Bike Team Assembled @ Seoul, South Korea
After some exciting flight delays Matt and Ali finally landed in Seoul around 4:30 AM. With the bike team assembled we took the day to explore a few more spots in Seoul. It also to gave Matt and Ali a whopping 28 hours to fight their jet leg before our epic pedal to Busan.
We began our day with a traditional Korean dish, Ginseng soup. The line at the restaurant wrapped around the block so we were certain it’d be good; Korea hadn’t let us down yet. Despite the line, we were quickly seated, in the end we only waited 10-15 minutes. Eager to fill our bellies we browsed the menu while imaging the rich and unique flavors that awaited us. Soon a steaming soup was brought out.
Our stomachs grumbled as we cooled down our first spoonful. As we slurped the soup it became apparent that this was just a lackluster chicken broth with a whole chicken in the middle. It tasted like a chicken noodle soup without the noodles or the vegetables. Helen, who had pushed the group to this restaurant became more and more displeased with her recommendation. While the food wasn’t our favorite; we still laughed at Matt’s ridiculous questions and smiled as we got to recount the story of our recent engagement. It felt good to finally have everyone together.
After lunch and a little digestion walk we hopped on a bus across town to a rooftop cafe. We split an absolutely delicious black sesame latte that Helen struggled to share.
The coffee shop was in a beautiful hilly neighborhood that reminded us a bit of our (now previous) home. They also had these cute buses with fun faces on the front, Helen demanded that Adam take a picture:
Next stop was a little bit of retail therapy. Ali led us to a perfume store that was every bit as outlandish as perfume commercials. The store was an art piece in itself. From the moment we entered we were bathed in red light and artfully decorated walls. At the end of the corridor was a staging area for all the scents and we sniffed down the line picking our favorite ones. In the end “Mud” was a surprising winner.
After a quick dinner and a little more walking we all went to bed, excited, and a little nervous, to begin our 350 mile bike trip in the morning.
