Today me and my boyfriend venture out to Bukchon Traditional Village (
북 촌한옥마을) and I'm so glad we did. I have never been to this part of Seoul before and the atmosphere here is very, very different. We saw many traditional Korean houses and many of them were lovely. These houses are rare to see in Seoul, and when you do see them, especially when there are more than two or three together, it gives a new feeling of Korea; like you are really walking in a Korea neighborhood. Whenever I travel, housing and structures are two major factors that build the feeling/sense of a place for me. People and culture usual structure their homes to accustom their culture and lifestyle and that's probably why it is important to me. Another part that really wowed me was when we venture off the course and walked into the shopping area around the Blue House (Korea's equivalent of the White House).
I felt even stranger there because I felt like I was strolling through downtown Stillwater (MN) and it was refreshing. I kept thinking to myself, 'where have I've been denying myself this part of Seoul?' I didn't get a very good look and stroll in this part but I am going back! Until then, here are some pictures that I took with my phone camera >.< Sorry, that's all I have for a camera.
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| stores and cafe hidden in a small street alley ^^ |
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| Coffee Unlimited : We stop here for coffee. It was tiny |
I know it doesn't look grand or amazing but walking down this street was exciting. The use of the buildings for business were amazing. I promise to take better pictures next time.
This tree blew my boyfriend's mind away. He was so excited to see this tree beside a house. From his reaction, a tree this regular size, next to a house is a rare sight.
UPDATE: Jan. 17, 2012
Today, I went out to make a public library card. Since the library was near the area, I decided to explore the place again. I took a very long and slow stroll in this area ^^ Sorry about the bad quality again, only phone-camera quality...
I stopped at this small cafe for a drink and for a short reading. It was cute, although the bench seat I was sitting on was not comfty. I had my first ginger chai tea drink here, it was OK.
These of just random shots of shops and cafes that I thought were cute or cool. A lot of shops here are named after popular Western stories. For example, this 'OZ Kitchen'. There was a 'Little Prince Cafe' and also a 'Dorothy (from the Wizard of OZ) Coffee and Pie' shop.
This shop is awesome but I walked out with nothing in my hands since I'm on a budget. There was a very cool knitted hat that I wanted to purchase but the price was way out of my range. This shop specials in painting on fabric and leather and knits.
This hat shop was interesting. It had a lot of cool and strange looking hats. There was one that looks like a bag, it's the brown on with the handle in the front. After seeing that hat, I decided to go inside and when I did, be hold to my ears was the song from 'Howl's Moving Castle' from the scene in the hat shop in the movie. Although the hats and the shop itself was interesting, the worker didn't know much about hats because I asked what the name of the brown hat is but or what the style the hat is, and she couldn't tell me. I was disappointed although I don't know about hats, I thought I would learn something here but I didn't.
Look how cute the fire hydrants are in this area ^^
Anyhow, I really like this part of Seoul. I'm going to go back when spring comes around.
This tree blew my boyfriend's mind away. He was so excited to see this tree beside a house. From his reaction, a tree this regular size, next to a house is a rare sight.
