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

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.