back in seoul: insadong

after a few days in the countryside, we headed back to seoul. although the city is pretty amazing, there are a lot of places that tell a different story of anyone who doesn't belong in the wealthy minority. i recently met w/ a friend who just came back from korea and told me how hard it is to make it out there (unless you're a foreigner).

sign for a laundry place.

from there, we went to insadong, an area famous for its many shops that sell artwork and antiques. i got a painting framed here for 40 bucks...only to break the glass at the airport and get a new piece fitted here for 60. >_<

and of course, there's always some street food vendor hustling. this lady was selling some kind of custard filled "bread" (can't think of really what to call it). what was funny was that she had a picture of lee myung bak on her cart, ordering some of her goodies. they weren't very good though.

after walking around a bit, we stopped by for a drink at a tea place.

all homemade.

i ordered sujunggwa, a cinnamon punch, which was the strongest i've ever had and woke me right up.

and some snacks on the side: i'm not sure what the stuff on the left is called, but its a thin puffed up piece of yut (malt) and on the right, some candied ginger.

as we were leaving, we saw a group of young pups tryin to make a dollar, singing jason mraz. check out the drunk man in the back as he dizzily swayed and clapped his hands to the music. if there was a caption for the second kid on the left, it would probably say, "wtf?"

happy sunday yall!