South Korea 2022: Last Full Day in Seoul, Korea

I’m pretty sure this is our last full day in Korea. I can’t even remember properly now - the trip was back in November and I’m writing this in May (lol). Plus, I’ve left writing this last post in draft for some time. Anyway, I feel like when you travel because you’re doing so much and experiencing so many new things, the days seem to travel slow. Then, once you reach the end of your trip, it’s like - oh wow, it’s over already?!

We didn’t really have any plans for today. Though we definitely planned to go eat Issac’s Toast - which I’ve always been hearing from people who’ve traveled to Korea before or people online. There’s also a place called Egg Drop I think and it’s the same thing but I heard it’s not as tasty? Don’t hold me to that.

We were back in Myeongdong area because there was an Issac’s Toast there. You can see this bad picture I took, the N Seoul Tower in the back. We were here pretty early so there wasn’t too many people in the area.

We went to a K-pop store on the top floor of a Nature Republic store. We were the only ones there because it was so early. If you like K-pop and collect stuff, I say go to any and all stores you see because you find different things in each of them. I don’t think I said this earlier but you will be walking A LOT in Korea. There’s a lot of natural inclines as you walk the streets. The subway system, you may need to walk long distances to transfer and you’ll definitely be walking up flights of stairs to move around down there and to get out of the stations. Besides the culture of… thinness (I guess - but we won’t go there) I can see how people can stay healthy just going about their everyday lives.

We walked over to the Issac’s Toast in Myeongdong - it was like on a side street in a small street? Even though we got there, I would say pretty early, there was already a line of people eating the sandwich and lining up to get one. Issac’s Toast is like a Korean style sandwich, they have options for things inside shrimp, chicken, etc but the bread has sugar added because it’s sweet. So… like sweet but savory sandwich. Maybe it sounds a bit strange? But it was quite tasty.

Ordering wasn’t hard. There was a menu with numbers, so you would only need to tell them which number - that part was pretty fast. Waiting for your sandwich to be made took some time… maybe 20-30 minutes from when you ordered? The shop is quite small. Food delivery services came to do pick ups and I swear people called in to make orders as well. So, quite busy.

I ordered the ham, bacon and cheese toast. I think this is a good option because its very… western? So for those people in your life who just eat chicken fingers, I don’t think you can go wrong with this choice. Plus, I think the saltiness from the ham, bacon and cheese, balances the sweetness they add to the bread. I think it only costs around $5, which is quite cheap. I give mine a solid 8/10.

I think my sister and mom ordered a shrimp one and a beef one. Honestly, they were all quite tasty and I would recommend stopping and trying it.

To no ones surprise at this point, we stopped by a café for some coffee. Lian Coffee is close to the exit/entrance of the subway systems. There was some nice seating on the upper floor too. I don’t think there was a bathroom in here though… so you’d have to go to the small department store across the street. Just got a couple caffe lattes and sat for a moment before we left.

We did some more walking around the Myeongdong area, nothing in mind honestly. We stopped by a chicken place for lunch. It was one of those places where they stir fry the chicken in a sweet spicy sauce in front of you and there’s a ring of cheese around, where you dip your chicken in. They had soup and cabbage as self serve. Since it was hot outside and I was low-key craving some, I ordered some naengmyeon.

The naengmyeon noodles were quite chewy! Cold and refreshing. Though I don’t think they gave us any of the mustard sauce, which I like - I want to start tearing up, honestly. The chicken was tasty but I don’t think it was anything special. There was TONS of onions and green onions - I swear it was half that and half chicken. The rice cakes were soft chewy and some had cheese inside. I recommend eating the dish quite fast, if you want the cheese because the cheese starts to harden and sticks to the pan. I’ll give this place a 6/10.

Again, we didn’t do anything special for our last day. We just walked around and browsed. Enjoyed the weather and definitely enjoyed the time away from work. We headed back around dinner time and we decided to try Lotteria that was in Seoul station.

I can’t remember but I don’t think it there was that much of a price difference from McDonalds… but what I do remember is that it’s definitely not better than McDonalds. It’s not bad though, don’t get me wrong. I ordered a chicken burger just to see how it would compare to the McChicken, which is one of my favourites. I just find the bun was not my favourite - it was soft and squishy and stuck to the roof of my mouth. Even the lettuce didn’t hit the same, I don’t know what it is. And looking at the picture now, I’m trying to figure out that that shiny red, curvy looking thing is (lol). Don’t think it’s ketchup because it looks solid - maybe its just the skin of a tomato?

The fries were not my favourite either. They remind me of Burger King fries? Maybe I just got the wrong sandwich or waited to long. Giving Lotteria a… 5/10.

Now that we were back home, we had to find ways to squeeze everything we bought into our suitcases and make sure they weren’t overweight. It was quite the challenge (since my mom only bought a carryon) but we did it. Worked out in the end.

The next day came and we headed over to the airport. We ate some things, walked a bit, went treasure hunting trying to find the return booth for the portable wifi (don’t know why it was so hard) and going through customs and security was decently fast. Did quick last minute shopping for duty-free alcohol in the airport [note: yes, most likely your alcohol will be opened and checked when you return to your own country. They don’t open the actual bottle but the case its in to scan for whatever they scan for].

Went to the food court on the second floor and had our last meal in Korea!

Ordered this set meal. This was nice and spicy! And the kimchi here was pretty tasty.

That’s really all for our trip to Korea. I really hoped you enjoyed reading along and sort of felt you joined me along in my adventure. I will have more posts of other travel coming soon! And I do have a trip planned in October of this year. So, more posts to come!

Thanks for reading

-Thomas