Next stop was Insadong! I really love this little area of Seoul with all the hustle and bustle, and quaint shops everywhere. It was AMAZING getting to see the more traditional and cultural goods of Korea's heritage. There were hand-carved wooden utensils, traditional hanboks (Korean cultural garb, like the kimono for Japanese), Korean candies and foods, pottery, statues, metalwork, and even a traditional Korean paper shop!
There was so much to see! I could have stayed for much longer, but we only got about 40 minutes before we had to meet back up. It was still a fun little journey into what felt like the real lifeblood of Korean culture. I also got some great gifts and souvenirs!! I'll post pictures later of what I got :)
Next up was the Amethyst Factory. They have a mine right here in Korea apparently. Everything in there was priced too high for my student budget of course, but it was nice getting to look around at the beautiful jewelry and items. All the rest of my tour group was older and primarily from Canada strangely enough lol, so they looked more interestedly than I did (since they could probably afford some of these things).
Finally we got to Namdaemun!! I was in heaven; now THIS is what I imagined doing when I first thought of my shopping in Korea during this trip. I imagined outside shops for as far as the eye can see and in every directions possible (seriously, some of these intersections split off into like 7 different little streets haha). In the middle of the thick lines of shops on either side were kiosks selling MORE stuff in the middle of the street. Needless to say, it was very packed and cramped and moving was impossible without shoving into someone or pressing up against someone else. Our tour guide led us around in a quick small circuit of part of the market (since she said this place is so huge, you can easily get lost) then let us go off on our own. It was so much fun wandering among the mind-blowing amount of goods and shops that were there. There were clothes, shoes, bags, watches, wallets, socks, belts, boxers, scarves, warm food vendors, grocery stores, cosmetics, hair accessories,jewelry, fresh fruit stalls, purses, jackets, etc. My head was LITERALLY on a swivel this time, I thought it was bad before in the underground shopping areas. The scale of this market is so impressive, you can't even comprehend how far it goes in all directions haha. Our tour guide tried to explain it then gave up. We came in at Gate 8; she said this ENTIRE thing we just circuited was only a portion of that Gate, and there were 7 more. Criminy. I did a little shopping for stuff I had noted on our guided circuit before, then headed back to the tour bus in time to head home!