Seoul Day 1: Gangnam style

Yes, I'm cringing as much as you are over the title of this post. In my defense, my hotel was in Gangnam and I spent my first day exploring the area.

Gangnam is primarily a business and banking district. There are a number of bars and clubs here too, and plenty of good restaurants but it's not exactly a tourist destination.

I stayed at the Newv hotel, and I can definitely recommend it. It's about one block away from a subway station. Seoul's subway network is one of the best in the world, so getting around the city from the hotel is extremely convenient. The hotel's also close to several excellent restaurants and a couple of pubs. Rooms are clean and spacious, staff are helpful, and the dinner buffet is very good.

I'm going to steal one of John Scalzi's regular ideas and show you "view from a hotel window:"

It's not particularly inspiring, but it's the view I had.

There's a lot of public art and sculptures in Seoul. The first one I saw was half a block from my hotel. I noticed it from across the street and headed over to take a closer look. It was called:

I didn't translate the Korean. Maybe I'll work on that later.

I kept thinking about Pokeballs while looking at this, but that's only because I'm a tremendous nerd.

A short walk from the Dream gate is Seolleung subway station, which I used to get around a lot while here. Seoul has the best transit system I've ever seen. You can get just about anywhere in the city using the subways. They're fast and cheap, and come about every 7 minutes. Transferring between lines is easy due to the clear signage in the stations. There are multiple ways to get in and out of each station, and each exit tells you exactly where you'll end up. The stations themselves are miniature shopping malls, carrying everything from snacks and drinks to clothing and jewelry.

It could probably be a little overwhelming the first time you try to use it, but once you've taken a few rides it's almost ridiculously easy. The hardest part is figuring out your route.

Look at this beautiful thing. Every city should have something like it.

This shows you everything you need to know. This is exit 2.
You can get on the green and yellow lines in this station
The stop numbers for each line are there as well.

While wandering around some of the side streets of Gangnam I found this beautifully named restaurant. Apparently there is a popular dish called Hangover soup that's known for its restorative properties. I didn't try it during my time here, and I regret that. There's always next time!

This is the perfect name for a restaurant.

I didn't find Gangnam's buildings to be as unique or interesting as in Hong Kong or Singapore, but there were some that caught my eye. Green and blue glass were particularly popular in the office buildings.

You see what I mean? 

This is a pretty good example of the typical office tower I saw. There were several that followed this color scheme with only minor variations.

This is what a lot of the blocks in Gangnam look like: smaller office buildings mixed with retail businesses.

Seoul in the winter is extremely cold. The temperature hovered around freezing or just above it for my entire time there. The streets were busier than I expected them to be, though I shouldn't have been surprised. Business doesn't stop just because it's cold outside.

I walked around Gangnam without much of a plan the first day. I prefer to explore new places that way: pick a direction and go. I'll either see something I like or I'll get bored and change directions. It might take a little longer than a guided tour, and I might not see the sights every tourist wants to see, but I think I see so much more this way. I've never failed to find fascinating things to see and do.

For example, you might notice this colorful side street that plenty of people are walking into and out of:

You might walk half a block down that street and see something that reminds you that hip hop is universal:

You may walk a bit further and see a small restaurant that serves some of the best kimchi beef bulgogi you've ever had, along with two pints of refreshing Asahi beer.:

That's a cast iron plate that was hot enough to finish cooking the beef and egg while I drank my first beer.

Later on, I found myself at a mall a couple of miles away from my hotel. It was an impressive 9 stories tall, filled with high end shops on every floor. I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, but I did find a pool on the ground floor that was worth the visit all by itself:

This is a minimally processed picture. I raised the color saturation a bit and upped the contrast and clarity to make up for some less than optimal lighting.

This didn't need much processing at all, but I did tweak the contrast and brightness a bit to highlight the gold.

The glass in the upper half is reflecting the lights in the pool. I like the way this turned out, particularly how the lights make pools of color around them.

At the end of the day, I found a place called Kkangu chicken. I ordered their spicy soy fried chicken plate, and it did not disappoint:

Korean fried chicken is on a different level than most others. This was perfectly prepared, succulent and delicious. It was incredible, and I came back twice while I was in Seoul. I miss it already.

I want to leave you with a picture of Korean money. US currency is incredibly boring.

There will be more to come later. I got back to Guiyang just a few days ago and finally have WiFi that's working consistently!