Day 2
Sinchon + Hongdae
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.
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| 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).
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| From this spot if you turn right Kyobo building would be about right in front of you |
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| 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.
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| 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
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| Somewhere around Coex |
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| 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!
