Seosan Streets

Day two of Korea and I’m loving it. Surprisingly, I’m not jet lagged at all. I was afraid jet lag would hinder me from doing a lot of fun things the next day. I started the day right with my grandma’s home cooking for breakfast.

Topped it all off with some juicy peaches!

One of my favorite places of all time is the street marketplace of Seosan, South Korea. One can really get a sense of Korea’s culture through the street vendors and food. Getting to know the nice people is always a plus. A man from a vendor selling fresh fish asked me where I was from since I was taking pictures of the vendors. He was shocked to hear I was from America. Seosan is a small city so most tourists don’t come here. Although it’s small, I’m proud to say that this place is my hometown!

The lanterns give off an illuminated night look.

Some of these plants are grown in tiny terracotta pots! How adorable!

The Fresh fish vendor I mentioned above! I love seafood.

My brother, mom, and I were pleasantly surprised to meet my grandma at a vendor selling fried chicken. She was going to buy some fried chicken to take home for us to eat, but since we were headed to the bus terminal to go to my other grandma’s house in Taean soon, we all decided to head to one of my favorite cafés called Café Fresh Berry!

The café is located on the upper floor so you take a flight of stairs and enter what looks like an enchanted garden.

The cool thing about this is that the entire wall is a mirror so it makes the café seem doubled in size. The circle you see on the ceiling is actually a semicircle and it’s reflection!

Another reason why I love this café is because the chairs here are actually swings that hang from the ceiling! You can look through a window out onto the view of the marketplace.

View from the café window.

My brother and I ordered a Strawberry Queen Bingsoo to share. It is basically Korean shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk, strawberries, mochi, ice cream, strawberry syrup, and sprinkles. It was a pretty big bowl. I dont think i could finish it all by myself. It cost ₩8000, which is equivalent to approximately $8. A quick tip for converting Korean Republic Won into United States Dollars is to imagine a decimal point at the end of the number and move it three places to the left. For example, let’s take ₩1500. Place a decimal after the last digit and then move it three places to the left and change the ₩ sign to $. Now the ₩1500 becomes $1.500. Simple, right?

Along with our order came complementary lollipops and Lotus Biscoff cookies.

After eating, we went to the bus terminal to go to Taean, where my other grandmother lives. The bus tickets cost ₩2000 won per person and a discounted price of ₩1600 middle school and high school students.

Necessary bus selfie!

I unwrapped the strawberry lollipop given to us at Café Fresh Berry and ate it. Don’t the swirls look really cool? The shape reminds me of a honeycomb.

The bus ride to Taean allowed me to enjoy the beautiful nature scenery of South Korea.

We finally arrived at my grandma’s house in Taean! My uncle runs a fishing business so they live by the sea. Since they live by the work site, the air smells of seafood. Although that may be a strange smell to some, I’ve come to love it because of all the memories I have with my dad’s side of the family.

Now, I know these look like truffula trees from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, but they aren’t. They are fishing nets that my uncle uses for his fishing business!

A happy hippopotamus pillow to make your day!

On the way back, we stopped by to meet a lady we used to live by when I was about three years old. My grandma said that whenever she meets her, she always says she wants to see me again. We surprised her with a visit and when she heard that I was here, she ran to see greet me. Her husband was out working, but she said that if he was here, he’d be really happy to see me too. I was touched that she was genuinely happy to finally see me after 15 years.

The beautiful city of Taean.

Since my mom and brother caught a cold, we stopped by the hospital and pharmacy in Seosan. Then, we headed out to the explore the city

We ate samgeupsal (pork belly) for dinner. We ordered a combination of eight different marinated pork belly meats and a spicy seafood soup. There was also a platter of lettuce and sesame leaves to use as wraps.

Some of the marinade flavors included curry, red pepper paste, pine leaves, and wine.

Grilling the meat, kimchi, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. Onions with bean paste to use in wraps.

Yummy spicy seafood soup. Doesn’t this look mouth watering?

Lettuce wrap with pork belly meat, onion, bean paste, fresh veggies, kimchi, and bean sprouts. What more could you want?

Bowl of fresh veggies to be used in wraps!

Wrap platter and soup before we devoured everything.

We then digested our scrumptious dinner with a walk in the park.

Ended the night with a Starbucks drink and a walk back home.

It might be hard to see but the sign behind the trees reads “happy Seosan.” Each city in South Korea has an adjective that describes it and Seosan’s is happy.

I can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventures!