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Monday 29 July 2013

Insadong and Bukchong Cultural Village



Saturday in Seoul saw us heading to Insadong. Its quite a touristy area with loads of little shops selling curios and pottery.


We found what mum was looking for almost immediately - a giant paintbrush!?
And hundreds, make that thousands, of paintbrushes inside:


Items on offer down the street vary from pretty handmade ceramic bowls and paintbrushes! tea sets to wooden masks and plastic toys made in China.



Brightly decorated walls stand out along the street. This was a gallery selling all sorts of knick knacks and gifts.


And this was a garage door someone had taken the time to decorate brightly - now if only I had a garage back home to paint.



These rolls of hand woven linen could be mistaken for tissue paper...


The street is a popular tourist spot and is one of the destinations frequently recommended by most travel guides.


Several of the side streets offer more choices of restaurants and shops. Often a traditional old building like this one can be found nestled between modern buildings.


We chose our lunchtime restaurant based entirely on the pictures displayed on a poster outside. 


And were pleasantly surprised by the delicious meal and the great value despite the street being so touristy.


You guessed it, more dumplings!


Fortunately there was no room for dessert or I would have been sorely tempted to try an ice cream in one of these crazy curly cones.


Next up, and in an attempt to prevent us from turning into dumplings, we went on a walking tour of the nearby Bukchon traditional village.


If you take a map from the information centres, the route is easy to follow and there are more little shops and tea rooms along the route.


The old buildings have been preserved along this route but there are still modern buildings jutting up in between them making a real contrast between the old and new.


There are a variety of museums and workshops along the way displaying ancient techniques of embroidery, natural dyeing, paper doll making and there is even a knot workshop.


Our final stop for the day took us to a yarn store called Banul Story.


With gigantic knitting needles as door handles of course!


And loads of gorgeous knitted toys which we were desperate to buy but which were only for display.


My favourite of these 4 Halloween characters has to be the rat with a skeleton jumper!



It is hot and humid here at the moment during the monsoon or jangma season so the thought of anything knitted or woven is a little too much to handle - time to head back to the crazy curly ice cream cones!

1 comment:

  1. I so enjoyed this post....love the garage door...what patience.

    ReplyDelete

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