The other new thing this trip is pocket wifi – basically a wifi hotspot unit you can rent from the local cellular service for about US$5/day with unlimited data.  The unit is about the size of a deck of cards, and offers a secure connection for up to 5 devices. For this trip, I used Pocket WiFi Korea. The unit was sent to our hotel and waiting for us when we arrived, then we dropped it off at the airport kiosk on departure from Incheon.

We’re staying at the Aloft Myeong-dong, a bustling part of town between Seoul Station and City Hall.  The neighboring shopping district to the east is primarily a pedestrian area with 6 – 8 blocks of shopping.

All the retail bases are covered here, but hopefully you’re not looking for a specific shop, because finding something would be a nightmare.  On Saturday night, the main walkways were PACKED with street food vendors and everyone was out getting their street food game on.

Started out Sunday with pastry and coffee from Paris Baguette; one of the few places open at 8am on a Sunday.  We sat on an adjacent bench with some comic book characters while we ate. Similar to Hong Kong, this area has 15. – 20 comic book character figures

Next up: Gyeongbokgung. Originally constructed in 1395, the compound was the primary residence of the royal family until it was destroyed by invading Japanese in 1592.  Reconstructed in the late 1800s, it was again destroyed during Japanese colonial rule in the 20th century. The current restoration and reconstruction is beautiful and expansive.

The equivalent of US$3 gets you in the door to wander the grounds, and at 9am when they open you have a lot of space to yourself.  I’ve read there’s an impressive changing of the guard hourly, but we didn’t catch it.

We walked over to nearby Changdeokgung, but it appeared to be more of the same so we continued onward to several of our retail adventures.  We never did locate a record store Jeff had on his list – from what we could tell, it would have been nested somewhere in a 5 story building of paimarily home improvement “kiosks” in a mall that covered half a city block.  Even with the stall number it seemed hopeless. Without the actual wares out on display, it’s impossible for us to tell what any of these vendors actually sell.

This particular stretch of roadway was flanked with markets and we did pass a few that were more open than not open, including this one that was PACKED with food vendors. Dumplings were the fare of choice here. Tempting, but we have lunch plans …

Continuing on, Dongdaemun Fabric Market. Another multi-story, city block sized mall of stalls selling all things textile related. Unfortunately, today only a few home textile and hanbok vendors were open. Boooo. Fortunately I know exactly what awaits in Osaka, and if I only buy fabric there, it’s still a total win.

From Dongdaemun, we needed some non-walking transportation to the Seocho-gu neighborhood south of the river for our lunch spot: Brooklyn: The Burger Joint – a 12-table spot in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

The answer: Seoul Metro. Like its Hong Kong and Japanese counterparts, the metro is efficient, easy to navigate, cheap and clean. Winning!  We still had a good 20+ minute walk from the subway stop, but the delicious burgers and fries were totally worth it.

From lunch we hopped another subway to Jamsil Sports Complex, home to the local baseball field as well as Seoul Olympic Stadium.  We picked up some outfield seats (only $13 each!) for this afternoon’s LG Twins game versus the Samsung Lions.  As we learned in Japan, this is not an experience to miss! Grab some beers and takeout from nearby vendors, then stroll on up to your seat, kick back and hang out. Yes, taking outside food and beverage to your stadium seat can be accomplished without apocalyptic consequences, including bringing your own beer.  It was scorching hot in the sun this afternoon, and after 12 miles of walking on the books since 7:30am, we didn’t last the whole game, but it was totally worth it!

In the afternoon Jeff did a little vinyl shopping at an underground market inside one of the subway terminals, a place he heard about from a Bulgarian blogger (true story).

Then we wrapped up with dinner from the Lotte department store grocery: dumplings, small pizza and local beers.

Now to figure out what to pack into tomorrow ….