South Korea 2022: Leaving Canada, South Korea, & Myeongdong

This is Canada

day 0

Finally, a trip after COVID is more or less manageable. Technically I did go to Seattle before this trip - those posts will come after this one. I think it was in September or something during a family BBQ, I was talking about how I had 3 weeks of vacation left over and I was only allowed to carry 5 days over - I wanted to do something… I might have mentioned something along the lines of wanting to go to South Korea and my mom then said, “Oh well I also have vacation days” and my sister said the same thing. I then said, “Well if we’re going to go then we should look to buy tickets ASAP, if everyone is saying yes now then I will actually buy tickets.” And well, that’s how the story began (lol)

My sister has been to South Korea 2 other times I believe but my mom and I have never been. It’s definitely nice to have someone who has been there before and knows the transit system because unlike Japan, South Korea doesn’t use Google Maps (because of the North..), so it isn’t as easy.

We took Air Canada non-stop to South Korea and I think it was about a 15h travel time? Can’t remember honestly. Plane rides for me are decent, sometimes I don’t need to get up to go to the washroom or stretch (like my first time to Japan), I can just sit in my seat and chill usually and the trip there was decent.

I have always flown Air Canada for long haul flights (at least from what I can remember) so I have nothing to compare to but the food is pretty average. The meal there was your typical beef or chicken. It was decent, not much flavour in the air honestly so I had to add a bit of salt and pepper to it. The “spicy” cucumber salad was tasteless. The potato salad was also tasteless. The bread was as hard as a rock. Giving that meal 4/10 at most. There were also snacks in between. For breakfast I got Western style; so omelet and sausages. Then, the next big meal I picked was the glass noodles. Unfortunately again, it was bland. The fruit had like a sweet flavour to them but it didn’t really have the essence of fruit - does that make sense? And oh the infamous bread… rock hard!

After ALL that oh so delicious food, we finally landed in South Korea (remember to do any documents you can before you land because no one wants to deal with all that after landing and you’d want to get of the airport ASAP, right? Lots of people didn’t and were just standing filling out forms…). We walked a bits away to get to the train station that brought us to Seoul Station and our Airbnb was about a 10 minute walk away (which is amazing when you have heavy ass suitcases).

Our mom stayed in the Airbnb to rest and my sister and I went to the Lotte Mart near Seoul Station to pick up a quick meal, water, and whatever else we needed and ended the day.

Outside Seoul Station

Day 1

Finally the first day out, it always feels so surreal when you wake up and walk out on the first day of a trip. Living near Seoul Station was amazing because it made it easy to get anywhere but for our first day… Myeongdong.

MYEONGDONG

By the time we got up and were ready to leave, we were STARVING. So we were ready to EAT. Our first stop was Myeongdong Kyoja, which is actually on the Michelin guide and honestly, I know why. I believe there are 2 locations in the Myeongdong area and you need to get there bright and early or expect to wait in an hour (or longer) line.

The restaurant has a pretty small selection of items (I swear its only 4 or 5 items), so it won’t be a hard choice! You will need to pay right after you order and before you start eating, which I like because once you’re done, you just get up and leave. The food comes out pretty fast too, so you won’t be waiting long. We ordered these 3 dishes:

Bibimguksu

Mandu

Kalguksu

I think this all came out to just over 20,000 won (or $20 CAD)? It was actually so cheap and SO worth it. You also find that a lot of Korean restaurants give side dishes - this one gave some kimchi. Now let me get to the taste.
The bibimguksu was decently spicy (not overly), it had great texture coming from the mix of chewy noodles and crunchy cucumbers and pickled veggies. I feel like they used some of the kimchi juice/liquid for this sauce because it had a similar flavour. I’m not exactly sure how to describe this particular flavour but it was like a gasoline after taste? Giving it a solid 6/10. Next, the mandu is a pork and veggie mix. The skin was nicely thin and there was a lot of stuffing in them. The stuffing was juicy, though don’t get this mixed up with a soup dumpling - it is NOT a soup dumpling. For the price and quality?? This is pretty solid and with such, it gets a 7/10. Lastly, we have the kalguksu or knife cut noodles. Now THIS?! This was so taste. Knife cut noodles just have a certain texture to them - it has a good bite. The broth was flavourful and aromatic with the ground meat and onions. Just the whole dish, it was savoury, warm, hearty - not that it was particularly cold out or anything but this would be AMAZING on a cold day. If there is one dish I recommend you getting and can’t be skipped at this restaurant, it would be this one. Honestly really good 9/10.

There are so many shops and small streets around Myeongdong - you can buy clothing, snacks, and TONS of makeup and skincare. If you’re into that scene, you could totally spend all day in this area. There are also buildings around the area that have even more shops inside. Also, as you are walking and reach the end of one of the main streets, there are two huge department stores across the street: Lotte Department Store and Lotte Young Plaza - so even more shopping.

The Lotte Department Store has a lot of high end shops like LV, Tiffany… the usuals and the basement has a grocery store, food court, and many small shop where you can get food souvenirs (you probably can’t bring them home though because they’re like fresh). The Lotte Young Plaza has other clothing stores, Line Friends, a K-pop store, Popmart store, and more. Literally even the underground train station has a lot of shopping.

Another thing about Korea is the huge cafe culture, I swear there are multiple cafes on each block.. and Koreans love their iced americanos. It’s insane. But you know what? I’m not complaining because I love a coffee & baked good moment (lol).

After that filling breakfast, we were stuffed but we haven’t had any caffeine yet and the first day after a 16h flight? Caffeine was essential. We walked around figuring out which café would have space for us to take a seat because it was around 11 now and the streets were filling up.

Café Swith SOL is a pretty large café at the intersection of a major street within the Myeongdong area. We ordered a caffe latte, americano and some berry soda for drinks and I ordered a small lil additional snack or whatever - this creme bun. My mom said the americano was decent - strong cup of coffee but it wasn’t too bitter. The caffe latte was as expected - slight coffee flavour and very milky. I know caffe lattes are mostly milk but the ratio was a little off here but it tasted good nonetheless. As for the berry soda? I can’t tell you because I didn’t try it but can a berry flavoured soda be bad? I don’t think so, right?? The creme bun kind of surprised me. It was light, pillowy and the cream wasn’t too heavy or sweet. It was actually so tasty and I highly recommend you try it if you go to this cafe. One note though, I think this café only takes card.

My sister was really hoping that we would be able to still see the autumn leaves (we went during November) and we actually saw a lot of these trees with bright yellow leaves. We were just walking around exploring the Myeongdong area and we passed by this one building that (as you can see) was surrounded by huge walls and had police/security around - must have been important.

After walking and exploring the streets we were getting a bit hungry and were ready to eat again. So we walked across the street to explore the department stores.

There are a lot of clothing stores and high end stores as I mentioned but we weren’t looking to buy that kind of thing but we did do a quick browse through. We ended up in the Lotte Department store and in the basement floor, they have a huge food area.

A lot of the shops down there close at a certain time in the middle of the day to rest or have lunch I think. So we had to wait a little before we could order these kimbap’s. This place sold pretty large kimbap’s and they were at such a good price - for the 2, I swear it was under $15 CAD. There were a lot of people ordering here probably because it such a good price. We got the BBQ pork (left) and the tuna kimbap (right) and we barely just finished it. Though we had also got 3 pieces of fishcake at some other stall (unfortunately don’t have a picture of those but they were just ok), so we were stuffed already.

Just before we trained back to Seoul Station we passed this stall that made these walnut cakes - it smelt so good. We picked up some red bean ones. They’re really good fresh but we got so many we put the remaining in the fridge and it doesn’t quite taste the same the next day (not that they were bad).

ONE MORE THING just before we went back to our Airbnb - we stopped by the Dunkin at Seoul Station and I had to pick up this mochi/pon de ring donut. If you haven't already seen my previous Japan travel posts… (you should) but I’m OBSESSED with these types of donuts. They’re like soft, chewy, and springy. Something about the texture makes these the best ever. Maybe because it was nearing the end of the day but the donut didn’t hit the same as the ones I’ve eaten before but it was still good.

And that really ends the first full day here in Seoul. I wish I had taken even more photos but you know, it is what it is. But stay tuned for the remaining posts for this series, I promise there is a lot more coming. Enjoy!

-Thomas