Dec 23, 2012

If you teach a man to fish...


Saturday, December 8th, 2012 – Sunday, December 9th, 2012

Since I loved visiting the Christmas lights so much and getting into the holiday spirit, and Casey was yet to see them; I returned to Nampo for a second time on Saturday with her.  I was also really craving the same spicy, cheesy, chicken, rice meal I had with Scott and Terri the weekend before.  I can see why the chicken chain DACK GAL BI is one of Scott’s favourites and will probably become one of mine too! 

Casey and I met around 3pm and took the metro to Nampo together.  We explored many of the same places from the weekend before but this time I walked along the Jagalchi fish markets.  There were thousands and thousands of fish in one place.  The air smelled of the sea and it would be seafood paradise for some people.  For me it was just fascinating seeing so many fish and squid, octopus, seaweed, sardines, whale etc. in one place.  I was curious how they could sell so much of the same thing while still keeping it fresh.  Casey was explaining that Americans were cracking down on the fishing of whales (they sometimes even eat dolphin) in Korea but since these foods are such a part of Korean culture, they decreased their own fishing and just started importing more from Japan. 










Almost anything you need you can find in one of these markets in Nampo.  They even have little candy stores with imported chocolate from America.  The price of a chocolate bar in the market would be around 800 Won which is about 75 cents Canadian.  It is cheaper to get a chocolate here in Korea from home than it is to get it at home.  Since everything is a little bit cheaper and there are so many things you can buy, this is the reason foreigners accumulate so much while living here and need to send it back home.

We had a really fun time exploring the cute stationary stores, candy stores, sock stores, jewelry and makeup stores.  She also encouraged me to have the same sweet rice cake treat I tried the weekend before with Scott and Terri so we both bought one.  This time it had sunflower seeds along with other things inside.  The line up to get one was chaotic because apparently they came from a popular vendor but we both didn’t like them as much with the seeds. 

We ate dinner; it was just as good as I remembered!  We enjoyed the view of the lights at night, had fun taking pictures of our ourselves, some adorable Korean kids and even helping a few couples get their picture taken with the lights.  There was a cute little chorus with Korean children singing and dancing to Korean Christmas music on stage.  Overall, we had a really nice day!





On Sunday, I met with Elaine and Claire from Ireland in another large metro station.  This one was a transfer station so there was again, shopping underground.  There were small boutiques that had their own little store.  A little bit more upper class than the underground markets in Nampo.  It was also attached to another huge department store.  I am really starting to notice how much shopping there is in Korea. 

We met at the Krispy Kreme in this location for coffee and doughnuts.  I tried the glazed doughnut with icing on top.  Again wasn’t the same as my memories of Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the US.  It was really nice catching up with them again.  

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