Korea trip diaries: day 5

Myeongdong & Jogyesa

 

I didn't have anything planned for wednesday so I decided to go to Myeongdong. I have mentioned Myeongdong in my previous posts but I haven't told anything specific about it.

So Myeongdong is a big shopping area that mainly tourists use. It can get a bit pricey in there compared to other areas and same shop brands but at least you can find all from one place. There are two so called main streets and then lots of little streets parting from them.
Main station to arrive Myeongdong is line 4 (light blue line) exit 6. You will arrive straight to the main street. Other way is to take line 2 (green line) and get off at euljiro-1-ga, exit 6 and walk towards lotte mall and lotte young plaza. You will arrive to the other main street.

When I arrived Myeongdong, even though it was something like 9am almost all shops were closed! I was so surprised because I'm used that in korea you can get pretty much whatever you want 24/7. Most shops had signs "open at 10.30". So in the meantime I just walked through the streets. When shops opened I first headed to lotte mall because on basement floor they have food court and I needed to buy osulloc tea and one ginseng product. Just a note that if you're a tea lover, osulloc tea is heaven for you :D even though I don't enjoy tea normally, I love osulloc's tea products! They can be a bit pricey but they are very good quality. They have their own shops at least in myeongdong and insadong where they also have a cafe you can order their various teas and taste them :)

So after purchasing what I needed I started just walking through myeongdong main street and just browsing in different shops.

 Left one is from big street right next to lotte mall. Right photo is from myeongdong's main street where there is lots of cute cosmetic shops that place products outside to advertise. Korea has low rates in stealing so shops can leave products outside just like that.

 In right photo, I found it funny when I spotted finnish design! Muurla collaborated with one of the most popular brands in korea called Line (which is originally a chatting app for phones)

Local H&M store, small take from their window

In this shopping round, I ended up buying Moomin mascara (yes, moomin xD It was cute) and Line notebook for myself. Then I left to my hostel to drop off stuff I bought and decided to visit Gwanghwamun and Jogyesa temple.

I have talked about Gwanghwamun before but you can access there from various stations. I like to use line 5 Gwanghwamun station, exit 8.

When I arrived I first went to the square and took couple of necessary tourist photos xD Then I headed to Kyobo book store and just browsed in there. I was getting very tired and decided to leave. I was in subway station when I first saw bandi&luni (book store) and I was like well why not. I walked in there a little and then saw a small cd shop that was having a sale. I didn't find anything that interested me but then I spotted Descendants of the sun OST and I had to get it. DotS was a very popular drama still airing when I was in Korea and it's OST was mostly sold out everywhere. But I finally got it so I was happy~ And sales persons were very nice so I recommend going to bandi&luni. You can find it in Jonggak subway station.

When I left the bookshop, I noticed signs to Jogyesa and I was like oh well, let's check that out finally. I was soooo tired but because it was close I decided to visit it and didn't regret a bit! I have only passed it by previously but never actually went inside Jogyesa. It's very beautiful temple right in center of Seoul. It's placing literally between gwanghwamun square and insadong.

After Jogyesa I went to my hostel but I was starting to get reeeally hungry. Anniina didn't have any plans for evening so I asked her to go out to eat with me. We went to eat samgyeopsal which is one of my favorite korean foods! It was so yummy~ If you're ever in korea, you have to try it! Only thing is that you can't eat it alone, you have to have at least one more person with you. Because all samgyeopsal restaurant portions are at least for two persons. Price was about 12000won per person so about 9€.

After eating ourselves pretty full, we decided to just walk in hyehwa's streets. But after awhile we went to eat dessert to paris baguette cafe xD But OMG every dessert in korean cafes look so good I can't even :D I wish in finland they would make an effort more in cafes for cakes to look like that. And what's more, the dessert we got cost only about 3€!

After eating our desserts we visited grocery store and then said goodbyes. I went to sleep pretty soon after. I had tiring but wonderful day~

That's all for this post (or this would be extra long if I would write about day 6 :P ). I will post soon again. Promise~

Korea trip diaries: day 3 and 4

Sorry I have been keeping quiet but I had some personal issues and then last weekend was a national holiday. But now I'm back :)

Day 3, on monday in the morning I had some time before meeting my friend so I went for a walk. I woke up soooo early for some reason and had nothing to do for two hours. But I had nice walk around sungkyunkwan university area which was basically next to my hostel.

Tong-in market and Insadong

So about 1pm, I met with my friend Hyojoo who was in same volunteer work place as me when I did volunteer work in Korea.

We met at Gyeongbokkung station and continued to tong-in market from there. It was so nice to see her after a year :)

Tong-in market is basically a food market where you can find traditional street food. You can access there from line 3 (orange line), gyeongbokkung station, exit 2. It's about 500 meters from exit 2 on the left side.

We first walked it through and just browsed what was in there. We were supposed to go to the restaurant where you buy kind of fake coins and then with those coins fill in your "lunchbox" with different kinds of food. But sadly it was closed.
So we ended up buying tteokbokki (떡볶이), tong-in market specialty small kimpab (김밥) and mandu (만두). And I got sikhye as a drink which is a korean traditional rice beverage (it has real rice in it).
Then we looked a small spot in one shed which was full of mainly older people spending the day and eating picnic food. We just stuffed ourselves in there and spend a little picnic ourselves :P
Just a warning, if you don't like spicy food, don't try tteokbokki. It's very spicy rice cakes but for me it tastes so good! Because I like spicy food :P

Our food :P

After eating all I asked if we could visit Insadong which is really famous tourist street for getting all the korean traditional things and souvenirs. I needed to buy my mom a picture which she asked (because my mom loves the korean mother-of-pearl art).

We decided to walk from the market to Insadong which takes about 20 minutes. It's not that far~

We walked next to Gyeongbokkung palace and partly through gwanghwamun. So If you're looking for nice day with sightseeing and lots of traditional korean culture, I recommend route tongin market-gyeongbokkung-gwanghwamun-insadong because they're so close to each other.

 Above is Gyeongbokkung and on it's right side gwanghwamun square. Literally, if you're walking you'll be seeing this as your left and right view :D

We found the picture pretty fast to my mom although first we had little miscommunication problems about what I was looking for but eventually all good~

Then we found Sulbing cafe which I had read great reviews before and wanted to try! Hyojoo had visited Sulbing before so she recommended me Mango bingsu. Sulbing is mainly concentrated on bingsu's which is traditional dessert in korea. It's made of shaved ice and usually comes with icecream topping. You have milk in side of the bowl and you can pour it over as you like. But it tastes definetly better with that milk :P

We ordered injeolmi toast and mango bingsu.

After eating ourselves full from delicious bingsu, we said goodbyes and planned that we have to see next week also.
After parting with Hyojoo I thought that evening is still young and I had some more shopping to do so I quickly stopped at myeongdong to buy some cosmetics what my friends had ordered.

It was a bit crowded even though it was weekday. But this is pretty normal because Myeongdong is popular shopping street. I recommend if you do shopping, go at daytime. Not too early though because I noticed most of shops open at 10.30am or so at most days.

Ewha and Hongdae

On tuesday it was so sunny and I was glad that weather had been nice whole time I had been in korea. I met Anniina at the morning and we headed to Ewha which is famous and popular university area (Ewha womans university).

You can access there by line2 (green line), ewha womans university (idae) station. I don't remember which exit but there are clear signs to pointing which way :P

We just walked through streets, enjoying view. And visited outside the famous idae (korean name for ewha university) library.

Then we were feeling pretty hungry and we went to eat chicken in one restaurant Anniina liked so much. I have to say it's propably best chicken I've had in a while :D And dem chips omg so delicious! And in that restaurant, if you have your passport with you they give -10% discount for foreigners.
It's a little hard to explain where it is located but when you're at main street which is going down towards idae, when you notice corner ice cream shop Baskin&Robbins in your left side, turn left to that side street. It's right on the left corner so basically opposite on Baskin&Robbins. Chicken restaurant is on basement level so there's stairs going down. It can look a bit shady but trust me, it's an excellent place for either lunch or dinner.

We were pretty full but decided to first go around smaller streets and then get back to main street and go get ice creams from baskin&robbins. I have to say they make delicious ice cream, and it's quite cheap. My serving cost 4500won which is about 3€?

Then just before we left I bought a bag for myself :P I recommend idae if you want cheap but very good looking bags. In the main street there was one bag seller from where I bought my bag and it was only 10,000won (about 7€).

We said goodbyes at idae station and I headed to Hongdae next where I met with Laura.
To Hongdae, you can access also from line2 at Hongik university station. It's like couple stations away from idae.

We met in front of exit9 with Laura. We decided to visit Thanks nature cafe which is basically a sheep cafe :D They have sheeps inside fence outside cafe. Animal cafes are pretty common in korea but sheeps are rare actually. They were so adorable and fluffy! And I totally liked their ade drinks and waffel!

It's a little difficult to explain location but I'll try; when you come from exit9 and see etude house in one corner, walk towards there. Pass etude house and turn right from next intersection. Walk straight until big H&M is on your right. Turn left from there. It's on that street. Just walk straight and it's on your left side. It's also on basement level so you have to go downstairs.
It's definetly a cafe worth visiting for. And pay attention to this: you can visit the sheeps only after ordering!

After petting sheeps and saying goodbye to them, we walked around Hongdae. I finally got myself converse shoes which I had been wanting about two years lol. They cost about 45000won so about 43€.

Then after awhile we sayed goodbyes and I left back to my hostel.

So that's that this time :) I will post next korea diaries propably on weekend~