Bukchon Hanok Village

So today was really fun but extremely tiring- I walked sooooo much. But then again, I walk a ton every day because Seoul is a big city and there is so much to see. Everyone walks a lot here anyways, no wonder I see ajummas walking up the stairs with very toned calf muscles haha.

Me and a couple of friends went to bukchon hanok village, which is an area in Seoul that has a bunch of traditional Korean houses, cafés, craft shops, and museums. It was a beautiful area and it didn't look like we were in a city at all- it had that small, cute town feeling. First we walked to the craft street of the village and coincidentally we bumped into another nsliyian there with her host family! All of us stumbled upon this place that taught you how to tie traditional Korean knots so we went in to try it out! We all made bracelets and then the other nsliyians host dad paid for us, which was really sweet. 

Then we went to a the main hanok village, which is also an actual residential area (so we had to be a little quiet haha). Weirdly enough, we ran into another nsliyian with his host family there. 

It was absolutely amazing to see the hanoks and then the Seoul skyline in the background. It definitely showed the mix of old and new in Seoul, because yes this city is very modern and advanced but it has such a rich cultural heritage as well. We went to an observatory so we could see the tops of the hanoks better and it was really beautiful. 

Also this place was selling mini cactuses, which was really cute. 

Then we went out for lunch (pizza, so Korean) and then for 호떡 which is like fried pastry with sweet syrup in the middle. Apparently it's supposed to be a winter food because it's warm and sweet, but we ate it anyways and it was delicious haha. We then went on a quest to find a park but we never actually found the place we wanted to go. Instead we wandered into a nature-y area and then saw a house that supposedly a drama was filmed at? It was really tiring so then we went out for bingsu (yeah, we basically just walked and ate the entire day. Why not?). 

We sat and talked in there for about an hour and then wandered back to the subway station. On the way back we saw a strange exhibit outside of an art museum so we got a nice Korean family to take an instamatic picture of us in front if it! 

We also saw this weird sculpture. No comment. 

We think it's some Korean kids game, but it could be anything.... 

The walk home from the subway station was brutal because my feet are so tired. It feels so nice just to sit on my bed again haha.