Day 6: Bukchon Hanok Village
The flight from Osaka to Seoul takes only a couple hours. Getting to Kansai Airport (KIX!) from the Hyatt Regency, however, takes an hour and a half, numerous flights of stairs, and many transfers. Still, I refused to take a $100 taxi when public transportation would provide.
By the time I reached the express train from Incheon to Seoul Station, I was relieved—this part, I knew how to do. By the time I arrived at the central station, I was recharged enough to lug my bags onto the subway to Anguk, then trudge the 10 minutes or so through the charming old Hanok Village to the Airbnb guesthouse I’d booked for the night. My room, Cozy 1, was as stated—a tiny traditional room with nothing in it but a folded up futon, comforter, and pillows piled in one corner and a small Noguchi-style lamp. In the bathroom, a deep wooden Hinoki tub sat ready for filling and soaking. In my old age, my vacations have become a string of luxurious baths.
After bathing and changing, I walked the 30 minutes to Euljiro to check out a record store/natural wine bar called The Edge that wound up being much less exciting than its write-up in the NY Times had led me to believe, so I quickly moved on to a narrow alleyway of busy pubs so full of Korean friends having fun, I was too intimidated to try and squeeze in. I went to the other natural wine bar I’d scouted, MXL, and though it’s next-to-emptiness should have been a warning, I was too exhausted to go any further and parked myself at the bar. Later, I regretted not going to The Corner Shop, instead—a pub made to look like an old-school diner/bar with vinyl seats and a disco light roving over the youth inside despite it being only 7 p.m.
I was actively avoiding restaurants, however. I’d already decided that this night, I would have the one Korean food I didn’t manage to sample last time: the elusive Korean corn dog. Lucky me, there was a shop dedicated to them right on the way back to the hanok, and I could order from a machine; no embarrassing myself in front of an employee necessary. The downside of machines with small images: you may not actually know what you’re getting. What I thought was a regular crunchy Korean corn dog covered in zigzags of ketchup, mustard, and mayo wound up being a half-mozzarella (eep), half-sausage Frankenstein coated in batter, then dipped in what looked like crunched up ramen noodles—all of which had been deep fried and rolled in sugar (!) before being drizzled with a delicious but absurdly spicy sauce that left my lips tingling long after I’d finished because yes. I ate the cheese. After one glass of wine (mistake), I was in a “destroy myself” kind of a mood.
Once I’d eaten, I unfolded my little mat over the heated floors, turned out the lights, and slept longer than I have any night thus far.
