The first 24 hours in Seoul

It’s been 24 hours since I came and what 24 hours! Yesterday I was super nauseated and had a headache all night. But then it is nice to be greeted by a friendly heated toilet with blue light in the bowl:

And I had my very first exotic Korean cuisine encounter. With some sprouted beans...... with eyes.....😳 turns out the beans were not sprouted but covered in super tiny little fish! And for a fish hater like me that was not a pleasant experience!

I was (of course) up super early, but since I slept from 8:15PM til around 4:45AM including a short wake up where I took some melatonin I haven’t been too tired today. I got some work done while waiting for the breakfast to open, and then I went downtown by train. It was a nice walk to get to the station:

First stop was the river walk (Cheonggyecheon-to) which was indeed a true oasis:

Next stop was waiting for Starbucks to open as I really wanted to get that avocado smoothie that is only available in Korea. It turned out they were completely sold out, and I felt kind of stupid walking around Seoul with a regular Starbucks cup looking like one of these American tourists who don’t dare trying anything local.

I walked out to the royal palace where I booked a tour of the secret garden:

It was only available as a guided tour and I have to admit that I was not super impressed. It is very very beautiful but the guide was a bit boring and the tour didn’t have to last 1 1/2 hours in my opinion. But she did tell some fun stories about the royal families of the past.

After a lot of walking I went Myeongdong- the shopping district where they have all the K-beauty products, as I have promised Teresa to bring some home. And I actually got a lot - like a bubble tea face mask where you have to smush the pearls before applying the mask. Just up her alley...... I hope.....

I also had lunch at Myeong Kyoja. They only have 4 things on the menu and the line was super long, but the noodles were SO good!

There was also icecream a little further down the block:

And now I am resting my sore feet and having a caffeine break at a cat cafe in the company of some fat cats who will do any trick to steal peoples drinks (and where they play the Korean version of despacito)

Time to go back to the hotel and prepare for the conference which starts tonight.