5th Korea trip stories part 7 *final*

Hi everyone! Finally last part of my Korea trip stories -series is here! To be honest I'm really busy with school, I have 4 courses and lots of things to do but I took a break to write this post~
I have been a bit stressed lately since I changed my plans for studying and I'm trying to graduate a bit earlier than planned. But things are getting more clearer in next couple weeks so all is good and without further ado let's jump into Korea trip stories~

Day 11

Insadong

First in the morning we grabbed breakfast from cafe near our hostel and then we were ready for a new day :D Me and Sirja decided to visit Insadong in the morning because we wanted to hunt some souvenirs. Insadong is basically a street for tourists because there are so many shops that sell every kind of items related to korea like for example souvenirs, potteries, art etc.
 What we didn't know is that the day was some kind of national day so as soon as we got into subway we met lots of koreans with korean flags and different kind of accessories with korean flags. Luckily, it wasn't that crowded in Insadong but lots of people were wearing hanboks!

Anyway, we walked through Insadong and I visited one shop which sold a lot of bags, I bought one for my mom (she asked me to bring her a nice bag) and bought one for myself also. After walking around for like an hour we decided to head back to Sinchon to drop our stuff and eat lunch.

We found this great restaurant that was located in basement level opposite of cube mall complex in main street. I got a spicy noodle soup while Sirja got bibimpab.

Apgujeong

 

Later on that day we took a subway to Apgujeong where we met with Laura. I wanted to see the famous K-Star road which I hadn't visited before but felt like everyone else had (even though I had visited Korea so many times). You can access there by taking subway to Apgujeong rodeo station, exit 2. It's basically located in the main street of Apgujeong. It's funny because around it the area is very luxurious and full of luxury brand stores.
We had to walk for 10-minutes before we got into start of the k-star road. At the start of it was a small store selling mini figurines of the k-star road figures but they didn't have any group figurines left that I would have liked to buy. So after a quick look of the store we continued our way to k-star road.

We browsed through the area, it's famous also because many big entertainment agencies like SM, JYP and Cube are located in there. We actually went past SM (which was under construction) and JYP and saw Cube from further away. There was a lot of fans in front of JYP with cameras, I guess some of the artist were inside or coming soon to the agency since the group of fans was quite big. The area itself is surprisingly narrow so there wasn't that much space in that road so we decided not to stay in there even though there were couple cafes and we were craving coffee.

At one point it started raining and we walked a while in the rain before spotting a cafe where we went to warm up and eat delicious honey bread dessert.

If you visit korea, try their honey bread toast, it's sooo good (the calories are worth it lol)

Next we braved the rain and walked through the streets when suddenly we remembered that Moomin cafe is quite close to our location. So we headed up to Moomin cafe :D It's funny that in these couple years Moomin craze has fallen also to South-Korea. When I visited Korea in 2012 and 2013 nobody knew about Moomins and now about everybody knows them. Moomin cafe in apgujeong is quite easy to find, it's near the main street and near Uniqlo.

The first floor is Moomin store where you can buy different kind of Moomin stuff, lots of it is made in korea and looks like a "copy" of moomins but there are also stuff from Muurla and Finlayson (although those are reeeeeally expensive compared to Finland's prices). Top floor is Moomin cafe, you should come there in the morning since in the evening they hardly have any pastries and stuff left. Basement floor is kind of playground, you can take photos with sceneries from Moomin tv series. It was quite fun actually, playing there :D

We spend like an hour in there before going out and wondering what to do next. We decided to go to Dongdaemun, you can access there through Dongdaemun History & Culture park subway station, exit 1. There we first just wandered through Design plaza but it was starting to rain really hard so we went inside Doota mall. We were starting to get hungry so we went to the food court in there. It was really full but we were so hungry that we just hunted free tables for ourselves and ordered food. We ate really good pasta and were really full after that. And it looked like a gourmet meal but cost about 12000won so about 10€ so it was actually really affordable!

After eating we said goodbye to Laura and headed to Sinchon to get a goodnight sleep after a long day. We had only couple days left and we were starting to feel sad that days went past so fast.

Day 12

Myeongdong

 

Because it was our second last full day we decided to go to Myeongdong for the last time to do last minute shopping. We walked in Myeongdong about four hours and also went to eat at one place where they cook your food in front of you in a big pan. It was in one of the Myeongdong's side streets and we encountered aggressive restaurant workers and we just wanted to get out of that street. But then when we were almost off of the street we noticed this restaurant and it just looked interesting so we went in. They had very good food and it was very filling also.

Sinchon

We spent the day leisurely and in the evening we met with my friend Hyojoo in Sinchon who was in the same volunteer program as I was when I was doing my volunteer work period in 2012. We went to eat to one place offering samgyeopsal and some other great dishes. Had a really great dinner and Hyojoo offered to pay it for us, it was so nice of her. So when we went to a cafe after dinner coffees were on me. By the way in Korea, this kind of thing is common especially between friends that somebody is paying the whole thing one time and then next time the other is paying the whole thing. Koreans do not expect this from foreigners but I think it's nice cultural thing.

Day 13

Sports complex + Coex

 

Day 13 was a fail to be honest. We were going to Sports complex area because Infinite had a concert in there that day and Sirja is a huge Infinite fan. We didn't get tickets through online because it showed sold out but we were told by online ticketing agency interpark, that they may be selling them at the venue. So we went there and this was second frustrating and maddening thing that ever happened to me with concerts. So, we were lingering around ticketing booth (where people got their physical tickets after showing confirmation slip). I heard one korean fan who didn't have ticket asking from staff that if it was possible to still buy tickets. The staff member then answered that if you wait long enough you may get a chance to buy those tickets that are not picked up before concert so come back later. Almost immediately after this korean girl had asked the staff, came a foreigner who asked in english the exact same thing and I was shocked how drastically the replies were different from another. Because the staff member answered like "no, you can't buy tickets anymore". It wasn't even like "come back later and check" but like straight no... talk about discriminating. I was so angry and mad about that attitude that I wanted to leave. Sirja wanted to be around the area for longer and I was just pissed off. Sirja wanted to ask those illegal sellers that in what price would they sell tickets and I was saying to her that just ask them but she was like she doesn't have the courage.. but she still wanted to stay and linger around those sellers.. so I was getting more pissed off and just went to ask myself. When the price was too high to Sirja, I asked Sirja what kind of price she will pay and then I said the price offer to the seller I got cursed and the seller left us angrily. Imagine how I felt around this point. I was also hungry so I said without even considering Sirja anymore that I'm going to eat so Sirja just followed me. We went to Coex where we got our lunch.

Sirja still wanted to go back to venue area while I didn't want to but I didn't want to go our seperate ways in case we couldn't contact each other again for a long time. So I went but we were there for nothing and finally Sirja also gave up. I was seriously angry and pissed off at that point that we wasted our last day in korea to just hanging out in an area where we couldn't even do anything useful.

Ewha

 

We went to Ewha and messaged to Su if she was available to join us and pretty soon we met her at a cafe in Ewha. I was calming down a little bit but still annoyed. We just talked for a while and then decided to walk through Ewha's streets and do some shopping also. Little by little I got into a better mood and found some stuff I didn't found in Myeongdong or other places.

In the evening we went to eat to this good chicken place I have mentioned earlier in my previous Korean travel posts. There used to be Baskin and Robbins opposite of it but now it had disappeared, anyway this chicken restaurant was in the same place. They offer really good snacks and chicken meals, really recommending it still, it's on the basement level. After eating and browsing the streets a little more we said Su goodbyes and decided to go back to Sinchon since we still had to pack and wake up early.

Day 14

We headed back home. Woke up really early like 5am, went to subway and transferred in Hongdae to airport subway line. We were at the airport around 7 and they opened check-in pretty soon so we just dropped our stuff off and went through security check. All this went by really quickly actually and before we knew we were boarding to the plane. I had fun experience this time also even if the last day wasn't that good.


Next I will start posting about my Japan travels. Also can't wait to get back to Korea again next year~

5th Korea trip stories part 5

Hello guys! Again, I'm really sorry about keeping my post intervals so long but in my holiday I was in Japan and when I got back to school it was like BOOM, here's too many assignments for you D: I'll try finally finish my Korea trip stories series so I can start telling about my trip to Japan which was interesting and awesome. But anyway, let's get started~

Day 8 

Jangchung

On this day I went to Astro Aroha festival fanmeeting in Jangchung gymnasium. Astro is a korean kpop group that debuted 2016 and I'm a fan of especially one member. Sirja and Su accompanied me the whole day even though they didn't attend the concert.


This was the other concert that I bought tickets online for from someone else and it was a legit ticket. First when we went to the venue, we had to take subway to Dongguk univ. stop. Venue itself was right in front of exit 5, you cannot get lost! When we got out of the station I was shocked because we were there about 3 hours before event even started and there were LOTS of people. I had to line up a bit to get my ticket (I had only confirmation slip and id copy proof from buyer, I explained earlier that you need buyer's id or copy of it if you want to get your ticket). It went without problems and I got my ticket~

Translated it for you to understand better

That's how the ticket information usually looks like about in every concert, you have information where and when and then it states your place. In Astro's fanmeeting it was all seating places. When you are in seating section, the ticket states very specifically in which place you should go. In the venue, they have these huge signs telling which are which section so you can find your place pretty easily.

Anyway, after I got my ticket Sirja and Su accompanied me to go to merchandise queue because I wanted a lightstick (it's concert culture in korea to have a lightstick). But we only had two hours before doors opened and the line was soooooooooo long. We still went in the line and I was hoping to get the official lightstick. But in the end, two hours wasn't enough. Their system in mechandise tent sucked though, you had to fill a form which took time and then you could get your stuff what you wanted so because of that, so many were left without official merchandises. I ended up buying a cheap lightstick because as I said, lightstick is part of the experience. Anyway, if you go to a concert or even a fanmeet, be prepared to queue alot (to merchandise and to venue).

After my failed attempt to get the official lightstick I parted ways with Sirja and Su because it was time to go in. Before the doors there were wreaths and congratulatory messages from fans. It's also tradition that fans send for example rice and eggs to honor the artist and what I've heard, the food will be donated.

There were two queues to inside, one to ground floor, one to second floor. It was quite unclear and I had to ask couple times that I was sure I was going the right direction. But people were helpful there and I found myself to the 1st floor. I spotted my section right away but I was unsure about the rows because they were marked so that your place was actually marked in the seat in front of you. So I was confused that is my seat the one with the mark or is it the seat which in front of the mark was. So again I asked and the fans were really helpful and told me that I'm actually in the right row and pointed out my seat. If you are lost like me and can't speak korean, you can try english (though usually koreans are afraid of speaking english or don't know how to speak it) or then just point your seat number from your ticket and I'm sure they'll help.

When I sat down to my place I was admiring how good place I had and so close to the stage! It was funny that there were staffs going around and yelling that no photos during the show and "if you are seated next to foreigner, please tell them also this". But nobody next to me turned to tell me this. Well, I could understand it anyway but the persons next to me couldn't have known I can speak korean. In these kind of events you also see many foreigners who don't really speak koreans but they want to see the artist and let me say; there is no english usually used only than some small notices from the staff. So if you're a foreigner and want to attend and experience, be prepared to hear only korean. And keep and open mind, many of koreans don't speak english but they are very helpful still. In my experience, they actually speak chinese usually better than english. But it's just my experience..

When the fanmeet started, cheering was phenomenal! It was absolutely awesome to be part of the experience. Though I was in a funny situation because in my right side was an avid fan who went a little crazy throughout the concert and in my left side was apparently some fansite staff who sneakily took photos without even caring about the concert. It would be a long story trying to explain fanculture so let's just say that this "sneaky camera" -thing happens in every concert. If staff spots you taking photos, you're out and they confiscate your camera to delete your photos.

Anyway, I had awesome time. The end was memorable because during the second last song Astro performed, members walked through aisles between our seats and my favorite member, Cha Eunwoo walked beside me and I saw him from couple meters away.

Fanmeeting lasted about two hours and after it I met up with Sirja and Su again who had been waiting in the area. We said goodbyes to Su who had some school staff to do and then me and Sirja went to Hapjeong (near Sinchon) to eat dinner in a famous chicken restaurant. I have been raving about korean chicken meals before, but it's so good! I have yet to taste anything like it in other countries.
After eating ourselves full, we headed to Hongdae where we walked for a while before deciding to call it a day and went to sleep.


Next up is day 9 and 10. This post would be just too long if I would add day 9 because we went to visit Daejeon on that day.
(I seriously try to hurry up with my posts but let's see, I have too many school assignment currently >_<)

A fun ending to this post; I found this video from my photo archives which I took one day in subway~ it's from Sinchon and shows how normal korean subway station looks like, what the digital signs show and how you know the subway will arrive shortly xD

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~

 

Talk + 5th Korea trip stories part 1

Hello everyone, long time no see.

Alot has happened in these few months.

The reason I haven't been updating is kind of personal but I'm sharing it with you because this keeps happening with my blog. This is going to be quite long explanation but bear with me, I have no way to explain this shortly.

So, I have been going back and forth to doctors for almost 4 years now because I suffer from different symptoms but the worst is feeling tired 24/7, 365 days a year. Doctors have yet to find what's wrong with me but basically I feel tired all the time; sometimes it's better, sometimes worse. I have tried everything what doctors suggested without results: tried to change my rhythm of when I go to sleep and how many hours I sleep, I tried to change my diet several times and I excersize going out for walks..

So what's all this got to do with my blog? Well, when worse periods hit I'm too tired to concentrate or write anything. I'm not lazy, just very, very tired. I'll try to describe this state so hopefully you, my readers will understand what my condition is most of the time. Imagine spending your whole day at school or work and after a long day you leave tired and just want to get home to rest. This is basically what I'm feeling everyday. I wake up feeling that tired and go to sleep feeling tired.

It's kind of funny but when I travel I don't get as tired as others because I'm already tired no matter what. So it doesn't take as much energy from me when I'm travelling and experiencing new things. I'm usually so excited for travelling that I even forget feeling tired. Although it usually hits me in the evening double as bad... Happens everytime I'm excited for something lol. But I still love travelling and wouldn't change it for anything. I try staying positive and fight this feeling of tiredness.

But anyway, I hope you understand. I try updating once a month or once in two months but sometimes when worse periods hit me the gap can be more than that.

By the way, I got into school! I'm terrified and excited at the same time. Don't know how tired I am going to be but I'm mainly just excited that I got in after trying for 3 years and to study what I love the most; travelling&tourism. My DP is Hospitality, tourism and experience management.

5th Korea trip stories part 1

 

Travelling to South-Korea and 1st day

I was accompanied with my friend Sirja to travel to South-Korea. By the way, I'm not publishing any photos with my friends in them in case they don't want to appear in my travel posts.

Anyway, we met at the airport on time, got through security check quickly and headed up to non-schengen area. We had to wait 1 and half hour until boarding so it was not that bad.

Flight went well for us. A little drama on board at one point when one person got some sort of sudden attack and flight attendants voiced if there is any doctor or nurse on board. Luckily, the person made it to Korea so we didn't have to do extra landing and the person received medical attention in Korea.

When we got off from plane and to immigration it all went pretty fast, couple last times I travelled to Korea had to wait like an hour and now something like 20 minutes only. We were out on other side in no time and ready to travel to Seoul city center. We travelled by airport subway to Hongdae first and then changed to green line (line 2) to Sinchon where our hostel was. It was really convenient because Sinchon is basically next to Hongdae so we didn't have to travel long. And Sinchon is a university area so lots of shops and restaurants nearby!

We found our hostel pretty quickly but because we arrived something around 11am and it wasn't check-in time yet, we just left our luggage there and started searching a place to eat because we were starving. And we found Kimpab chonguk pretty quickly, it's kind of fast food chain that offers korean foods. I ordered seollongtan (I think? :D ) and Sirja got bulgogiboggeumbap (which is meat and fried rice). Then we went back to our hostel to finally check-in and get into our room. It was actually super nice, we had our own bathroom too! I apologize for messiness in photos but these are only photos I have from our room xD

Now, at first I didn't want to tell anything in my blog what happened next because I'm still pretty pissed off but I think that this would be serving as an example for travellers what negative things can also happen.

So, 2 weeks before going to Korea one person on twitter contacted me and asked if we are interested buying her tickets for BTS Wings tour concert in Seoul. I was like well yeah and we went through with the deal. I am usually very careful with online sellers but this person seemed ok. Notice, seemed.
We talked with her and paid the tickets in advance because there were some things with her story we believed. She gave us her kakao and we talked there, she was acting really friendly even after we bought the tickets and continued to talk to us. But when we got to Korea we noticed she had deleted her kakao and twitter. We had no way of contacting her and that's when we realized we had been scammed. We were already in the concert venue area when we desperately tried to contact her and waited her in the spot she had promised to meet us.

This gets more complicated but we paid her through her "friend's" paypal because she claimed she had no paypal. So we contacted this "friend's" email whose paypal we had paid to and pleading her to contact us immediately. She contacted us but told she was also scammed, that this ticket seller claimed me and Sirja are her friends and she need this other girl to help her using her paypal to get the payment from us. This other girl, let's call her Grace, she was from Singapore and said that she had paid via bank transfer and she lost more money than we did. Grace said she had been scammed second time for this concert and she had lost total something like $600. She then proved her story being also scammed by sending kakaotalk message screencaps between her and seller. It was also worse for Grace because it was her birthday and this concert was supposed to be her birthday present and party at the same time with her other friend who came to Korea with her.

We didn't have any way to even report this scammer to police or authorities because we only had her kakao and twitter, not her phone number or anything. So guys, please please please be careful and if you buy from online ask their information before buying. Ask like phone numbers, social media accounts etc. And if possible, ask for meeting face to face before concert day to buy tickets with cash.

I was sure I was careful but apparently not enough. But before this scam I bought a ticket online for Astro fanmeeting from online seller and it was legit ticket and not a scam. And she also acted similarly to this scammer so I guess that's why I didn't doubt the scammer and fell for it.

Anyway, we were feeling lost and disappointed as soon as we got to Korea. We would have wanted to see BTS because we both like their music and heard they have awesome show live. Since we were already in the venue area we tried to look someone selling their tickets but some illegal sellers had prices over 1000euros so we were like are you kidding me?! Not going to buy a ticket with that price even if it would have been our favorite artist ever in there. But we cannot change what is done so even though we were feeling pretty down we tried to cheer ourselves up by doing something to get our thoughts away from being scammed and went to Myeongdong to have coffee and tried some shopping and streetfood.

I can really recommend cosmetic brand Innisfree's own cafe which is upstairs in one of their main stores. The store is located in Myeongdong's 2nd mainstreet and you cannot pass it without noticing it. All what they offer has been produced in Jeju and their food is organic.
While we were in the cafe it started raining but we still wanted to spend a good evening and wash away our feelings of disappointments. We did some cosmetics shopping and tried several streetfoods like eggbread and tornado potato. Unfortunately I seem to have lost some photos of streetfoods but at least managed to find one :,D

After wandering around in Myeongdong we headed back to our hostel and went to sleep early.

I seriously try to post again within next month. Again, I'm really sorry I haven't been updating for so long.

By the way, got my next trip reserved and it's to Japan! Will be doing some roadtrip kind of thing with two friends, we'll be flying to Osaka and it's kind of our "base". But we also planned to stay couple days in Tokyo and Kyoto and head to Nara for a day. Really excited because I have been planning to go to Japan like over a year with one of my friend's whos now going with me.