As most of you probably already know, before heading to Thailand I made a surprise stop in Korea to chill with Daniel and Carly for about a week, it was awesome!  We had a great time together and there are plenty of stories to tell about my time there but that’s not exactly what this entries about.  Since Daniel and Carly both have full time jobs they weren’t around during the week and I had to get creative and explore Seoul on my own.  I asked Dong Dong Jew (Daniel’s Korean name, no that’s not how it’s actually spelled) for some suggestions.  He sent me to his Korean buddy Jin who had all sorts of fun ideas of how to see Seoul the right way but there was one place that really stuck with me, somewhere really exciting.

Noryangjin, Seoul’s fish market.  Jin told me I could eat live octopus there, like the kind of octopus with tentacles, tentacles that actually stick to the insides of your cheeks while you try and slurp them down… I was sold, the only problem was my lack of Korean language in the type of market where people generally speak absolutely no English at all. 

I took off on Monday morning, after a great weekend with friends and family, happily alone, lost in this giant city and determined to find my lunch at Noryangjin, Korea’s largest and most well know fish market.

I found my stop easily on the subway, but after exiting the station I was lost in seconds wandering around with a growling tummy and an obviously lost foreign face asking for directions to the market.  Once the market was in sight I laughed to myself, instead of asking aimlessly for directions to Koreans that spoke no English for the last half hour, I could have just sniffed out the damn thing; it’s Seoul’s biggest population of seafood aside from the Yellow Sea and it’s stanky!

This place was crazy!!!  I’ve never seen so much seafood in my life, most of it still alive and swimmin’ around.  I think the locals were as entertained by me as I was of this place so it made for some fun and exchangeable people watching.  Soon enough I found my lady, she had some big tanks and gave me a smile so I made my move…  I called Jin…  I explained to him what he needed to do and after debating how many of these things I would actually eat and how much Korean Won it’d cost me I passed the phone to my girl…

Next thing I knew I was being dragged out of the market, through a dark alley and tossed into a “restaurant” where they’re choppin up kim chi like it’s nobody’s business.  I hadn’t quite understood anything that had been said to me that day up until this point but the lady behind the counter with a butcher knife gave me a nod, I handed her my bag and knew instantly that this lady knew what was up.  Soon enough I had my lunch in front of me, still very much alive, wiggling around and giving the other customers a good laugh as I struggled with my chopsticks.

About an hour later I found myself at the table next to me, sipping soju and giggling with some of my fellow patrons about my brothers Korean name and our inability to communicate.

Looking back, that morning leaving Carly’s flat I was a little down.  Sad to have to wander the streets of Seoul alone.  At the end of the day I smiled, I had been blessed with a pretty darn good day on my own!

Listen up Ya’ll!  Alright so after years of being bullied by all you reading this, I finally gave in and decided to start writing to you about my time away…  I know it’s crazy and you’re probably thinking to yourselves “Marta, blogging?… This couldn’t be true!”  So, I’m not making any promises (of course it’s not my style) but I’ll give it a try. 

How did this whole blogging madness arise?

Well, it started last night over dinner, hanging with a couple new friends at the night market in Chiang Mai.  We were discussing food, Thailand, weird dreadlock culture, crazy moms and looney bins, but mostly the conversation kept coming back to one thing…  Food!  During our talk I found myself day dreaming, thinking about how fucking awesome it would be to have a job where I got paid to travel the world and eat food.  I soon realized that this was a crazy dream because no one would ever possibly pay me to just hang out and eat food or would they?

I decided that maybe there is a way and it probably involves me going back to Uni which is a scary idea but I’m in a stage in my life where I’m open to new ideas so let’s roll with it.  Would someone pay me to travel, wax on some dank pozole, kimchi, pad thai, paella or whatever it may be that day and write about it… You’re right, probably not but as you all know I’m a dreamer and since I don’t have a job anyway I figured I could probably find some spare time in my busy schedule to make it a new hobby of mine. 

I believe there’s nothing better than seeing the world through it’s food.  Whether it be in a market, food stand or restaurant over a good meal is where you see real people, have real conversations and learn about the pains and pleasures of real life.  So here’s the deal, through these entries you’re not going to read much about my day to day life, my spiritual adventures, the circus, love or climbing but I promise you’ll be reading some entries that’ll make you laugh (hopefully), make your mouth water and maybe just inspire you to get back in the kitchen and do some cookin’.