I met up with dear friends Grace, Alex, and Esther today at Hakdong station and had lunch at one of Grace's fave restaurants, which is in a building called 'Gallery Royal'. It's apparently owned by the company Toto, which manufactures toilets. teehee~ The basement level of the building is actually like a toilet museum/gallery, showing all their different bidet and sink models. Then the cafe/restaurant is on the 2nd floor, and they have an art gallery at the very top. The interior is really interesting and they have shelves stacked with design books all over the place.
Their food was also seriously good. I ordered their olive oil garlic pasta (13,000 won). The garlic cloves were gigantic! I'm sure the garlic smell was just oozing from my pores after that.
Esther ordered a really awesome grilled veggie salad that could totally be made vegan just by omitting the cheese on top (13,000 won?).
The pickle bowl.
This is the beautiful watermelon salad that came with Grace's lunch set order.
On their menu, they also had a grilled veggie sandwich that I was going to order, but they only serve sandwiches after 2pm. No biggie, I was just happy to see that they have quite a few veggie options! :) Oh, and to wash it all down, we each got a choice of green tea, black tea, or coffee. Thank you guys for such a fantastic lunch!!!
After lunch, I decided to go to the Olympic Park for the first time. I can't believe I have never been there before, especially since it is pretty close to where I live. I think I am in love with this park. It is officially my new favorite place in Seoul. In fact, it's hard to believe that you're even in Seoul when you're there.
There is so much greenery~ it's completely refreshing and relaxing. I'm sure it gets busier on weekends, but today was perfect because there weren't a lot of people, and I could lie down in the grass, read my book, and take a nap. While I was napping, I was awakened by this gorgeous pheasant that kept making crazy noises while wandering around me. Look at this beauty:
There was also this little field where a bunch of poppy flowers had bloomed! They looked stunning against the sunlight, and they reminded me of 'In Flanders Fields,' which is a sad but moving song/poem about those who died in war.
When it was time to go, I stopped to take pics of some of the faces on the traditional Korean totem poles (?) that line the sides of the entrance. Some of the faces are just so rad. I think they will definitely inspire my next illustrations.
Then I came home and busted out my juicer. This is freshly juiced oranges, tomatoes, and spinach.
What a great day! Good friendship + good food + grass between my toes = bliss. Me so happy!