Korea trip diaries: Day 12

Day 12

Mata Hari musical in Itaewon

I went to watch Mata Hari musical on wednesday with Anniina. I knew something about the story but I basically didn't know what to expect at all. I chose this musical because one of main characters was played by my all time favorite idol VIXX's Leo and other cast was amazing too (like Shin Sung Rok who played main villain in 'you who came from the stars' series).

Advertisement in subway station

Cast of the day

We left something like 12pm? It was pretty easy to go to Itaewon from Hyehwa but we had to change subway lines like 3 times.

Musical was held in Blue square samsung electronic hall. You get there by subway line 6 (brown line) and getting off at Hangangjin station. I don't remember exit but station is connected to the hall so you don't have to go outside at all.

Musical was scheduled to start at 3pm. We were there something like 12.30pm but ticketing counters were still closed. We had already bought our tickets through interpark but like in concerts, foreigners only have one option to get tickets and it's by buying in advance and get physical ticket at concert/musical day. We get confirmation email after purchasing and have to go to ticketing counters to get physical tickets by showing our confirmation. Besides that we need passport because they check you are really the buyer.

Because counters were still closed we decided to look around. In parkinglot behind the building, there was some VIXX Leo fans waiting. It's veeery popular in Korea to wait for your idol to arrive and to leave because these are the only few situations you have permission to take photos of the idol in question. Sometimes it gets a bit crazy because fans rush and run after their idol...

We didn't stay in there though, we were a bit hungry so we left looking something to eat. After being confused about direction where is Itaewon's center we found main road and started looking a place to eat. We found one delicious Seollongtang (설렁탕) place like 100m away from Blue Square. I can recommend it to everyone! It looks expensive but actually for foreigners 8000won isn't that much. The restaurant is located on main road, walking towards center of Itaewon it's about first restaurant you encounter in left side of road. They had excellent customer service and delicious soups! And they speak english even though we spoke korean to them :P (Seollongtang is ox bone soup but it tastes a little like finnish meat soup).

After eaten ourselves full, we headed back to Blue Square. We picked up our tickets finally~ And I met one friend there who I originally met on one facebook site and we talked awhile. I also took couple photos of Mata Hari posters and ended up buying myself one. They usually sell merchandise at musicals so it's nice~

We got in half an hour before showtime. Our places were quite high up (cheapest tickets were 47€). I would have loved to see it more closer but tickets to first rows were about 140€ so me and Anniina said no thanks.

During show, photos were strictly forbidden. There was staffs who were keeping watch about that. Musical itself was enjoyable, I was amazed about the set especially. And o.m.g cast can sing like I was really surprised in positive way. I have seen and heard Leo live twice but in this musical he shone and dem high notes :D Shin Sung Rok was amazing, he has really deep voice and it's totally captivating. Lead actress was the most amazing with high notes although it hurt my ears because she went so high and loud lol.

After musical we rushed to back because I wanted to see Leo up close. Yeah I'm a bit of fangirl :P But it was crazy there. Too many fans... and why oh why would you need a small chair when you're already in front row!! Seriously they were blocking view from us in the back. I got few photos from Leo although he mostly looked away.. that lil... After getting into a car Leo opened window and waved to fans. Some fans were crazy and started to run and follow his car... seriously crazy..

 

But of course he had to look away when he was right in front of me :,D

I had fun day and we left towards Hyehwa really hyped up. We were a bit hungry so we decided to stop in one cafe in Hyehwa before going to sleep. I wanted to try famous rainbow cake :P so I ordered that~ We spend while in there and then said goodbyes and went to sleep.

Rest of my korea trip diaries coming in few days (have about 3 days left to tell about)

Korea trip diaries: day 11

Day 11

Everland

I got up about 7am to get ready and leave at 8am to Everland with Anniina. We wanted to get to Everland before 11am so we left early because we knew the subway trip will take time. But it was worst possible choice ever; people, seriously take the bus to Everland. Even if you have to reserve it beforehand just take it. We literally spend about 2 hours to get to Everland's subway station. And there was 3 change of lines for us.

But if you still decide to take the subway, this is how our route went:
Hyehwa line 4 (light blue line) to Chungmuro -> change to line 3 (orange line) to Dogok ->
change to Suin line to Giheung -> change to Yongin Ever line to Jondae Everland.

There are buses to everland which take approximately 50 minutes but you have to reserve your seat to them. You can check information from Everland's site.

Anyway, we managed to get to Everland's station about 11.30am. There was free shuttle bus to Everland (it took only 5 minutes).

When we arrived to gates it was somewhat confusing because at their online site they ask to go to booth which is marked like 'ticket office for foreign guests' if you want to have foreigner's discount but it was closed and we had to ask from info booth that is the discount still valid in normal ticketing booths (it was). So we went to normal booths and got our tickets very fast. And yes, if you're foreigner you will get discount (also applies to Lotte World). You just have to print (or take screen capture to your phone) from their online site where they have discount coupon for foreign guests. Bear in mind that you have to have your passport with you to get the discount. Normal price is 52000won (approximately 48€) but with discount it's something like 47000won (approximately 41€).

When we got in there was amusement park music playing reeeeally loud and entrance was full of families and school groups but there were couple foreigners also. It was tuesday so it was "quiet" day in the park. A little advice: do not go on weekend!! We looked around and felt like there's already too many people. We decided to find t-express which is famous wooden rollercoaster.

We happened to walk through zoo part of the park. There were all kinds of exotic animals (for us they were exotic) and we propably were most excited about polar bears xD (nope we don't have them in Finland like some people would think...)

We wandered through zoo part and saw very popular attraction "Lost Valley" which is kind of safari ride. There was over 90 minute wait in queue but we still decided to go~

There was animals beside queue path so it was pleasant wait actually :P The wait felt still looooong but at least we had some enjoyment :P And then after forever we finally got into the ride~

It was very fun and worth the wait although it felt a tad too short. I saw giraffes which are one of my favorite animals so it was great! Our guide even fed one giraffe so we got close look lol. Ride was a car but at one point it went through water pool and kind of imitating safari cars going through water ponds, it was sooo surprising!

After fun ride we went through merchandise shop and decided to buy animal headbands. It's actual korean way to enjoy amusement parks by putting at least some kind of headband on you lol. I bought lion headband and Anniina took desert fox headband.

We felt kinda hungry so we went to eat before looking which ride to go next. By the way, food was cheap when comparing to european amusement park restaurants. It was a little bit more expensive than in normal korean restaurant but for us it was cheap! We ate filled sandwich, french fries and had soda as drink. It cost about 7300won. Restaurant we ate was rainforest themed and ceiling was beautifully decorated. Really appreciate how much they put effort in amusement park's look~
 After eating ourselves full, of course we had to try t-express finally so we went to line up for that. There was also over 90-minute wait. And let me remind you: this was a weekday and park wasn't even full of people.

  It's common in korean amusement parks that when you 'get in' to ride there is a queue inside also. In t-express it was first on ground level after getting in and then there was about 5 staircases and levels you had to line up. We enountered pretty rude american group while waiting.. they were a little ahead of us but outside there was first 3 lining up and when we were close getting inside to queue, there was suddenly 6 more people... this is _not_ acceptable. Koreans were glaring and even me and Anniina got some stares because "we were also foreigners." But we ended up glaring these people too because even when we were inside one of their friend came behind and was like "excuse me!" to us and then passed us to his friends! The others in queue were staring this guy like "did he just really cut in line casually like it was nothing"... seriously I don't want to generalise but these are the reasons why americans aren't that much liked in korea... because they think they own the world and won't care about anyone else. I have met nice americans too but I have seen this type of attitude too often.. and then they inflict us other foreigners too by acting like that. I was sooo pissed off especially when we were waiting because other koreans started to first point at them and then stare at us like if we're acting the same. On top of that, that american group started playing some american hiphop music reeeally loud and even dancing middle of the queue! I was just so frustrated...

Well anyway, it also felt like forever when we finally got in and ready to go.
Let me say, this t-express is something you have to experience once but I wouldn't go twice. I enjoyed it but first two drops were horrible! If you know wooden rollercoaster in Linnanmäki Helsinki, then that's like kid's version compared to this. Here's a youtube video about whole ride. Seriously, first drop is almost 90 degrees...

When we got out, Anniina was like 'let's do it again' and I was like noooo way xD There was some play booths opposite of t-express and Anniina wanted to play. She won a small plushie from one. My competitive drive hit and of course I had to try one game too. I also won a plushie yay. It was really amazing how hosts in those booths gave you extra tries and cheered you on! No way in Finland, you never get extra from sympathy if you do badly at first. Just amazing customer service in korea!!

Then after playing we headed to buy ice cream and went to look tulips because there was a tulip festival going on. So pretty!!

There is this famous tree in middle of park area where everyone goes and takes photos. What's inside of that tree is on right side photo.

We walked a bit and tried couple rides before heading to eat to KFC :P And then we wandered a bit here and there before leaving.
By the way it's so funny when in Finland everybody complains if you have to wait 20 minutes in queue at amusement park. In Korea, 20 minutes is a short wait xD So be happy my finnish friends that we don't have big population in Finland xD

This was funny :D I wanted to take it with me :P

With all the lights, Everland was sooo pretty~ I wish we could have stayed longer but clock being 7pm, it was time to leave since trip back to Seoul city center would take alot of time.

We were a bit confused where bus for center leaves but after asking around we got the place. It was full of people and there was bus for Gangnam but it was reeeeally full, no hope for us to get in. There wasn't timetables anywhere and for awhile we were totally clueless what to do. Then we saw bus which was heading to Sadang where we could take subway line 4 to Hyehwa. We decided to get into it because driver said it would take 1 and half hour. Well, turns out driver was wrong. We were only near nambu bus terminal when 2 hours were gone and we were getting pissed off. We left the bus near nambu terminal and searched taxi to Hyehwa. Anniina had one friend which she had promised to meet so she called him after we got taxi...

Now to most horrible event which we experienced; Anniina's friend (who was korean) asked the taxi driver to take us to nearest subway station (which was literally only couple minutes away). There couldn't be no misunderstandings because Anniina and her friend both explained where we wanted to go. But what does this driver do? Drives 10 minutes around small roads while we were both demanding him to take us immediately to subway station. Anniina got angry to the driver because she asked couple times how long is it going to take and he was like "it's around the corner" all the time... eventually taxi driver also started yelling to us and got angry at us. It was horrible because he refused to let us off. Then suddenly after 10 minutes he dropped us finally off... to a station that was faaaaaar from where we departed when we got into that taxi.
We were so stressed and angry... but later we got info that if you get scammed by a taxi driver (just because you're a foreigner) if you report that taxi car plate and company, driver will get fined. But apparently this driver thought that because we're foreigners it's ok to get more money from us by driving long... In the future we know what to do if we encounter similar situation. If you get scammed and have a korean friend, ask your friend to call that taxi company and report. You will also get compensations if you got charged way too much.

So that was end of our day. We were both exhausted and not happy because of that incident. Next day was better but we still were quite frustrated...


Next post: coming next week. Now I'm just planning to spend our national holiday (which is starting in friday). Happy midsummer day~

Korea trip diaries: day 6 + day 10

I'm sooooo so sorry that I haven't been updating like in a month... I have been super busy with everything and I've also had some personal issues to take care of so... I'm sorry and I hope you guys understand T.T

But let's get this going and next up is day 6 + day10 from Korea trip diaries~
Just to let you know why I won't tell about the weekend (friday to sunday) is that I was staying in Buyeo in my now ex-boyfriend's house. Yes, ex-boyfriend. That is mainly the reason I haven't been able to update here sorting this all out but let's leave it to that..

DAY 6

Bupyeong and Dongdaemun

In day 6 (thursday) I went to Bupyeong to meet my friend Emilia. She lives in Incheon and I just wanted to visit her and just chat what's up these days. She lives a bit far from Seoul though so we arranged meeting in Bupyeong where is for example underground shopping mall-ish space :D Why I say shopping mall-ish is because it's in underground level and full of small shops selling clothes in affordable prices (there are some cosmetic chain stores also).

If you want to get to Bupyeong from Seoul, take line 1 (blue line) to Incheon direction. It takes approximately 50 minutes from Dongdaemun station.

When I got to Bupyeong I was totally lost lmao. We had agreed to meet at exit 3 with Emilia but I didn't find it anywhere.. I luckily found wifi connection that worked with my cellphone and send message to Emilia and we agreed to a new place. When we met we headed to cafe first because both of us were kind of wanting something cold to drink. I ordered strawberry ade which was pretty good~

We talked for awhile and got hungry so we changed from cafe to restaurant :P We ate pasta and just spend time leisurely talking~ After eating we went to check the underground mall. I found couple shirts with very cheap deal :3 Then it was already evening so I left back to Seoul after saying goodbye to Emilia.

 

After shopping like two hours in Bupyeong and travelling back to hostel over an hour, I was getting quite hungry. I met the russian girl I had talked earlier with and we decided to go to eat together. We went to kind of my regular place to eat (because it's cheap and offers great food). I ordered manduguksu (mandu soup) and it was soooo good.


 After eating ourselves full we just decided to visit dongdaemun square because I hadn't been there yet in this trip even though it was literally the next station from our subway station.

Just a hint: if you want to visit Dongdaemun, visit at evening when all the lights are on. You can also see the beautiful led roses~ If you go daytime, there is big shopping malls right next to each other like for example doota.

To Dongdaemun you can get from two stations: Dongdaemun and Dongdaemun history & culture park stations.  For accessing the park, get off in latter and take exit 14. When you go out from doors head straight and slightly turn to right uphill.
You can also access to shopping malls from that station because it's right next to shopping complex.

We just walked around for awhile and then went inside the plaza complex. There are cafes right opposite side of entrance to plaza museum. Turn right from the doors and you'll see couple restaurants and cafes in there. We saw a smoothie bar Beesket from where I've seen great reviews in different blogs so we decided to try that.

It works that you first choose 3 ingredients for your smoothie yourself from different blocks and then give the blocks to sales person who takes your order. When you pick your order you will get card saying how much proteins etc your smoothie has. So it's kind of interesting concept.

My smoothie was banana-yogurt-cherry. My friend took yogurt-kiwi-strawberry. When we got our smoothies I was thinking that this looks way too dark to be a banana smoothie (but my card was in front of the smoothie), we took them anyway. We were planning to drink them outside while watching the beautiful view... when I tasted my smoothie, it turns out they mixed up our smoothies because I instantly tasted kiwi and my friend tasted banana in hers. But we had already walked out from smoothie bar and were like 300 meters away already so we didn't turn back and complain about it. I have kiwi allergy so my tongue started to go numb and my throat was hurting.. I didn't have any medicine with me but my friend had so as first-aid I took her medicine. So guys, trust your instincts and go complain if you encounter something like this... I was tired so I thought not to go to complain but later I realized it would have been right thing to do because who knows if I would have gotten more serious symptoms later... and I'm still thinking if it would have gotten more serious without the medicine...

After this episode I just wanted to go to hostel and rest. Next day I left to Buyeo and spend whole weekend there. I got back in monday morning.

Day 10

Coex, Express bus terminal, Hongdae

So after being weekend away from Seoul I got back to same hostel but got different room this time. It was little bigger so I was happy it wasn't size of shoebox again :P

After dropping my stuff off I went to grab something small to eat and then decided to go check out express bus terminal underground shopping area. When I was in subway I thought that coex is pretty close so why not visit there.

For Coex take line 2 (green line) and get off at samseong station exit 6. For express bus terminal take line 3 (orange line) or line 7 (dark green) and get off at express bus terminal station exit 8. You will arrive in middle of the shopping underground hallways from exit 8. To right and left hallways goes pretty long so if you plan to go all it through reserve at least 2 hours.

 So I stopped to go to coex; I visited couple shops like Åland (which is funny name because Åland is Ahvenanmaa in swedish which is self-government island in Finland). Funny how everyone keeps saying the name like "A-land" when right pronounciation is more like "Oo-land".

I also visited smtown complex which is in coex. You will see it right when you get off from subway station. I went to smtown shop first but I didn't find anything because I'm not sm artist's fan that much so I didn't want to spend my money on fan merchandises (which were pretty expensive if I may say..) Then I went to sm cafe where was also a little sum market (food shop). Everything was so pretty darn expensive but I got SHINee labeled sparkling water and Girls Generation labeled snack. Then I also ordered f(x) labeled ade from the cafe and you got to keep bottle that comes with the ade drink (ade cost something like 6300won).

By the way in each floors there are different displays of sm artists stuff like awards, clothes etc. And sm cafe has tables where the artists have signed their autographs.

After spending some time in sm cafe I headed to express bus terminal shopping area. Now, I'm used to Seoul underground areas being a little confusing but this wins by far. Every sign were pointing you to different direction and in the end I was like wait wut is exit 8 now this way or is the shopping area really that way. I somehow ended up in right place but it took me awhile lol...

Then it started to get late after an hour of browsing the shops in there and I had to leave because I had to drop my stuff to my hostel before going to Hongdae to see my friend Yeji.

I met Yeji like 7pm-ish and we had so much fun just talking and eating (lol). Yeji is a friend I met in one daum cafe (daum is a korean portal site for news and other stuff like forums and different artists forums are called cafes). I usually talk in korean with her while messaging but I'm really slow talking korean face to face so after awhile we naturally changed to english when I was trying to talk in korean first. Seriously, my brains just go blank with words, even easy words when I try talking in korean... seriously wtf brain.

Anyway, we first ate kind of kimchijjigae and then went for desserts in one famous cafe (I forgot the name but it's in Hongdae's main street on right side right at the end if coming from subway exit 9 direction. Near top10 shop and the parking lot in center of main street).
There was this traditional green tea bingsu and traditional korean tea. So good!!! And Yeji offered me this whole dinner and dessert so I was like OMG thank you xD I ate deliciously :P

Then we visited couple stores before saying goodbyes. We were like we had known each other for years, at least it felt like it. I miss my friend already and I hope to see her next year again (yup, I'm planning a new trip for next year already xD ).



Next up: day 11 when I went to Everland~