Rest Stops with Food Courts and Mini-Malls

I was told that all rest stops sell food in South Korea which isn't true in the U.S. So, I and my wife were taken to one of the larger rest stops that has a large food court, mini- mall playground for children (very fancy) and a place you can pay to walk your dogs. This was an interesting experience. There was even a Dunkin Donuts there if you wanted donuts, which I'm told are very good here in South Korea. However, things like Hot dogs are not the same as the U.S. and unless you are going to some place like Paris Baguette or Starbucks or Macdonalds nothing is the same here at all as in the U.S. Paris Baguette has European Bakery Items that are really good. Starbucks and MacDonalds are about the same here as in the U.S.

However, in general be careful of Korean food if you are from the U.S. because it is generally too spicy unless you can tolerate hot spices. Also, it isn't initially hot it sort of sneaks up and bites you about 1 to 2 minutes after you eat it, especially kimchee. My friend had to go to the hospital and got very sick after eating kimchee for about 2 months. So, be careful unless you were raised to eat from birth Korean food.

Anyway, be prepared for experiences you likely have never had before if you come to South Korea. Tonight we asked if the motel we were looking at was a Love Hotel. They said "yes". We asked if people rented the rooms by the hour. They said "No" people rented it by the night. So, we are still learning a lot about South Korea every day. Just remember that their history is completely different than U.S. or European History so you can better understand why everything is culturally so different here.

Some stuff is just so very unusual from an American point of view that you might have difficulty closing your mouth while seeing some of the stuff you are likely going to see here over time.

For example, motorcycles are used a lot like trucks and weave between traffic in really scary ways. Macdonalds here delivers on something that looks a lot like a Vespa. So, in front of Macdonald's you will often find in a row four or five vespa scooters with the Macdonalds emblem on them for food deliveries like we deliver pizzas sometimes  in the U.S.