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~