In which Roz and Layla wish each other a happy anniversary and go to a lot of cafes

by Roz


I returned from my virtuous run in the empty and soulless gym feeling, well, virtuous. We then got changed and set off for a pre-dinner drink. We sampled our first local beer (Cass) and pondered our dinner choices. We finally settled on an Indian restaurant, mainly attracted by the twinkly lights and promise of paneer on the menu (we are very easily lured). We felt a little guilty at not having Korean food for a second night in a row, but reassured ourselves with the thought that the guidebooks claim that this is the only area in which we will get non-Korean food and the hassles of being a vegetarian in Korea will not be far off and can justifiably wait one more day… The restaurant was fine, as was the food (if nothing too exciting).

The meal was over fairly quickly – in part due to greed, and in part due to the Korean enthusiasm for bringing starters and main courses around the same time. We then headed to a bar a couple of doors down for a couple of cocktails, before pottering up the road to take a look at a restaurant that we were considering for dinner the next day (that day being the august occasion of our four year anniversary) and having one final drink in a jolly looking bar, Virgin, en route home.

I slept beautifully, but Layla was cursed with jet-lag and awoke at 3 and was unable to get back to sleep. I therefore felt it only fair that I be the one to nip out for coffee and orange juice before anniversary gifts were exchanged. We then headed out to have breakfast and fortified ourselves with cream cheese bagels in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (the chain we’d first come across when travelling in Borneo) before braving the metro (which turned out not to be scary at all) and beginning a self-guided art gallery tour around the palace district and Samcheongdong.

Of course, tour is rather a grand name for what was a very pleasant amble poking our noses into art galleries and – on one occasion – being filmed whilst doing so (presumably we got caught up in the PR for a show, though we didn’t quite manage to establish whether this was in fact the case). Pleasingly, lovely coffee shops seem to go hand in hand with cool art galleries, and we stopped in one for a very pleasant lunch of carrot and broccoli soup (with warm bread). As we continued on our walk, heading towards Changdeokgung palace, we passed through a very lovely area, with cute shops, cafes and restaurants – which we plan to return to at the end of the trip, when we are in Seoul again (and staying reasonably close by).

With no palace in sight, we felt a little lost, so I cunningly suggested that a good plan would be a lemonade in one of the lovely coffee shops – so that we could ask our way. The first part of the plan went well; the second not so much, since the owner / waiter didn’t speak English. But on consulting our iPhones, we realized that we had very determinedly headed in the wrong direction (Layla’s jet lag is no doubt to blame) and so we picked up our pace as we more or less retraced our steps – the speed being needed because Lonely Planet said that the palace could only be viewed with a tour – and the tour was at 3.30, alarmingly soon. Of course, when we arrived at the palace we found that (i) the tour was actually at 2.30 but (ii) it didn’t matter because tours are no longer obligatory. We rambled round the palace, enjoying the prettiness and the fact that we seemed to be the only European tourists, though I must confess we didn’t stay the 90 minutes we would have done, had we been being educated on a tour.

From there we headed to the metro, and were waylaid by yet another lovely looking café where I stuck to stereotype and had tea and we shared a less conventional green tea pancake (which bizarrely tasted very fruity) and read our books.
We are now back in our room, and I’m currently listening to Layla gently snore (pre-dinner nap to make up for sleep deprivation) and gazing out of the large window in our room looking at the quite fabulous skyline as the sun sinks, and thinking that Seoul really is jolly nice.