Yesterday was such a long day that I was too tired to write something. Long but amazing day. And I think I will start from the end of it cause this is the best part.
My great Yoon invited me for dinner to her house. I was so excited cause I was about to meet her family. So we arrived and she introduced me to her mother and little brother. Of course, when I was in front of her mother I immideately forgot how to say Hello in Korean, but she reminded me ^^. And then...There was a food heaven! Her mother cooked sooo many things! Real Korean things! I was so greatful! Ok, I will list all the stuff that was on the table. So. The traditional Bob - rice bowl, usully you get it with any dish that you order. Then, Myung Tae Guk - dried fish soup; Jabchae - dried noodle with vegetable;Bulgogi - Korean barbecue; LA Galbee - Korean style LA barbecue (meat on bones, super delicious); Mussam - rapped radish with vegetable; Kae Ran Jjim - boiled egg with ham; Jun- Korean Pizza (wich actually doesn't look like pizza at all, it's some kind of pastry with onions and carrots).
They also opened a bottle of wine which was super nice. Really really greateful! Such an amazing evening.
In the afternoon I have visited the Gyeongbokgung palace. Yes, this is astonishing. Actully, if you have been to Beijing Forbidden city, the concept is the same. Huge territory, many different palaces/houses/small courts, kind of a city indeed. But of course the palaces are different, they are all very bright, colored in different ornaments. You can walk there the whole day, looking at dfferent corners, trying to imagine how it was centures ago, when concubins were walking there. In addition, you have huge mountains behind all this beauty which makes the scene complete. I even saw the changing of guards there, which is a big luck. Koreans in traditional clothes with flags, marching. The only thing which was kind of spoiling everything was that is was extremely cold and windy. Sad, what else can I say, so I tried to make as many pictures as possible so that I could truly enjoy it later.
After the palace I was super hungry so I started my hunting for delicious Korean food. After 30 minuts of searching I was almost desperate, looking through the windows of more or less decent restaurants. That's when I noticed a guy who was also looking throuth the windows of the restaurants, kind of lost. - Are you looking for food? - Yeh, and I cannot find anything, and I'm starving! - Me too! So we just picked some restaurant and decided to give it a try. As a result we ended up in a really traditional place where you have to take your shoes off before entering and then you seat almost on the floor. The best was yet to come. We hoped for an English menu. And...yeh, so naive, there was no menu at all! The woman just showed us some items in Korean with prices that's all we could have hoped for. Pictures? Haha, no. So...We just closed the eyes and pointed at something. What else? :) As a result we got some kind of soup with vegetables, seafood and noodles. Not bad, and of course many side dishes for free. And yes, the guy appeared to be a very nice interesting French guy who has been travelling for 20 months by the moment. So we spent 2 hours in that lovely restaurant, chatting. Nice, what else can I say :)
Then I went to Namdaemun market. This was a big dissapointment. Yes, there is a lot of cheap stuff, but I wouldn't call in good...In any way. Just old fashioned korean dresses, cheap geans, coats, socks. Well, maybe it's all because we have a lot of similar markets in Russia, so I didn't see anything surprising. Anyway, I can say this market is good if you want to buy some ginseng tea or other herbals, they have tons of them there and for quiet a good price.
Two mistakes of the day. First, after the market I was super cold so I decided to go to a coffee house. I have picked the famouse trade network Tom n Toms. The place itself is super nice and coffees seemed promicing. But, damn it, I've noticed the picture with new product - Sweet Potato Latte! Can you imaging? For me it's the same as..for example, carrot coffee! Oh...Sometimes my curiousity is killing me. Well, my only justification is that I associate Latte with coffee, but in Korea it means just milk and nothing else. So...yeh, it was disguasting sweet potato milk...moreover, soy milk! Soy milk is everywhere here. So it made me so fool! By the way, if you want to have a really nutritious breakfast, just replace milk with soy milk, it makes you really full for long. That's what I've learned from my korean experience :)
Second mistake was quiet similar. After amazing dinner with Yoon we went to a coffee place where I saw...Black Bean Latte! Yeh, you know what happened next. I felt so bad at night...And I still cannot look at beans or any other kind of proteins :p
