June 24, 2017 - Day #22 Free Day

June 24, 2017

We said goodbye to Greg and his lady friend this morning. He is moving on to business in Germany while Wendy goes home.  Russell, Steven and I sat down for breakfast with them for one last time. 

We congregated in Hollys Coffee next to the hotel's lobby. Today's a free day so that we can take it easy. Russell went with the gang to check out train tickets to Busan while I stayed back to do laundry. Laundry service inside and outside the hotel was outrageous so a bottle of detergent from 7 Eleven, the bathroom sink, and good old manual labor had to suffice. 

Russell returned a few hours later with no luck in ticket purchases. He mumbled something about needing to do it on the computer first...yada yada yada. 

It was lunchtime and I wanted to try something new. We went to Myeongdong shopping area and tried Yoogane. They specialize in dak-galbi (marinated chicken) and cooked at table side. Since there was four of us (Russell, Matty, Nicole, and I), we were required to order 3 servings. We got dak-galbi with vegetables and a side of sticky noodles. The food came out fast on a large pan and took at least 10 mins to cook table side. It was very delicious and we managed to finish the whole thing. 

Russell and Matty did some light shopping and headed back to the hotel.  After getting rid of our baggage, Nicole and I were able help boost Korea's economy. 

We rewarded our great shopping skills with dessert at Subling, a Korean dessert cafe. It's a place that Carol and Ben said it's a "must try".  I couldn't decide between two items so I got both (why not?).  Both the honeydew with sherbet and green tea with azuki beans were amazingly refreshing and so good. Russell had to deliver some lactaid pills from the hotel to me (thanks Emilie!).  He also informed us of dinner plans to meet in the lobby at 5:30pm. Tonight is Steven's choice and it's American Cuisine.  They were only able to get two taxis so Russell, Matty, and I volunteered to take the subway. 

We arrived at Ramie's about the same time as the others. It's an upscale restaurant with prices to match. Russell and I weren't hungry so we had a couple of appetizers and saved our meal allowance for Matty who want a $54 ribeye steak. Although our waiter was very nice, he made plenty of mistakes of forgotten orders and serving the wrong food. He gave Ben Matty's steak (Ben had ordered hamburger steak). Ben didn't figure out the mistake until his dish came out. By then Matty's steak was already shared with Carol, Nicole, and Emilie. Matty finally got to have his half eaten steak and it was plenty for him. 

We were done with dinner around 8pm. The restaurant that we were at happened to be in the bars/nightclubs area. It was Saturday night and the place was lit. While everyone took taxis back to the hotel, Russell and I stayed for the experience. We were perplexed on why the youngsters Nicole and Emilie didn't want to party... they said something about doing more shopping. Oh well!  The clubbers came in like herds.  We followed them into several nightclubs. There was a lot of drinking and loud hip music. Joey would've enjoyed it, his favorite artist Drake was popular at the clubs. One thing that we didn't see was dancing. I asked a bartender and he said it was still too early, the dancing starts around midnight. Most people are still enjoying their dinner. Russell and I couldn't wait that long and headed back around 10:30pm.  A comfy bed sounds more fun than a loud, sweaty nightclub just right about now.