Several months prior to landing in Seoul, Lummi and I had considered a thousand different possibilities for our winter trip. Flights to pretty much anywhere were more expensive than the previous year, especially for trips that extended through the new year. We considered Mexico, South America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia for a variety of different timelines. Eventually, I discovered that traveling earlier than usual and returning before the end of the year was substantially cheaper. Lummi really wanted to visit Korea – especially so I could meet her relatives – and had seen photos and heard stories from my solo trip to Taipei, so we decided on an East Asia trip: Korea for a few days and Taiwan for a week. Lummi was still recovering from her Achilles surgery, so we decided that we would stick to cities only (Seoul and Taipei) and skip anything too adventurous or physically demanding.
We landed at Incheon on a Thursday evening, took a clean and well-run bus into the city, and checked into our Airbnb. It was cold! It seemed like it would be reasonable to tolerate with enough layers, and there was a festiveness in the air that kind of reminded me of New York in December.
Lummi had a salon appointment the next morning, so we woke up early and hopped on the train. The salon employees were very sweet and gave us free coffees and snacks and even steamed my hair. And there were TVs in the mirrors! How luxurious.
After her appointment was finished, we walked up the street and stopped in the Chaum Life Center for bread, lunch, and shopping. Both of our meals were very wintery. We walked around the neighborhood, did some window-shopping at various luxury stores, and bought some sweets at a tiny shop that we could barely find. That evening, we met two of Lummi’s cousins for Japanese food in a mall, then had drinks at an Italian place close by.
Saturday morning we discovered Picky Eater, a cafe a few doors down with great pastries, then took a taxi to the Banyan Tree Hotel for lunch, coffee, and cake with Lummi’s uncle. The hotel is perched on a hill with great views of the city below and as if on cue, it started snowing while we were there. Without thinking too much about it, I mentioned that the poundcake in the display case looked good and Lummi’s uncle bought us the entire cake!
We got an Uber to Lummi’s grandfather’s museum and her cousin, who works in the attached cafe, was surprised and delighted when we arrived. The cafe was really inviting and we had black sesame lattes and chatted with Lummi’s cousin all afternoon while the sunlight slowly faded and the snow quietly fell outside.
After the museum closed, her cousin graciously gave us a ride to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), which was hosting a short K-pop show out front before a big light show. We wandered around inside for a bit, then did some shopping at the attached Kakao Friends store. For dinner, we picked a restaurant at random in D Tower and it turned out to be the best meal in Seoul (for me, at least). I ate until my stomach hurt and then spent the rest of the evening in the Kyobo Book Centre, which was really pleasant and made me wish we still had bookstore culture in America. It was so buzzy and cultural and felt like an important place to be; lots of locals also seemed to be spending their entire evenings there.
On Sunday we walked around a popular pedestrian street for a while, popping in and out of stores and food stands. We bought a poop emoji pastry, a nice wooden rice paddle, paint brushes for Lummi’s mom, and an accordion-style notebook as a birthday present for my friend Clayton.
Lunch was a reunion with lots of Lummi’s cousins in a private room of a nearby restaurant; afterwards we all walked to a nearby cafe for coffee and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Lummi and I got a ride back to her grandfather’s museum so we could meet her cousin and aunt for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We had lots of yummy fried food and soup before getting an Uber back to our Airbnb so we could pack for the next day’s travel to Taiwan.
This trip to Korea was pretty short, so we could only see some of the highlights of Seoul (and nothing outside of the city), but it was still really nice to meet a lot of Lummi’s extended family and bounce around the city. The cold weather, snow, heavy coats and scarves, early sunsets, and city lights really did make it feel like the holiday season and reminded me of the east coast holiday seasons of my younger years. I know we’ll be back again, hopefully with more time to explore.