Day After Christmas: A lot of nothing!

On the day after Christmas, we putzed around in the morning like we have never putzed before. We finally left my apartment at aroun 1:30 pm to grab lunch at, my favorite, the 5500! It was the first time Karen was excited about Korean food since she had arrived. Here she is mastering her chopsticks with a cabbage salad!

We did great work on the pork, kimchi, slaw, sauce and lettuce and decided it was time to head to Hongdae (the area of Seoul surrounding Hongik University). I had read about a Dr. Fish Cafe there and an Ice Bar that we wanted to visit.

A Dr. Fish Cafe is a coffee shop that has little ponds of sucker fish that you put your feet in and the little fishies suck all of the dead skin off your feet. The Ice Bar was called Sub Zero, and was kept at a below freezing temperature so that the entire bar was made up of ice (chairs, tables, etc). A parka to borrow was part of the cover charge.

We took our sweet time getting to Hongdae. Here's Benny on the bus ride to Jonggak.

At Jonggak, we transferred to the subway line and road the subway to Hongdae. After our 1.5 hour journey, we made our way to wear the Dr. Fish Cafe used to be - but it had closed! We were so bummed out, but set out to find Sub Zero instead. Along the way, Karen really wanted to pose with this creature:

Betsy and I were relentless with our map usage and asking Korean's for help. However, after about 3 fruitless hours of searching for the Ice Bar, it was time to give... and eat Mexican food. Bear managed to sneak this shot in while we were studying the map. It was soooo cold!

We ended up at Dos Tacos and ordered some Mexican chow and then began our 1.5 hour trek home. It was such a busy day - lots of walking - but nothing to show for it :-(.

I had heard of a different Dr. Fish Cafe that we decided to give a try after the Bear and I returned from Japan... You'll get that post in a few days!

On the 27th, we headed to Tokaoka, Japan to visit Sayaka (an exchange student that stayed at my family's home) and her family. That trip will be posted tomorrow!