5th Korea trip stories part 4

Hello everyone! I've been super busy with school, I still have some exams coming up and assignments to do but decided to write this post anyway because it's a bit overdue.

Day 6

Olympic park

We started our morning by going to eat some breakfast to a cafe sometime around 11am. Then we headed up straight to Olympic park where 2PM 6Nights concert was held in SK olympic handball gymnasium. 2PM is one of the first Korean artists we both knew and coincidentally they had a concert in Korea at the same time we were there. So of course we had to get tickets. But don't even get me started about buying tickets because it was a total hassle.. Korean internet servers are much faster than Finland's so it's pure luck if you have a chance to grab tickets at all. We got them and our seating was waaaaay back from the stage but we were happy we could attend.

We arrived early because previously I have attended B1A4 and Block B concerts in the same venue area and in my experience it was really crowded in midday already. But when we arrived there were only few fans going around.

What you should know about korean concerts (if you ever attend) is that being a foreigner, your only option is to buy ticket online (from yes24 or interpark) and receive confirmation email. And with that confirmation email, you can get your physical ticket. But they require you to have your id with you. If your friend bought your ticket, you have to have your friend's id copy with you. ID always has to match the name in the ticket, koreans are very strict with that.

Anyway, we went around the area because ticket counters opened only 2 hours before they let us in to the venue (concert started 5pm). I haven't really gotten a chance to tour Olympic park before so it was nice, walking around it and seeing a famous Olympics monument also. The area hosted summer Olympics in 1988. It's nice area to explore and easy to get to, just take subway to "Olympic park station". There are few restaurants and cafes but the restaurants are pretty expensive. We had a coffee break in one of the cafes and then later had our dinner in one korean restaurant (it looked too fancy to be honest but it was the only option for us because the others were more expensive).

After walking around and eating dinner we just waited ticket counters to open. We had to line up to a tent where there were tables as "counters" and they had staff who checked our confirmations and gave us our tickets. It was efficient and we didn't have to queue long.

Then we waited some more time before going to queue in front of the doors. Opening of the doors was delayed by 45 minutes and we were suffering a bit because it was starting to get really cold outside. They let standing areas in first and that was taking more time than expected so that's why they were delayed. But when they finally opened the doors everything went smoothly, there were some pushing but not much. When people got in they were pretty calm at least in our side because all of us had numbered seats.

When we first saw our seats our faces propably said like "seriously". Because where our seating was it was reeeeally steep! I was afraid of falling down.. it was almost like 85 degree angle.. But we got to our seats safely and in every seat there was a banner placed which said something like "raise this up during this song". Koreans like to do this kind of events, I have done this kind of banner event before and it's fun and results are beautiful.

The stage setting was awesome, behind the screen you see in the photo was the actual stage. Unfortunately like almost in all concerts in Korea, photos weren't allowed. But I had awesome time just having fun and partying. Although I think the british gentleman in his 60's sitting next to me had more fun than me xD he was partying like crazy, his wife was into this concert too. I think their child was somewhere in the standing area. But it was funny when 2PM members came close by they noticed us because of this gentleman next to me and they were laughing at him but he had fun :D Junho and Chansung waved at us also when they went by~
We also saw GOT7 because they were in vip section close to us and 2PM members pointed them out at one point and thanked them for coming to their concert.

We had to leave during encore so we wouldn't miss last subway to our part of town (Sinchon). But it was truly a fun and awesome concert. We were so tired when we got to our hostel that we went straight to bed.

Day 7

Next day I didn't do much. Sirja went to meet some friend so I was alone whole day, just touring around Express bus terminal and Hongdae. By the way, express bus terminal in Gangnam connects also to a shopping center Shinsegae which is huge! There are lots of high end brands but you can find a little bit affordable stores also and lots of cafes and restaurants. There's also that Doredore cafe near bus stops inside terminal building, which is known from their rainbow cake.

Anyway, here's just some random food photos from the day :D

Bibimbap

Desserts are always delicious :P

Until next time!
Next up day 8 and 9~

 

5th Korea trip stories part 3

Hi everyone. So, my school got me totally off guard about how busy it was! We literally got 2 assignments per week and I had no time for my blog even in the weekends when I planned to write because I had my school assignments to do. These couple months have been sooooo busy I can't even.. but now finally, my first period is over and I have space to breathe because we always have this "free" week between periods (well, we have kinda intensive course week between but if you don't have any course for that week then you have a free week). But yeah, without any further ado let's jump into my 5th korea trip stories~

Day 4

Ewha

It was raining from the early morning when we headed out. Me and Sirja went to eat breakfast first and then we met up with our friend Su and her friend. We went to Ewha where we met up with my korean friend Yeji who took us around Ewha because she studied there (almost graduated then) and Su and her friend did their exchange in Ewha. It was funny situation when we were waiting Yeji in front of one of subway exits because we got asked from Ewha tourist guides about three times if we need help :,D I guess it was because we were just standing there and the guides thought propably thought those tourists are so lost xD In Ewha, there are these guides walking around that you can recognize from their red vest, really useful to go and ask help from them if you're lost or you're looking for something specific, they speak really good english!

Anyway, I was so happy to see Yeji after a year and we had alot to catch up while she was showing us the area. It was raining but it didn't really bother us, it was nice walking around with a local who knew the best places around~

At one point we got very hungry and Yeji took us to this western kind of restaurant serving pasta. The restaurant was next to Lotte El Cube on right side and I'm not sure about the floor but I think it was 6th? Anyway, I really recommend the place, it was so good! It was a little bit more expensive than your local korean restaurant but worth it. I took the bread pasta which is pasta inside bread crust, really good! I think it's speciality of Korea if I'm not wrong.

After eating ourselves full we walked around Ewha a bit more and decided to get some coffee/tea. Yeji recommended really good place near the restaurant, it was kind of secluded looking alley where was only this one cafe. Yeji told us the owner was a barista that had studied different coffees around the world so you could taste a lot of different coffees there. I was supposed to get coffee but I was really intrigued by a honey milk tea so I decided to get that and it was soooo good! If you ever go to Korea, try their milk teas, they taste sweet but not too sweet, perfect balance between tea flavor and milk. Anyway, we just hung out and talked a long time before Yeji had to go because she had some school stuff to do. We said our goodbyes to Yeji and parted with Su's friend also because she had some things to do.

The War Memorial of Korea, Yongsan

We decided to head to The War memorial of Korea because it was still raining and the War memorial was mostly an inside museum even though they had monuments and stuff outside also. It was a little confusing to get there from Ewha but we made it! Museum was really close to Samgakji subway's exit 12.

I haven't actually visited there ever so it was new to me as well. When we first laid our eyes upon the area we were amazed. There were couple huge monuments and the museum building itself was huge. We walked around outside as long as we could (it was frickin cold because of the rain) and then headed out to museum building.

The photo above is from monument called 'brothers in arms' I think, the story is apparently famous in Korea, how two brothers who fought in different sides met in the battle field.

The museum building itself

When we got in we were kind of confused because there were like three floors and lobby was huge. We started just walking towards first exhibit when one guy from the staff stopped us and told us to wait a minute. He then called another guy, a guide who spoke english and asked if we want to have a tour with him. We were debating a little while about it but decided just tour around at our own pace because in my experience, guided tours could last quite long. So we thanked them for thinking us and went to the first exhibit by ourselves. The museum is free, by the way.

There is stuff like outfits and vehicles around every exhibit and they also have lots of video screens and they even have three to four 4D shows which are free and subtitled in english! Info about stories and things are also in english! I highly recommend to visit this museum as it brings out the past and understanding of what has made the country of Korea what it currently is.

The hallway was full of those black memorial tablets where every fallen soldier's name was written

After spending like two hours in the museum, we decided to leave because we started to get hungry. But before leaving we browsed through outdoor area where war vehicles and planes were displayed. Because whole day was so rainy we decided to just stay in Sinchon area for the evening and plan Day 5 instead of leaving to explore somewhere else.

 Day 5

Namsan hanok village and Seoul N tower

First thing in the morning we decided to make our way to Paris Baguette for breakfast. Paris Baguette is my absolute favorite cafe chain in Korea, they make delicious salty and sweet snacks and pastries! Their coffee on the other hand is so-so but I can manage with that.

After eating not-so-healthy breakfast (but filling) we went to Namsan area where we wanted to check out Namsangol hanok village first. Sirja had been there before, I hadn't so it was nice experience to see another different hanok village. As I have explained before, hanok village is a traditional korean village built like 'the old days'. But I don't actually recommend to visit Namsan hanok village if you don't have that much time in Korea since there are other more bigger and amazing hanok villages around Seoul. But if you're in the area then why not~

We walked around for awhile and then decided to go to Namsan tower, more known as Seoul N tower. It isn't far from Chungmuro station where from you can also access to Namsan hanok village (it's actually right next to subway station). There's this cable car going up and down the hill or then you can choose stairs if you're in good shape. But you need to climb up a bit first before you get to that cable car. If you're too lazy to go all the way up to cable car by walking, there's also a small elevetor going up to that cable car. But anyway, Korea is full of hills so be prepared to climb alot.

Cable car is quite expensive compared to prices in Korea usually but I guess it's because of all tourists. Roundtrip is 8500won (about 6e) and one way is 6000won (about 4,50e). We wanted to take it only to up and then walk down to save money and have a little bit of exercise :P
You should know that the cable car doesn't actually go aaaalll the way up, you will have to walk about 60 meters of stairs up still. But when you're up, view is amazing and beautiful. Truly worth it!

This was my 5th time in Korea but I hadn't actually ever visited the tower itself which is funny. I only went up to the top I think two times but never really got into that Seoul N Tower. But now I really wanted to visit the tower even though all of my friends who visited there said it's nothing special. Yup, I thought that too, it's just a beautiful view from there but you can also get beautiful view without paying anything from the experience. Because it costs 10000won (about 7,50e) which is pretty expensive from same kind of view you get for free.

We bought tickets to the tower from outside booth and then went in. There was an elevator that took us up and while going up there was this video show on the roof which was pretty cool. Although if I remember correct, in Japan in Tokyo tower they have the same kind of thing.
In the top I liked how they had different city names on the windows which showed how far is Seoul from them. We walked around just a bit and then decided to go back down because restaurants in there were so expensive and so were the souvenir shops.

We were getting hungry but checked out one deck before going down. At the feet of the tower is a love lock deck where couples can bring locks. It's a cool idea and the place looks worthy of instagram photos xD Next to deck, there's a resting pavilion area which is nice to spend time in if you for example have snacks with you (bring them before you come up!).
We were planning on going down and look for some restaurant but we were reeeeally hungry so we walked couple steps down to a level where there was two restaurants. We went to one offering different tonkasu's (pork cutlet) and we weren't disappointed. A beautiful view was just a plus, the food was delicious even though it was a little bit more expensive than normally tonkasu's would be.

After eating ourselves full, we started our exercise by going down. Oh boy, if you haven't done exercise for a while, don't do it.. I almost died xD my legs were soooo dead after we reached low ground level because first you have to come down the stairs which feel like they last forever and after it, is downhill.. so yeah, if you're crazy about sports or hiking then it's for you, else not xD

Myeongdong and Cheonggyecheon

After coming down, we went walking around in Myeongdong which is right next to Namsan hill. We were so tired though that we only walked about 20 minutes before we started looking a place to rest. By the way, one shop that I can recommend from Myeongdong is Stylenanda because it's just so unique, it sells cosmetics and clothes. The whole shop is built like a "hotel" and different floors have different hotel themes. Just a unique fun experience!

Anyway, after walking and walking we found this korean dessert cafe 'sulbing' which offers traditional korean dessert, bingsu. Which is shaved ice with other ingredients (like milk and some fruits). Reeeeally delicious! I recommend to try bingsu if you're in Korea. Sulbing also offers some other desserts and coffee~

Strawberry bingsu, one portion is enough for two people

We went back to our hostel to rest after walking whole day but then Su and her friend talked about going to Cheonggyecheon stream and we agreed. Yay more walking xD
First we went back to Myeongdong again, met with Su and her friend and decided to go eat chicken for dinner (korean chicken meals are heaven!) and then we walked around cheonggyecheon. Found a wishing well which was pretty cool!

I was personally so exhausted when we got to our hostel that I went straight to sleep. I don't recommend this kind of day without planning and if you don't like walking around alot. Well, in Korea you end up walking alot anyway but this kind of day takes reeeeally the energy out of you, especially if you haven't planned your day well. My day was fun but next time I would just propably take cable car in both ways lol.


Going to end this post here~ next up days 6 and 7.

5th Korea trip stories part 2

Day 2

Sinchon + Hongdae

First night was kind of hard because we were really tired from previous day but on basement level in the same building that our hostel was, was noraebang aka karaoke bar and we could clearly hear the noise from over there.. well, they stopped around 1am but still, it was pretty annoying (korean buildings have really thin walls..)

In the morning we went to find a cafe where we could eat breakfast and after looking around a bit we found two-some coffee and ordered some simple sandwiches and lattes. Our hostel had breakfast but it was until 10am and it was either cup noodles or toast.. and me and Sirja don't really like those things in the morning so that's why we wandered to find our own breakfast (besides, korea is really affordable when it comes to food so we paid like 6000won from our breakfast which is about 4.50€).

After breakfast we walked around Sinchon to see what kind of place it was (the day before we really didn't have energy to) and found for example Moomin store in U-plex mall lmao.

We took our time to go around and then went to meet up our friend Su and her friend who came for exchange program to Korea. And coincidentally their hostel for few days before going to dorm happened to be beside ours. After meeting we went to eat because at least me and Sirja started to be very hungry.
After we stuffed ourselves full of kimbap and mandu we decided to walk to Hongdae from Sinchon because Hongdae is close by and it's approximately only 20-minute walk. If you want to go there by subway or bus, be noted that in english they put the stop up as Hongik University because Hongdae is actually shortened slang word from korean 'Hongik daehakgyo' (Hongik University).
We toured around Hongdae for awhile before we decided to go back to Sinchon and we parted with Su and her friend.

Sinchon is actually really close to Hongdae

We rested for awhile in our hostel room after walking for a whole day. In the evening we met with my friend Laura who was working in Seoul at that time. We went to eat chimaeg (chicken+maegju) which means basically chicken+beer and it's quite popular evening snack thing in korea. Usually these kind of places are bars or late-night restaurants which means they're closed at afternoon. But I highly recommend to try them even if you don't like alcohol (you can order soda or cola like I always do) because korean chicken food is to die for! So if you're in Korea and see the word 치맥, that means that type of restaurant/bar.
We were kind of early (around 6pm) so the restaurant was empty. But after we got in it was like 15 minutes and other people started coming in too. So if you're not up for a really noisy enviroment to eat and talk, it's best to go early because in Korea restaurants start getting full about 8pm. But actually our finnish culture is funny because if you eat dinner after 6pm it's considered very late, we usually eat dinner around 4-5ish pm so eating 6pm was not a problem for us, we were actually quite hungry.

Anyway, we talked quite awhile and then walked around Sinchon. We thought the idea of wanting to visit cat cafe because neither me or Sirja had experienced it before (even though we both have visited Korea before). So Laura searched nearest cat cafes and we ended up in one pretty close by our chimaeg place. Going to cat cafe (or any animal cafe), be sure to read rules and listen to owner. When we got in, we had to take our own shoes off and we got sandals in place of them and had to be very careful with doors so no cats could escape. Also, to these type of cafes you usually pay attendance fee and many cafes like ours included one drink to the fee so basically you get entrance and one drink for the same price. Cat cafe where we went had also one cute dog which was still a puppy, this is quite unusual but it was a pleasant surprise~ In this cat cafe the cats were same breed because owner was concentrated on just one breed but majority of cat cafes have many kinds of cats. We played with the cats and the dog for couple hours before finally leaving since it was getting pretty late.

Day 3

Gwanghwamun, Jogyesa, Bongeunsa, Coex

We decided at the morning to spend time going around famous sightseeing places so what better way to start than going to Korea's most famous square, Gwanghwamun square from where you can also see and access Gyeongbokgung palace. I have visited there many times before but it's always an awesome sight for me. Laura was working nearby so I message her if we could go eat lunch together and she gave ok after she had run some errands. So in the meantime me and Sirja decided to tour Gwanghwamun's Kyobo bookstore which is the biggest bookstore in Korea and located in a big building complex in Gwanghwamun. If you want to go to Kyobo, don't worry it's easy to find. You will see a big sign in the building and you just have to take glass elevator to one floor down from main floor. Besides being bookstore, they have electronics store, accessories store, kpop albums store and cafe complex in the same floor inside Kyobo so it's a good place to spend some time~

And near Gwanghwamun you have for example Cheonggyechong stream, Jogyesa and Insadong so you can easily spend a day in the area just walking and sightseeing.
Anyway, Laura messaged me that her errands took more time than expected so I suggested to Sirja that we walk to see Jogyesa because it's basically next to  Gwanghwamun square (about 15-minute walk).

From this spot if you turn right Kyobo building would be about right in front of you

Jogyesa temple prayer lanterns

So we walked to Jogyesa, took some photos and walked back to meet Laura and go eat lunch. After lunch we parted ways and me and Sirja headed up to Bongeunsa temple which is in Gangnam area and it's famous for having preserved it's historical look even though it's in middle of concrete jungle. And surprising enough, I have never visited there even though this was my 5th time in Korea so I was really excited to see something I hadn't seen before.

Bongeunsa was quite easy to find because I looked from map beforehand that it was next to exit 1 from Bongeunsa temple subway station.
We took our time to sightsee and admire the temple. It was quite peaceful and we didn't see many people around. I heard that Bongeunsa arranges temple stays and that's why you can see also foreigners wearing a traditional temple clothing on temple grounds. Many korean temples arranges these temple stays where you stay in the temple and do a monk's routine which includes meditation etc.

entrance to Bongeunsa, you can clearly see how surrounded by tall buildings it is

We were getting pretty tired after travelling from one place to another and walking alot but because Coex is literally other side of the road from Bongeunsa we decided to check it up. Coex is a mall complex that has for example aquarium inside. I have never actually visited it's aquarium even though I wanted to and we didn't visit this time either because as I said, we were tired. We wandered around Coex like half an hour and then decided that we really need to get to our hostel to rest so we headed back to Sinchon.
Later in the evening we went to eat and I ordered sundubujjigae (soft tofu soup) which was like the most spiciest soup I have ever eaten.. I have eaten sundubujjigae before but not that spicy! I could finish it but I burned my mouth xD After my burning food experience I mainly wanted some cold dessert so we found a cafe and ordered dessert drinks and cake slice which we ate half and half. Seriously, Korea has some of the most delicious looking and tasting desserts I have ever seen.. be careful if you don't want to gain weight because temptation is big xD

Somewhere around Coex

Desserts that taste like heaven

I end my post here, next up is Day 4 and 5. I start school soon so I'm guessing I'll be very busy next couple months but I try to update a new post next month.
By the way, my Japan trip arrangements have been almost done! Flight ticket reserved as well as accommodations, yay no stress from that part anymore~ Our trip will be a tour; Osaka-Nara-Kyoto-Tokyo-Osaka. Can't wait!