Allison’s Last Day in Korea…

Was pretty uneventful.

We took the earliest hotel shuttle back to Itaewon for last minute purchases and gifts for those at home. We did a little exploring and ran into a Children’s Day Festival. (Korea also celebrates Parent’s Day and Teacher’s Day in May.)  I’m not sure if the lanterns were in celebration of Children’s Day or the upcoming Lantern Festival but I thought they were really pretty either way. 

(PS. I didn’t get any pictures of the lantern’s hung for the festival in Daejeon so these will have to suffice for your Lantern Festival blog as well.)

Seoul – Day Two

For our second day in Seoul we had a full schedule planned.  The hotel had a shuttle that took us through Seoul which was a huge help.  We started out in Itaewon for a late breakfast/early lunch at the highly recommended All-American Diner, aka Richard Copycats.

Seoul Tower

When in Seoul we stayed at the Grand Hilton.  It was absolutely gorgeous and they took amazing care of us.  It was in the mountains in the Northwest part of Seoul and our room had an amazing view.  It was seated on a mountain so they conveniently had a courtesy van sitting at the hotel entrance waiting for new arrivals to drive us (and all of our luggage!) up to the hotel for check-in.  Good idea Hilton!

Adventures in Seoul Part 1

I label this Part 1 because I am almost certain there will be many more adventures in the next 48 hours.

So I, Amy, had the task of getting Allison and myself to Seoul and to our hotel with absolutely no hiccups.  If this was New York I could probably manage that without any major problems, however, this is not New York.  This is the size and population of New York but in a whole other world. And I’m hugely intimidated by Seoul… but I didn’t tell Allison that.  I called the Hilton in Seoul in advance of our trip to find out the best way to get there from Seoul Station and I felt very comfortable with the directions I was given.  Tuesday morning we dropped Charlie off at Camp Lee Ann and headed off to the train station.

Last Day in Daejeon

Monday was a quiet day as we spent most of our time planning our Seoul trip.  We did head out for lunch and dinner.

For lunch we went to Sinpo Woori (Always Happy) and dinner was at Garten which is a Soju and Hof restaurant. I also want to point out it said “Family Restaurant” on the sign, but it was mainly business men enjoying bottle after bottle of soju.  There was even a drinking game built into the tables.

Allison & Dr Fish

This video needs no introduction.  Just watch it.

Sushi & The City

Sunday evening after old downtown (and after fake naps at Amy’s apartment) the three of us met up with Karissa and headed to California Roll down the street for dinner.  This is Amy’s favorite place for sushi.  Now that I am a master with chopsticks, I had to try out my new talent with sushi.

Here are a couple pictures of our order being made.  We had a California roll, dragon roll and tempura.  Being the adventurous person I am (insert sarcasm), I went out of my box and tried the eel.  I smothered it in wasabi, so it didn’t taste so bad.  I actually had two.

Sunday In Daejeon

Sunday we met with Marisol to go see old downtown.  (I live in new downtown.)

 

First we took Allison to a Korean market (above), then headed into the heart of downtown (below).

We did it again…

A bit delayed on this post but we went out again on Saturday night.  We met up with Emily and some of her friends.  It was another night at Yellow Taxi followed up Noraebang.  Here are some pictures.  These are the good ones…the rest were a little rough due to it being our second late night out. 

Korean BBQ

The following is written by Allison.  Be nice, it’s my first blog ever.  Amy is sleeping, so I’m taking over.

Saturday night we had dinner at a new Korean BBQ place across the street from Amy’s apartment.  It’s the traditional take your shoes off and sit on the floor kind of place.  And it was delicious!  (Are you noticing a recurring theme here??  Korean food is fantastic!  Well, most of it.)  (Amy wrote this paragraph before passing the torch to me!)

Korean Night Out

As I’ve said before, Korea is like college.  Well, college with a paycheck.  As part of her trip, Allison needed to experience this so on Friday we took her out for a night on the town.

At 10:30 we met up for a dak galbi dinner.  It’s totally Korean and absolutely delicious. There ended up being twelve of us at dinner, but we failed to take any group photos.  Sorry.

Allison & Amy Day One

Today was pretty quiet for us since she is still adjusting to the time change and we have plans to go out this evening. This blog will be pretty short as we really didn’t do anything of merit today. We went to the bank to exchange currency, walked around town, grabbed lunch and a cupcake.

First stop… Starbucks.  You buy a cake pop, you get a gift box!

Allison's in Korea!

Every day that I'm in Korea I like it a little more.  It's an amazingly welcoming and well-organized, albeit a bit quirky, little country.  And now Allison is here for one week to live it and love it with me.  Wahoo!

After a few minor flight delays she is here safe and sound.  We are back in Daejeon, had a late pizza dinner for her first Korean meal, and we are both about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. Stayed tuned in the coming days to follow the Allison & Amy Adventures in Korea.