DAY 6: New Year's Eve (Insadong and Boshingak)

So we had an in-class quiz for Psychology today, which partly turned out to be frantically remembering the picture that our lecturer flashed onto the screen right before the test. It was literally one of the three questions in the test.

That afternoon, I went to Myeongdong 명동 with Kelly and Cynthia. I was so amazed by the crowd/atmosphere/things-to-look-at when I first came out of Euljirosamga 을지로(삼)가 station (Most of Seoul's subway system is underground). The station exit brought us right into the fray of the 'main' street, which is lined with all these brand-name beauty shops on its left and right. This 'main' street was also where all the food stalls were, which were in two rows so people could walk between them and feel conflicted over the sheer amount of choices one could make. It was SO crowded, but it sure did add to the exciting and buzzing energy that Myeongdong is known for. Every food stall sold different items, including but not limited to: fried squid, fusion udon, octopus-on-a-stick, fresh juice pouches, fried omelettes, potato tornados and so so much more. There were probably 20-30 street stalls in that main street alone. The other shops in Myeongdong consisted of shops like Zara and Daiso, and other smaller cafes/eateries/restaurants as well.

Potato tornados @ Myeongdong

PRO-TIP: the stalls selling touristy knick-knacks are overpriced. You can get the EXACT same ones (and so many other choices) at Insadong for maybe $1-2 cheaper. I guess you could bargain, but you can't slash the prices too much or they would get offended.

After wandering around a little, I remembered I was in Myeongdong to exchange some money so we checked some rates at the money changers that were located in the same area (I used this one as a guide: Best place to exchange money in Seoul). I exchanged AUD$500 at a rate of 851, where AUD$1 = 851W, since I'd only brought AU$500 worth of Korean Won over (382,500W, at a lousy rate of 765).

We then went to Insadong 인사동 via Anguk 안국 station (#6). Just further down where we came out of the station, there was a shop at the corner selling Korean-style tote bags and backpacks. I bought a new black backpack since my cheap Factorie drawstring bag broke on one side that day. It cost only 10 000W; that's about AUD$12.50!! Furthermore, this backpack lasted me for the rest of my trip, which saw me carry many heavy-ish things inside, and it's hardly worse-for-wear still.

Turning the corner, we came face to face with Insadong's main shopping/cultural street, which is a wide stone pavement with shops on either side. These shops sell more 'traditional' items like wooden face masks, teas, embroidered things, porcelain bowls/plates, paintbrushes, paper, amongst other magnets and chopsticks that are obviously aimed at the typical tourist, i.e. ME.

Further down the street, on the left, there's an open-concept building that sells slightly more expensive 'traditional' goods. The Ssamziegiel Mall (쌈지길 - I have no idea why they decided to give it such a complicated romanisation. It's pronounced sam-ji-gil.) has this interesting layout so you can walk around in circles to get to the top floor without having to climb any stairs (there are stairs too, of course).

Open-concept mall Ssamziegiel

We didn't get anything there, but the main reason why I wanted to go to this Ssamziegiel was to go to the Poo Cafe (또옹카페). !!! How wacky is that!? This link has a description and pictures of the place: Poop Cafe. Also, I didn't realise this until I was actually there but there's also this famous 'love-lock' place on the top floor where couples write well-wishes on a nice plastic piece before hanging it up, while singles go there to take pictures with aforementioned plastic pieces.

Love fence - 사랑의 담장 (Sa-rang-ui dam-jang)

Anyways, the important part is the Poo Cafe. The three of us decided to share a plate of fruit waffles and a drink. It was quite expensive, but well worth it for the experience and the photo opportunity haha. There were poo-shaped pillow hats to put on your head, (hopefully clean) urinals embedded in the wooden floor with hidden surprises and a large poo mascot in the cafe. All very exciting indeed.

By the time we left the cafe, it was dusk. I just HAD to buy one ddongbang 똥빵 (poo-shaped pastry with hot chocolate filling. yum.) from the stall outside, which only cost 1000W (AUD$1.20). I should probably mention at this point that this fun experience was interleaved with some feelings of uncertainty and disappointment as both Kelly and Cynthia had already indicated that they were unlikely to stay out for New Year's Eve (NYE) as they didn't feel like it/were probably going to feel tired.

Anyways, as was planned, we then walked from Insadong towards the heart of the city where the boshingak 보신각 was. The boshingak is a large bell in a pagoda in the city where it's used to 'ring' in the new year with blessings and it's often shown in news all over the world as one of the celebrations that take place on NYE. People can also pay to ring it at other times of the year.

There was a stage in front of the pagoda and lots of camera crew around. We were quite in awe of the cameras and wires and mikes and all that. We then walked to the nearby Cheonggyecheon stream, and took quite a few pictures since it was all lit up and pretty, before we went to a nearby cafe to warm up cause it was super cold! I ordered a honey lemon tea to warm up haha. After a while, Cynthia and Kelly decided to leave as they were tired and wanted to head back home. I decided to stay and wait till about 12am when the bell would be rung. So, I ended up waited in a cafe for 3.5hrs, pondering the meaning of life and my decidedly anti-climatic and lonely NYE.

Light installations at the Cheonggyecheon River

At around 11.45pm, I left the cafe for the short walk to the bell in order to find a good spot to see it being rung. Contrary to before, when it was only slightly crowded, the streets were now very crowded. My first spot was somewhat behind a news truck and I was pressed like a sardine between truck and people. I decided to move closer to the road, which they closed down, and where the police essentially formed some sort of barricade, probably to prevent stampedes I guess.

People in motion

In a sea of people I waited. Suddenly I realised they were counting down from 8 and I quickly joined in, secretly glad I knew the Sino-Korean number system well enough to count down backwards as everyone else was doing.

The bell-ringing was actually a little disappointing as it was a bit sporadic, but perhaps it was also because I couldn't understand much of what was going on (what each peal meant). However, it was still quite awesome to hear the deep resonanting sounds of the bell as we all stood there listening. It was a good thing that I was standing in a spot where I could see the actual bell (some distance away) and a large screen that showed the actual bell-ringing up close. Then, the bell seemed to stop ringing, people started moving, and I started walking quickly towards one of the train stations further down to avoid the crowd. Along the sides of the road, there were stalls selling tteokbokki and I thought about eating it since Koreans usually eat it to celebrate the new year, but I decided against it because I was afraid the trains would get too crowded.

However, the trains were surprisingly empty. I reached Yonsei Uni in no time, got instant noodles from the GS25 below our dorms (I regretted not wishing the guy working there Happy New Year 새해 복 마니받으세요! in Korean), had a shower, and enjoyed the reward of instant noodles at 1am in the morning.

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