This was our last full day in Seoul and we were going to do what we do best: stroll around aimlessly and explore the city. It was also my birthday and we wanted to do one special thing with the kids, but more on that later.
We were tired from the exhausting outing the previous day so we weren’t in a rush. We stopped for breakfast at a nearby A Twosome Place. Twosome is a Korean chain of cafés with a super nice vibe, great food and drinks.
Haven’t mentioned this spot before; mostly to spare myself some embarrassment because we basically went to one of these every single day since we had arrived in Seoul. Their milk tea was the best (?) I’ve had, ever. So much so that it sent me to some of the deepest places of the Korean internet in search of the original tea they use.
Afterwards we got in the subway to escape the rain and emerged back in Itaewon, which immediately was appealing to us. Narrow and steep streets, cool buildings, street art, and more. It just felt like a cool place, for lack of a better word.
We had put Itaewon on the map because of a very specific restaurant we’d caught on a random Youtube video by Tina aka Doobydobap. The small place was called 옛날국시 (Yetnal Guksi) and it served honest food: delicious warm and cold noodle soups, big seafood stews, mini gimbaps, and a couple more treats.
I was there for a very specific dish: the acorn jelly with rice (묵밥 or mukbap). It was served cold in a big bowl, and it was sooo delightful and refreshing. The textures alone were amazing. Eating gelatinous slices of acorn jelly mixed with rice off a sweet and delicate cold broth is a thing I didn’t know I needed in my life.
With a full belly (and sesame seeds in our teeth for some of us), we slowly digested the scrumptious meal by strolling around some more through the quaint streets of Itaewon.
Then for the special treat of the day — though I honestly didn’t need anything else after that lunch —, our mission was to find a bowling alley to have fun with the kids for a while. This time around we got in deep in the Gangnam residential area which felt very different from the main commercial areas. Much nicer, calmer, where it felt everything was in its right place.
After making a brief stop at a kids park, we made our way into the Yeongdong traditional market. Because it was already after lunch it was pretty quiet, but it was cool to see regardless. The impression we got from some of these markets is that each stall is connected to a house where people live, so the market street is basically their front yard.
As for the bowling, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as we wanted it to be. It was supposed to be a surprise for the girls, but we soon learned that the youngest couldn’t play. To make things worse, Lena and I couldn’t have any “adult drinks” because we were accompanying the kids.
After just one game, we were off and headed back to our neighborhood. Wrapped up the day by eating some more fried chicken and enjoying the views of the Cheonggyecheon stream.
Oh, and we grabbed a cheesecake at Twosome (sound familiar?) to sing happy birthday just before nudging the kids to bed so we could pack up our bags.
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