Insadong with Mum and Dad

Our first day in Bukchon was a success.

It helped that we were on a national holiday, since the palaces were free ;)

On the second day I thought we could visit Insadong. There was also the temple close by the big Insadong street that I had visited before, but that was a good opportunity for my dad to see temples. Getting out of Seoul and back during Chuseok is a bit suicidal so as we stayed downtown, the downtown temples seemed a decent alternative to the faraway mountain temples that we would have gone to visit another time....

Oh.

Another thing.

When I got to Korea I realized something really weird. I was used to Japan, and China and even Taiwan, for when it comes to the culture and the everyday life. What I experienced was the early bird early sleep of Japanese people. Stores opening pretty early, as people get on with their day and enjoy it during the sunlight hours. 

Then Korea blew my mind.

In Korea, there is simply no end of the night. During weekdays, people with drink out of their minds, sometimes til 4 -6AM before waking up and work the next day. That's why, there is NO store, restaurant, coffee shop, snack canteen open before 10AM, sometimes even 11 (with the lonely exception of Paris Baguette that opens at 9AM I think).

I thought that was a great thing. That would allow me to wake up early and take walks in the empty towns and enjoy the shining sun, and in the heat of summer, have the chilly mornings for me. 

I obviously never did that. But possibility, there is.

Thing is. My parents are the wake-up-at-6AM type. So we had a lot of time on our hands. We got to Insadong at 9, by reeeeeaaaally dragging it in the morning and taking our time at the guest house. but there is always so much you can do to drag on.

Thing is, having a town completely empty, that's also cool for one thing. Taking nice building pictures without anyone around. So that's what we did at first. Good morning Insadong!

I noticed, as I met korean friends there, that there are not that many Koreans who really went to Insadong. Unless they went with their parents and went when they were too young to remember. I think, tho, that among the people who did go, not that many got the chance to see an empty Insadong, and had the time to admire the buildings for what they are, instead of for what they sold. 

There were surprisingly a great amount of amazing looking buildings, cleverly designed spaces and buildings with unusual material. Every time I walked around Seoul, I always got a thought for my dad, thinking that he'd be really enjoying the sight of all those nice buildings all over the place. Well I am happy he finally got to see some :)

Ssangji Gil, that building, that closes at 6PM, was always closed when I visited the first times, but I am happy I finally got to go. It is a weird 4 floors building, of which you can climb up without even realizing that you are walking up. There are obviously staircases on each corners of the building, but the most interesting way to go up is to just walk in squares (I want to write walk in circle, but it sound inadequate, since the building is no really a circle, and I am a sucker for details). As you can notice on the picture below, the sides of the walking ways are slightly slanted upwards so you gradually just get to the top without straining yourself as you would by walking up flocks of stairs.

The building has tons of trinket stores with mostly hand-made jewelry, bags, clothes and accessories. I didn't buy anything, but then, it's more the kind of place you would stroll by with a boyfriend and maybe get some silly couple accessories, or stop on the rooftop coffee shop for an expensive coffee.

As it was, we really went there for the view.

I read somewhere that there was a Trick-eye museum, like the one I went to with Rosemary on Hongdae, but there were so many people by the time we came back to Ssangji Gil that it was not tempting to look for it. I'd go later, I told myself.

We waited in line outside an amazing Mandu place called "palace", where we got our money's worth of deliciousness. We got pajeon (Korean pancakes) and boiled mandu (dumplings).

There was a paparazzi...

Café BuBus

Dongtan Coffee Shop Review! 

(yup. If you sick of coffee shop reviews skip this one and wait, there's a lot coming up: Suwon exploration, Korean Folk Village, Dongtan Overview, etc.)

Cafe BuBus was a coffee shop I'd gone the first time with a friend of a friend I helped out with her English, and had always wanted to try one more time on my own. Never happened. A coworker tried it out before I did though and told me it was worth it, so here I went...

The coffee shop itself, without having even tried anything they sell, it an adorable looking store with both a warmth and a chilly feeling to it (maybe the mix of red and blue?) It's got this cliché I-want-to-look-like-a-French-Café-but-I've-never-been-so-I'll-just-put all-the-cliché-in-one room-together. 

Nevertheless, the result is very cute. The building has (like a lot of the coffee shops around that area) two entrances, each of them on a different street, so the store is quite big. I mentioned before that coffee shops in Dongtan seem to be much bigger than the ones we can find in other cities I've been to in Korea. Might be because the rent is cheaper here? 

Front of the Café

Back table

The design of the place is a mixture of a fruit market and a tailor - big shelves with baskets of both fake and real fruits, and reels of thread, scissors and needles put up for decoration. 

I sort of like the mix, although I have no clue why they would have thought of mixing those two styles. The main entrance has a terrasse and a bunch of nicely set tables, just like a normal coffee/restaurant, and a big shelf of fruits cuts the back part of the Café apart so you can choose to sit at the back on a big, higher table with high stools and a power socket. Café BuBus also has it own toilet +++

A lot of coffee shops have found a solution to the never-ending task of filling
client's water cups: Self-Service counters! When there is enough space in a café
it's a solution as good as another. As long as the way from one's table to the self
service corner is not strenuous (like in a tiny coffee shop) I quite like the idea... 

 Café BuBus has good coffee. Like most of the coffee shops I've tried (any coffee shop that isn't a chain usually is quite good. Chain coffee usually is too sweet or too bitter, as if, by being a chain, the quality didn't matter anymore. The price is not cheaper in a chain either in most cases. There is only one chain coffee shop I've tried, that has good coffee, and it's NOT Starbucks, it's Café Pascucci) so it's not because of the coffee that I love that place.

Café BuBus has sandwiches. Most coffee shops I've been to mainly serve home made waffles, toasts and ice cream. Sounds amazing right? Yah, but sometimes you don't always feel like stuffing your stomach with an incredible amount of sweet carby foods. At Café BuBus, you can fill your stomach with an incredible amount of cheese and crispy bread :) Isn't it amazing? Can't wait to get fat  on this. No, for real, their sandwiches are made using legit crispy panini bread. They had two types, a Camembert honey almonds and a tomato cheddar one, both served with pickles and a little salad.

Lastly, Café BuBus has fresh fruit juice. They offer a big range of fresh grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, oranges and grapefruits juice. The only thing I didn't like was that they seem to add sugar to the grapefruit juice and I like it bitter. I'll just ask them not to put any next time :)

Crazy end of Summer Weekend

I haven't really gone clubbing/drinking for real lately, if I compare to my university years. I went a bit in Montreal last July, but I cannot say I really enjoy it as much, at least when it comes to dancing. I feel like my weekends of partying every Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays are quite far indeed. The memory of showering at 5AM from a sweaty dancing night out... hmm... yup, very far indeed. I know going out is like many habits, when you stop for a long time, you need to fall back in again to like it once more, but it takes the energy and will to actually fall back in. And I feel so lazy. Every time I go out, I have an awesome time, but every time, I need to push myself to actually get out of my comfort zone: lazying out at home. 

Last week end I went out with a girl from my job, the awesome MC <3 we went to the O'toole night club and finished the evening at Morasse with a well deserved snack at 4AM. We went out with friends from China I introduced to MC and had a crazy drinking night: damn me for forgetting Chinese people usually are good at most drinking games. Those who aren't are either too young, or lying about being bad. Really. 

The only thing missing from the night out was my best friend Lala: MC does not like to go dancing. Lala, MC and I would make a lovely threesome of awesome party time IMO. In any case, fun fun times, worth taking the bother to get out of my comfort zone.

That evening, at the restaurant, I had burnt my arm with the coffee heater:
so the mark on my arm is noteven because of my scarring (which is on
 the other hand) which is quite frustrating... I am not supposed to have a
 scar on that arm, damn it.... stupid clumsy me. 

4AM at Morasse Poutine... so many people this is intense.
Morasse is really THE place for after party munchies

Next morning I wake MC up, and we got eat at Ya Yuan, chinese buffet place near the O'toole, on our way to get MC's car back (we obviously did not drive back home, aren't we awesomely responsible people?)

So another once in an eternity: after clubbing, buying something I haven't bought and worn in ages. Pants. Yes, I now officially have a second pair of pants. I never realized how never wearing pants make people go insane with bewilderment when I actually wear them. I don't feel comfy in pants, so some 3 years must have past since I actually bought a pair of jeans. I owned one pair, a white one, and now I have a salmon one. Needed a colorful pair, since I have too many white shirts I cannot wear with white pants. Being white is enough, no need to look dead with too much of that color...

I have no merit for the shoes. They're MC's, and they're awesome.
I want them, but for now, I just borrow 'em

Crazy movie night yesterday, with $20 worth of candies. Great times are those you spend with friends, with an overly intense amount of sweet stuff. While life betrays you often, sweets never do. 

平山温泉：湯の蔵

久々のアップ！

と、久々の日本旅行。

あたしにとって今回の旅行は三回目の日本旅行になっている。
三回目だからこそ他人に取ってこの旅行は心配なしで行けたと思われるのだろうが、
実際は、
やることはあんなに沢山あるという事をちゃんと分かっているあたしに取ってはどこから始めればいいかどうも分からなかったんです。
それに、今回の旅行はお兄さんと一緒に行く事になって、
彼に取って旅行はただ予定なしでやりたい事だけやればいいという、
気楽な旅行者ですからますます心配だった。
ということで、
出発日は決めてあった事が二つ：
ー着いたら平山温泉での旅館に泊まる事と、
ー旅行の終わりに、東京に着いたら親友の友達と飲みに行く事だけ。

さて、
二週間の旅行をどうやってブログにのせればいいのかと沢山迷いました（ブログをあまり長くすると読んでくれてる人が詰まらなく思うだろう）けれど結局は見に行った所の名前でブログを一つずつ書く事に決めました。
今回の便新は日本語ですけれども、
後は多分英語で書きます。
日本旅行ですからせめて大一ブログは頑張って日本語で書こうと思いました。

 湯の蔵という旅館は平山あたりで安くて日本人に取ってとても人気のある所です。泊まらなくても温泉は素敵で若者にも大人気です。初めて日本に行った時にも一回行って、お茶カップを買ってもらった所です。とても奇麗なカップで、今でも使っています。
だから友達に勧められてその旅館にしました。友達のおかげで無事で要約出来てそこで一泊二食しました。
長い時間飛行機に乗って日本に着いた後のあたしと兄ちゃんにとって、湯の蔵は天国のように感じた。スタッフの皆さんは日本語でしかはなせなかったので、お兄ちゃんは日本語を話せない悔しさを初めて感じた所でもありました、笑。

下：　うちらの部屋です！☆　涼しい天気でしたから部屋に入ると暖かい暖房が付いてあったからとても幸せな感じがした。

下：こちらは晩ご飯の始まり（始まりというと、飛行機の中で動かないで食べる以外に何もしないフライトから来たばかりのあたし達はおなかがあまりすいてないところ、旅館の晩ご飯の量はとてもとても多すぎました、笑。写真に映っているのはそのご飯の４分の１だけでした、笑）

下：うちらの部屋のプライベートお風呂☆★　旅館には温泉が三つありましたけれどもし自分の部屋で入りたければそれでも出来た☆★　（実際は兄ちゃんは日本でパブリック温泉には入らなかった、笑）

下：こちらは朝ご飯を食べた食堂／レストランです。　とても奇麗な所でした。旅館に着いた日には客さんがあまり多かったのでうちの部屋で食べる事にしましたけれど朝ご飯は外で食べれました。

下：朝ご飯☆

一泊はやっぱり短い。お金持ちなら絶対そこで一週間でもゆっくりして行きたかった物でした。皆も優しくて、奇麗で静かな所でしたからとてもよかったです。また、両親と日本に行く時には改めて行きたいと思います。

兄ちゃんの旅館浴衣姿

LinoHandMade

When I was young, my friend's mother had a little store - actually I cannot remember well the place, so I am still unsure whether if it was her house that had many things she made on sale, or an actual store so I apologize if I end up lying without knowing - where she sold tons of really pretty things that she hand made herself. It would go from simple knitted stuff to complicated house decorations made of different material. Being one that likes hand made detailed stuff, seeing the things she made always made me very happy. One day she stopped her store however, probably because while looking at nicely done hand made stuff, the price to pay for all those hours of work is often high enough so that in the end there are not enough buyers in a small town to keep a business like this.

I lost sight of my childhood friend for some ten years after this, so I don't really know what her mother had been up to meanwhile, but when I got in touch with her again, her mother mostly did seasonal hand work: some knit work in the winter and some hand made stuff in the summer, mostly as a hobby.

In the last years however, she started selling on ETSY. What started with the making of handbags, makeup pouches and wallets turned into crochet work key holders, knitted work and now fine jewelry. I really like her work a lot and whenever I have a crush on one of them I buy it from her. I did so with a hand knit neck warmer earlier this year, and last week I got a pair of earrings.

My childhood friend and I met up last week to grab breakfast in a restaurant and she brought me the earrings - instead of having to wait after the mail :P. The things her mother makes are always made with such care and even the wrapping is really pretty. I strongly encourage you guys to go see her work and let yourself be tempted if something in there gets your attention!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Linohandmade

There is a place in my hometown, a place we call "La Ressourcerie", where everyone can bring stuff they don't use anymore. Anything, I mean anything, is fine. Upon receiving the used stuff, the place picks out what is still fine and usable, cleans or restore it to the best they can, and sell them at really really cheap prices. This place is technically meant to be used by people without much money, but is open to anyone. When I left for Montreal for University, I got all my kitchen ware from there. I got a pretty white/cream set with light green and brown stripes. The wholes set included some 9 cups, 4-5 small plates, 8 large plates, 10 bowls all in good shape. All this for $11.

While most of the stuff they have is quite old, me and my mother really enjoy going there in the hope of finding some cute treasure. The other day, my mom brought back a baby size white wicker rocking chair matching the desk and chair I have in my bedroom and when I came back from work, I found out that my huge teddy bear now had a seat - I might upload a picture of the chair sometime later...

Last Wednesday thus, I found a really pretty milk holder in japanese porcelain with a very detailes drawing on the side and golden lines. Isn't it really pretty? I just love finding this kind of little surprise. It was $1 for the set with the little plate.

On our way back from the Ressourcerie, my mother and I stopped by a bookstore and I bought a book by Christian Dior. While I am biaised by all that concerns brands I like, what attracted me first was the book itself, an old style fabric covered neat grey book with a mirror and a bow engraved in silver color. I read a couple of lines and I was seduced by the author's pen: simple, straight forward with a knack of sarcasm. While the books is by no means great literature, it picked my curiosity so I got it, regardless if the price, that I judge a bit expensive for a non-translated work (about $40). When I am done I might do a review on it if it is worth it...

 While Christmas is over since a while already, we never had the time to open our new year surprise socks. Yesterday, after a supper with my brother and his little family, we all got our gifts and mine was a very detailed pretty Camée, in delicate pink tones and gold casting. It can either turn into a brooch, by folding the chain loop down, or into a pendant. I love it so much!!!!