Itaewon and the Korean War Memorial

주말에 이태원으로 갔어요 (Over the weekend I went to Itaewon).  Before I begin, if you don't know about Itaewon, it is the most western part of Seoul.  More specifically, it is the most American part of Seoul.  Therefore, you will see a lot less Koreans and a lot more westerners in Itaewon.  Being that there is an American army base in Itaewon, there is a heavy military presence there but they are all just hanging out and having a good time.  A lot of people I have met during my time here have expressed their dislike for the neighborhood (mostly because the clubs are primarily westerners) but since I don't go clubbing and keep an open mind I go to Itaewon and it's pretty cool.  Shopping in Itaewon is amazing; all the food there is from other countries and the eateries all have funny names.  There is also a cool museum dedicated to the korean war there located in between 녹사평역 (Noksapyeong station), exit 4 and 삼각지역 (Samgakji station), exit 11.  

Eating in Itaewon: 

If you are craving western foods and want somewhere to go to eat the closest thing to authentic food from a specific country then go to Itaewon.  The good thing about it is that the food tastes really good and the menus almost imitate the menus from their origin countries (Mexican restaurants serving horchata, pancake houses serving chocolate chip pancakes, etc).  The bad thing is that the food will be more expensive.  I have been to three restaurants in Itaewon and the food was expensive in all of them.  I went to an amazing Mexican restaurant, an awesome pancake house and a really good Slavic(?) restaurant...(I don't know what it was, the menu was nothing but pork and beef buried in salt).  Since the pancake house is the most recent place I ate at in Itaewon I will talk about that. 

The pancake house is called "The Original Pancake House) and it is located next to an Indian place called 'Agra."  The menu prices range from 7,000-25,000 won for pancakes/crepes/waffles depending on the size you want.  They also serve lunch and dinner.  The service is good, the crew speaks fluent English (which you will find at almost every place in Itaewon) and the restaurant made it feel like I was right back in America.  

I went with two friends to try out the pancake house and we really enjoyed it.  for one of my friends it was the first time he had ever had pancakes or waffles and he enjoyed them.  There wasn't really butter, so if you go don't expect any.  it is still Korea after all and they don't use butter very much; it's pretty scarce here.  The fruit on my waffles tasted amazingly fresh but since I got the fruit waffles and strawberries was the main fruit, the waffles were more expensive (strawberries are really expensive in Seoul).  

This is how the restaurant looks inside.  It felt like being back home which was slightly comforting and slightly weird.  If you feel homesick for America, just come eat some pancakes here and it'll feel like you're right back there...kind of.  There was no Korean anywhere in the restaurant except for maybe the menu.  

Other Parts of Itaewon:

besides the restaurants there are other types of shops.  Itaewon is mostly full of shoe stores and plus sized clothing stores.  There are also various other places obviously, but these are the two you will see the most.  If you have bigger feet, then going to Itaewon to buy shoes is probably your best bet since it is easier to find shoes in bigger sizes there.  The shoe stores there are pretty cool and have certain promotional items laying around the store that you might not see in America.  

When I went to the Adidas store, I got to sit on an Adidas shoe to try out my Adidas shoes.  It was really cool and a lot of shoes stores had something similar.

Another place I went to that was really cool was the Line Friends store and cafe.  It was probably the best one I have seen anywhere in Seoul.  it was a store but it was also like a museum.  it is by far my most favorite Line Friends store in Seoul.  there was also a Kakao Friends store but I prefer the ones in Myeongdong and Gangnam a little bit more.

Near the entrance you will see a really big stuffed Brown (that is the name of one of the mascots for Line).  You are also able to take pictures with him.  This is just one of many I took with Brown.  

In the cafe there is this stand by the stairs that has some pretty good looking and inedible) Line Friends macarons.  From farthest to closest it goes Sally, Brown and Cony.  

Walking around the store you will also that a lot of the main Line Friends have their own rooms.  My favorite was moon's that you see here.  i like the space theme his room has.  

Here I am waiting for the bus while taking a peek at what James is reading while Brown and Cony sit there on the other side of the bench waiting patiently for the bus.  The article James was reading was about himself.  hahahaha

Leaving the store, Moon and Cony were there to say bye.  Statues like these were all over the store and behind Cony is a photo booth where you can take pictures with stuffed mascots for free.  

The War Memorial:

The Korean War Memorial was a pretty interesting place.  After leaving Noksapyeong, we walked for about 7-10 minutes down the road and arrived.  leaving Noksapyeong there is an archway.  From the arch just turn left and keep going straight.  the memorial is hard to miss if you go the right way.  It is really peaceful at the memorial and it is also like a free museum outdoors.  

Here is the arch.  On the front side it says "WELCOME TO KOREA."

At the war memorial there is a also a really good view of Namsan Tower.  

This is one of the first things you will see when you arrive at the war memorial.  You can go up to the window and look inside.  Inside is a mannequin controlling the gears of the plane.  

This is the museum.  To give you an idea of how big it is, that is an average guy walking past the museum against the bottom step of the kinda staircase that leads up to the entrance.  The museum is really big.  

Near the tanks at the memorial site is a map of the layout of the grounds.  There is also a children's museum near this map with its own playground.  

In front of the museum is this mural (1/3 that I pictured anyway).  It is a lot better looking in person and I recommend seeing it in person.  it's all pretty cool.

For most of the tanks, we were allowed to go in and check it out.  I wouldn't recommend sitting though since a lot of the seats looked like they would cut you somewhere just looking at them the wrong way.  It was still pretty cool.  Other stuff I saw that i didn't post pictures of are rockets, missiles, missile launchers, various air crafts and a ship that you could normally board but was closed that day.  

Leaving the memorial there was this statue of a civilian hugging a soldier.  All of these statues and murals around the front of the museum have very significant meaning to events that occurred during the war in 1950.  

Itaewon is pretty cool if you're looking to do stuff other than clubbing.  However, i recommend getting off at Noksapyeong station, exit 3 and walking from there.  Itaewon is really close and Noksapyeong is where a majority of the restaurants are at.