Why do I keep doing this to myself?

We frequently travel to South Korea and love it. In fact, we were in Seoul around the same period last year, but due to the amount of time spent on the road I didn’t have any left to write about it (or a trip to Taiwan a couple of months before for that matter). This time Anna would be attending the annual Midwest Ocular Angiography Conference in Seoul, a place we are very familiar with so we had initially been planning a trip with our friends, James and Yeongseo, to Jeju Island where she is originally from as it appeared as if they would be in Korea around the same time as us. Unfortunately they had to travel there a couple of weeks earlier so we pivoted and chose Busan for a getaway, but that’s a story for next time.

Originally we were both booked to land in Seoul in the morning of June 24 so we would have a bit of free time before the conference, but both Anna’s birthday and high school reunion were on the 27th so she decided to change her flight for the 28th, but was unable to do so for mine so I would be spending the first few days in town by myself. That didn’t matter though, the entire trip was still a blast.

Wednesday, June 24, 2026
It was in the early hours of the morning when I flew out from Singapore and with the time difference I landed at around 8:00am. Factor in the time it took to get through immigration and the almost 90-minute drive to my hotel, Nine Tree Myeongdong, It was now after 11:00am and I was operating on about four hours of sleep. Fortunately we had booked the room for an extra night so I was able to check in immediately and try to nap for a bit and a couple of hours later I was ready to hit the town.
Across the road were a bunch of cafes and coffee was the first item on the agenda before walking to wherever my feet would take me and since this was a pretty happening part of Seoul finding fun and food wouldn’t be too difficult:

Myeong-dong is a dong (neighborhood) in Jung District, Seoul, South Korea. It is between Chungmu-ro, Eulji-ro, and Namdaemun-ro. Myeongdong is known for being one of Seoul’s main shopping, parade route, and tourism districts. In 2023, it was listed as the ninth most expensive shopping street in the world.

Myeongdong is one of Seoul’s main shopping districts featuring mid-to-high priced retail stores and international brand outlets as well as Korean cosmetics brands. It is a particularly popular area for young people and tourists as a center for fashion and sight-seeing. Several large shopping centers and department stores are in the district.

I actually didn’t know that this area was a few blocks away from our hotel until I stumbled upon it while accidentally circumnavigating the place, at first passing what seemed like an empty office space with some very unique, old Fiat cars. Now, I’m not into luxury brands or high-end shopping, but when I arrived I knew the street food stalls and people watching were going to be brilliant, plus there were a bunch of vintage stores I wanted to check out that turned out to have a lot of great stuff that was all at least two sizes too small. There were also some sports stores where I managed to hunt down something that Anna would love once she got here.
I spent quite a decent amount of time just walking around and ducking in and out of shops, but I hadn’t eaten all day so I stopped in for a bowl of cream jiamppong, a creamy, spicy seafood noodles, and then found a strip of bars with the intention of keeping myself up until at least midnight so I could sleep in properly the next morning:
In and around Myeongdong, there will be plenty of more photos of this area later too:

Thursday, June 25, 2026
After a much needed sleep in I walked over to the cafe that would become part of my daily routine and then hit the road to look at a bunch of stores I had looked up all over the area while stopping off for some baby octopus bibimbap afterwards. I was trying to locate some secondhand stores that the map was now telling me were in the middle of a six-road intersection near some boutique shops and I wandered around confused and without a proper address until it occured to me that they might be underground. I managed to find a flight or stairs to enter the warren of record and junk stores and found some absolute gold.

I dumped all of my purchases back at the hotel and had noticed each time I had crossed over for coffee that there appeared to be some bright-looking laneways nearby that had some potential so I walked over and that’s when I saw it — A pink neon sign of a businessman crawling and vomiting sticking out from a wall, the logo of a quirky little taproom called Euljiro Brewing. This place was unreal (although their merchandise was really expensive) and for some particular reason they closed at about 9:30pm, odd for a Thursday night. I guess I’ll just have to get here earlier next time. When they closed I stumbled upon a baseball-themed bar down the road, but it wasn’t long after I ordered a drink that it was going to be shutting too! I guess Thursday isn’t a particularly happening night and none of the maps could accurately lead me back to Myeongdong so I walked until I found a place that was mostly a restaurant, but also served beers in the carpark out the back so I grabbed a seat, ordered a drink, and then chatted with Anna when she called.
Lunch and some spots that I’ll revisit when Anna gets here:

Friday, June 26, 2026
I had absolutely no plans for the day so I just spent the afternoon exploring, at one point walking for around half an hour in the wrong direction due to most map apps not working particularly well in Seoul, before heading back to where I wanted to be. Besides a giant seafood market where the streets and lanes were named after the product being sold solely along that strip, there wasn’t a lot around, it seemed more of an area where tradesmen would do their shopping for tools and bits.

As a result I went back to where I was the first day, grabbing an octopus skewer from a stall while trying to find more shops that I may have overlooked due to how tired I had been the previous time and I did manage to find a few, but as tends to be the case nothing fit. Oh well, now seems like a good time to eat again. Initially I had wanted to go to a fried chicken and beer place, but I could only buy essentially an entire chicken. Instead I opted to try something new so I stepped into a restaurant and found on the menu Hangso soybean paste stew with pork intestines. It sounded more like a Chinese dish and one that would give me horrendous flatulence at that, but why not give it a go? In typical Korean style the side dishes were brought out as I sat, but what was becoming a weird pattern was that after three days in Seoul I still hadn’t been given kimchi. There had been lotus root, assorted pickles, and corn kernels among others, but no kimchi. Bizarre! Anyway, my stew came and immediately the smell had a large portion of the other customers coughing and gagging, because occasionally pork offal can smell a bit, but this stuff combined with the sauce and the soybeans was next level, I’d hate to know how badly my breath smelt afterwards. Anyway, once I was done with my beans and pork matter stew I pulled up a seat at the bar from the first night and spent the evening chatting to a Danish guy about anything and everything.
How my Friday looked:

Saturday, June 27, 2026
Today was Anna’s birthday and high school reunion so I called her first thing and let her know where I had stashed her present. She would also be having dinner and drinks with friends that night and catching a similar flight to me here not long after midnight so that could be interesting. As for me I would be doing something I love, I was going to Dongmyo Flea Market. I had been to this market before, but I completely forgot just how big it was, this market is absolutely enormous so I was a little shocked when my car dropped me off on the fringes of it. I spent several hours wandering around this labyrinth of stalls selling absolutely everything, most of which was in no particular order, but I eventually found a stall selling old basketball jerseys. I found quite a few cool ones that I would end up buying, but when I saw it I froze, there in front of me was one that I would never have expected to find in the wild, the college jersey of one of the biggest “what ifs” in basketball history, Hank Gathers:

Eric Wilson “Hank” Gathers Jr. (February 11, 1967 – March 4, 1990) was an American college basketball player for the Loyola Marymount Lions. As a junior in 1989, he became the second player in NCAA Division I history to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season. Gathers was a consensus second-team All-American as a senior in 1990. His No. 44 was retired by the Lions, who also placed a statue of him in his honor outside their home arena Gersten Pavilion.

Gathers began his college career with the USC Trojans, but transferred with teammate Bo Kimble to Loyola Marymount after his freshman year. Playing under Lions coach Paul Westhead and his fast-paced system, Gathers was a three-time first-team all-conference selection in the West Coast Conference (WCC). In his first season with the Lions, he earned the first of two consecutive most valuable player (MVP) honors in the WCC tournament. As a junior, he was named the WCC Player of the Year and began receiving All-American recognition. Early in his senior year in 1989–90, Gathers was diagnosed with an abnormal heartbeat after he collapsed during a game. He was placed on medication and returned a few weeks later, but he initially struggled, which he attributed to his medication. The dosage was gradually decreased, and his play recovered. Gathers died at age 23 after collapsing for the second time that season during the semifinals of the 1990 WCC tournament.

I still remember reading about his death in the newspaper as a child when I was first really getting into basketball and I recall my mother getting a bit worried about me continuing to play due to my own heart issues after I told her about the article. However, I was fascinated by this guy as a kid despite his death being all I really knew about him. Fast Forward 36 years and I’ve just found his jersey in a South Korean flea market for less than a t-shirt from Euljiro Brewing. I needed to get that jersey, but there was one problem; this store didn’t take cash so I needed to find an ATM and I hadn’t noticed any so far so I asked the storeowner to keep the jersey aside for me while I started my quest. I paced around the maze that is the market looking for an ATM, trying to remember a trail of landmarks that would lead me back to the store and at first it seemed hopeless until I found one hidden away under makeshift tarpaulin walls and roof next to a convenience store. I was already sweating from walking around on a day that was over 30ºC (86ºF), but once I got inside that tent and waited for the man in front of me to unsuccessfully try to withdraw cash multiple times, it was becoming like a sauna. The guy was a fellow Australian and as I would later find during my three attempts to get cash out, each try would take a significant amount of time, but no matter what account type or card he or I had both used, it always resulted in the message “Transaction Failed”. Obviously he gave up long before I had the chance to, but after trying to find another ATM I noticed that in the distance, outside of the market and across a river I could see what appeared to be a shopping mall. There would have to be one in there or possibly even a branch of the bank that I used to have an account with two decades ago, maybe there’s still some cash in that so I walked a significant distance to the mall, however, it was difficult to find an entrance and once inside, the mall was essentially abandoned, almost all of the stores were empty and the ones that did have anything were closed. Furthermore the only person I saw inside was the Australian who was also clearly looking for a cash machine as well, but after circumnavigating several floors I managed to find a row of four machines. Each attempt to withdraw cash took a long time only to be met with a similar notification of an error or failure, however, a local man managed successfully on the first attempt to make a withdrawal so this gave me hope. After multiple lengthy, failed attempts the stars must’ve aligned and I somehow managed to get the correct combination of card and account to successfully make a withdrawal.
I power-walked back to the market in the heat and the storeowner had kept up his end of the deal, plus he had a few other jerseys in there at a decent price, two of them legit and one clearly fake, but that knock off was always one of my favourites so besides the Gathers one, the other jerseys I also walked out with (with a discount) were:

• 1971-72 “Pistol” Pete Maravich Atlanta Hawks
• 1992 Michael Jordan Dream Team
• 1975-76 Moses Malone Spirits of St. Louis, ABA (that’s the fake one).

After also purchasing two jackets I decided to carry all of my bags the long walk home to the hotel and texted Anna to brag about my finds, especially as I knew she would like the jackets and as I was laying out the pieces to take photos to send to her it occured to me; besides Michael Jordan, I had just bought basketball jerseys of three guys that died of heart problems, two of them significantly younger than me! Best not to think about it so I showered, grabbed some dinner and once more went Euljiro Brewing and then when it closed later than on Thursday back to Myeongdong for a nightcap or two, served out of a Pyrex measuring cups.
Hank Gathers and my very accurate beer:

Sunday, June 28, 2026
Anna would be arriving today and when she did there was a little misunderstanding, as when she met me at the hotel, I didn’t realise I was checking out completely and we were moving to an entirely new hotel, yet here we were. It was only 11:00am, it would take us at least 30 minutes to drive to the new hotel, the Four Seasons, despite being less than 2km (1.25 mi) away, plus we couldn’t check in until 3:00pm, meaning we had no choice but to visit all of the places I had been telling her about so back to Myeongdong it was. As we arrived the food carts were only beginning to be wheeled out so we would be waiting a while before we could have a snack, but Anna didn’t mind, she was overstimulated, buying some clothes and spending a substantial amount of time looking at facial masks, some of them snail slime, others placenta based, but the bulk of them regular. One thing that I hadn’t noticed was that Oreos seemed to be a big thing, because not only did we see BTS (flavoured?) Oreos, but also Oreo churros. We walked past a maid cafe and Muscle Girls 888, a bar and gym combination, both across the road from an underwear store where apparently they’ve decided that sitting back in your undies and looking at photos or eating cake with your partner is completely normal. Also, Anna must’ve been a little jealous of my octopus skewers from the other day too, because when the food stalls were open we perused all of them, but she ultimately opted for the skewers too.

After looking around and dropping off for the occasional refreshment we went back to Nine Tree to grab our luggage and battle the traffic to the Four Seasons and as we were pulling in I noticed a familiar, neon pink sign directly across the road. Yes, by sheer chance another Euljiro Brewing outlet was directly opposite!
These conferences always start with a meet-and-greet, this time accompanied by a giant buffet of some great food, plus there are always a bunch of people that come to this particular conference that I get along great with. That meant dinner was sorted so once the mingling was done I think I had definitely sold Euljiro Brewing to our friends and we dropped in for a couple. Once inside we were given a table directly beneath some stained glass windows of our vomiting friend and when I had been at the other outlet there had been something mentioned about stamps. I assumed you got a stamp for trying each different beer and get a prize or free drink at the end, but I hadn’t received any. It turned out you get a special stamp at each outlet (there was a third operating under a different name) and for visiting all three you get a free pint glass. Looks like we have a mission over the coming days.
The others were jet lagged from their flight from Australia to Korea so they went back to the hotel early, Anna and myself moving to an outdoor bar nearby to to get the gossip from her birthday and reunion, as well as catch up on a few other events while I had been gone as the moon shone brightly overhead and we got mauled by mosquitoes.
Anna’s first day on this trip to Seoul:

Monday, June 29, 2026
The informal dinner and drinks for the conference were later in the evening meaning there was plenty of time to explore another area of Seoul, this time around Jayang-dong, starting at a place called Common Ground, what appeared to be a multi-level shopping centre built out of old shipping containers. From the outside it looked like it had potential, but once inside there wasn’t really a whole lot in there, mainly a pharmacy, food court and a handful of stores. We were both hoping we hadn’t battled the traffic on our long drive just for this so we grabbed some lunch and fortunately within walking distance there was plenty more that catered to us, namely local designers and more vintage stores, one of which was playing a Kpop song with the weird chorus, “I’m still f_cking Christian”, as well as some interesting sights, but we could only stick around for a couple of hours.

When we returned to the hotel there was a simple conference dinner complete with karaoke so who am I to say no to that, however, the song I selected was a poor choice. I could’ve gone with something I’d actually like, but figured nobody would probably know any of the songs I would want to select. I read the room, which was predominantly older Americans, Europeans, and Australians and figured I’d choose something that everyone would have to be familiar with; Piano Man by Billy Joel. It turned out that very few knew it, including the professor who had got up to sing with me and to add insult to injury the song is way longer than I recall. This left me with an entire room full of people waiting for the song to end so they could have their go as I tried my best to entertain them, some leaving to make phone calls or use the bathroom as my partner in the duet just read the lyrics off the screen quietly to himself away from the microphone.
It wasn’t that late when the dinner ended so we returned to the outdoor place for a few beers, but the jet lag for the others soon kicked in again, leaving Anna and myself to have a much needed chat so she could vent about events that had occurred while I was away as we once again got attacked by mosquitoes.
Jayang-dong and a room of people that don’t appreciate the true majesty of an outstanding performance:

Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Today was the day I was dreading, but it needs a little context. Yes, we usually love going to secondhand and vintage stores, however, there was also an ulterior motive this time — Anna had arranged for us to have a K-drama photoshoot taken for her birthday so I had also been scoping out an outfit. Korean fashion and style, particularly for men to me is terrible (an example to the right), but it’s a look I’d need to go for, but there isn’t a whole lot in my wardrobe that fits the aesthetic. Anna likes to go all out for these types of things so initially l had been avoiding cutting my hair in case I had to have it styled and had even readied myself to sit in a makeup chair for a while, but before I left Singapore she said it wasn’t going to be that extreme, thus I trimmed the locks before I arrived. All I would need is the outfit and there were tons of bad options, it’s just that we couldn’t initially find anything that fit until we got lucky (for lack of a better term) and my clothing was sorted, a blue and white striped t-shirt and some rather small light blue shorts.
We would be meeting the couple that would be walking us around to different locations to photograph us near where we were staying at 3:00pm so I donned my awful attire and we had a look around the general area and its surroundings, walking past old palaces and statues until the pair arrived. That’s when I realised I may have made a small fashion faux pas. It was around 32°C (90°F) and despite the fact that I enjoy the heat, it became a little hard to bear in a hideous woollen t-shirt so almost instantly I was sweating profusely. We eventually met them and for the next hour we would be walking to different locations and were coached on how to pose, facial expressions to make (something I tend to lack), and even how to walk like a star in a K-drama, which makes it surprisingly easy to trip when you’re as gangly as me. As we wandered from each location to the next I had to roll up my shirt in the style of the Beijing-bikini, at the conclusion of which I was on the brink of dripping.
Anyway, Anna had a blast, but it was almost like Stanley Kubrick was performing the shoot, because they were absolute perfectionists and multiple takes were required of every movement, although to be fair many of those were due to us being in fits of uncontrollable laughter at how ridiculous it all was.
Here are just a fraction, some good, some tacky, and a few incredibly bad:

When the photos were finished we went straight back to the hotel to shower and so I could throw my drenched K-drama clothing in the bin, but we weren’t done playing dress-ups yet. The conference gala dinner was that night and we would be required to wear historically traditional Korean costumes and they would be supplied for us meaning I didn’t have to deal with Anna misinterpreting the details again, resulting in me not really blending in. I was, however, a little worried about the size of the costume, but that issue was alleviated when I it turned out that the pants were high-waisted and I could just wear mine like a normal pair.
We ate like royalty and there were some great traditional performances over the course of the evening, plus it ended rather early so Anna and I got back into our regular gear, said goodbye to our foreign mates who were leaving for home the following morning and we went across the road for a drink so I could get my stamp from Euljiro Brewing, one which happened to be a large, beautifully bright, hand-pressed stamp onto a piece of paper, and then to the outside seats, all while battling the relentless onslaught of mosquitoes once more.
Dressed up differently and others doing so as well while putting on a show:

Wednesday, July 1, 2026
It our final day in Seoul before moving on to Busan, the conference was over and so were the days chock full of Anna’s shenanigans and now it was time for some of mine. That required spending the day exploring Samcheong-dong, as well as some old haunts to visit all three of the Euljiro Brewing pubs to collect the stamps and a free, unique pint glass. This was a beautiful area with small streets of old, traditional housing, making you feel like you weren’t in the middle of a bustling city. We stopped off for some Korean pancakes before checking into our first port of call, Kiwa Taproom, the original outlet of Euljiro Brewing to get the second stamp and I also decided to purchase one of their wildly overpriced t-shirts. From there we roamed around some more, looking at small galleries and shops and we just slowly meandered down in the general direction of the previous hotel, getting caught in the rain at one point resulting in us taking refuge in the only readily available shelter, a nearby bar. Here we got into an interesting conversation with two older Canadian women, one of whom was an actress and had been practicing her craft with some small parts in local TV dramas over her past few years in Seoul.
The rain soon let up and we were able to go out and have some dinner while doing a mini-pub crawl of sorts, the end objective being to collect that final stamp and once we arrived at our destination the staff remembered me and noticed we had been to the other two outlets. I told them how I didn’t realise how the stamp system worked the first few times I had been in so they happily gave us our glass each, plus a different bonus one for going to all the effort of coming back, but there was a condition; we had to pose with our pieces of paper in the alley for their Instagram, but we were happy to oblige.
We continued on afterwards, because for Anna this was the first night she had been around these neon-lit alleys, but once she started suggesting we order a chicken after midnight it also started to rain again so we figured after one last terrible attempt at a K-drama pose in the rain it was best to get an Uber back to the hotel, but here’s how our final day in town looked:

So that’s it for the Seoul portion of this South Korean trip, but we weren’t done, tomorrow we’d be taking the train to Busan for some time by the beach.