On our first full day in Seoul, we walked over 44,000 steps and saw a huge chunk of the sights on the travel list I made for us, including the Seoul City Gate, where we expended a lot of energy and a great number of those steps, and where Chris drenched his entire shirt in sweat.

Everywhere we went, we were running into Tous Les Jours and Paris Baguette bakeries, both Korean chains that are found in New York City (Paris Baguette has expanded so much to the point where it has at least four locations just in Manhattan now). We popped into one or two of them just to see if they were any different from the ones back home, and they were pretty much the same — except the prices were about 1/4 or 1/5 of what we are expected to pay in New York. I was surprised to see the pastries priced at 1,000 won (that’s less than $1 USD); it was like being in a Chinese bakery in Manhattan Chinatown. While in New York, we may think of these pastries as “fancy,” here, they are just everyday pastries for everyday people, and people aren’t paying an arm and a leg for their sweet potato bun or their milk bread.

I considered buying a milk bread loaf and bringing it back to the U.S. just to be able to bring back the same product for cheaper. Chris says he won’t allow it. Oh well.