” so Henry was like, “Oh maybe it’s because there are three of us and we’re only getting 2 donuts” so he tried to order a third donut and she pointed to the sign again, so we all ended up having to get a drink even though we just came from Ossuloc but if there is another thing that Korea does majestically, it’s their drinks. So it wasn’t that much of a punishment!

I shared this cronut with Henry and had regertz – it was delicious and I didn’t want to share.

If I remember correctly, Henry bought a bottle of water which appeased the Randy’s lady.

And then we set off for Gangnam because I was determined to buy a new pair of Gentle Monsters, so look forward to the next post where PSYCHO BRAT ERIN makes a reappearance. :/

I have been sitting here attempting to start this post for quite some time today but I keep getting lost in the photos. I really miss it. Even this particular day which was rife with “Last Day” sadness and panic. I was just telling Megan the other day that I am bored every day, nothing makes me happy lately and she goes, “Until you go back to Korea!” and that is so sad but also mostly true! I mean, obviously things here make me happy, don’t let me be completely melodramatic. But, it feels kind of like being in a long-distance relationship!? Which, that reminds me, the other day I heard “Slide” by the Goo Goo Dolls and even though I have heard that song a million times over the years, it was this exact time that gave me flashbacks to my FIRST LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP in 1998 with, and this is so stupid-dumb, a guy that I met the very first time I ever entered the goth chatroom called darkchat, lol. His name was “Misfit” (OMG I can’t even remember his real life name now) and he lived in San Diego I think. Somewhere in SoCal. Anyway, this song was new around that time and he was like, “THIS SONG MAKES ME THINK OF US” and me being the type of person whose whole damn life revolved around music, totally fell apart and was willing to give this guy ALL OF MY ATTENTION.

Anyway, then I called him one night and heard giggling in the background and I whispered, “Is that a girl??” and he was all, “HAHA no I’m, um, at a party” and then that was basically the beginning of the end of our 14-day long distance relationship.

Oh, don’t you worry, there’d be plenty more boys to be had in Darkchat over the next two years!

(No one asked, but I was curious who the man in the billboard is because Korea was in the middle of an election when we were there. Turns out it’s this guy, and he won! Something!)

After the disastrous early morning meltdown at Deoksugung Palace, things calmed down once I had coffee and breads. The plan for the first part of the day was to take Chooch to Tongin Market. I had asked him in advance to give me itinerary suggestions for this trip and that was one of the only things he explicitly said he wanted to because he had so much fun there on our last trip. So, Tongin Market is fun because you can either just buy stuff like you normally would OR you can go to the dosirak (lunchbox) cafe and buy yeopjeon and a school cafeteria tray w- the yeopjeon can be exchanged for portions of food at participating food stalls in the market so it’s a really great way to sample various types of Korean street/market food while also having a fun experience of paying with these old cash coins like you’re back in the Joseon Dynasty.

We passed this bar on the way so I had to take a picture for Megan, the biggest Beatles fan that I know! It was around 10:30am so we did not go in.

I was just desperately taking pictures of everything in the Tongin neighborhood while Henry was desperately looking for an ATM since we needed cash for the market.

I mean…Seoul is so special.

A secret selfie while waiting for Henry who was making a successful withdrawal inside a bank.

I just don’t want to ever forget it….

So then – LOL ugh – we made it to Tongin Market and um, the dosirak cafe is closed on Mondays.

You would have thought I did this on purpose, totally planned this out in order to sabotage Chooch’s last day in Korea. He was pissed. I mean, I was too, honestly, but we were trying to avoid going there on a weekend when it would be packed and with everything else we were doing, it just kept getting pushed and pushed until finally it was the last night AND SORRY FOR SCREWING UP!

Since we were there though, Chooch got some tteokbokki and then we had to find a secluded place to stand so that he could eat it. We were standing in sort of an alley off of a small back road when I saw in my periphery a girl with long red hair stride past, holding a camera. Now, anywhere else, whatever, but this is Korea and you don’t see many white women with red hair in Korea, lol. I did a massive doubletake because there is an American ex-pat YouTuber I watch occasionally and Chooch had been chiding me off and on during this trip, trying to make me look by blurting out “Look it’s Cari Cakes!” at random intervals, and then he even said he saw her the day he went off on his own in Gangnam. I don’t know why he was being so outrageous about this because yes, I watch her vlogs, but he was making me out to be a sasaeng or something, like I throw aside my entire life like a wet blanket every time I get a notification of a new Cari Cakes video.

I turned back around and looked at Chooch and Henry who both said, in tandem, “Was that—-”

Well, thanks Chooch, you appeared to have fucking manifested her!?

“You should go say hi!” Henry urged. I kept saying, “No, no, no” but eventually I was like, “OMG OK fine.” But by that point, she had gotten pretty far ahead of us and was now walking along a busier road so now, in true sasaeng fashion (thanks, Chooch) we had to essentially FOLLOW HER which was so awkward because I didn’t want to run up to her and be like, “OMG hi subscriber here” through pants and wheezes. I wanted it to be organic – or at least, organic SEEMING.

Basically, we crossed the street so that we could get ahead of her and then cross back over and, I dunno what my plan was – stop and tie my SLIP-ON VANS so that she could pass by and I could act surprised?! In the end, Henry had stayed on the same side of the street as her so that when Chooch and I crossed back over, we stopped and turned around like we were waiting for him, so then it was my excuse to “see her” and say, “OMG Cari?”

I FEEL SO CREEPY NOW THAT I AM RECOUNTING THIS which is rich coming from someone who has legit stalked people (pizza guys, middle school crushes – WHILE I WAS ALSO IN MIDDLE SCHOOL JUST TO CLARIFY – etc) and then intentionally documented it. Sometimes on film!! But look, that’s in my past.

Well, anyway, I did it. I said, “OMG, Cari?” and she was like, “…yes?” as if viewers don’t stop her all of the time. Henry was like, “I got you here but I ain’t sticking around” and shuffled over to some stoop where he creepily slurped down the rest of Chooch’s tteokbokki. So then it was just me and Chooch and I was like, “Hi, we’re subscribers!” and I wanted to tell her that this was my third time there and that we had actually come there to get married but I didn’t want her to think I married Chooch and I also didn’t want to point to Henry, hunkered down with his beard dripping in gochujang, so it was a pretty unremarkable chat from my end at least. Plus, the whole process of even getting to that point was so stressful and I felt like I was acting like a woman with a gun pressed against her back, just all wide-eyed and fake.

Whatever. Cari was very nice, though. “Are you guys also walking around in search of cherry blossoms?” she gushed and um, yep. That’s exactly it! So then she gave us some good cherry blossom spotting tips and I told her we’re from Pgh and she was like, “Oh my family is from the east coast! I’m actually going back for a visit in 4 days!” and I almost said, “I know!” because she had mentioned it in a recent video but I caught myself and just said, “Oh cool!”

Ugh, I hate how high-pitched and fake-sounding I can be.

So then when we parted ways, I had to immediately take pictures of the trees, lol.

But I mean come on. This tree is just ASKING FOR IT.

Meanwhile, as soon as Cari walked away, the first thing Chooch said shockingly was not “You’re so embarrassing” but “Why did you tell her we’re BOTH subscribers?? I’m not a subscriber!” Wow, like she fucking cares!! And then, “You’re so embarrassing.”

There it is.

This cutie!

Chooch after I told him to put his phone down so I could take a picture.

One of the side entrances to Gyeongbokgung Palace – this is *the* palace of Seoul. We didn’t go in this time, but we did walk around the walls on our way to Bukchon Hanok Village. It was such a perfect day for a walk, you guys. Absolutely bangin’ spring weather.

More palace wall.

Ugh, the beauty. This street leads up to the Blue House, which is where the President usually resides but this current one has opted to live off the grounds and now the Blue House is open to the public for tours.

Wow, thanks for smiling Henry.

OK the next post will be Bukchon Thangs. Stay tuned or tune out. IT’S A FREE COUNTRY.

P.S. here is Cari’s YouTube channel if anyone is interested (more like if anyone has read this far) in watching a lot of cafe hopping and book talking with mellow vibes. Sometimes we get cameos of her husband Kurt. Fun Fact: she has lived in Seoul for over 10 years I believe and used to be an intern at YG Entertainment (WHERE BIGBANG WAS SIGNED AT THE TIME). I actually found her channel back in 2017 when I was like, “Hmm, how hard is it for foreigners to move to Korea…” and then her “apartment tour” video from like 2016 or something came up, lol.

In the months leading up to our Korea trip, I had been stressing myself out over putting together a wedding-but-not outfit to wear for pictures. I didn’t want anything that resembled a wedding dress and I also didn’t want to do the whole hanbok get-up because I’m not Korean nor am I marrying a Korean so that feels a bit too much like cultural appropriation, you know? Some of my friends were asking me if I was going to do that and I was like “do you even know me though.”

In the end, I ended up buying a lavender tulle skirt with tiered-ruffles and Henry helped me make gold glitter stars to pin to them. I had an off-white fitted crochet sweater to wear on top and purple holographic CAT AND JACK boots from Target lol – yes, literal kids shoes but they were perfect.

Henry brought a button-down shirt that sort of matched my skirt.

I kept putting off this photoshoot while we were there until finally it was the last day. Henry and I woke up early that Monday and while I was getting dressed, I just knew it was a bad move, you guys. I could feel it in my bones – we were going to get dressed, leave the hotel room, go to wherever (I think I had wanted to go Bukchon Hanok Village) and then fight. I hate hate hate having my photo taken and even though I loved my outfit – it was cute and comfortable and completely my style – I just didn’t want to deal with photos

“Look,” I said to Henry, who had just put on the “regular-people jeans” I made him buy for this (his usual jeans are SO BAGGY). “If we do this, we’re going to fight and it’s going to ruin the day. I don’t care about the pictures. I don’t care what anyone else thinks either, I don’t want to do this.”

“THANK GOD,” Henry said, swapping out the jeans for his regular hobo pants.

I am pleased to say that it’s been two months now and I still have no regertz about that decision. We have the photos with our marriage license outside of the Jongno district office and that’s all I needed.

Speaking of, Henry had to go and pick the license up from wherever he left it for the APOSTILLE process. (I already forgot about this part since I wasn’t there for it but if you feel like it, you can read the whole Korean marriage odyssey here.) We decided to let Chooch sleep in and set off to walk to Gwanghwamun Square so Henry could get the license and he suggested stopping by Deoksugung Palace, which is one of the ones we have never visited before.  It’s the smallest of all the palaces but still something I had always wanted to see.

We knew it wouldn’t be open that early but that we could still walk around it so it was a nice detour on the way to get the marriage license.

Well, except that I was IN A MOOD. Gonna be real here, I was being stubborn, contrary, argumentative – all of the things. Just one big ass walking SCOWL. Because I am still a child in that I don’t know how to process my emotions. So, while I was acting like a big fucking brat-bitch, totally spoiled and never satisfied, my core emotion was sadness. I did NOT want it to be our last day, but instead of making the most of it, I was a complete asshole and the only reason Henry or Chooch didn’t push me into the Han was probably only because we were never anywhere near it that day.

I don’t know what kind of magic chokehold Korea has me in but I was an absolute monster on this day. (I mean, I had my moments because not even I have enough energy to keep up that kind of shitty attitude all day, but um, yeah my behavior was embarrassing a lot of times during this day.)

I’m pretty sure it was after this picture was taken where my mood totally turned on its head because HENRY JUST COULDN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT AND I HATED HIM EW WHY DID I MARRY HIM, etc etc. Luckily, it was still early enough in the morning that we didn’t have an audience and to Henry’s credit, he knew what the real issue was and was being very careful with his words, handling me with kid gloves, trying to make suggestions just for me to find ways to twist his words (“OH, SO YOU’RE SAYING I’M FAT” when he said, “Let’s keep walking this way” after I pointed to a cafe across the street that I wanted to go to because I was hungry and needed coffee and really he just didn’t want to cross the street (it was a busy multi-lane road) and knew there would be 87 more cafes coming up).

Basically, I was just being super cuddly and adorbs that morning.

Literally I’m probably mumbling death threats to him here.

I know for sure I was hissing, “JUST TAKE THE PICTURE, DID YOU FUCKING TAKE IT” and then openly raging because he didn’t get what I wanted in the background. When he offered to do it again, I told him to fuck off, demanded the room key, and walked back to the hotel alone while he went to collect the marriage license that he probably didn’t even want any more at that point, haha ughhhh.

As I walked away, I threw a covert glance over my shoulder to see if he was following me because he was supposed to, that’s secretly what I wanted, but then at the same time I would have thrown a fit if he HAD followed me and accused him of thinking I couldn’t find my way back on my own and I’m sure he was more afraid of the consequences of following me than NOT following me so in the end, he went to whatever building in Gwanghawmun Square to get the marriage license on his own and I walked back to the hotel and made Chooch – who was now awake and dressed – go out to get coffee with me.

Originally, we were going to go to a nearby A Twosome Place because it’s been a joke since the first time we were there in 2018 that we couldn’t go to A Twosome Place since there are three of us. “Now’s our chance,” I said to Chooch who probably said, “Wow you’re so cool” in response because when Henry isn’t around, all of Chooch’s surliness is directed toward me. It’s fine.

But then that particular location ended up being in the lobby of an office building adjacent to our hotel so they didn’t have the full menu which allegedly included meat-free breakfast sandwich options. Chooch didn’t really care and said he was fine just going to a GS25 or whatever, so we went to one rigt around the corner and got some small packaged things for breakfast.

I still wanted coffee though so we kept walking and found this really tiny cafe called Aze Coffee. Literally only had two tables but it was fine!

Chooch got a dalgona latte and it was topped with pieces of it so he let me have one without much arguing, probably because, as my loyal and caring son, he could intuit that I was having a bad day and not at all because I had whined repeatedly that I was HAVING A BAD DAY.

Ugh.

Anyway, that was a really nice experience though, getting coffee on our own without Henry who thinks we can’t survive without him.

When he eventually came back to the hotel though, he had a bag of salt bread from a bakery that he passed on the way back and I guess that was an OK peace offering even though it wasn’t as good as my precious salt bread from Ikseondong.

Stay tuned for more Last Day Mood Swings.

Hi. This is the final portion of our Easter day in Korea, which had us leaving Mullae, going back to the hotel for a quick reprieve, and then venturing back out to Hongdae. The plan was to go to Thanks Nature, a cafe that we went to in 2019 that draws you in with their pet sheep and keeps you in your seat with their awesome dessert menu. We had jinjja jinjja delicious melon bingsu on our last visit and Henry was craving it.

Hongdae is such a vibe at night.

First though, we stopped by Isaac Toast to get a small and quick dinner since we had eaten so much many pastries etc. all freaking day. Henry and I shared an egg/potato toast but I instantly regretted not getting a whole one to myself once I remembered how much I love these bitchin’ sandwiches. It’s the sauce, man. Some kind of sweet mustard, I don’t even know, but it just hits the spot and you know that must be true because that is not something I would ever typically in real life?! Same as “hankering,” as in, “I had a hankering for Isaac Toast.” I dunno why that gets under my skin like when someone says they’re “fixin'” to do something? I’m fixin’ to have a hankering for something that hits the spot.

For supper.

To really drive the nail under my skin! I hate word supper! You can say moist all day but supper is the one that launches me through the ceiling.

Probably doesn’t help that my ex-boyfriend Jeff used to say it. Ugh he was such a rural dork.

Isaac’s got him in a trance.

Ugh and then Thanks Nature was closed! It closed early that night :( So then we just walked around Hongdae while Chooch went in and out of various street clothes shops, trying things on and then not buying anything.

Gentle Monster!!! I immediately found a pair of sunglasses that I liked but hemmed and hawed and then ultimately decided I’d wait unti the next day when we went to the flagship store in Gangnam.

We ended up stopping in some small mall-esque thing on the main street of Hongdae. There was a clothing store called Wonderplace and I know for sure I was pouting at this point because I didn’t eat enough real food and was having a sugar crash and also I wanted something hot to drink, but more specifically, reality was setting in that we only had one full day left in Korea and I was low-key panicking, friends. I hate that I acted like a fucking asshole for an entire hour that evening but the emotions. I had them.

Anyway, there were all kinds of sales going on so every time Henry went up to the pay, the cashier would be like, “This is 1+1 so please find another thing from these special racks” and it was stressful – I got a sweater that I love a lot and it fits me so comfortably, and Chooch got more sweatpants I think, a t-shirt and purple Ocean Pacific shorts?! Really random.

Henry apparently made friends with the cashier since he had to go back up there 3x, and on one of his trips up there the guy asked Henry if he was there on vacation. When Henry said, “Yes, this is our third time here,” he said the kid said, “I hate Korea.” Wow, lol. I wonder if he was there studying abroad? Henry said he was Korean but his English seemed better than his Korean. I wish I had witnessed this alleged interaction.

After that, we walked through “Yongtral Park” to Holly’s Coffee. Holly’s is a Korea chain but it was open past 10PM and I needed warm liquids, you guys. It was a chilly March eve!

And this is how I ended up having my first (and so far – only) mugwort latte. Holy shit. Did this replace matcha in my heart? It may have. This had such a wonderful, earthy flavor – o b s e s s e d.

Just like I am with everything else in Korea. :/

We also got some type of banana dessert to share. Delicious. Korean cafes – chains or not – rarely disappoint.

Well, that’s a wrap for Sunday March 31st,  I guess. I can’t drag this out any longer. It’s time to start editing the pictures from our last full day. Le sigh.

Here’s a video recap of the day!

Literally no one cares but I was so excited about going to Mullae!! It’s a neighborhood of Seoul that, DARE I SAY, is a hidden gem. This isn’t something that I ever see listed on your standard “Top Things to Do in Seoul” itinerary lists and I only knew about it from the local vloggers that I watch on YouTube. It wasn’t on my radar AT ALL the first two times we were in Korea and I was stoked to explore a new-to-us area, especially because it’s supposed to be super artsy and industrial, being one of the least gentrified areas and still rife with various factories for metal and textiles, and one street has so many of the metal ones that it’s known as “Steel Factory Street” and as someone who was born and raised in Pittsburgh a/k/a The Steel City, I had to go here. Hometown pride? Eh. Hometown something.

There was a Starbucks right outside of the subway exit and Chooch was being a big baby about wanting, nay – NEEDING, to try some dumb thing that they had that I can’t even remember because I really can’t stand Starbucks, although I HAD to go to Starbucks, I would choose a Korean location all day every day.

Anyway, a big part of Mullae’s charm is its maze of alleys so we immediately ducked off the main drag and started to explore.

One of the gallery streets. The Artfield Gallery had lots of art that I wanted to buy but my bank account was in my ear, laughing, “Yeah you wish, sucker.” The artist whose work was on display while we were there is 조수정.

Obsessed.

Mullae has the best murals! I already posted this in real time from that day, but oh well mothercheffers. Cook on.

Shout out to Fårup!

This just in: Chooch verified that he ordered the choux cream latte at Starbucks.

Rust was recommended on every single Mullae vlog I watched prior to this trip. It was P A C K E D.

The process of choosing your treats and ordering drinks wasn’t too bad but it was the dreaded SEAT FINDING PORTION of the cafe visit that gave us anxiety. This place was multi-level and Chooch and I roamed around aimlessly looking for open seats. I bet this place is amazing on a quiet day because there were some really cozy nooks upstairs! Sadly, all taken.

We eventually found seats on the rooftop deck and that was fine by me because it was a beautiful day and it was quiet out there.

As you can see, we had to try their salt bread (it was good but you know, we have tasted the salt bread that was baked in Heaven’s oven and brushed with butter browned by Jesus Christ himself (I dunno what browned butter is or even if it is used on these but I just wanted you to know that I have heard of it and that’s only because Wendi mentioned it in regard to baking cookies one time in group chat at work and I quickly googled “the fuck is browning the butter.”) and then put on GOD’S MENU.

But yeah Jane, I’m not kidding – I am like skibidi* obsessed with these to the point that if we ever make it back to Korea, I am going to go straight there before the hotel after leaving Incheon.

*(I asked Chooch to help me learn how to use this and he said that I don’t need to ever use this because it’s not a word, it’s brain rot, and only elementary school kids use it and when I say that made me want to add it to my vernacular even more….)

Chooch really wanted that thing with the chives on it because it was the seasonal special, some green onion savory croissant thing, but a girl in front of him swooped in and took the last three from the case. He was crying about it in that bitch-boi way of his, but there was an entire cooling rack of them behind the counter so Henry asked the cashier if she could get one for him, and it was a whole thing because she had to first go out to the floor and check for herself that the case was empty, like Henry was trying to scam her into giving him the FRESHEST ONE. I mean, he does look like an entitled douche.

Anyway, all of that and then Chooch didn’t even like it.

My latte was GUD.

fire sex tech zzz, duh. That’s going to be my skibidi.

That was a really nice hang, even though Henry was with us.

And just when you thought we had enough drinks…I remembered that my new friend from our Seoul office – Tomie – had recommended a place that SONG MINO has visited, so I had it on my MUST DO list.

(And then promptly forgot – almost.)

Henry and Chooch were whining about not being able to drink anymore, but I refused to hear it. Cafe culture is a huge part of Seoul! And we were IN SEOUL. So…skibidi dibidi cafe hoppity.

Except that we couldn’t find the damn place. We’re not n00bs to Korea so we use Naver maps like we’re real, verified locals, but the block that it took us to was not it, fam.  There was a Mexican restaurant, a few other storefronts, a sketchy-ass stairwell.

“Maybe it’s down the steps,” Chooch shrugged. I walked closer and peeked into the doorway. It looked like it descended into a dank parking garage. Nope, not doing it.

So then I went back to the map that Tomie made me and clicked on the Naver page for the cafe.

“It says it’s open, and that it should be,” I glanced up from my phone, “RIGHT HERE.”

Henry was already starting to retreat, like, “Oh darn, one less cafe, boo hoo, let’s go get real food plz.” But then I started looking through the customer pictures on Naver and some PRECIOUS SWEETHEART posted a picture of the STAIRWELL and drew arrows to it.

“Chooch, I think you were right,” I whispered, and we tentatively tiptoed down the steps in case we were about to interrupt a scene from Saw Part 187.

Also from Naver:

And then at the bottom and to the left, we saw this ^^^!!

It led us into a small corridor and we could hear bass emanating from the other side of a door. However, it felt way too VIP. Were we too square to be here?! I was so nervous when opening the door, expecting a roomful of super edgy Koreans looking like they stepped off of a street fashion Instagram page to whip their heads around and glare at us.

Also from Naver:

But instead, we were greeted by a REALLY KIND AND COOL barista – he apologized for not having an English menu and asked if we could speak Korean – I said “a little” in Korean and it was actually OK because reading menus is what I excel at in Korea, lol. But then another barista came over and assisted as well even though I told Henry what it said – he had no faith in me.

I can see why Song Mino likes it here!

Loud hip hop was playing and it was a whole vibe. So dank and basement-y, it reminded me of this hidden bar / after hours club that this dude Freddy (Fredrick von Hamilton from Vampire Nation lol) took me to in the early 2000s, pre-Henry where even then, when I was way cooler than I am now, I felt like I was in over my head, lol.

LOL now I’m dying, thinking back to those days. HOW DID I EVEN MEET THIS GUY?? I remember going back to his apartment on the South Side (it was a really cool spot) and turning down his advances and how lucky I am that he was a nice (enough) guy to let it go. Jesus.

skibidi.

Our dranks!

Chooch, thinking my every action is so annoying and an embarrassment.

Anyway, it was a really – and I mean REALLY – cool time. I loved sitting there, listening to the music, drinking my good-ass ah-ah (iced Americano for you non-Koreans), and thinking about how Song Mino was once where I now was.

Life is so cool sometimes.

When we left, we had just made it out of the little corridor and back into the creepy garage when the first barista came running out after us. He wanted to give us stickers!!! I legit almost cried, I thought it was so nice and cool of him! Anyway, I started following the cafe on IG and they followed me back and liked a bunch of my photos from the trip!

What a great rec, I thanked Tomie profusely for that on KakaoTalk later.

We started to make our way back to the subway after this, totally jittery and in need of real food.

On the way, I spotted a little alley with some tables of jewelry set up. I immediately veered off to get a closer look and could sense Henry mouthing FML to the skies. While I was looking, a man came out of a nearby art studio and asked if he could help me. YUP, I wanted to buy all of the rings I saw! But instead, I chose two:

Fucking obsessed. The one on the left says, “My mom says I can’t play with you” – I was proud of myself for translating it on my own, and the guy was kind of struggling to explain the meaning. He said it’s a Korean joke and I was like, “OK great, I’ll take it!” Because regardless of the full joke getting lost in translation, that is definitely something snotty I used to say to other kids when I was trying to be a dick back in the day.

“Trying to be?” I can hear Future Henry saying out loud if he ever reads this.

But yeah, I cherish these rings, and they were handmade in the studio where I paid for them! I regERT not buying more.

And, that was Mullae. We only just got our toes wet on this quick little jaunt. If I ever make it back there, it will definitely be on the list of unskippable neighborhoods, right up there with Hongdae, Insadong, Ikseondong, and Jongno. There were a lot of brewery-type places there so maybe that will entice Henry to go back, because I can’t be certain he was sold on this neighborhood (too hipster for him probs) but he did agree that Geukrak was a really great cafe. So there’s that!

Oh, and he bought more salt bread from a bakery in the subway station as we were leaving, lol. Always room for salt bread.

I know you’re like, “Come on, this has to be the last post for Easter Sunday, right?” WRONG. We still have one more before we get to the saddest posts of this whole series: The Last Day Posts. :(

…and not the kinds of dongs that you will find in the Cedar Point parking lot.

After a long and leisurely morning strolling palace grounds, we unanimously agreed with whole hearts that it was:

SALT.

BREAD.

TIME.

Back to Ikseondong!

Frfr, if you’re in Seoul, ya gotta get to this spot and grab a bag(sssss) of motherfucking salt bread. My mouth is filling up faster than Tammy Faye’s eyeballs, you hear. The mere THOUGHT of the salt bread has my mouth WEEPING.

PLEASE ignore my trash nails. I was too busy running around Korea to worry about painting them. (Although I think I did that night?!)

Jayeondo Salt Bread, you are 100% worth the hype. Listen to the salty, crumby cries of the people – this is THE place to get your sogum bbang on. I wish I could several bags delivered to me right now.

Still having (some) room left in our stomachs, we hit up the nearby Cheese Industry, having ogled the goods a few days earlier. I didn’t want to leave Korea without getting something from here, so Henry and I shared a honey brown pastry – some sort of delicious, sweet cheese thing slightly reminiscent of baklava and dotted with hazelnuts. I could easily have housed this whole thing on my own, but whatever. We were going to get lunch soon plus do more cafe hopping later so I didn’t want to ruin myself so early in the day. All I can say is THANK GOD for all the walking we did, else I’d have had to buy all new pants when we came home.

SHEESH.

They make their own cheese in-house! And even a selection of their drinks are infused with cheese! I opted for just an iced Americano though because I do have limits. But! I have had drinks with cheese foam / cheese caps from Asian cafes in the States and can confirm that it is the good kind of unusual taste. Ugh, I hope this place is still there the next time I go to Korea!!

Also, I’m wearing my necklace from Gyeongju in this picture! I love that necklace and I loved that man that owned the gift shop where I bought it! AND I LOVE GYEONGJU.

LOL Chooch with his ring that he made with us in Hongdae that served as a fidget spinner for the rest of the trip.

After this, we did some perusing in the shops. I bought a scarf that I am considering using as a background for our dumb marriage license once we finally get it framed, and then there was this adorable collegiate-esque cardigan that I had my eyes on the first time we walked through Ikseondong. It says MILK on it and I love clothes like that because my aesthetic is very niche.

Anyway, I almost didn’t buy it! I don’t know why I get like this, like I get preventive buyer’s remorse just by touching something on a rack and then I start pouting even though no one told me I couldn’t buy it?? But when the salesperson asked me if I wanted to try it on, I said NO for some idiotic reason and then not 1 minute later, some older woman strutted in, tried it on and immediately bought it, walked right out still wearing it.

Henry looked at me and frowned. It was the only one on the rack. :(

But that gave me the IF IT WAS MEANT TO BE….kick in the ass that I needed so I marched over to the salesperson and asked if they had any more. Of-fucking-course they did, come on. She pulled another one, still wrapped in plastic, out of a box and held it out to me, nodding for me to try it the fuck on already.

So I did.

And then I handed over some cash and walked out happy.

NO REGERTZ.

After Ikseondong, we walked to the neighboring Insadong because this is where lunch was happening. But first, family caricature time at Acorn! There are numerous locations around Seoul (maybe outside of Seoul too? I feel like I saw one in Jeonju…) and this one is unique because they specialize in fast drawings. I think 1 or 2 minutes per subject? And you can even show them a picture of your pet on your phone and they will draw from that too!

Chooch was NOT happy to do this and kept hoping that I would forget.

I wish I looked that cute IRL!! And I love how she captured Henry’s downtrodden essence. He looks beat down, which is accurate having spent so much unrelenting time with me and Chooch. :)

Back in one of the alleys of Insadong is yet another vegetarian restaurant called Osegeahyang. This one is pretty well-established, I think. When you walk in, there’s a wall of famous vegetarian/vegans and I dunno why but the formality of WILIAM BRADLEY PITT cracked us up so Chooch was inspired to take a picture.

That says “American actor” under his name.

Yo, we feasted here. It had a really decent crowd, a mix of locals and foreigners, so that’s always a great sign! The Happy Cow website tells me that this is one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Seoul (and by that they probably mean non-temple food restaurant I bet).

I had been craving jjajangmyeon, but that dish traditionally has PORK in it (lol I initially type PORN I guess because of all the DONGS) so when I saw that this place had it, my eyes became blind to the rest of the menu. I only had eyes for you, jjajangmyeon.

Henry got tonkatsu and I have no idea what Chooch got, some Chinese ‘chicken’ dish? And a plate of Korean fried ‘chicken’ for the table.

(Henry’s tonkatsu was REALLY good, btw, and I had slight ordering remorse but my jjajangmyeon really was just what I needed.)

I got a fried “egg” on the side. This picture is so trash – I must have been in a hurry to start eating.

Just looking at this is making me so hungry and I literally just ate dinner. Henry, make me pork-less jjajangmyeon this weekend, wah.

Dude, this was a really great first half of the day! I had fun reliving it just now. :(

Sunday morning was school picture day! Honestly, one of the non-negotiable things on my itinerary was getting some nice snaps of our high school senior with the “good camera.” You can see those portraits here! I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in the post with Chooch’s portraits, but if you want to get some nice shots with a palatial background sans clusters of undulating tourists, skip the most popular palace (Gyeongbokgung is a must-see but it is the most famous of all the main palaces in Seoul and it gets packed) and check out Changgyeonggung Palace instead. You are still going to get that signature Joseon Dynasty architecture, the serene nature, and the feeling of stepping back into another time – just without as many people!

We arrived minutes before the ticket booth opened and were among the first people to go inside. Literally no one around! It was really nice to just have a slow morning walking around the grounds, looking at nature-y things, and actually not fighting now that I think about it?! Even though PICTURES were involved!

Hahaha I hate myself, honestly but this is the best depiction of how I was feeling and I can tell you that right now I am feeling the exact opposite, like instead of jumping for joy, I am crumbling from depression. It’s fine. I’ll be fine. Henry keeps giving me gentle reminders that we will be back and even though I cry, “YEAH RIGHT YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!” every time, at least I know he is willing to go back??

We had been there for about fifteen minutes and no one had come into this courtyard yet! They were all still right inside the gate taking pictures of the blossoms, lol.

LOL I married that guy. Wow.

Seriously. Korea. You’re my one true love.

Chooch didn’t mention that our faces were obscured by shadows BUT OK.

Ahhh OMG you guys, then we finally saw our first Korean squirrel!! I wasn’t squirrel’bsessed in 2018 and 2019 when we were there so maybe we saw some then and I just don’t remember, but this time I was ON THE HUNT. I mean, not actually THE HUNT because I’m a vegetarian and would never harm an animal or even most bugs – I shed real tears last night when I thought that I actually dumped my ant friend who had been hanging out on my work desk down the drain because when I poured out the dregs of my coffee cup, it looked like an ant fell out with it but maybe it was just a coffee ground?!!? Regardless, I had a quiet moment where I stood and looked solemnly out the front door, thinking about how for the last two days I had gently moved him away from my keyboard so he wouldn’t get smashed, complained about my job to him, asked him when he thought the mailman was going to come. We really spent a lot of quality time together and I haven’t seen him since, is what I’m trying to tell you. Anyway, when I turned away from the door, Henry was sitting on the couch and I blurted out I HAVE TO TELL YOU SOMETHING and then I started crying but also laughing because I was near-hysteria and he was so scared, like bracing himself, and then I blurted out in a high-pitched wail, “THERE WAS AN ANT THAT I BECAME FRIENDS WITH THE OTHER DAY ON MY DESK AND I THINK I ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED HIM IN THE SINK” and of course Henry the Heartless was like, “How do you know it was the same one?”

Fuck off, Henry.

It cost W2,000 for the three of us – Chooch was free. That’s less than $1!!!! There is no reason to NOT come into any and all of these palaces if you’re in Seoul.

We also went into a beautiful greenhouse that was on the grounds. Here’s pictures that Chooch took of some palace cats that were lounging around in there like the royalty that they are:

More pictures that Chooch took because I just remembered he made a shared album! (Most of his pictures are dumb inside jokes with his friends though, so – worthless to me.)

I swear to god you can always see Namsan Tower in the background, and it’s so comforting, like seeing an old friend.

That last picture is MINE, thank you.

And this was just the start of our day!

If I was making an itinerary for someone visiting Seoul, I would 100% include a walk along the Seoul City Wall, starting in Dongdaemun. Henry will roll his eyes, but before our first trip to Korea, I used to watch Joan Kim’s “Joan Day” YouTube channel. She vlogged every single day for a year (maybe 2 actually) and I owe so much to her videos because it gave us “insider tips” into the best neighborhoods, shops, cafes, etc. It’s how I learned about Gentle Monster, Ader Error, Mil Toast, Onion…

But what I also am so thankful for is her one vlog where she was taking some visiting friends around Seoul and how she stressed that some of the best views of Seoul could be found at Naksan Park at sunset, accessed either through the Ihwa Mural Village or by hiking alongside the Seoul Fortress Wall in Dongdaemun.

We did this in 2018, opting to go through the mural village. It was spectacular. Even Henry couldn’t deny it.

This time, we decided to go up the other way, by following the wall. It’s a lot of Up Hill. Many Steep. But so worth it. We got a later start than I had anticipated, but it ended up being in our favor because GODDAMN that night view, those city lights, the absolute bonkers vibe of that area at night. The couples on dates. The families. The dogs! It wasn’t crowded at all, the weather was perfect, we were all in a good mood. I loved this night a lot, is what I’m trying to say. Let’s look at piccccccs.

You can see that there’s a pretty nice trail, you’re not like, scaling a mountain or anything. It’s not that kind of hike. I mean, I did this in slip-on Vans. And look at all the benches! There are plenty of rest areas along the way. You can do this!

See? Just a Broad and Her Vans (Slip-Ons).

I kept turning around to take more pictures, as if the view was going to have drastically changed. You can see the DDP down there! And Heunginjimun Gate!

Through one of the wall openings.

Chooch literally Pokemon Go’d all through Seoul. Also, those are the sweatpants he bought in Namdaemun Market and had regertz for not buying more.

WHAT IF THIS IS ONE OF THE LAST SELFIES CHOOCH AND I EVER TAKE TOGETHER IN KOREA??? :(

Chooch, hurry up and graduate and get rich and then buy me a house here.

My eyes are so awful and I couldn’t tell that portrait mode was taking some really mid shots. But I just loved how the farther up we walked, the more little neighborhoods started popping up. The alleys were breakneck steep. I think that’s what I was trying to capture here. Well, ya FAILED, hon.

This was from one of the first overlooks we came upon. There was a small walking tour happening too and I was trying to snoop but then then guide namedropped BTS and I lost interest.

Ew, Henry took this, lol.

That Hollywood-esque sign down there says Naksan Park. YES I CAN READ HANGEUL BACKWARDS, I AM THE BEST.

Here you can see the fortress wall as it goes back down the other side.

Asking Chooch to take our picture is so scary. I had to delete a series of ZOOM-INS on Henry’s face once we got back to the hotel.

Henry took these with his idiot phone and thought he was so cool. I’m only including them because it was an actual miracle that he was taking pictures at all.

If you follow the other side of the wall down to the bottom of the mountain, it spills you out into I guess what it is Ihwa-dong. This area is kind of nuts at night because it’s essentially a college campus so there are young people out and about in droves, tons of bars and clubs – let’s just say that even I felt a bit too old being here, lol.

We stopped at a super cool stationary / gift shop though and I bought some fun journals and a pencil pouch which made Henry roll his eyes. Chooch was on a hunt for “a pencil” and bought the plainest one there.

Here are some pictures Chooch took after we came back down into town:  

This ad was in pretty much every subway station, which was fine by me because I love that actor!

Anyway, after this it was BINGSU time so we took the subway back to Dongdaemun and found a Sulbing on the second floor of some random building. It was PACKED and we just barely snagged a table.

Bingsu is one of most favoritest things about Korea! It’s such a fun dessert.

Chooch got strawberry (and was angry when he discovered a hidden center of red bean, lol – Henry and I love red bean but Chooch refuses to let him like it) and Henry and I split a classic injeolmi (soy bean powder – it’s hard to describe but it’s subtly sweet, nutty, and soft).

FML I miss this. Why didn’t we get bingsu every night?!!?

And then I spent a solid 10 minutes trying to record the screen back there because Astro was in the ad and Henry’s ULT BIAS, THE FACE GENIUS CHA EUN WOO, was eating the same bingsu we ordered. The people behind me probably thought I was the biggest fucking Kpopper because I really did spend an absurd amount of time trying to capture this – the first time idiot Henry moved into the shot and took a monstrous spoonful of bingsu into his gaping maw, he looked prehistoric. I think I actually saved that clip, WHICH YOU CAN SEE IF YOU WATCH MY RECAP VIDEO OF THIS WHOLE DAY!!!!!

In continuing with our unofficial and undeclared vegan tour of Seoul, and after collecting Chooch from the hotel (he bought his own lunch at 7-Eleven that day, he definitely doesn’t need us lol). we went to Cafe Siva for dinner that Saturday evening. This place had popped up several times on various “vegan Seoul” videos I had watched on YouTube and I was especially interested in the “supreme yangnyeom chicken.”

Once we were done taking in the protest that was making its way down the road (we were there during election season and the city was lit up with protests – we even saw one of the candidates at the Seoul Forest subway station, shaking hands with commuters while being filmed for the news), we went inside and I immediately loved the cozy vibe. The colors were so soothing and the space itself just felt very calm and slow. I guess that makes sense because Cafe Siva is apparently affiliated with the yoga studio next door.

I was looking at some reviews on Happy Cow and someone was complaining because they have an electronic ordering kiosk there, and they do, but like…so? We still had interactions with the staff there so it wasn’t like it was completely impersonal, it just greatly reduced the ordering anxiety.

Henry is supposed to be helping me write this but he is currently doing the same thing he’s doing in this picture – WILING AWAY HIS LIFE, MINDLESSLY SCROLLING THROUGH HIS NEWSFEED. I swear to god, talk about someone ADDICTED to his phone. It’s actually disturbing.

Chooch’s drink with the cutie cat stirrer, and Henry in the background not knowing what to do because I probably told him to put his phone away (you know, being a NAG since we are MARRIED now).

YOU GUYS. The owner’s dog was there. A good sign that we were in a safe space.

This dog reminded me of my childhood BFF Wally <3

Chooch’s veggie burger nearly gave me ordering remorse.

Henry can’t remember what he got. “It was….chicken. It was like….some kind of chicken.” If this was something that had come up in his newsfeed, he might remember…Maybe if it was an Instagram reel.

Speaking of IG, now he’s cruising Cafe Siva’s page looking for what he ordered and turns out it was vegan dak-kalbi.

“Did you like it?”

“YEAH!” he exclaimed, in between murmuring, “Wow, I would have got that instead,” at all of the dishes he’s seeing on Instagram that he doesn’t remember being on the menu.

Wow, he’s so cool.

But no, you guys. The star of the show was my SUPREME YANGNYEOM CHICKEN. Holy mother of all that is moly, this could have been the best thing I ate the whole time we were in Korea?!!! I housed nearly this whole tower on my own and I am not ashamed to tell you this. Chooch didn’t dare try one because they were made of mushrooms and, even though his current self-improvement goal is to force himself to add mushrooms into his diet, this was certainly not a thing yet when we were in Korea. So he didn’t even glance at my ‘shroom pyramid. I did let Henry have three (maybe just two) and then I diligently toppled the tower into my gut all on my own.

I could have easily eaten the WHOLE thing on my own, I’m confident.

In fact, some girl came in after us and sat at a table alone with a book and ordered the same thing. I watched as she methodically ate it one by one, never taking her eyes off her book.

That is the life I want to live.

I mean, not here though.

In Korea.

The best part is that this didn’t even hurt my stomach!! It was so satisfying.

If (sigh) we ever go back, I will be returning to Cafe Siva, especially because all of the reviews I was reading today were spazzing out over how good the milkshakes are and now I of course need to research this for myself.

Afterward, we got back on the subway and went back to the DDP area because I really wanted to do the Seoul City Wall walk. But, that will be a post for another day!

I’d like to once again thank Henry for his hefty contributions to this recap, he basically carried the whole damn thing on his back with that one strong YEAH he gave me.

We last left off with Henry and I shipping Chooch off alone to Gangnam so he could Pokemon Go his face off without having to deal with us nags. I did forget to mention that in the subway station we used after the Ewha / Sinchon stuff, I bought two rings (one is a face and today at brunch Megan was ogling it so now I obviously have to go back to Korea ASAP and get her one) and a really cute pouch which knots perfectly around your wrist and is so convenient and also super cute.

Also quick disclaimer, I’m writing this while drinking my way thru a soju buffet with Henry so for once I have a legit excuse for any collateral typos.

OK OK, we said fare thee well to Chooch and got off at the DDP stop, where we IMMEDIATELY had a hell of a time finding the NCT exhibition. We *did* find the other Kpop thing that was happening, which was billed as a “history of Kpop” and it SORT OF was in the beginning in that you walked down a hallway that was a kpop timeline (BIGBANG did get their due props BUT Seungri was cut out of the photos that were used which was annoying) but this ended up being an SM artists extravaganza so we quickly realized that this was an SM-sanctioned pop-up.

Of-fucking-course but I’m not complaining because I love SM artists so much. You, Blog, do not care about this stuff I don’t think but here are some photos I took anyway, so look or scroll through until we leave the DDP and go to BUKCHON!

Duuuude. This room was VIBES. I got big ideas, man. Big fucking “Henry, hear me out” ideas. Sheeeeeesh.

I reallllly liked the (SM artists) art in this room!!

DO I HAVE ROOM FOR A CENTERPIECE LIKE THIS IN MY HOUSE?!?!

“Henry, stand there. No, don’t worry about what it says.”

(It says FOOL, hahaha. I was so giddy when I found the letters for this.)

I also need to have a telephone booth / decompressing room in my house now too.

I dunno, some random couch.

I was really pissed though because there was a giant screen in this big open room with a sitting area/bleachers sort of but the videos that were playing didn’t match the songs that were also playing in the room!? Like, we walked in and NCT127’s “Kick It” video was proudly playing but the song was definitely…not that. It was really weird and disorienting.

(Also, Kick It is Henry’s fave NCT song and I was extremely disappointed that he couldn’t tell that’s what the video was? Like, that iconic Kick It choreo didn’t give it away!?! What a fucking poser NCTzen.)

Next, we continued on with our search for the NCT exhibition. The DDP is massive, spread out amongst three of four gigantic structures and half the time it felt like we were somewhere we shouldn’t be without a badge or something, but no one ever said shit to us so we continued to act like we knew where we going.

We did make a brief pitstop in the DDP gift shop where I got some cutie postcards that I intend to frame but also wanted to buy so much more. That was a really nice gift shop. If you’re in Seoul looking for gifts/souvenirs that aren’t chopsticks with a design that will rub off within 3 washes, go here. You can tell them Oh Honestly Erin sent you but they’ll just be like, “Cool. Good for you.”

OK finally!!!! WE FUCKING FOUND IT:

However, finding where to buy the tickets was another hassle altogether. I eventually found someone who looked like they worked there and they pointed us in the right direction.

But then we hit another wall, because we didn’t have our passports on us and since we hadn’t booked a ticket online (DID NOT KNOW THAT YOU COULD, KPOP SHIT IN KOREA FOR FOREIGNERS IS LIKE A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE AND HALF THE TIME YOU CHOOSE INCORRECTLY AND HAVE TO START OVER). I was so pissed and Henry mumbled something about, “Oh well I guess we can just come back never” but when we got outside, I said, “Wait!!! Don’t you have pictures of our passports on your phone?!”

(Friendly reminder to have your passport on you always even though seems like the opposite of what you want to do because almost everywhere you shop, they will ask for your passport for tax refund purposes and sometimes just having a photo of it on your phone will suffice.)

So, we went BACK and they lady was like, “OK we can accept that,” because I guess they just needed to verify our names for the tickets because we got legit cards printed that had our names on it!!! But as she was about to process our info another worker came over and said,  in a slowed down “I’m addressing foreigners” tone, “This is for the Kpop NCT127.”

“Yes, we know,” I said, about to return my attention to the lady whose hand was out waiting for our credit card.

“Do you LIKE NCT127?” same girl asked, and again I said, “Yes.”

I just thought it was funny that she was trying to deter us from potentially purchasing tickets for something blindly, because we were clearly a good 20-30 years past the average NCTzen median.

Ticket secured!!

We got to go right in and I’ll spare you the details of it, but it was just a really fun walk-through of video footage of the NCT127 members talking to the fans, answering questions about their recent Great Unity concerts in Seoul (actually the last one for awhile probably because their leader Taeyong just enlisted in the military a few weeks after we came home, which 100% broke me but that’s OK, I’m fine, I’m 44-fucking-years-old, I can endure this haha), and then there was a really relaxing part where we got to chill out in REALLY cozy bean bags chairs and watch some clips from the concert.

Henry was snoozin’.

There was some more stuff after this that no one but me cares about, and then it spilled out into the GIFT SHOP where I bought this Haechan milk glass!!!! (Photo taken later in our hotel room.)

After that, Henry and I walked around the Cheonggyecheon stream for a bit.

Then we took the subway to the Bukchon Hanok Village area because we hadn’t been there yet on this trip and, yes, it’s touristy, but it’s also beautiful. There’s a bakery there called Layered that I wanted to try but when we got there, there was a pretty solid line out front for dine-in, so after standing there for a few minutes, I was like, “Look, we’re going to be here on Monday morning, let’s just do this then” and Henry was like WORKS FOR ME because if there is one thing he can NOT get behind, it’s queuing up for ANY type of food. He would rather just go and get the next best thing even if it’s like 8 tiers below what the line was for. His palate knows no difference.

We ended up at Machi Machi, which was fine!

Also quite crowded though. But first we had to select our treats and order our drinks. I was excited because there were two American-sounding guys in front of me who had no clue how this worked and I got to help them but saying, “Um, I think you need to take a tray from down there and also a pair of tongs….” but really I just wanted them to speed it the FUCK up because they were blocking the trays.

I mean, but also I was excited to help.

Let’s go with that.

We got salt bread (it was OK), an Earl Gray madeleine (delicioso), and whatever that pistachio croissant looking thing was (other then DELECTABLE).

It was a struggle to find somewhere to sit though. We ended up sitting in this super-low to the ground banquette right across from the restroom and it was so uncomfortable. I was like, “I cannot sit here and eat without hunching over like a fucking old hag” so when a couple abandoned their spot at a high-top bar table thing, I ran over and claimed it while Henry went back down to grab our drinks. Everything was much better after that. But yo, this cafe had two (large) floors of seating, a (large) outdoor balcony, and a bunch of tables outside on ground level. Almost completely at capacity!

I somehow didn’t know this was acceptable until recently, but it is perfectly fine to go into a cafe, claim an open table with your stuff, and THEN go back to order. In America, that is a huge etiquette strike, I feel like!?!? Akin to line-jumping?! But in Korea, go for it, I guess. I’m not sure how OK that is for foreigners, though, so DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

And then report back to me because I want to know.

Precious Henry got a brown sugar boba. He is so goddamn cool.

Then we just strolled around. We came cross this C-list celebrity tree. Only like 5 people were waiting to get pictures under it.

This is another reallllly great area for gifts and non-chintzy souvenirs. Especially if you’re looking for local art, this is the spot. I bought an original watercolor off the sweetest ahjussi here.

He makes the paper himself that he paints on. It’s magical. I love art like this!!

Speaking of art….check out this perfectly placed bouquet that someone left behind.

Namsan Tower in the background.

When I say this area is ethereal…

And when I say this country has my whole heart….

Just look at these pictures and maybe you’ll understand.

I am in some type of agony right now, lol.

<3 <3 <3 Love you, Bukchon.

By this point, Independent Son was back at the hotel so we made our way there as well because it was almost DINNER TIME. Can’t live on pastries.

I mean, I could…

….but I shouldn’t.

Right???

Saturday in Seoul! I have several photos that I could have used here but I want you, Blog, to see how PUT OUT Chooch looks in real life every time I suggest that it’s PHOTO TIME. I truly hope he ends up with a counterpart that is just as snap-happy as me so that his life will continue to be filled with demands of, “COME ON, JUST SMILE FOR FUCK’S SAKE!”

Anyway! The plan for the morning was to go to Ewha Womans University because it’s been on my Korea list since the first trip – the campus is beautiful and a very popular and tranquil tourist spot. We passed the stop for it on every trip we took to Hongdae over the years, but this time I made sure we actually stopped.

Also, it’s my friend Jiyong’s alma mater!

LOL ugh he hates being this close to me.

I took so many pictures of this because I’m obviously 12.

The way Korea tickles my obsessive personality…I was made to be in Korea.

FUN FACT: The first Starbucks in Korea was built in 1999 outside of the entrance to Ewha’s campus. I personally hate Starbucks so I didn’t care about this but Chooch did take a picture to send to Blake, who is a Starbucks…manager? Something?

This picture was taken right before we got to the campus, where I joked that the excuse I sent to Chooch’s school for his absences (he missed 3 days even though we tried hard to contain the whole trip to spring break, you can’t “do Korea” in ~7 days, sorry) wasn’t technically a lie now since I said he had to miss those days for campus tours.

#MomsWhoThink

Iconic! I have seen this in so many Seoul videos, it was so crazy to be there IRL.

I think they do allow a handful of men in and it *is* a prestigious private research university, which is definitely Chooch’s jam. Maybe semester abroad??

#MomsWhoDream

Afterward, we walked down the street to Dessert 39 because we were HUNGIE and I needed coffee bigly. I didn’t know this until days later when we saw another Dessert 39 but the 39 actually means that it has desserts from 39 countries.

……………

I had no idea while we were there. When I announced my factual findings, Chooch and Henry said in tandem, “Yeah, you didn’t know that?” Ugh fuck off.

Anyway, I was trying not to get distracted by everything in the case because I saw fig bagel on the sign outside the door and was set on that before we even walked in. I had never had a bagel in Korea before and wanted to know, OK??

The aesthetics here were so on point.

That’s Henry’s stick thing up there which he whined about for days because IT WASN’T WHAT HE ORDERED WAH. I guess he ordered something similar but it was supposed to be “in a bun” but instead it was given to him “packaged differently.” Um OK. I tasted it and it was delicious. There was cream inside.

My fig bagel was also really good and actually just what I needed for breakfast. The bagel itself definitely had that “rice cake / mochi” chew to it as expected from a Korean bagel – it was really satisfying.

Meanwhile, some guy who ordered right after us got his stuff first because he only got a coffee to go and we were making the poor girl, who was there alone, get her AM steps in as she ran and back and forth trying to get our shit done, and I just sort of casually watched him take his coffee up a short set of steps in the back where the bathroom sign was.

He was there FOREVER. Like to the point where I was starting to get concerned?! Henry and Chooch ignored me though.

Ahhhh my coffee cup! I should have checked to see if they were selling these. Goddammit.

Then Henry’s banana drink that I made him order against his will was ready! Look at Henry, mid-strut, returning to the table with his cuppa diabeetus.

You guys, it was delicious. It was like my beloved banana uyu but loaded up with way more calories – you could just, they might as well have just melted a stick of butter in there too for good measure.

It was topped with Banana Kicks!

LOL then I made Henry go back up and order this corn thing. From their website:

Corn Poisoned Bread

A deadly blend of corn and corn cream! With the savory texture of the corn kernels popping in your mouth and the sweetness of the fluffy bread sheets, you can indulge in the deadly and addictive taste of corn.

Yep! Anything corn-themed is going to be lit in Korea. Corn lattes? SATISFYING. Corn on pizza? BRING IT TO AMERICA. Corn desserts? CORNBREAD COULD NEVER.

(Well, that’s not true, I take that back – SOME cornbread could. ChiChi’s cornbread paved the way.)

Meanwhile, I still hadn’t peeped that guy returning from the bathroom but then some older man came out of the door at the top of the steps! He went behind the counter and based on CONTEXT CLUES, I think he was the manager / owner. Anyway, now I was curious so I went to investigate.

Ugh turns out it just opened up into a vestibule that connected the cafe to the rest of the building and there was a bathroom there as well. So, probably that guy exited that way because he works somewhere in the building.

:( Not very exciting.

And while ALL OF THIS was going on, Chooch was sitting at the table next to us being an utter cra-bapple because there was some POKEMON GO event happening at 10AM in Gangnam and he desperately wanted to go but like….I didn’t? We walked around for a bit after the cafe – we were within walking distance to Hongdae and started to go in that direction but then I said, “Yo, we have been to Hongdae A LOT” so then, around the time we saw some older man pee in a corner along a busy street, we decided that FINE we would trust Chooch to go to Gangnam alone, and Henry and I would go to the DDP.

I mean, the kid was in Mexico alone and is kind of amazing at figuring out public transportation. So, Mommy slackened the leash a little bit and let him go off because if he’s going to be exploring any gigantic metropolitan city alone, Seoul is definitely one of the safest.

That was so weird though, getting off the subway without him and watching it continue on with him sitting there without us, NOT EVEN CARING. :(

We got back to Seoul around 7:30PM and OK maybe this will sound weird, but it felt like we had back home. I felt this same way in 2019 when we left Korea briefly to go to Japan – when the plane started its descent to Incheon, I got REALLY emotional because I missed being in Korea so much, even after just two days away, and I hadn’t fully realized it until that moment. Well, apparently, I feel the same when I’m away from Seoul for too long. It is honestly my favorite city in the whole entire world, blog.

Sidebar: Henry and I were on our way to meet my sister Amy and brother-in-law Dick on Sunday and I started TEARING UP IN THE CAR thinking about how much I miss it there, Korea in general, Seoul specifically, and Henry gave me a little “there there” pat and said, “We’re going to go back.”

ARE WE THO? WHEN? BITCH, WHEN?

This time around it really left me broken, I think.

OK Erin, slap yourself in the face if you need to, but let’s get back to this so we can wrap these recaps up before Chooch leaves for college.

As I was saying, we got back to Seoul Station around 7:30 Friday night and Chooch was so excited because he wanted to go to Lotte Mart and see the Pokemon area that we had seen without him Tuesday night. However, instead of going straight to the Lotte Mart entrance, we instead went into the Lotte Department area. These are all connected to Seoul Station – lots of action up in this joint. Anyway, the first thing we saw in Lotte Department was a section for Kodak brand clothes. This is A THING in Korea. Even Jiyong was saying that she didn’t understand it when we saw a Kodak store in Jeonju because there was nary a roll of film to be found – it was all clothes. I didn’t know this at the time, but Chooch was pissed because he wanted to go in but hello, you have a mouth? Use it!? If he had mentioned it, we would have gladly waited for him to peruse?!

So now he had the opportunity to go and oh hello, this shit was kind of expensive?! I mean, not enough to give me sticker shock but I didn’t really think any of the shirts or anything looked that cool and I hesitate to spend that much on Sloppy Son who might have outgrown a lot of things over the years (LIKE CALLING ME MOMMY!) but immediately getting stains on his clothes is not one of those things.

And then right next to that display was a National Geographic section!?!? They have clothes too? AND SHOES? I was really confused by this whole phenomenon, but you know what’s hilarious is that recently I saw an IG reel that was like, “Tell me he’s a Korean boy without telling me” or something and it was showing all these Korean guys with their uniform haircuts, etc. and someone in the comments said, “You forgot ‘wearing NatGeo.'” I died because it was a total IYKYK moment and I KNEW I KNEW.

(The reel was made by a Korean person so it was comedic stereotyping, don’t come at me, I didn’t make the reel!)

After Chooch did his Pokemon thing and we bought some shit at Daiso (we needed a portable charger and other boring shit), we made our way down into the bowels of Seoul Station were the subway lives! SEOUL SUBWAY, BABY, I MISSED YOU, DID YOU MISS ME???

There was this vending machine area and one of them had kpop albums! Seventeen and NCT Dream were in there :)

This was a live picture and I could have adjusted it so Henry doesn’t look like the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish sign, but why would I ever do that. Anyway, this was him standing next to Ive while Chooch looked at the non-kpop vending machine options.

After dropping off our bags and stuff at the hotel, we walked over to the nearby Lotteria. Lotteria is a really popular fast food chain in Korea but we had never gone before because, well, 2/3 of us are vegetarian. BUT!! Before we came on this trip, I saw a video on YouTube where they mentioned that Lotteria has a veggie burger now so we had decided earlier in the day that we would stop there for a late and quick dinner.

(I will tell you right now that I wish I had one of those LONG CHEESE STICKS in my hand right now. They were pretty fucking good.)

My favorite part was spending a good long while trying to figure out how our number would be called – it was a three-digit number but was it going to be, for example and pretend this is Korea: “one two three” or “one hundred twenty three”?!!? So I was trying to prepare myself with both versions of the numbers just in case only for Chooch to say, “Oh, they just put the number right up there on that screen.”

UGHHHHHHHH. So much time putting my brain into overdrive FOR NOTHING.

NOT BEEF, BUT VEEF YOU GUYS!!

(The Korean part says “a miracle that tastes like meat without meat.” THE MORE YOU KNOW.)

Real talk: there was nothing memorable about this veggie burger. It was your standard fast food chain stab at half-assedly catering to the meat-free population, which is preferable to wilted salads but still makes you feel a little LESSER THAN.

Interestingly, I started reading the Lotteria Wiki page and while it’s a South Korean company founded by a Korean entrepreneur, the first location actually opened in Japan in 1972 and didn’t expand to South Korea until 1979! That’s wild. (It’s a quiet Tuesday night, let me have this lame “shook” moment.) And speaking of the aforementioned Lotte Mart, etc., this fast food empire was named after a combination of Lotte (its parent company) and Cafeteria.

Seriously, when is a college going to invite me to teach a class on South Korea? I AM SO GOOD AT PARAPHRASING WIKI.

We made Henry get the Jeonju Bibimbap burger!!! I will let him type out his own review, never mind he’s making me do it. I just said, “Here’s the picture to help jog your memo–” at which point he rudely cut me off by making a THROAT SCRAPE OF DISGUST and said, “Oh I remember it, don’t worry, it was the worst thing ever.”

Elaborate please, Henry.

“It basically just fell apart. The bun was terrible. The burger was OK, but the BUN WAS JUST RICE COMPACTED TOGETHER.”

Well, yes, Henry. That was the whole point? The bun was literally smashed together bibimbap molded into bun-shapes?! That’s LITERALLY how it was billed.

“I mean, there’s not much more to say about it. I’m not going to get it again,” and then remembering we’re back in shitty Pittsburgh, he added, “well, of course not. But ‘thanks’ for making me get it.”

LOLOL.

Cry about it.

“I mean, I don’t know what else I would have tried because I DIDN’T GET TO LOOK AT THE MENU,” Henry spat, clearly on a roll now for someone who “didn’t have anything to say about it.”

At the end of the day you guys, Lotteria could have served me dirt on bread and I would have been like, “Oh well, at least I’m in Korea. We all need some dirt in our systems every now and then.” And then I would just wash it down with some banana uyu or Maxim cold brew from a bag. As I sign off, imagine this is a podcast and it fades out with Henry and I saying various pronunciations of Lotteria, all of which are definitely wrong.

Choo choo, motherconductors. (Or if you’re eating while reading this, chew chew mothermasticators.)

Back with more Gyeongju action!

We left Gyeongju World around 12:30 after successfully accomplishing everything there that we wanted. This left a lot of time open for us to do some last minute stuff back in the tumuli section of Gyeongju!

But first, it was time to eat! I had seen Slap Pizza on an earlier stroll through the neighborhood and since we hadn’t had Korean pizza yet, it seemed like the perfect time to gorge on some pizza with un-American toppings.

We sat upstairs and I had a nice view of the burial mounds and hanok roofs! Henry had to sit by him lol:

He looks like he’s super mad about it but I think he was actually about to sneeze or something. In any case, he was being annoying. He was so mad because he got a BEER and then didn’t have a bottle opener so he had to go back downstairs and ask for one, but the guy was like IT IS UPSTAIRS, IDIOT WIGOOK. So he came back upstairs, found the bottle opener, and then for absolutely NO REASON thought the buzzer was going off (it wasn’t?!?!) and took it BACK DOWNSTAIRS to get the pizza?!

The guy (I’m sure, I wasn’t there though) was like, “NO YOU’RE PIZZA ISN’T DONE YOU LITERALLY JUST ORDERED IT GO SIT DOWN YOU ENTITLED CIS WHITE MAN!??”

But if you’re one of those Henry Apologists and want to take his word for it, he said that the guy said he must have “accidentally set it off.”

IF THAT IS WHAT HE SAID THEN BITCH I PROMISE YOU HE WAS JUST TRYING TO BE NICE.

Because that buzzer was NOT going off!

And when it DID go off 10 minutes later, it was so loud and nearly vibrated itself right off our table, so Chooch cried, “THAT is what it’s supposed to sound like!!” And Henry was all, “DON’T START WITH ME BOY” except that he would never.

CREAM CHEESE CORN PIZZA, COME ON AMERICA. NORMALIZE THIS.

My only complaint was that we didn’t realize how small the pizza was going to be in relation to the cost!! It was pretty expensive, like $20 for that and we each got two tiny baby slices. I could have eaten a whole one of these on my own, and then probably would have cried about it in a locked bathroom later.

I really loved the aesthetic here, and the pizza was delicious (though unsatisfying) and I covet the blue chairs.

THE PIZZA SLICES ARE NOT THAT BIG!!

Chooch, Practically a Full Blown Man, was still hungry after this so he got a traditional Gyeongju sipwon cheese bread! I guess this craze started in Gyeongju but now you can get sipwon bbang in other cities too (we saw it in Jeonju and Seoul).

Of course he wouldn’t let me try it.

HENRY GOT SOME CHICKEN, BOY.

And since Henry had food now, he couldn’t go into the actual tumuli park with us, and if you could believe it – we actually hadn’t been IN the park yet this whole time we were there! You can enter the park itself for free (sans food, possibly also sans drink I can’t remember) but there is a ticket needed if you want to tour one of the tombs. We didn’t have much time left so we’re saving that for next time!

But would you look at that cloud!? It looks like a fluffy UFO hovering over a burial mound!

Chooch dressed in burial mound green that day.

Yes, this is a tourist hot spot but man it sure felt peaceful in its own way.

It was really nice to walk around here with just Chooch, talking shit on Henry hahahah.

I definitely posted about this previously but this spot is soooo popular. I mean, I can’t blame people for lining up for a snap here, because it’s incredibly beautiful. But….standing in line for a picture isn’t for me….

…unless there’s a kpop idol at the end of the line.

After this, we needed coffee and a treat in a bad way, and Henry had to go and find a post office to mail our postcards, so Chooch and I ducked into this LOVELY cafe that was near our guest house. Tuulip?? I can’t believe I can’t remember.

Anyway, I was happy to get to order in Korean. Chooch got a strawberry tiramisu and I got a delicious, rich sweet potato pudding. Ugh, it was really delicious.

We had a buzzer thing, but before it went off, an older woman who came in after us and was sitting at a nearby table got up and went to the counter. The way she was talking to the barista made me think that she was a regular. But then she brought our drinks and desserts over to us! I think she might have been the owner. She was sitting with a laptop and seemed to be doing work things. Anyway, I can’t explain it, but it was just really nice that she brought it over to us before our buzzer going off!

Then Henry came back and ruined the party. He had to also get a drink but he barked his order in barbaric English, so embarrassing.

After this, Chooch went back to the guest house to mooch off their power supply and charge his phone while Henry and I went BACK to the tourist road because there was a really modern and dare I say HIP makgeolli shop and I wanted to get a bottle of cherry makgeolli to take home. So we did that and then I was like, “WAIT CAN WE PLEASE KEEP WALKING I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE YET” so Henry was like Jesus Christ, FINE.

And thank god because we ended up stumbling upon the best thing ever (no, not Frozen Bride – I just took this because it looked cute!)….

This tiny shop selling Gyeongju cheery soju!!!

And there was a cute shop dog!

The one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that I am oh so sorry that we only purchased one bottle because this shit is GOOD. I am actually sad about it. Henry is too. Regertz all around.

Had to get some last tumuli shots!

Oh speaking of this spot, that morning when Henry and I were walking by ourselves, we saw a dead duck on the path! I have never seen a dead duck before and it made me sad. Luckily, someone had removed the poor thing before we came back later with Chooch because he probably would have been even more upset than me.

Maybe.

Anyway, now it was time to officially get our shit out of the guest house lobby (shout out to that guy – probably the owner) who let our backpacks and souvenirs squat there all day, and then also our son later in the afternoon lol). Well actually I retract my shout out because Henry showed him his phone and asked if that was the correct address for the Gyeongju KTX station and the guy said yes, but then our Kakao Taxi driver (LOVED HIM) took us to some abandoned train station and he was so confused as to why we wanted to go there. Henry kept saying “Gyeongju KTX” and the guy saying “Gyeongju KTX eopseo” (There is no Gyeongju KTX here, basically) and thankfully since he was speaking super informally since we were just foreigners, I was able to understand and answer him and we had a very basic, monosyllabic conversation which resulted in him understanding where we needed to go and thankfully driving like a maniac to get us there since he had already taken us the clear opposite direction. I was actually clenched in the backseat, thinking FOR SURE that we were going to miss our train, and for the first time ever, I actually opened Naver Maps to follow along to see what our ETA was.

Every once in a while, the driver would laugh quietly to himself, and mumble, “KTX, ha! Eopseoyo.” Then he would laugh again and shake his head, like, “These crazy Americans and their shenanigans!” And that was making me giggle quietly to myself too. He was a real character! Definitely a SOLID memory from Gyeongju. Also, I’m pretty sure Henry typed in “Gyeongju train station” not KTX, I wish he had shown me. But he was so mad that the guest house guy was like, “Yeah sure thumbs up brother.”

Anyway, the Kakao taxi driver was a hero and got us to the train station with less than 10 minutes to spare, just enough time for me to run to the bathroom (my period had started that morning, UGH) and for Henry and Chooch to run to the convenience store.

Honestly, I wrote in my journal, slept, and read for the whole train ride back. The only notable moment was when Henry got up to use the bathroom at one point and everyone stared at him because he’s a fool, so that was embarrassing, and Chooch sat next to the cutest college kid who was doing chemistry work on his laptop. Every once in a while, I would see him glance over at what Chooch was doing on his laptop, and it was precious. I wanted them to be friends. :/

OK, enjoy the video compilation of our last day in Gyeongju, featuring Gyeongju World, Henry being an idiot at Slap Pizza, Tumuli Park, the views out of the taxi window before we knew we were going to the wrong place. It ends with Seoul Station.

Guys, my final plea: if you find yourself in South Korea one day, get down to Gyeongju. It’s only about a 3-hour train ride from Seoul. It’s worth it. This city is a gem. (AND GET THAT CHERRY SOJU IF IT’S IN SEASON!!!)