We finally (thanks to Mr. B) were able to create and upload our video from our vacation to JeJu on day two. If you haven’t had the chance to read and check out the blog posting and pictures here is an easy link for you to check it out!
What is everybody up to this weekend? The Bees are buzzing around Korea in various locations… check back with us soon!
Not sure what Chuseok is? That’s okay we Bee’s were culturally unaware ourselves until we moved and were quickly immersed in South Korea. Isn’t that funny how culturally unaware we are as Americans? Typically we take on the attitude of well this is America and anyone moving here should immediately embrace everything American because that is just the way it is. Sad, but we all know it is very true. We are rude sometimes and believe that if you don’t speak fluent English there is something wrong with you.
Living in a different country really opens your eyes and makes you step outside of your teeny tiny American bubble. We talk about this almost daily. We talk about how where we have come from in our small hometown people are so close minded and afraid of anything out of the norm. Culturally Asia really offers things to us that we would love to instill in our children one day. The importance of trust, acceptance, kindness, and just how important family really is.
Unfortunately, if and when we do move back to the states we will also have to teach our children the importance of not being able to trust to much because people will take advantage of you, that you cannot always accept kindness as a real kind act like taking a piece of candy from a stranger, and that family can sometimes turn ugly and be ruled by a fickle jealous bone due to money.
So back to our statement of what Chuseok is. Chuseok is known as one of the biggest holidays celebrated in Korea. Often Chuseok is known as the Korean Thanksgiving and get this, it last THREE DAYS! This year Chuseok falls on September 11th through the 13th. Yes, another thing the Korean’s know how to do! Chuseok is a time when Koreans travel back to their hometowns and celebrate together, share family stories, give thanks to their ancestors, and of course eat a delicious spread of food!
Yes Chuseok is known as the Korean Thanksgiving but there isn’t a turkey or pumpkin pie like the Americanized version. Koreans celebrate this holiday with Songpyeon. Songpyeon is a half-moon shaped rice cake that are filled with various things like sweet bean, chestnuts, even sesame seeds. Something really treasured and valued is when the Korean families are together making these treats. I guess very similar to when Americans get together and prepare the turkey and such.
You can totally forget trying to travel anywhere in Korea during this holiday! The roads are very chaotic…even more so! ha-ha! If you are trying to go somewhere, it is best to call in advance and make sure that the place is even open. Much of Korea is basically closed down on Chuseok (Including Mrs.B’s work). Well let it be said.. we warned you!
During Chuseok families will visit the tombs of their ancestors. We have tombs right behind our apartment. We catch ourselves almost daily looking outside at the beauty of the green mountain side. Today and the next few days we will see Korean families on the mountainside removing weeds and trimming plans that may have grown around the site. korean’s also drink or offer food to their ancestors while they visit.
We snapped a few pictures of our very own Italian version of Chuseok. Just kidding, we had a dinner with friends that have become our Korean family and celebrated each others company. What a great night!
The weather in South Korea has been changing ever so quickly. Each morning and evening seems just a littler cooler then the day prior. We Bee’s are originally from Central Pennsylvania so we are used to experiencing four seasons. To us there is nothing like being able to go to sleep in the evening with crisp cool fall air creeping in through your bedroom windows. In all the places we have lived or traveled to, we both agree that Pennsylvania has some of the most breathtaking fall scenery. However, we are giving Korea a fair chance and will await to see when the leaves start to turn on the mountains what it has to offer up.
With that being said, today we woke up to another cool September morning here in Dongducheon. We decided that we were going to take advantage of the weather and try to hike our way up and over Soyo mountain located only a few minutes away from our apartment. The weatherman was calling for showers but the sun was still peeking through the clouds and really didn’t look like it was going rain. We decided to take our chances and just go for it.
What we both like about Soyosan is that you park and have to walk up a beautifully tree lined paved road until you reach the base on the mountain. A few posts back you can see where we messed around with the camera and snapped some pictures of us together on this road at night. Along the tree lined road runs a crystal clear stream. During the spring and summer months it is a very popular location for Korean’s to be picnicking and dipping their feet in the water to cool off. Today, as we mentioned is a bit cooler so there were not as many people spotted along the stream.
Before you can continue walking to the very base of the mountain where you begin your hike you have to pay a 3,000 won admission fee. Unless that is, you have have a Dongducheon Korean license, then the admission is FREE!
As you know from prior blog posts we have visited Soyosan numerous times. However, we have never actually hiked the whole trail.Typically we only go up to the Buddhist Jajaeam Temple snap some pictures and turn around. This time…we were ready!
Looking back on the hike we determined that depending on your physical physique you can basically reach the top of the first peak within 30-45 minutes. Now we took our good old sweet time, snapped a ton of pictures, rested for about 45 minutes, and ate some snacks along the trail, so it took us roughly an hour and a half to reach the first peak.
As we mentioned, we snapped tons of pictures and they are included within the post at the top. We also snapped pictures for various Korean couples along the way too! We met a sweet couple that insisted we try their Korean cake. Mr’s B enjoyed it but Mr. B was not a fan. We encountered many couples and each tried to share whatever they had with us including Makkoli the Korean-rice wine. Uhhhh yeahhhh we didn’t tell you that we were very bad and didn’t start the morning off right with a nice hearty breakfast… wine would have made that hike really interesting.
After reaching the first peak we were pumped and moved fairly quickly to the next two peaks. Along the way in between each peak there are areas where you have to crawl over some rocks, use a rope to guide you along narrow stretches of trail, and go up or down a lot of stairs.
Because of the time and our plans to host dinner for some friends we had to get a move on it and truck it back down the mountain, and unfortunately that meant missing the last peak. Again, looking back we should have just hiked the last peak because the path we took to get back down the mountain was insane! The path was totally washed out from all the rain and flooding South Korea experienced in July and the trail was full of rocks that just tumbled down the side of the mountain. We were part of the way down and there wasn’t a person in sight. Ms. B started to say what in the world were we thinking?! How did we get ourselves into the mess… It was a bit to late to turn back so we just had to commit to the rest of the hike down. It ended up taking us a little over a hour just to get down because of the unstableness of the rocks and lack of actual tail. At last we spotted some Korean hikers climbing their way up the path and we heard a family not to far behind us. Okay, we were not the only crazy people on this trail…Mrs. B’s feeling better. Well, that was until Mr. B said make sure you are watching for snakes! Snakes?! Ah! that’s not even a thought that crossed my mind as I was crawling down the rocks (Mr’s B.) Luckily, no snakes were spotted, the rocks didn’t crumble down and crush us, and we eventually made it. Mr. B would like to think this is all due to his advise of “three points of contact”. Mrs. B would like to think it is due to her uncanny direction capabilities ha ha! Nevertheless, WE MADE IT! In one piece… well, not quite, Mrs. B ended up falling due to sliding on the steep slick dirt and catching herself by putting all her weight on her arm and shoulder (she’s a bit sore). Mr. B’s knee gave out a few times on the rocks (needless to say he will definitely be feeling that in the morning). But again, WE MADE IT and that is all that matters!
We understand if you are dreading the initial thought of a hike or might be unsure about trying it after reading over our post. In all seriousness we had a blast and we promises that the picturesque views overlooking the US Army base Camp Casey are worth the hike alone! Not to mention spotting multiple Korean war era bunkers (how cool is that!)!
Cheers to all the baked ziti with sausage and caprese that we will consume tonight without feeling guilty!
Day two of the trip we woke up to the most beautiful sunny day! The sun rays were beaming off the ocean waves, the clouds looked like gigantic marshmallows, we just knew the day was going to be amazing.
We woke up at 7:00am, ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant buffet, and took a cab to Mini Mini Land. Mini Mini Land is located in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Jeju-si Jocheon-eup Gyorae-ri San 56-4.
So what is Mini Mini Land? Mini Mini Land is a large park that features 116 famous miniature replications from around the world. To name a few, we got to see the miniature Bulguksa Temple, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc. Each replication is constructed at 1/15 or 1/30 of the actual size.
The Cost per adult person is 7,000 won. The hours to the park were displayed as follows: December to March 08:30 – 17:30, April to June 08:30 – 18:00 , July to August 08:30 – 19:30, September to November 08:30 – 18:00 (* Open hours of the park are subject to change depending on circumstances).
After Mini Mini land we went back to the hotel and back up with our friends and decided to grab lunch together. Waiting for them at the entrance of the hotel we ran into some other friends that gave us the address of an Indian Food Restaurant near by. We were pretty excited about the sweet information they gave us and thought we would stick that in our back pocket in case we were in need of a place to go. It turned out that the couple we met up with for lunch were all about trying out the Indian Restaurant and we all decided to grab lunch there.
The trip to the restaurant was interesting because the cab driver had no idea of where the place was. However unlike the Bee’s past experience of the cab driver trying to give the boot out of the cab because he was frustrated with not knowing the exact address this guy was pretty determined with finding the location for us to enjoy a meal at.
After about 15 minutes or so and a few phone calls later the cab driver took an alley and sure enough there was the Indian Restaurant, Bagdad Café! We laughed and said we didn’t quite understand the cafe name connection to the Indian culture. The cafe’s kitchen is actually ran by a Nepalese chef, and was named after the film not the city, features cool rustic music and an outside terrace.
Wow-We! we cannot express enough how delicious the food was at this place. We all shared each others dish so we had a chance to try everything out. Mr. B ordered a lamb curry, Mrs. B ordered a chicken tangri kabob stuffed with cheeses, cream, and indian spices (cooked over charcoal to perfection), and our friends ordered chicken curry, and chicken tandoori,of course we each had garlic naan.
The café atmosphere was quaint and very comfortable. The waitress spoke English and Korean and was very attentive to our table.
Hours after eating at Bagdad Café we were still talking about how great the food was! The café is located in the City Hall area of Jeju City. The address is Korean to give to your cab driver is: 바그다드 대한민국 제주특별자치도 제주시 이도2동. The address is english is: 1186-16 Ido 2-dong, JeJu City. The phone number is: 1188-16 064-757-8182.
After lunch we were on our way to Love Land. We found this place in another bloggers blog so we decided to go there. This theme park is for ADULT’S ONLY (in our eyes and according to our standards). However once were at the park we couldn’t find anywhere that had ANY warning or restriction for minors. We have password protected this post titled JeJu (Day Two) Love Land Adults Only. The password to view this blog post is iam18orolder . By typing in this password You must be at least “18” years old to view. By typing in this password you are certifying that you are at least “18” years of age and Backpackbees is not responsible for any of the photo images you are about to view. Thank you for your understanding : ) The link to the Love Land post is Here.
After a stroll through Love Land we headed to E-Mart to see what was there and made dinner plans with our friends to meet up at 7:30pm. We Bee’s wanted to see what JeJu had to offer on the streets and ended up in a huge underground shopping market (Jung-ang) located only minutes away from the hotel. The market was pretty cool and featured a ton of tiny shops offering all sorts of clothing, food, etc.
At this point our legs were really tired and we still wanted to get cleaned up before going out to dinner so we went back to the hotel and got ready for our dinner date.
We met up with our friends again at the hotel entrance and they picked the White House restaurant to go to for dinner. We were game! Eagerly looking forward to checking this place out after Ms. Kim provided an excellent review of the place. We caught a cab outside the hotel and the cab driver was pretty cool! This guy was originally from Seoul and spoke very good English. His appearance and style was very western and his hairstyle was like Elvis HA-HA! We had some good laughs with this guy! The best part was along the ride to the restaurant he called and made reservations for us and when dropping us off he ran in and asked for them to give us a discount. Talk about service!
We pulled up to the White House Restaurant and were immediately taken back again by the beauty of the ocean. The sun was moments away from setting and the breeze coming off the ocean was just perfect. All we could think and say was, “Do we really have to leave this place tomorrow?” We walked up and down along the ocean and just took it all in before heading into the restaurant.
Okay, back to the White House review. We were all really impressed yet again with this restaurant selection. The White House opened its doors back in November 2004. The intent behind this monstrosity of a place was that they wanted to sell a lot of kids of foods like a buffet, spaghetti, steak, and pizza. At the time there was no wood-fired pizza on the island so they decided why not!?
The first thing you will notice when pulling up to the restaurant is that the place is HUGE! The interior and menus are intense but in a good way. There are different levels each catering to what you are in the mood for that day. An article we read about the place said it best, “There are two spectrums, with everything in between. All budgets and people are welcome. The bourgeois meet the proletariat. An abalone steak meets a paupers dinner roll. Expensive red wine meets a students Coke. Louis Vuitton meets Hello Kitty”…I think you get the point, right?
We ended up on the third flood by accident. However the accident turned out to be a blessing because we found and smelled the 65-item buffet. The average price of the buffet is about 27,000 won. Once again we filled up on delish foods and ate until we were stuffed!
The restaurant address is as follows: Yongduam 3 dong 2572-4. Telephone number is: 064-712-3200. We highly recommend the White House for dinner when you are vacationing on JeJu.
Once we got back to the hotel our heads were ready to hit the pillow yet again after another adventurous day in JeJu.
Day one of the trip started off fairly early. Our flight was scheduled to leave Gimpo airport located in Seoul at 9:55am. This meant to beat traffic we had to get on the road at 7:00am sharp. Surprisingly our group did just that and was on the road on time bound for Jeju!
The best part about Jeju is how close it really is. The total flight time was only about 55 minutes. Very quick! We all laughed and said it was just enough time to get comfortable in your seat and then you were ready to land.
We had a lot of kids on the plane and they were all troopers! We hardly heard a peep from any of them. Honestly looking back they all deserved a huge treat of some sort because during the trip they missed nap times, walked, were exposed to the hot sun, and had to eat Korea food.
When we landed at the airport we were met by our guide Ms. Kim. We cannot praise this women enough! She was an absolute hands down fantastic tour guide! Plus she put up with all of us winy Americans. Ms. Kim is was born and raised in Jeju and speaks English incredibly well. We both agreed that if we find ourselves back in Jeju we will be giving Ms. Kim a call again.
We didn’t go directly to the hotel to check in. We loaded up our luggage on a large tour bus and we sought out for our first destination point. Cameras in hand we were ready!
First stop, Seongsan, also known as “Sunrise Peak”. Sunrise Peak is a plateau-like basin which is the crater of an extinct volcano. Eek! That’s right, we said volcano! Don’t worry it’s not active so we were safe. We didn’t get to see the sunrise here because of the flight times but we did get to see the panoramic views that this crater offered. This was after we hiked up a ton of stairs (just a warning). If you get to visit, take the time and hike it! You will not be sorry.
After hiking the crater it was time for lunch. Our group had reservations at a Korean style bi bim bap restaurant. This place was outstanding! They were fully prepared for our large group and had our hot stone bi bim bap ready to go as soon as our bums hit the seats.
After lunch we had a few moments before having to board the bus so we walked down an alley right outside of the hotel and got to see some scuba divers coming in from a dive trip. Mr. B’s heart skipped a beat and he was in awe watching them unpack with all of their gear. Of course for the next few moments he repeated that he couldn’t wait to get the rest of his PADI certification completed.
It was now time to leave the restaurant and be on our way to the next stop on the itinerary. It was another crater known as the sangumbury Crater. The steps were not nearly as rough at this spot. I am sure you are asking why in the world are we going to see yet another crater? Well, the cool thing about the Sangumbury Crater is that it is the only extinct volcano on JeJu island located at ground level. It really is pretty crazy when you think about it. We were impressed by how green everything is on JeJu. The crater had lush forest growth and animals inhibiting it. We were told by our guide that the crater is being studied for that very reason. Interesting, huh?
After we were done at Sangumbury Crater our next stop was the JeJu Folk Village. The village exhibits a comprehensive collection of traditional folk articles from the island ranging around the year of 1890. We met a couple on the trip that were from Panama and he tearfully said that the JeJu Folk village really reminded him of growing up in Panama. It blew our minds getting to look at the village houses and cultural items. By now the sun was scorching us all so luckily there was a snack stand along the trail that served ice-cream. Most of the group bought ice-cream and the other half bought a cool drink. We were all starting to drag so the cool treat was a definite pick-me-up. Ms. Kim finagled a deal that allowed our group to take the tram the rest of the way through the village and back to the bus. Whew! Not a single soul had an issue with that.
We loaded up the bus and the next stop was to transfer to the hotel and check in. We arrived at the Ocean Suites hotel at about 5:30pm. The staff treated the group very well and had the check-in process set up so that we were all able to get to our rooms quickly. We L-O-V-E-D the hotel room! Everything about the hotel was new and fresh. The decor was very modern and sleek, and the view was of the ocean and an outdoor performing arena. Ahhhhh…we didn’t ever want to leave. Our tour group package included breakfast every day at the hotel restaurant. The restaurant featured a large buffet of both western and korean dishes. We would highly recommend the hotel to anyone planning on taking a trip to JeJu. The hotel location is: #1-1260 Samdo-2Dong, JeJu-City, Telephone: 064-720-6000, and website www.oceansuites.kr .
After a long day of fun filled events we took showers and got ready to find some place to grab dinner at. We ended up linking up with a couple and had a blast! We ate at a Korean style restaurant that served Samgyeopsal. We have mentioned having this sort of a meal in past blog postings. Anyways the thick slices of pork with the sides really hit the spot! We were stuffed when we left and all agreed it was an excellent choice.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel but along the way we heard music and singing coming from the outdoor performing arena that we could see from our room. Of course we had to go check what was going on out. The performance was a song that described a story. The only thing we really could take away from it was that it was about fishermen with large casting nets.
With bellies full and eyelids heavy we all decided we were going to head back to the hotel and get some rest. Day two of the trip is a free day with lunch and dinner on your own. Wow does time fly when you are having fun!
Most of our family and close friends have already seen the video and now we want to share it with the rest of our blog friends. Mrs. B is still working her way through video editing. This is her first attempt (please be kind) but feel free to let us know what you think!
The video is from our experience attending the 2011 Lotus Lantern Festival held annually in Seoul. We hope that you enjoy!
If you haven’t already done so, please feel free to check out the pictures from the festival back in a previous blog posting.
Today we woke up to one of the most beautiful days since summer had begun in Korea. Nearly no humidity, sun not scorching, and NO RAIN. The statement of NO rain is pretty big in its self.
We Bees had another hectic week. This time we both suffered an unfortunate visit with food poisoning. We will let the surprising culprit remain anonymous from our blog. Maybe eventually they will redeem themselves…in a year or so?
We set out with the only intention of scoring some good grub. Along the way we took a bit of a detour to stop at Bukhansan National Park and visit Jinkwansa Temple and take in the sights and play with the camera. Jinkwansa Temple is well-known for temple stays. On a side note, we will be blogging about our temple stay experience in a few weeks at another well-known temple here in Korea.
Now onto the good stuff, sushi! After a few days of eating plain white rice and plain jane toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, one finds themself wanting and craving something different and flavorful! Sushi!
Recently we were let in on a little best kept secret that goes by the name of Fuji Restaurant. We were delighted to finally get to check this place out and like we said it could not have come at a better time.
Fuji’s menu features an assortment of roll’s and sashimi. the rolls had names such as the Caterpillar, HOT Night, Crunch, Alps Mountain, and Las Vegas. There were plenty of others but we are not going to spend time typing them all out. Plus we don’t want to give too much away if you go and check out for yourselves. Sashimi menu options are tuna, white tuna, salmon, tempura, and udon.
Sushi or sashimi more of your partners thing? No worries, Fuji’s menu also features dishes like Bibimbap, fish cutlet, rice, fried dumplings, salads, bulgogi, etc.
We Bees shared a combo of eel, tuna, salmon, shrimp, the green dragon roll, crunch roll, and crazy roll. For dessert we each had mochi ice cream. Final verdict, we LOVED the food! The prices were much better than what we would have paid in the states.
After dinner we messed around with the camera some more but of course all good things must come to an end…RAIN! Luckily it was just a passing shower and it went as fast as it came.
Please feel free to view our pictures from our Saturday and let some comments.
We hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
After a pretty eventful and exhausting weekend of scuba diving lessons we find ourselves already well into Sunday evening. Really, where does the time go?? Do all of you feel that the weekends come and go in the blink of an eye? Hopefully you do get to take some time to yourself and think about all of the blessings that you have in your life.
Today’s Mrs. B’s birthday! To celebrate we decided to try out a more “westernized” restaurant called VIPS. VIPS comes highly recommended from a close “foodie” friend so naturally we are eager to try it out and possibly score some comfort foods reminding us of home. The restaurant is located right on highway 3 in downtown Uijeongbu. VIPs is known for pretty tasty steaks and a HUGE delicious saladbar! After enjoying our dinner there we have to agree.
If you can’t find something at this place to eat…I’m not sure you will find anything, anywhere, in South Korea. They offer just about everything on the saladbar! We are talking pizza, cook to ordered pasta, fruits, soups, various veggie dishes, various salads, make your own tacos, make your own bibimbap, frozen green tea and vanilla yogurt, an espresso bar, an assortment of seafood, and so much more!
Right off the bat this place is a bit pricier, however you can opt to just get the salad bar buffet and truly you will leave just as fat and happy. The steak prices range depending on your preference and cut. The saladbar price might seem a bit steep but like we said, they offer just about everything on it!
We really enjoyed the family atmosphere of the restaurant. There were so many families dinning together and it made us think of home and our families. We miss you guys and wish you could all be here to enjoy all of our special moments in South Korea. Part of the way through the meal a younger Korean family was sat next to us with the sweetest little girls that entertained us with their VIPS balloons. They also were incredibly generous and snapped a quick picture of our group for our blog.
Here is to another great dinner down in the blog!
Interested in checking out VIPS? Feel free to check out the website: http://www.ivips.co.kr/
Wait, is there such a thing as the perfect summer day in South Korea? Typically a summer day consist of heat, heat, oh yea more heat, and throw in some major humidity! Today however was absolutely perfect! Yes it was HOT but we were able to get out and enjoy it with some new friends in Dongjeom. Dongjeom is only 7km (5 miles) away from Dongducheon and is very popular among Koreans on days like today.
If you viewed the pictures already you will see that we cooled off in a stream. We loved it! We were the only Americans there and the Koreans welcomed us right away. For as little as 50,000 KRW you got to order/grill all sorts of great foods, have your own personal cabana-style set up all day, park for free, and soak in the rays. We were surprised at the soaking of rays part because usually Koreans avoid exposing there skin to the sun at all costs.
There was a sweet Korean family that squirted us with water guns and got into a splash fight with us too….(Don’t worry we learned a valuable lesson recently and we safe guarded the camera from water with our lives). Meaning Mrs. B took one for the team and got soaked!
After some time spent cooling down we decided to towel off and head to Herb Island. Those of you familiar with our past blog post know that we have been there multiple times now. Each time we go back we see or try something new. This time we can add blueberry herb ice-cream, boy’s in bubble, full body chair massages, and tasting herbal teas to the list. We are telling you that you’ve got to visit Herb Island if you are ever in the neighborhood.
As an answer to a previous post question, YES, Herb Island sells pre-potted herbs and flowers, so bring some won. The prices seemed reasonable.
After Herb-Island our stomach’s were all grumbling. Our new friends asked if we wanted to join them for dinner and we gladly accepted! We drove into New City (Dongducheon) and went to a place that we have wanted to try out from our numerous night walks. The restaurant is Twae Rang Such Ur K/Go K/GI. Such means basically to grill or charcoal, and K/Go K/GI is the meat. We were all impressed with the Kal-mege-Sal (We might have butchered that spelling, many apologies). Basically we had seasoned meat that was not oily and grilled perfectly right at our table! We had sprouts, kimchi (and this kimchi would be a perfect beginners kimchi to try, not too much fish sauce), rice, and bean soup. Mmmm! We left stuffed and will definitely go back again!
We both got home saying what a fun filled day we had with such awesome company. We look forward to many more great adventures into the future with them both!
From our last post you know that we left off needing to go back to Songtan for Mrs. B’s suit fitting.
Wellllll… we went, unfortunately the tailor didn’t have anything started and wasn’t prepared even though she is the one who told us to come back this weekend for the fitting. We were pretty disappointed but ended up getting a discount as well as a better deal on some future design purchases.
The trip wasn’t a total loss. We originally planned on trying out a German restaurant that we saw blogged about in the same area.
After the tailors we walked up behind the Asia Hotel and next door to the Sun hair shop to Memories, the German restaurant.
We were told that Memories was opened and operated by the late Konrad Wermers, a native of Westphalia, Germany, who had worked for years as a chef at several major South Korean hotels. In the mid-1990s he opened Memories in Seoul, but moved it to Songtan about a year and a half ago due to the cost of rent being so high.
Today, the restaurant is operated by Mr. Wermers wife who still strives to uphold the same appeal and German cooking.
From the outside as well as inside there really is no glamorous appeal pulling you in. Everything ascetically was very simple. However we basically follow the theory that some of the best foods are served from the most off the beaten path places. Like normal, we wanted to try the place out and determine for ourselves.
Memories menu looked pretty promising. Unlike our experience at the German Haus the other week this place actually had offered German staples like the Wiener schnitzel, Jaeger Schnitzel, and Zigeuner Schnitzel.
The menu also features appetizers such as snails in herb butter, smoked Norwegian salmon (of course Mr. B had to order), soups and salads; soft drinks and a variety of German beers. Also unlike the German Haus, there is no bar, no home brewed beers, or mixed drinks.
What you need to know:
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (Closed Sundays)
Prices: Main dish prices are set at about 12,500 to 25,500 won. The appetizers are prices from 9,000 to 11,500. The German beers are 3,000 to 10,000 won. The sodas are 3,000 to 5,000 won.
The menu and staff both read/speak English. There are tables and chairs (no sitting on the floor options avaliable).
The phone number is: (031) 667-4249
Our final opinions about Memories are we recommend the Jäger schnitzel with mushroom cream sauce as a main dish. Perhaps the smoked salmon with capers and horseradish dipping sauce for an appetizer and while you’re at it, wash it all down with a nice cold bottled German beer.
We are glad we grabbed a bite to eat at Memories. We would have loved to chat with and experience the cooking of chef Wermers but what can you do?
After dinner we went back to our favorite coffee shop where we enjoyed our frothy delicious favorites and picked up the tea order we placed the prior week. (Mrs. B might have found something to obsess about just as much as Mr. B does with his coffee).
We wanted to include a map for you in case you are ever in Songtan around the Osan Air Force base searching for a chill place that serves up delish drinks and dessert.
Just sitting here reminiscing about the weekend and how crazy it is all the memories we have already made in this little coffee shop. We always end staying for quite awhile just talking and laughing until we cry. Ha-Ha this time specifically we had an audience. Our travel buddies were laughing so hard at our conversation it made the Koreans sitting behind us start to laugh. It was comical!
It’s been such an incredible journey up until this point. We don’t take anything for granted and we feel that we are incredibly blessed to have met such amazing friends from all walks of life from all over the world. We are thankful to these friends that have accepted us for who we are and welcomed us in like family. We wouldn’t trade the experiences in for anything in the world.
Hopefully we didn’t ramble on too much. Thank you for tuning in and we hope you enjoyed our weekend trip.
