🇰🇷 ソウル72時間：韓国のチムジルバンで抗議から平和へ

🇰🇷 ソウル72時間：韓国のチムジルバンで抗議から平和へ

In just 72 hours, we dove into the heart of Seoul, packed with flavor, history, and unexpected moments We munched on tteokbokki at Gwangjang Market, spent a night in a Korean spa, explored ancient palaces near Bukchon Hanok Village, and celebrated a birthday along the way. We even witnessed protests calling for the president’s impeachment, a powerful glimpse into the city’s political pulse. We visited Seoul in mid-March before the president was officially removed from office following the court’s ruling in early April. This was Seoul in three unforgettable days. Let’s go! We’re about to board the last flight to Seoul. We made it! We made it to Korea! This is a nice subway train, very clean. We made it! We woke up at 5am today because we’re still confused what time it is. Our jet lag is real. Yeah, we’re off today, going to explore. Here we go! Good morning, Alex. Good morning. We’re at the Insadong Cultural Street. Here they got a lot of traditional foods. The tide of history leaves countless heroes in its wake. We’re going to the national palace. We got our ticket. If you dress up here, you don’t need a ticket, it’s free. So there’s lots of places you can rent the outfits. The ticket’s $2. Yeah, the ticket’s just $2. Gyeongbokgung Palace, meaning palace greatly blessed by heaven, was built in 1395 as the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty. Located in the heart of Seoul, it served as the home of kings, the royal family, and the government for over two centuries. Though it was destroyed during the Japanese invasions of the late 1500s, it was later rebuilt in the 19th century. Today, Gyeongbokgung stands as a powerful symbol of Korean history, culture, and resilience. With its iconic gates, colorful changing of the guard ceremony, and sweeping palace grounds drawing visitors from around the world, the changing of the guard ceremony at the palace is a colorful reenactment of a royal tradition from the Joseon dynasty. Dressed in vibrant traditional uniforms, guards march, drum, and exchange posts at the main gate in a precise ritual. Held several times daily, the ceremony offers a glimpse into Korea’s royal past and is one of the most popular cultural experiences in Seoul. Changing of the royal palace guard ceremony you’re about the witness is a meticulous reenactment based on the historical records and literature of the time. The new commander on duty will be stationed at Gwanghwamun gate for inspection, and the off-duty gate guards will be heading back to the square. What do you think? Pretty cool palace. Yeah. The ornamentation here is just so stunning. Look at that. Mmm, it’s really good. So, we’re here in the Bukchon Hanok Village, additional Korean village here, and yeah, it’s really whimsical and a lot of cool, like, wooden carving, wooden carved houses with these tiled roofs. What do you think? I love it. Yeah, it’s very homey. Alright, we’re just around here at Gwangjang Market here in Seoul, one of the most famous markets. Fishcake. We got like a bibimbap restaurant here where you just pick your toppings, mix up in the rice, mix up in a bowl. Okay, some Tteokbokki, big pillows. It’s kind of smoky. I need a napkin after that. I have some lipstick. We’ve been seeking this out. It’s definitely a summer meal here. That’s a soybean noodle. Mmm, it’s nice and cool. It’s like refreshing. It has a very light taste. Yeah, it tastes like, it tastes like noodles and soy milk almost. It’s good. It’s like a sesame flavor. We are looking for the pancake. We are looking for the pancake. Oh, here one is. We got the classic mung bean pancake here. Mmm-hmm. So, give it a try. It looks pretty fresh. Yeah, we got some of the mung bean in there and some crispy outside. Yeah, we got more protein from your typical pancake. It’s like a latke. It’s pretty oily, but it’s good. It’s good. It’s like a latke. It is. It reminds me of latkes. I got some dried persimmons. I love persimmons. Mmm, so good. We got lots of pickled things, lots of kimchi. Radish kimchi. We got pollock kimchi. We got the crabs. Yeah, the snow crabs and soy sauce. We got some tabokkei. tabokkei So good. So this is the hotel with robots instead of people. The henna hotel. Wow. It’s good? Very good. I got these red bean cakes. It’s like a pancake. Mmm. It tastes like a pancake with red bean in it. We’re here at the shin tea house and we’re going to check it out. We’re going to try some teas. Try some teas. We have some tea here. I forgot what its called It’s like nuts on top that you can eat. These are the rice desserts or snacks. Let’s see. It’s so good. It’s so good. I think we’re at the counter protest but we’re not sure we can’t read Korean I think the people are for impeaching the president. Taking the subway. Here? Nice. Alright. Are you going to join the scrub club? Huh? Spa Lei. We’re here at Spa Lei I’m going to check it out. Here just outside of the Gangnam area. Headed to the park along the river. Made it into the park. It’s Saturday afternoon. It’s very lively. Got grandma’s trying to do push-ups. Got grandma’s trying to do pull-ups. We got a nice little bike path behind me. I just got a lot of people riding bikes, taking jogs. This is probably one of the best places in the city. Got some fresh air here along the river here. Yeah, Seoul is just one of those cities that you’re never going to explore at all. This is such a monster. And you just got to accept the little bites at a time that come at you. Yeah, tomorrow is the Seoul Marathon. A lot of runners out. Probably the runners out right now are not doing the marathon tomorrow. Yeah, Seoul’s got a pretty never-ending skyline here. Things just work here. Things are clean. Things are efficient. And affordable. We’ll check on Erica in a little bit. We’ll see how she likes her scrub and the spa. But we’re going to go and see under the tunnel here. There’s the graffiti tunnel. And then we’ll be in the proper part of Gangnam. If you come into that river walk along the river there, there’s not many places to duck back out into the main neighborhood. So, yeah, that was a good three or four mile walk there. K-Star Road in Gangnam District. So you find this is kind of the equivalent of Avenue the Stars. Or, yeah, Rodeo Drive here. I don’t know. We’re going to walk around and check it out. Yeah, it’s pretty posh here. A lot of fancy restaurants. A little more swanky outfits. Fancy your cars for sure. But it’s a little bit of a stretch to say it’s Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive Surgeon. Surgeon Erica here. I love persimmons so much. We have persimmons smoothie and persimmon leaf tea. So good. It’s just like pure persimmons. So good. Yeah, this is my birthday dessert. My birthday cake. Persimmon flavor. I love it. We got a little red bean porridge. My favorite. We had a fantastic persimmon shake and some tea at a tea house. And behind us, the protest is still going on. I love the tea house culture here. Yeah, I wish they had more of that in the US. It’s a more modern one. But one earlier today was a more traditional one. So nice. What a nice birthday. Just leaving here our luxurious abode. We’re at the N285 hotel. It’s like a really good location in the Insadong neighborhood. We’re not too far from Myeongdong and the palaces and the village Bukchon Hanok village. Yeah. It’s so nice. They gave us robes. Game plan for the next 48 hours. We’re going to go eat a lot of stuff. We’re going to go check out the Gangnam neighborhood. And then we’re going to go try to stay overnight in a spa. On to Hongdae. Here we go. We’re in Hongdae. Crazy, edgy, university town. Those youngins. All that artsy hipster atmosphere. he’s trapped It’s cute, I like all the characters and it seems like literally everything can be transformed. Kakao and friends. Train is coming, train is coming. Gangnam. Walking around Gangnam, trying to get into this mall here. But yeah, let me be close to the statue that says Gangnam style. This is a pretty awesome library, just how it’s decorated with all of the shelves so you can see all the books coming out. It’s really beautiful how they did that. You can’t get access to those, it’s just decoration. Just decoration. We got the coax mall, Starfield coax over there, crazy mall. It’s really big. Yeah, now we’re here at the temple. We’re on K-star road. We’re here in the fancy part of town. Yeah, getting close to rodeo drive here, Gangnam. And we’re standing right in front of Prada, look at that. How nice. These are K-stars. Gangnam style. K-star road, here we go. Gangnam style. Let’s see here about Gangnam style. Erika. Yeah. Gangnam style. K-star road. It is in the high 30s. It is cold. And we don’t have much clothing because we have been in South America for so long. We had just like shorts and t-shirts. And we’re in the same thing every day. Yeah, four degrees Celsius. Yeah, four degrees Celsius. Yeah. I’m excited to get out of the cold. You know, warm up with some kimchi spicy soup. All right, we finally got to these black soybeans for the banchan. Which are some of my personal favorites here. Let’s see. Yeah, that texture is like nice and firm. Looks like a little sweet. Salty. I love that. All right, we got kimchi jjigae. We got sundabu, buckwheat crepe, and steamed egg. All right, let’s just try some of this broth here. Mmm. Mmm. Yeah. Mmm, that kimchi is really good. It’s like, I would say it’s like an 8 out of 10 spicy. It’s not boring your mouth off, but it’s nice. Very fermented. Very kind of sour. Sour taste. Mmm. Got nice big chunks of tofu in here. Mmm. Put it all together here. Still kind of hot, but… Mmm. Yeah, super earthy. The green onions. We got the famous steamed egg here. Starting to like, crisp on the side, but it’s still very custardy in the middle here. Look at that. Let’s see. It can be very hot. Be careful with this stuff. Mmm. Oh my God. Yeah, it just melts in your mouth. And it’s nice because sometimes the egg is a little too eggy and silky. This one is like, very clean. Very clean. Perfectly complements the spicy soups. It’s like, you know, instead of eating too much rice, the steamed egg just like, cools down your palate. All right. We got sundaboo. Sundaboo here. Let’s see. Mmm. Yeah, rich oniony. Mmm, just melts in your mouth. Mmm. Mmm, so great on a cold winter day. Like, are you kidding me? It doesn’t get better than that. It’s just garlicky and good. Let’s see what we got here. Mmm. Mmm, it’s like a kimchi with some scrambled egg. Mmm. Mmm. Okay. Mmm. Crepe is nice and light. Much lighter than some of the other pancakes you’ve had here. Yeah, buckwheat crepe. Wow, that’s amazing. Mmm. They got tops of pans where there’s tops of pots where they’ve signed all the famous people that have come in here. Try the kimchi tea game. But everything here is phenomenal. And yeah, it just feels very warm and healthy. And I feel a lot better after that freezing and the cold out there. Oh my god. The train was super crowded. But then more and more people got off, but it was like we were sardines in a tin. Now we are on our way to spend the night sleeping and soaking in the park Spa Land Korean Spa. Let’s see how we do. Let’s see if we can warm up and chill out for a little while here. It’s like 10.30. Very relaxed. Tranquila, tranquila. Good night. Good night. We survived the night. It’s really warm in here. I was really thrived. I slept like rocks. Yeah, we slept really hard. Tired. Now we’re going to go soak. I already soaked. It’s 10am. Wow, that was incredible. There’s actually quite a few people sleeping in the spa. Yeah, the Parkland Spa. After the Dragon Hill and the Siloam sauna closed down after COVID. I think this is the next best one. It’s got all big, big pools. Many, like five different temperatures. Yeah. And good dry saunas as well. I would say I would say it’s on par with the Wi Spa in Los Angeles. Yeah, very solid. Very good. And they have food. We didn’t get any food, and drinks as well. It felt great. We just knocked out. We were so tired last night. There’s mats. There’s a little block for your head. There must have been at least 50 people sleeping in there. And it’s cheap. It’s like $12,000 for, I think, 12 hours. It’s not better than that. Pretty amazing. Yeah, and a lot of showers and very relaxing. Yeah, highly recommend. I mean, if you’re coming to South Korea, you have to get a Korean spa. And this is a really good one. The woman’s spa I went to on my birthday was pretty great too. There’s a large variety. But this one’s co-ed. There’s a co-ed sleeping floor and then there’s also co-ed, like saunas. And then there’s a separate woman’s soaking area and a men’s soaking area. Yeah, you can see the white on this roof. So it’s pretty snowy last night. There we go. To the subway. Subway has been great. I really love the subway. Super extensive network here in Seoul. It feels super safe. I think the only downside is it closes at midnight. But it makes sense if they’re doing maintenance and cleaning and stuff like that. Super clean subway. Look at all this snow. Snowed last night. Are we in New York? So yeah, this is one of the most popular areas. Especially for first-time visitors to Seoul. We wound up staying in the Insadong. It was a really nice place. Yeah. And a little bit more traditional. A little more low-key. But the Myeongdong is like tall buildings and lots of shopping and restaurants. I think I prefer staying in Inseong. But there’s probably more to do and shop, potentially. Here in Myeongdong. But in Inseong, you’re closer to the temples and the palaces and the Bukchak Hanok Village. So far, Seoul has been just so incredible. It’s crazy that there’s just a little teeny dot on the big continent of Asia. And it’s like, there’s so much. It’s the best food. Seoul has really been kind of a term. Yeah, you’ll find your Seoul in Seoul. I definitely have found mine. What’s that, Alex? Spicy noodles? Spicy buckwheat noodles. Yum. Yum yum yum. Taste of the sauce. It’s cold. It’s good. It’s cold. Yeah, it’s delicious. There’s a pear in there. Mmm. And radish. Wow. Excellent. I’m so excited. We’re going to another tea house. This is the rival tea house. Is it? I love this rice cake. And the jujube tea. Green plum tea. Okay, what do you have here? Some mochi and some good tea. That looks thick. Is it good? It’s got some woodiness in it. It’s like a little . A little bit of berry, a little bit of raisin. And then, but it’s like woodsy. This is one of my favorite things ever. It is a red bean mochi bun type thing. I think there’s even nuts in this one. Mmm. So good. Last protest. We’ve seen before. We saw on our way to the dumplings. On our way to the dumplings. What do you have there Alex? Some kimchi mandu. Some mandu is the traditional Korean Korean dumplings. So yeah. Looks nice and steamed. It’s chunky. Mmm. The kimchi is really good. The dumplings. The dough is really nice and thin. The kimchi is nice and sour. Yeah, so right over there is the constitutional court. They’re going to announce any day with the verdict is that the president is going to be impeached or if he can stay. But yeah, it’s very safe in South Korea. We wish Korea safe and fair outcome. And yeah. Continued peace. We’re curious to know in the comments if this is typical Korean protesting or if this is a little bit more energetic than normal. So yeah, we don’t know. I think this is a pretty hot moment in Korean politics right now. Yeah. Alright, it’s our last few hours here in Seoul. Actually, our last hour here. Yeah. We’re heading on a train to Busan. KTX line. Yeah, Seoul’s been amazing. I love it. I’ve come back. All the food is incredible. The tea houses, the spas. Yeah, I’ll just say like Seoul’s one of those places. We’ve been traveling all over the place and a lot of times like there’s a big city and you kind of can see the things. There’s like a countable thing. There’s a countable number of things you can see in the city. Seoul is one of those cities that there’s an uncountable number of things to do and see. So you’re never going to do it all. So you just kind of have to pick strategically like what things you want to eat, what like temples or spas or you know, if you want to go out, day trips you want to do. But yeah, it’s a city that is really dynamic. There’s a lot of cool neighborhoods and it feels just very like calm and easy. It’s just, I don’t know, the only thing I can think of is like easy and a lot of elegance and a lot of style. And yeah, the cuisine here is just out of this world. So good. For a country this small to produce so many unique dishes I don’t think there’s anything like it. Actually, someone said to me that like, you know, North Korea I mean, it wasn’t a given that you would always eat in Korea like 100 years ago. You know, there was like a lot more poverty and still now today in North Korea there’s still an insane amount of poverty people are still starving in North Korea. So I think I almost wonder if South Korea there’s like a counter like a counter movement to be like no, you’re going to eat a ton of like the amount of just dishes on a table that serves you when you eat a meal. Just kind of like superfluous and there’s just like abundance of nutrition here. So I feel like it’s kind of a I feel like the cuisine spurred from kind of the history here on the Korean peninsula. But yeah, you won’t go hungry here. Alright, bye Seoul. Bye bye. Alright, we’ll see you in Busan. On the metro Bye Seoul!

In just 3 days, we dove headfirst into Seoul’s vibrant culture, food, and unexpected political tension. From watching impeachment protests erupt outside the presidential palace to sleeping overnight in a traditional Korean spa (jjimjilbang), this trip was packed with surprises.

We explored ancient palaces, historic villages, and neon-lit night markets. We wandered through Bukchon Hanok Village, ate our way through Gwangjang Market, chilled by the Han River, and even celebrated a birthday.

Whether you’re planning a trip to South Korea or just love immersive travel content, this vlog captures Seoul’s soul in 72 hours — the chaos, the calm, and everything in between. Watch to the end for our honest thoughts on visiting Korea during political unrest.
______________________________________

0:00 Intro
0:56 Travel to Seoul
1:30 Insadong Culture Street
2:08 Gyeongbokgung Palace
6:15 Bukchon Hanok Village
6:58 Portest
7:39 Gwangjang Market
10:21 Myeongdong Night Market
11:43 Tea House
12:41 Protest
14:28 Transit to Spa
14:50 Walking around Jamwon Hangang Park
16:46 Gangnam
17:43 Birthday Dinner
19:17 Day 3
19:55 Hongdae
22:16 Gangnam District
24:35 K-Star Road
26:27 Kimbuksoon Keun Nambijip Restaurant
30:04 The Park Spaland
33:01 Myeongdong
34:49 Namusae Tea House
36:03 Protests + Dumplings
38:18 Thoughts on South Korea

______________________________________

❤️ Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more travel adventures around the world!
https://www.youtube.com/@teamericaalex

📸 Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/teamericaalex/

📱 Follow us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/teamericaalex
________________________________

💬 Let us know in the comments: Would you sleep in a Korean jjimjilbang?

📍 Subscribe for more couple travel adventures around the world! 🌍

#Seoul #SouthKorea #72HoursInSeoul #KoreanSpa #Protests #TravelVlog #GwangjangMarket #Gangnam #TeamEricaAlex