Seoul, Day 3 - Movie & Meow

When we woke up this morning it was pouring, the wind was blowing, and it was in the 40's. Not the ideal weather for sightseeing. What were we to do? We went and saw a movie. John Carter, specifically. I enjoyed the film very much. In fact, it was my favorite summer movie this year. Yeah, it didn't technically come out in the summer, but it was a summer movie if ever there was one. Great action and VFX, and a fun ride all the way.

(I won't bore anyone with a picture of the John Carter poster. Y'all saw it. It was everywhere. Taylor Kitsch's lack of pants didn't make you go see the film.)

The only bad thing about seeing an English movie subtitled is if a character speaks in not-English, you can't read the subtitles. So, all of the alien speak in the beginning was lost on us, but I managed to figure out what was going on without too much difficulty. However, this is something I will consider next time I see a movie in a country where English isn't the national language.

The movie theatre we went to was great, a couple blocks from our hosts apartment. Stadium seating, comfy seats, good sound. And, just as it would have been in the U.S., we were the only ones in the theatre. Which is a darn shame because I would rather see a movie like John Carter any day over Avengers 5: The One Where They Battle Transformers. You know it's coming.

For lunch we had juk (gruel in English), a dish with more variation, flavor, and color than the pit-of-despair picture painted by Charles Dickens novels. This porridge was more like a loose risotto than my oatmeal nightmares.

We had one bowl with oysters and mushrooms, the other with spicy chicken. They don't joke around when they say spicy. I mixed the two together for my favorite flavor combination (17,000 W for both).

This restaurant was right across from our host's apartment. Seriously, you can just wander in anywhere in/around Seoul and the food is excellent.

After lunch, we took a bus to Meong-dong, a bustling shopping area filled with shop after shop of bright lights, cosmetics, and clothing.

But we weren't there for shops. We were there for the animals.

In the cat cafe on the fourth floor, we paid 8000 W for a green tea latte and spent an hour playing with the sweet cats who roamed the shop.

Notice the cat mascot in the background? He was outside advertising.

There are rules in the cat cafe.

This cat was my favorite. I named him Old Man Sweater because I am creative like that.

That is not me sleeping next to Old Man Sweater.

The cats were all healthy, happy, well-groomed, and social.

In Seoul, there are also dog cafes. People who don't want to commit to a pet, or aren't allowed to have one in their apartment can relax and socialize with the animals. If we had these in the States, I would go at least once a week as a treat to myself, as I have terrible allergies but still love cats and dogs.

We said goodbye to the kitties and took a subway to Nowon for all-you-can-eat tuna sashimi. This was one of our host's favorite meals in Seoul, a giant platter of all different kinds of tuna. I'm spoiled with our melt-in-your-mouth tuna sushi in L.A., so I admit, these tougher, chewier cuts of fish were an adjustment. My favorite part of the meal were the amazing side dishes they brought. I think these dishes were an attempt to fill us up so we would eat less tuna, but the roasted cream corn was amazing (not pictured, regrettably).

We were also served another variation of fish that was one of the most interesting combinations of flavors I've had in my life. I suppose the fish was tuna because everything was tuna, but it looked like salmon. This combo was tuna, raw onion, pickle, and peanut butter. This should've been something that only tasted good to pregnant women, but somehow those flavors all combined to make one delicious and unique bite of food (It's in the above photo, the triangular piece of fish on the white plate just under the white bowl).

Tuna was 25,000 W per person.

We also tried soju for the first time, Korea's vodka made from rice. Ah, soju, I like you. You taste like cold sake. We will meet again. Soon.