Day 2: Itaewon and Dongdaemun

I didn't know what Koreans have for breakfast, so I went to Dunkin Donats. Shame on me!

This was my first breakfast here: some greasy egg, cheese and bacon thingie and this raspberry filled bun. Not the healthiest choice but oh so good...

Later that day I got to know a bunch of other exchange students and we went to the foreign part of Seoul, Itaewon. It's a place where you can find foreign markets, mosques, ethnic restaurants from all over the world, and of course foreign people. At night it's not the best part of town and I hear that most Seoulers rarely even go there.


Walking down the street in Itaewon.

In front of a mosque.

We went to a foreign market and saw these exotic products: Lipton Yellow Label tea, yams and pasta sauces!

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After our visit to Itaewon I went to walk around Dongdaemun. There are I'm not sure how many shopping malls alltogether FILLED with fashion. Clothes, shoes and bags floor after floor after floor, building after building... And they are totally different from the clothing stores we have in Finland or other western countries. In Finland in a shopping mall you find separate stores for separate brands. There might be an H&M or Nike store that sells everything: clothes, shoes, accessories, some sports gear. But here in the non-western shopping centers you have one product in one area. Really.

These pics are from the women's fashion area. As I said, there aren't really separate stores, just small sections aside the corridors.


What's hot here: girly grandma's clothes. Stockings, heels, knee-long dresses with small floral pattern, small leather jackets, long knits, all in earthly colors.





I learned about this one place one product thing when I was wandering in a giant shopping complex looking for a towel. I didn't bring a towel with me when I came here, I thought I'll just buy one from here. The huge shopping complex was filled with pillows, blankets and curtains. I didn't yet realize that there actually wouldn't be any towels to be found. After walking a mile in the narrow corridors I tried asking about towels from the sellers. The whole thing was really painful because of the language barrier.

Me: Do you have towels? (drawing a big square in the air with my hands)
Seller: Towel? Towel? (scratching his head)
Me: After you take a shower...
Seller: Shower!
Me: yes, after that you need to dry yourself with a towel. (demonstrating drying myself)
Seller: Ahh, towel!
Finally...

But even if the seller knew what I was looking for, he couldn't give me directions such as "go straight that way and turn left from the stairs". He could just point his finger. I guess I asked from three sellers with the same result. Luckily at one point this woman I asked the same thing led me to the towel shop. No, the towels weren't in the shopping complex for pillows, blankets and curtains. On the street there was a district for towels. What!??

A towel shop in the towel shop street.

Other districts I've come across are jewellery, pharmacy, souvenirs, electronics, food and even devices for physically challenged people. This means that you have a street or an area selling things in just one product group. In other words you need to know where you can find what you're looking for ;)

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In the evening I met up with Finnish guys and we had octopus for dinner. They brought red-hot coals to the middle of our table and we fried the octopus there ourselves.

Yum!