We got another latte for the walk to the Changdeokgung Palace (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changdeokgung), which is the number two palace behind the Gyeongbokgung Palace which we saw last time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongbokgung).
The Korean Palaces and many upperclass homes had underfloor heating, where fires would be maintained on the perimeter of the structures "half basement" and the smoke would be vented around under the floor and out the chimney, example can be seen here.
We did have a guided tour through the Secret Garden, which included info about the unguided portion of the palace. Fall time had some beutiful Korean Maples in change, which apparently was a bad thing to the Joseon peoples, they say the changing colors of the trees as treasonous, so they planted almost exclusively evergreen trees, all of the deciduous trees are from during or after the Japanese occupation.
After the palace we went to a Ramyun spot, to warm up from the cold morning tour.
It is a Korean take on Japanese Ramen, often times spicy, I got the spicy ramen with sausage, the sausage being hotdogs sliced on the bias, and laura got the less spicy regular bowl. Both were exactly what we needed to get on with our day. We wandered around what I think was a university/theater district as there were a bunch of halls and theaters, and young adults about. We kinda shopped for shoes, because as ever when I go on international vacations I struggle with shodding my feet. Before leaving home we went all the way to the Bellevue mall, (which was a great contrast to malls over here, it is clearly the Seattle-areas' premier malls, and it was nothing compared to the mall we went to the other day), and were unable to find anything that I found agreeable. My general purpose shoes are on their last legs, and will survive this trip, but will need immediate replacement if I cant find anything here.
We have noticed that Dad Shoes are all the rage over here, like cool, hip young people are wearing New Balance 550s, and apparently the Discovery Channel has a line of clothes and shoes, I was ready to buy some basic black Asics, and they had my size, but only in Extra-Wides.
We then decided to cross the river to the Gangnam area to the South (yes, that Gangnam). Gangnam is the rich swanky neighborhood, and it felt slightly less buzzy busy over there, there were a few more German manufactured cars (as opposed to the ubiquitous Hyundai/Kia elsewhere), and the apartment buildings looked a little less shabby.
We first went to the Kukje Electronics shelter to find an older run exclusive gundam kit that I missed in the states. The place felt like a building in Akihabara Japan, a bunch of floors of appliances and electronics, and then on the top a bunch of little shops and stalls selling anime paraphernalia, mostly vinyl figurines, but I found one guy that had a tiny stall with teetering stacks of gundam kits, and on a bottom tucked away corner they had the kit that I have been looking for for several months now, and a few dollars cheaper than online. Now that I had decided to purchase something I knew I was inconveniencing ourselves for packing, so I figured, the additional inconvenience of another kit would be negligable, I got another kit I never expected to have because online prices are 105USD and up. The guy mentioned several times that it was very high price, when I finally got him to tell me, it was 2/3rds the online prices. I scoffed and just told him to swipe my card...I am thinking now maybe he wanted me to haggle?
We found a taproom for one of the local microbreweries and had a few beers, then went to another taproom that had snacks and self-serve beers. Something in the taps was wonky because half the pour would be foam, and the way the tap-to-pay system worked there wasnt time to let the head settle and finish the pour, anyways beer snobbery aside, all of them were good, and representative of what they claimed to be ie the Belgian tasted like a Belgian and the ESB an ESB. The food they had was very interesting
The Nachos were just tortilla chips, and a cheese sauce that tasted like Kraft MacnCheese cheese, and we were hoping that the fried milk was cheese curds, but it was fried sweet cream? I have no idea how they did it, but it was the consistancy of custard, and a little less sweet.
After some more beers we went to a Pork focused Korean Barbecue Spot, they had no english menu, so the guy just ordered for us, ultimately we had pork neck, pork belly and something else we didnt hear properly, maybe shoulder?
They showed us how to eat it with all the accompanyments, namely wrapping things in leaves.
There was garlic slices in sesame oil, pickled mustard leaves, salt, wasabi, a sambal like thing, and leaves that we couldn't readily identify.
We headed home with intentions to drop off our stuff and go out again, but between missing our stop on the train, and the relative long rides, we were too beat head back out after getting home, so ultimately went to sleep.
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