I live in the Hongik university area which is famous for it student life/bars/clubs etc. So I though it would be all messed up, durty, with drunk young people everywhere, but it appeared to be totally different. Well, at least in the evening, probably at night it becomes a true hell who knows. So. This area is full of cute shops with all kinds of dresses, sweaters, and shoes. Also, there are venders with hats/gloves/scarfs on the street (because it's getting really cold). Everything is cool and queit chip. Wanna go back and check it out more percisely.
So I met my dear Yoon and she brought me to a real Korean barbecue restaurante! Real real where I was the only tourist, where they take the shoes off at seat on the pillows, where they drink So ju and smoke inside. Tam Ra Don on HongDae street. So first the waiter brings many free things like kimchi, green salad, garlic, then pork which you can cut yourself and then barbecue it (there's a special hole in the middle of the table). Koreans also eat meat wraping it with souces and kim chi with a green leaf. And of course you drink korean traditional So ju which has a vodca taste but with 20 degrees instead of 40. So it makes you warm but it's not disgusting.
After this we are back on the cold streats with shops, youth, and music. On our way I buy mittens which surprisingly have a stripe like the one I had in a kinder-garden. I laugh and think that at least I won't lose them. Then we go to another place, Jose Dduk Bok kki on Hong Dae Parking lot street, which has not many plastic tables and again only korean people. Students, a couple, a group of people with a girl with a small dog. What are they talking about? - I ask Yoon. Well, exams and now about some guy and dating, - she answers. People are the same everywhere, no matter what part of the world they live in, - I think. So now we have soup, Dduk Bok Kki (fried things with shrimps, sweet potatos, octopus, and other things inside), and Tui Kim (spicy rice cake). This spicy rice cake is so spicy that there's a fire starting in my mouth, Yoon runs to get some whater (which is free in all reastaurants, thanks god), and I promise never it it again. Right after this I ask how to say "not spicy" in korean. It sounds something like "an mevoyu" which I think is more important frase in Seoul than "thank you".
The funny thing, in traditional places everybody is eating the same thing. Everybody! People are just coming for 1 dish because it's the best, and even if there some other options on the menu, people still just order one dish.
For now I'm charmed with Seoul. And I'm sure it's gonna be only better :)
