AND THEN MY LOVE FROM ANOTHER STAR HAPPENED TO US A YEAR LATER! (BOF was filmed in 2009, but we didn't watch it until 2013) Now this drama......WHEW!! Where do I begin? It was sooooooooooo FREAKING good. The rest of Korea must have thought so too, because the main characters in this drama have their pictures splattered EVERYWHERE in Seoul. The main actress is so beautiful and did such a good job of her character portrayal in that drama, that I think she should win a daytime Emmy (or at least the Korean equivalent)! No lie. She was the best! Better than any other female in any drama. (And I've seen a lot of dramas!!!!) So, back to the drama....there is scene in there where the main female character (Cheon Song-yi) goes up to the N. Grill of Namsan Tower for a date with Do Min-joon, but he has already disappeared (since he is an alien and his 400 years on earth is up). The scene was such a brief scene in the grand scheme of the entire drama, but it convinced us we had to go eat there too when we were in Seoul.
I got the phone number from the internet and called to make a reservation. The problem was, a person didn't answer. It was some kind of recording, which I didn't understand. So, I emailed Robert, the man in Korea who we were renting our room from, and asked him to call and please make us a reservation. He did, and we were set for Thursday, June 5th, 2014 at 7:00. Did I mention already in another Blog how awesome Robert was? Well, if not, he was. Teppy and I were excited on many levels. First, we got to get dressed up in Seoul! Second, we were going to finally see where Lee Min Ho's butt was during the Namsan scene! And third, we got to pretend we were rich and famous like Song-yi and Min-joon and eat at a fancy restaurant on top of Namsan Tower! I have to say, if there was ANYTHING in Seoul that we absolutely HAD to do before we went back to America, it was visit Namsan Tower and do exactly what we did that night.
We left our room about 5:30 p.m. that evening so we could catch the subway over to a bus stop where we could catch a bus that would take us to the base of the tower. When we exited the subway station, the bus stop WAS there, but we had no idea how to use the bus system and were temporarily stalled. We saw some young, female, Japanese tourists with a bus printout in English standing in our general vicinity. How did I know they were Japanese? Well, they told us later. Anyhow, they had a list of which buses went to the base of Namsan, so they shared that info with us and it was kind of nice...we were all working together to get to the tower and we didn't feel so helpless anymore. There is definitely power in numbers! When a bus pulled up that we knew was going to the tower, Teppy and the girls moved to the front entrance of the bus. I was standing closer to the middle of the bus, so I jumped on at the back entrance. Next thing I know, the doors are closing and Teppy and the girls are standing on the curb yelling at me to get off the bus. Too late. I was out of there without Teppy. ( I later learned that the driver told them to wait for the next bus because the bus was too crowded.)
Shit! Shit! Shit!! What to do?? Teppy and I were now separated in Seoul. I stood and thought about it. First off, I was on a bus to Namsan Tower. 2nd, Teppy was an experienced traveler AND she was travelling with other people going to the same place as her. 3rd, she knew where I was headed and I knew she'd get there, so in the end, once we got through this little hurdle, we'd be reunited. After reaching that conclusion, I was able to enjoy the 25 minute jerky bus ride up to the base of the tower.
I was wearing a long, black, strapless jersey dress with heels. Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back, I would have worn flats and put my heels in my purse to put on once I got to my destination. By the time we had hoofed it all over the Seoul subway system to get to the bus stop, my feet were aching pretty bad. Then, when the bus dropped me at the base of the tower and I realized I had to climb the rest of the way by foot, well, my feet and I had a serious Come To Jesus moment. It was climb the mountain barefoot, or keep the heels on and go slow. After much mental deliberation, I decided to walk slow and keep the heels on. Let me tell you that the hike sucked. It was paved and beautiful, but holy shit was I out of shape and good God Agnes, did my feet hurt!!!
I finally got to the top and planted myself on a bench and waited for Teppy. Looking at my watch, I began to get nervous because it was 6:50 and Teppy and I had yet to reunite and dinner was in 10 minutes! Scanning the crowd in the opposite direction I expected to find Teppy, I saw Teppy! I had no idea how she had gotten over to the ticket counter before me! I had left the bus stop a good 10 minutes before her, so seeing her there was completely unexpected. I have no idea how Teppy got to Namsan before me, but she did. Thank God!! She had arrived so much earlier, that she had already gone to the ticket window and picked up our tickets. The way that turned out seems too good to be true. What should have happened is that Teppy showed up at 7:15, I go to the ticket counter and struggle with the language barrier to get our tickets, and we arrive at 7:30 for our 7:00 reservation. That didn't happen and I still can't believe the good fortune we found that evening. We were in our cozy booth, overlooking Seoul, by 7:05 that night. It was perfect.
Once we were seated in a cozy little private booth looking out over Seoul, they took our order. (I don't want to forget to mention that the floor of the restaurant rotates, so we were able to enjoy a 360 degree view of Seoul over the course of the evening!) We ordered the $120 meal. (The cheapest was $99) We had no idea that it would take almost 90 minutes to eat it all! Looking back, it makes sense. That kind of top dollar meal SHOULD include not only the food, but the time and space to enjoy it! They brought it out in courses. I think we must have had 5 or 6 courses delivered to us that night. The food wasn't amazing, per se, but the entire experience of getting to slowly eat it, enjoying the view, and then having coffee for 30 minutes absorbing the reality of it all was splendid. In the scene inside the restaurant when Song-yi is waiting for Min-joon, she is seated at a table rather than a private booth like we had. Our booth folded around the outside behind us, enclosing us so nobody could hear us or see us from another table. Yes, it was a place for romance, but Teppy and I used this privacy to make a v-log of our experience. I am posting it below. Unfortunately, we did not record every item of food that came out because we got lazy. We were too busy enjoying the view and food that at some points, we just forgot to record. Also, during my editing of the clip, I somehow put the title page toward the end. When you get to the title page, hold on a bit longer because our trip down the mountian in the cable car is there.
The experience we had at Namsan Tower is hands down the BEST experience we had in Korea. Other things came close, but this was our favorite. What started out looking like it would be a flop turned out to the be the most magical night in Seoul. The weather was perfect, the food was good, and we looked FINE! We liked it so much that we had Robert make us another reservation up there, but this time, in the Hancook Restaurant for lunch on June 15. That lunch cost us $45 per person. The food was a traditional Korean buffet with all of the side dishes, which was cool, but the floor didn't rotate like the N. Grill, so we had the same view the entire time. (Which is HARDLY a problem because the view is spectacular no matter what angle you look at it!) If you go to Seoul and can swing it, I'd go to both. However, if you can only go to one for whatever reason, then I'd definitely go to the N. Grill for DINNER, not lunch, so you can see the city while it's still light out and when it's dark!