Actual day: 13 Oct 2018
After a good night’s rest, I woke up feeling refreshed. Mom initially planned to have breakfast at a very famous restaurant. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. In the end, we simply ate at a random restaurant. We were surprised by the large variety of food. However, the food itself was not so tasty and the restaurant’s service was very unpleasant. The waiter was extremely rude and kept insisting us to order many dishes. One of the other customers was so put off by their attitude that they left furiously. We should have followed suit but still ended up eating there.
Next, we took a train to the famous fish market “Noryanijin”. It is supposed to only take a few minutes, but we got confused with Korea's messy subway lines, and ended up taking an hour to reach there. I learnt that the fish market was recently split into two parts; one old and one new. The older one was dirtier, had less variety of seafood and smelled very fishy compared to the newer one. Hence, we had lunch at the newer fish market instead.
I am not surprised by mom ordering a lot of food, but I was shocked that she actually ordered live octopus! To make things worse, she forced my cousins and me to eat it! I feared for the worst when eating the octopus, thinking its wriggling tentacles will choke me. However, after I ate it, I realized it was nothing scary nor traumatizing. Quite tasty in fact.
We were enjoying ourselves until we learnt that the restaurant charged us an extra hundred dollars simply for sitting down, washing and cutting the food. How unreasonable was that? My mother reluctantly paid the bill but vowed never to come back!
Our next stop was an ancient palace called “Gyeongbokgung”. There was nothing much there, just large empty rooms and a big lonely chair. While exploring, I was surprised to see many people wearing traditional costumes despite the chilly weather. My mother explained that it was a tradition that all Koreans must follow.
After what felt like ages in the boring place, we finally left for Insadong. It was time to resume our shopping! Along the way, we ate a superb green tea cake at “Osulloc”. The cake was so soft and creamy inside. Probably the best one I have ever tasted. I was tempted to eat the “poop bread” too, but my stomach was simply too full!
On our way back to the hotel, we decided on Korean street food for dinner. It was not cheap, but it was worth as they were scrumptious. We then explored a large “Line Friends” store. Looking at all the cute soft toys, my impulse was to buy them all! But I stopped myself when I noticed its exorbitant prices! In the end, I went back to the hotel empty-handed but relived that my wallet is still full.
I rested my tired feet in the hotel and reflected on the incidents earlier today. Overall, it was not that great, but tomorrow will only be better!
31 Oct 2018
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