Whirlwind pt.4

(or OMG how many parts is this going to have?!?!? a: as many as it takes!)

Insadong

took the subway up there...

this area is north of the city center. it didn't take too long on the subway to get there, and was totally worth visiting. again, it's a market centered area with shops lining the streets, but it was WAY cooler than intaewon. it is the artist district and most of the shops were run by artisans and tons of little galleries. you could find many kinds of art here... i'll have to go back before i leave korea to spend lots of money on things like: paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and traditional art.
even the benches have sculptures on them! cute little froggies! the street was very busy with people, and the shops all have their wares outside on the street... just down the way we found the free hug girl:
i got one from her... it wasn't very good... she probably does it to meet cute boys or something... she didn't speak any english so when i asked her why she was giving away free hugs, she couldn't tell me. there was a guy further down the street - his hug was better, but i don't have a pictuure of it... when i asked him, he could only convey a sort of "just because" - his english wasn't very good either... oh well... hugs are nice no matter the reason why.

one of the nifty shops on the street... selling artsy stuff...

we didn't get very far down the street before finding this outdoor mall-type place called ssamzie market. it was kind of strange when we first found it. for example:

the giant green horse.

this was one of many sizable sculptures around the place which was like a giant art exhibit... it was having some kind of andy warhol inspired exhibit... not sure if it always looks like this or if it was temporary, but it was definitely cool. all the shops were little artsy places... i didn't buy anything, but cyndi and kim did.

one of the entrances... see all the art?

anothe sculpture. these giant flowers were growing up the stairwell... four stories of them...

this is from the second or third story - see all the andy warhol? on one of the other walls it actually says "from andy warhol" in glowing blue neon...
this is from the top floor - see the horse at the bottom. the coolest thing about the mall is that you never actually have to take the stairs after the first floor. the 'sidewalk' is on a slight incline the whole way up and when you walk around you are slowly walking up to the next level... totally wheelchair (or lazy) friendly! the top floor has restaurants and coffee places with outdoor tables to sit at - must be nice in summer!
we found this along the top walkway and hhad to take our pictures with it... we aren't sure what it's from, but the pixelation is hilarious!
this is the outside the car is actually on a little road... i got a shot of it from above, but i like this one better....

after wandering around in there for about an hour and a half, we met up with kim's friend kim who lives in seoul. we were pretty cold from having been outside all afternoon, and it got really cold after the sun went down... (it was probably around zero or lower in seoul - way colder than gimhae...) so we went for coffee...

the girls in front of the artsy (and expensive) coffee shop we went to... second floor.

i think it was called the book cafe... or something like that... they had a wall full of korean books...

the last thing we saw as we were leaving insadong... don't know how i didn't notice it in the daylight... the auto-toilet! no-one used it, but kim was considering it! i don't think we could figure out how to get in!

stay tuned for a night out on the town in the Hongik University area...