EPISODE 11: SEOUL, ENGRISH, AND CATS SOOOO MANY CATS.

Seoul trip for our anniversary/Ben's birthday! This was our first time in South Korea's capital, and we were not disappointed. We made our homebase in Sinchon, a fun neighborhood with lots of restaurants, bars, and shops (plus street food. Mmmmm, street food.) Now, to explore!

Hmm, cat sticky notes within the first hour of arrival. Good sign.

The Chick-N-Bus. Why would you not want to eat here?

Ever wonder where all your time's been going? 

Yes, it's true. Hello Kitty Cafe. Including $10 Hello Kitty Cake. Hello Ripoff!

Ben is so jealous of the car ferris wheel...

Mmm, first lunch in Sinchon at the super-cute Baobab Story, a tteokbokki (thick, bullet-shaped rice cakes) buffet. Basically, it's DIY Melting Pot. You come in, choose your veggies (and/or meat), noodles, sauce base, and then they give you a pot and broth, and you do it up right. Mmmm.

Outside Baobab Story. Had to try to go for the mushroom!

Our hotel. We chose to pronounce it "Parfait," which made it a lot more chic than "rhymes with barf."

You... may not want to buy your shoes here.

And now for the highlight of the day: our first cat cafe in Seoul! For those of you (deprived) human beings who don't know what a cat cafe is, it's basically a place for people who can't own pets to come, chill out, and hang out with cats while having a coffee with friends. This one was super-cute, complete with sweet potato latte (surprisingly good!) and upstairs loft for extra coziness.

Ben is thrilled to be here. Thrilled. He even dressed to match the light fixture.

Aww, cute loft.

Rapturous (and by that I mean really sleepy) kitty!

They also had these really huge hamburgers... I mean, pillows.

Sinchon at night!

Now for some mandu (potstickers) for Ben. Guess this place was pretty legit based on the amount of paper-humans on the wall. 

And to top it all off, red bean inside a fish from this awesome street vendor that put cinnamon in her red bean paste. Mmmmm, so good.

Did we mention there was Engrish?

One of the many noraebang (karaoke) places. Hopefully not to whale songs, but you never know.

Day 2! Off to Itaewon, the foreigner district. On the way, the temple right near our hotel.

The train doors are always closed before the train gets there. Soooo... suicide prevention doors.

Prague or... Seoul.

Hey Mom, look! Massive European antique district... in Seoul.

Life goal of ding dong-ditching Sherlock Holmes? Check.

So my wife is a cat.

POOOOOOOF.

Yeah, imagine walking up this street every day...

Crepes and spiral staircase? Where are we, Milford?

Hey girl, why don't you come up and tea me some time?

The statues are so friendly here.

So, Itaewon has bigger shoe sizes for us waeguk (foreigners), but our sizes are still hard to find. I found some boots in this store, but the only way to see them in the mirror was to step up on the runway... 

Yeah, so hard to find in the midst of all this lard ice cream and strawberry beef cake... ^^'

WOW, Photoshop disaster. Just shove those two pictures together; no one cares about their fingers!

Day 3 in Myeongdong started off rainy, so I helped out this poor, poor plastic coffee icon. 

Lotte Department Store entrance. It may be a little fancier than the one at your mall.

One of the chic clothing brands here is called Beanpole, and their store featured this coffee shop that Ben wanted to thief Carmen Sandiego-style.

Just like Mom makes...?

Another famous brand, Hazzy's. Crew boats in a store = Ben wants to buy everything here.

And now for a little bit of birthday fun... haircut! Here's the before...

The during...

...and voila! K-pop idol! Look at that volume.

What does the fox say? Whatever it is, it's not worth wearing this to find out.

Your source for everyday brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc. X_x

Okay, okay, you ARE the most optimistic notebook.

Oh, sure, light up the Nandaemun gate after we've already left it.

Nandaemun market: K-pop socks, fake designer purses, and Engrish galore!

Cat Cafe: Round 2! Land of the exhausted, over-loved  cats.

Steam Cat!

I couldn't decide what was more entertaining in this cafe: the cats, or the groups of 20-30 year old men who'd come in and desperately try to pretend they weren't overjoyed to be there. So cute. ^^

Aww, kitties in a tent!

Hands off mah kittehs!

Adidas robot says, no shoes for you! We'd tell salespeople our sizes and they'd just laugh and laugh...

No, don't worry, not another cat cafe... this is just a pet store.

Off to hip Hongdae, where there are roughly 3-1/2 cafes per person.

Yep, we destroyed this bday dinner.

Something tells me they use a lot of makeup in their movies...

Day 4: Gyeongbokgung Palace and City Hall area (and photo-bombing Snow White!) 

Oooh, preview of that night... this is the Cheongyecheon River, a stream that the city revitalized and made a very cool river walk down. We had really lucky timing: we came right during the Lantern Festival, and a big international festival right down the street!

Japan: Hahaha, Korea's only got 13 ships in their navy? That's hilarious.

Admiral Yi Sunshin: ...I just sunk your battleships, yo. All 333 of them. 

Children in hamster balls... this was pretty brilliant.

Ribbon dancing never looked so awesome.

Now to Gyeongbokgung Palace! Ben got in just in time for the changing of the guard. 

Seoul in the fall = soooo beautiful.

Throne room! The painting may have taken a bit to finish. 

Give me some hungry chicken!

Yep, still on the palace grounds. This place is huge.

Ben dressed to match the columns.

...and the foliage. Show off.

Now to City Hall!

Aww, their City Hall is more whimsical than ours!

Mmm, spiraled potato on a sharp, sharp stick...

Lantern Festival! Soooo pretty.

So, after waiting in a super-long line, we finally got down to the Cheongyecheon, and got to walk through this amazing exhibit of the Baekje period in Korean history (18 BC-660 AD). The theme of it seemed to be, so, you know how Japan has x? Well, in the Baekje period, Korea gave them that! ...Still a bit of bad blood there, but a beautiful exhibit nonetheless.

Hahaha, beat you in Go again!

And lanterns for Jeju! Notice the stone dol haerubang (statues that are all over Jeju), and Mount Hallasan behind them!

In case you can't see it, the bench says, You are not alone. This little bunny is watching you. Always.

Back in the Hongdae neighborhood, one of our favorite night spots! This time, we're in Brit's Tea (?), with a fabulous view of the Hongdae nightlife.

Day 5: Insadong (aka, our subway murals are more impressive than your subway murals)

Insadong's the more traditional part of town, with lots of traditional crafts being sold, so tourists abound. We had our first, "Hey, white people! Can we take a picture with you?" moment here. Grandma and Mom grabbed my elbows and Dad and Son clustered around Ben, and snap! We made a Malaysian family's photo album. 

Chrysanthemum Festival at Jogyesa Temple. This was amazing.

Elephant!

Yes, this was (awesomely) part of the exhibit, representing an action-filled part of a Buddhist story.

More insanely intricate paintings on temples. 

Now, across the street to Ssamzie-gil shopping center, where a lot of artists rent out spaces and sell their wares from little shops within. Very fun!

Korean now with more....

Just carry it with you. Always.

Lantern fish by day! Now, it's back to the Myeongdong area to climb up to North Seoul Tower through Namsan Park to get a panoramic view of Seoul by night!

But first, a stop at the adorable Coffeesh Cafe. ^^

You're cute, but not keep-you-alive cute.

Beautiful walk up the mountain to the Tower! Only 2,000,000,000,000 steps.

So, a couple on a TV show put locks on a gate around the base of the North Seoul Tower to symbolize their undying love, and now look what happened...

Oh, Bear... can't you do anything right?

Adding to the madness...

These would be terrifying to find staring you down in the middle of the night.

Next up: For My Ugliest.

North Seoul Tower also lights up at night!

Oh, smoggy Seoul...

The walk down was just a bit creepier than the walk up...

Until the love leaves. ^^

Nandaemun Gate again, in all its glory!

Day 6: Random Wanderings (starting in Itaewon, then heading to Changgyeong Palace)

Just can't get away from it.

Craig, it's your spot!

Changgyeong Palace: check out the upholstery!

Hmm, didn't realize I was standing with my back to the camera so much. 

Mustard stain on front of shirt: hidden.

And now, time for shopping craziness at Doosan Towers. How crazy, you ask?

This crazy. 

So at first we stumbled into empty warehouse land, but then found the treasure trove that is night shopping at the Dongdaemun area. There are stores upon stores with 8+ floors of designers who rent out booths to sell their clothes. It is, honestly, insane.

Day 7: Seonyudo Park (My, what a beautiful former waste treatment plant you have!)

Yep, this island used to be a wastewater treatment plant; now it's just a beautiful park/backdrop to daring, unnecessary stunts.

Standing on miscellaneous giant rusty equipment: Epic.

There's Ben on the very top of the bridge!

Yes, waffles are a huge thing here!

Back to Hongdae! Our original choice of restaurant was closed, and then we saw this place, and thought, well... let's go with Plan B then.

For those whose mouths can be described as crucibles... Coffee Inferno is for you!

Cat Bus! (and copyright infringement. But you know...)

Yep, Cat Cafe #3! Home of the liveliest cats we met. ^^

These cats seriously had a system down for getting people's drinks. A couple came in and put their drinks down and started playing with cats, and then another cat jumps up on the table and whacks the chocolate milkshake off the table and onto the floor. XD

This is when they all decided to attack. Or beg for tuna. But the two seemed very similar.

33 cat day! That's going to be hard to beat.

Are you taking my picture?!

This cat is not impressed by this post.

After hours of wandering, we finally found the Eat Your Kimchi studios, where the Youtube videos we love to watch about life in Korea are filmed! Yay Simon and Martina! We saw you through the window, but were too awkward to try to go in and see you... so we just stared at you and circled around the building and then decided to stop being creepers.

Photo evidence: there are ice cream waffles here. (Was that the sound of Daniel booking a ticket I heard?)

So basically, pink wants to rule us all?

Ben hearts Seoul and Cameron so much he came back a week later to hang out with both! 

Overall, Seoul = an awesome time. We'd highly recommend it!

Gold star to you if you made it to the end!