Merry Christmas

Hello! I'm holding a little break until New Year because I have been sooo busy with work and everything and I just want to rest a little after my last shifts this week.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my wonderful readers! :)

Shopping culture in Korea

Hello hello~

I have been super busy lately as I started new part-time job and I got also my free days booked full. I kind of dug my own grave xD Finally I have a free day I don't have anything specific so I have time to write this post.

Because I'm hyped about my South-Korean trip I will continue my post series with introducing shopping culture in Korea. I will go to details about restaurants and cafe's in next post because otherwise this post would be reeeeeeeeeeally long. Note; these are all my own experiences.

Manners in cosmetic stores

Every country have different manners how to act in stores and how sales assistants acts towards you. I thought to mention korean cosmetic stores specifially as there might come the biggest surprise for you which might be even uncomfortable (especially for finns who like their own space lol). In cosmetic stores sales assistants usually approach you quickly, they ask if they can be of any help and even when you say 'you are looking' or 'I don't need help' they will in 90% of cases continue to follow you. They will be right next to you and follow you through the store. Most of them don't speak english (except maybe in Myeongdong stores) but they still follow you. If you touch a product they assume you are interested in it and they usually pick up the product for you to try and are almost ready to put the product to your shopping basket. So to avoid this, don't touch products you are not interested at all ^^;;; Well, you can obviously say you are not interested to sales assistant but then they will proceed to introduce some other product to you...
Note; in some stores sales assistants leave you alone because you're foreigner but in tourist spots they will surely approach you.

 By the way, in cosmetics stores they have these mini shopping baskets, they usually have some samples inside for you to keep for free. But if you are given a shopping basket or you take one yourself, sales assistants expect you to buy something from their store. So until you are sure you're going to buy something, don't take a shopping basket (I did this couple times and when I didn't buy anything I was given a mean look..)
 In some stores sales assistants who follow you offer to take your shopping basket and they will carry it for you. When you are ready to pay you just have to say you're done or if you don't speak korean and they don't speak english then gesture towards cashier table.

It's very common that cosmetic stores will give you free samples, especially if you buy alot. They also have campaigns that if you buy something let's say with 50,000won they will give you bag/notebook/something extra. Cosmetic stores also have 1+1 or 2+1 offers very often which basically means buy one get one free etc. They just mark it that way rather than with a sentence. And if you are interested in a product that has this offer, sales assistants will mention it to you buy saying one plus one / two plus one. They use this expression in english which is funny, they never say it in korean.

Cosmetic stores have usually one person outside trying to attract customers to visit their store. They mostly have free samples in their hands and if you take that, they expect you to buy something from their store. If you don't, they see you as a rude person (they will let you keep the sample anyway).

And just a side note; cosmetic stores allow you to take photos of products but they do not allow you to film videos (I think only few cosmetic chains don't mind so it's better to not take videos at all to not get yelled at).

Other

Often people are confused when they go to pay and there are some mannerism that are unique to Korea. But because you're a foreigner, it is usually forgiven if you make a mistake. When you pay by card or cash, give it either with two hands or with your right hand while your left hand is below you right hand's elbow (or your wrist). This is a gesture to show your politeness and respect towards the store/restaurant/any cashier. Sales assistant/cashier will do the same to you to show respect (they will bow to you also when you leave the store/restaurant/etc) and you should receive change/your card back with same gestures.
If you forget to do this gesture, don't worry they will not mind as you are foreigner and they will not expect you to know their mannerisms. But if you do, they will respect you even more.

Stores usually have displays outside which is strange to western people; we are used to that if you leave something outside unattended, it will be stolen quickly. But Korea has very low criminal rates and if you have something stolen from you in Korea, you are extremely extremely unlucky.
So, if you walk through the streets you will notice soon that like every second store have some displays outside.

Seoul has limited space, many people and tough competition from customers. That's why many stores are in different floors, it feels really packed in most neighborhoods. So when you're shopping keep your head up to check out what 2nd and 3rd floors in buildings offer. For example in Myeongdong ground level is full of cosmetic stores while 2nd and 3rd might host great restaurants, cafes and sometimes clothing and cd shops. Sometimes entrance to these shops that are in other floors are through ground level store, sometimes through small staircase in between ground level stores.

In Korea decorations tend to be grand scale. Especially in ground level stores. They have big decorations and even bigger billboards. Billboards often show if they have sales going so definetly keep that in mind if you are on a budget.

Popular stores to shop clothes, decorations, lifestyle stuff etc. are Åland (yup, Åland), Lotte department stores, Home Plus, Forever21, Top shop, Mixxo, Artbox, Butter and so on. There's especially many unique stores in Korea that don't belong to any chain where you can get many affordable items and in these you can bargain.
Popular cosmetic stores are for example Nature Republic, Innisfree, Missha, Etude House, Aritaum, Tonymoly and Holika Holika.

Some shops offer tax free over 50,000won purchase and they will usually automaticly fill you tax free form but you can also ask shops if they have tax free service. Interesting note; in Lotte department store Myeongdong there's small post office where you can send your purchase straight to your home so that you don't even have to carry it around. I think it's great service if you want to buy something but your luggage is already full. Oh, and sending post package from Korea is extremely cheap for western people (finns know the pain of sending even small stuff with overly expensive price).


I hope this was useful information :) Until next time~

Planning trip to Korea? part 2

This will be kind of second part to my previous post. So;

Planning trip to Korea? What nobody told you

I decided to gather some info about things when you arrive Korea and have no idea how things work and nobody told you. Again, this is mainly done for finnish travellers but there might be some tips for non-finnish too who travel from other countries~
Also in here is info for those who travel solely to Seoul but again, some tips might be useful for those who are planning on travelling to other cities.

Arriving

You have landed Korea and go out from the plane, what now? What most people don't know is that first you have to follow "exit" and "immigration" / "luggage claim" signs to a certain train. People usually get confused at this point like wait what, where is the exit. You have to take a small train ride to side of terminal where immigration is in. So no fear, just follow other passengers to that train and it will take you right to where you have to go.

After a minute of train ride, follow signs to immigration, have your passport and immigration card ready and just line up. They will take the card and check your passport, they will also take a photo from you as well as fingerprints.

Now, you are ready to go claim your luggage. Check your luggage claim from monitors (because there's alot). When you collect your luggage and are ready to go out, have your customs card ready, you have to give it to airport staff before you enter landside. The staff is looking kind of like security guard just before doors to landside.

Before doors there's also money exchange but I will not advice to exchange money there as it is more expensive in there than in the city.

Landside

Great, you made it to Korea! Now you are with your luggage in airport landside, where to head next?

I would advice to get your T-money card now. T-money is a travel card for public transportations and it will make your life so much easier! You can get it either from convenience stores or ticket machines. I got mine from convenience store, there are many in the airport (like 7eleven for example). If you want to buy T-money from convenience store, just say T-money at cashier. It costs around 3000won and you can also load it in convenience store but be aware that cashier doesn't necessarily speak english so there might be some misunderstandings. That's why if you don't speak korean I advice to load your card in ticket machines, they are available in english language also.

Now, you have three options of what to take to Seoul city center. Subway, bus or taxi. I advice not to take airport taxi since foreigners usually get scammed easily by airport taxi's. Cheapest way is by subway so if you're on a budget, take the subway. I always take it :P
Anyway, buses and taxi's are right outside when you go out of airport building. To find subway, you first have to take elevator or escalators down one floor and then there's signs so just follow them. Note; you can't go wrong, there are many hallways pointing to traintracks but all are pointing to same place just with a little different route. That can be confusing but you're heading to right place anyway.

When you arrive to subway gates there's ticketing machines on your left side. Now to load T-money, just put it in the middle where's t-money sign. Choose english as your language if you don't know korean. Push T-money button from screen and it gives you options how much would you like to put to your card. Then just pay with notes and voila, you are ready to travel with subway. For the first time, I advice to put something like 25,000won to your t-money card, it will last a long time even if you are travelling with public transportations alot. Because public transportation is very cheap in Korea :) Oh and if you have big luggage, they have bigger gate on left side so if you're unsure if your luggage is going to fit, just use that. It's the same in every station; last gate either left or right side is usually for those with luggage, wheelchair etc.

Bear in mind that this airport subway takes you to only few designated stations and you have to change to other lines if you are not going to Hongdae or Seoul station area in Seoul. Subway ride to Hongdae stop takes about 50 minutes. Usually people who are first time in Korea don't know that it actually takes that long to city center because airport is in Incheon which is in fact, whole other city than Seoul.

When you finally arrive to your station, don't head up to the exit you are supposed to go right away but check if the exit has escalators or not. Because korean stairways are steep and you don't want to carry your luggage upwards those. Either find an elevator or exit with escalator. Usually many stations have only one exit with escalators.

By the way, useful app for your phone is called "subway korea" which you can use even offline. It is available in english and korean. It has basically the whole subway map which works offline. But online you can also check station info like exit location in the area with map, when the next subway train is arriving and if you have to change lines it will inform you which door is the closest one to your next line connection. You can also put starting and ending point to your subway trip and it will calculate time for how long it will take for you to travel the distance. Convenient huh?

In Seoul

Eating and shopping

So now you're in Seoul and it can be kind of confusing at first. There's shops and restaurants everywhere. More expensive restaurants are of course located in tourist spots and more affordable ones are usually on side streets so if you want to save money, just head up to side streets. Sometimes side streets can look shady but they often host many great restaurants.

Korea has an interesting coffee culture; there are lots of different coffee chains as well as unique cafes. You can find cafes almost in every corner no matter where you go. For a coffee addict like me it's heaven lol. Some cafes offer interesting coffee flavors, I have seen such as cranberry coffee and even gingseng coffee! If you want to save money, just try local cafes, don't head to Starbucks.

Food is very affordable in korea, you can get a hearthy meal with just 2000won! Clothes and cosmetics are also affordable, clothes especially from street vendors. Also, if you go to let's say Hongdae and you visit the famous shopping street with lots of street vendors, you can bargain. For me, I have never bargained because I suck at it to be honest but if you're good then you can get your clothes even more cheaper.

I recommend to courageously try korean cosmetics, they might look cheap for western people but they're actually good quality! What makes it so confusing for western people to mistake it as cheap is packaging. Korean people love cute packaging while in western countries cute is associated with childrens products. But as I said, they're actually great quality~ My top favorite brands are Innisfree, Nature Republic, Mamonde and Missha. And there's still some brands I haven't even tried because there's so many of them!

I have talked about Myeongdong before in my Korea trip diaries but it's the shopping street where people head first when they think about shopping. It has lots of cosmetic and clothing stores. In Myeongdong there's also Lotte department store and Lotte Young plaza which have more high end products but you can also make interesting discoveries from there. I especially recommend Lotte department store's food court where they not only have mini mart where you can buy korean food products but also different kinds of korean takeaway foods in one place.

If you're looking forward to taste korean street food, head up to Myeongdong shopping street where especially at evening there's countless food vendors in the streets. Or try Hongdae or Konkuk university area for example.

Other great shopping places are Coex mall and express bus terminal which I have mentioned earlier too.

What isn't usually mentioned anywhere is that most of subway stations around Seoul have shops, cafe's and restaurants also. You can find pretty affordable stuff in them too~

By the way, Korean alcohol (soju and makgeolli) are cheap. So if you like to drink then you will propably get drunk very fast because alcohol is so cheap lol. One Soju bottle is like 1€.

Other things

I won't ramble about sights too much because you can read about those from travel guides and pick your favorites there.

But just to give few tips; many sights have discount tickets for foreigners so check that out before going in. Also, ticketing counters are usually on side of sightseeing places, not right in the front before entering. For example, when you enter Seoul's biggest palace Gyeongbokkung, you can first wander through a big gate. Many might confuse this as "oh is this free" because you kind of get in to first grounds. But no, ticketing counters are on your right side, a bit far from gates to be honest.

If you want to try Seoul's amusement parks there's Lotte World and Everland. Both of them usually offer discount to foreigners, you just have to print out discount coupon from their site and bring it with your passport to get the discount.

If you want to roam the streets when they're quite empty, the best time is between 9am to 2pm. After 3pm it starts to get busy. Also note that 7am to 8am is rush hour! Subways and buses will be veeery full, I advice to avoid that time in public transports if possible.

A few words about music shows; Many are interested in kpop and want to go to music shows but it's kind of hard process... some music shows give out free tickets but to get those you have to basically queue throughout the night where venue is so it can be stessful not to mention it can give you a cold if you are visiting winter time.

If you want to go watch the show through fanclub it's more stessful. Because you have to prepare the group's latest album who you're going to see. Besides that you have to have fanchants printed on paper which you can get from the group's daum fancafe. Most fanstaff ask you to have your name written on album and fanchant paper so you have to write that before anyone checks your stuff.
When you are going to queue you have to arrive like 5am to be sure to get in. If you're later than that, it will be unsure if you're going to see the group or not.
Fanstaff will have queue list so you have to find those people and add yourself in there. If you belong to official fanclub, be sure to mention it to staff as they usually have different queue for those.
At some point fanstaff starts selling official cheering towel, you have to get that also in order to get in to see the group so prepare cash. Fanstaff designates check ups from time to time, don't be late from those or you will be thrown out from your place in queue. Also, keep asking information because some fanstaff don't want to associate with foreigners so sometimes you might not get info about important things. So keep checking what others do and keep asking why they do it like that if you didn't get the info.

So... going to music show can be stressful. If you want to avoid all that some programs offer a chance to buy ticket also. But if you want to get in free, you are going to have one stressful day. And I mean literally whole day because you have to be in there from the morning until the group is recording sometime afternoon and you get to leave close to evening.

Card payments in Korea. Many would think that Visa electron won't work but actually it does. You might not be able to pay with visa electron in small stores but at least for me, it has worked in bigger shops. Also if you're visa electron user like me, you can use Woori bank's global atm. Before visa electron used to work in convenience store atm's and city bank atm's but in my last trip they didn't work with visa electron. So if you are in need of cash, head up to nearest Woori bank atm.
Other cards (credit and debit) should work everywhere.

Signs. Most of signs are in romanized letters so you will have no problem finding sights or places. So don't worry about that :)

I hope I didn't forget anything. These things are not mentioned often in travel guiden if at all so I wanted to do an info package. All of these are what I didn't know when I went to Korea for the first time and I had to just learn by myself. I hope this makes it easier to everyone^^

Planning trip to Korea, where to start?

I just got inspired to do this kind of info post as I just planned my own next trip to Korea. This is mainly useful for those who are planning budget travelling.
Also, this is mainly done for finnish travellers but there's some tips for those travelling from other countries too :)

Where to start?

Usually many do that rookie mistake and go straight to travel agencies sites. Actually you will end up spending more money because travel agencies have commissions and fees. So first thing to do is skip those sites and use search engines like

booking.com
ebookers.com
momondo.fi
hostelworld.com

Pick your price range first and start comparing. Remember to go to these sites in incognito mode, because travel search engines are tricky; if they see you are a returning customer they will have more higher prices than when you first came to their sites. Why? Because they know you are seriously planning to buy from them so they'll raise the price sneakily.

Anyway, comparing is the word if you are on a budget. Compare different sites because prices and hotel/hostel selection might vary.
When you find accommodation you like, check if they have booking option straight from their own home page. I haven't stayed in hotel in Korea, I always stay in hostels so I don't really know how it works with hotels but at least like 90% of hostels and guesthouses give you cheaper price than in search engines. Usually when you contact hostel via their own site, they will send you a customized price and they usually even offer a discount. So it's waaaaay better to book your hostel straight from hostel's own homepage.

As for flights, do not book too early or too late. If you book your flight let's say, 5 months earlier then the price will most likely be higher than if you would book it 3 months earlier of your trip. And if you book super late like let's say 3 weeks earlier the price will also be higher. Ideal time is to book flight about 3 to 1½ months earlier.

At first, look straight from flight companies own sites what they offer. They might have promotions etc going on so then you will get flights cheaper than in search engines. I favor direct flights because I have sometimes severe motion sickness and it gets only worse if I have to change flights. Lucky, Finnair has promotions going on alot during the year, usually around february-march, june, september-october and december. Finnair is currently the only company from Finland that has direct flights to Korea.

If you would like stop over to save even more money then I recommend first to look through search engines and after it compare prices with one way tickets and roundtrip tickets. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to buy flights separately one way than for whole roundtrip.

And if you have one flight company you favor over others like me, get their regular customer membership card. You will get points or miles and they are useful when you are planning your next trip. You will get points from their affiliates also! I'm Finnair plus card holder and I can totally recommend it, it doesn't even cost you anything so you would not lose anything with this deal ;)

Congratulations, you succeeded booking. What's next?

After booking you are starting to think what you should prepare.

First things first; vaccinations. Check if they are still valid. Every country has their own recommendations and to Korea it is recommended to take hepatitis and if you're going more rural area it is adviced to take japanese encephalitis vaccination. The latter one is expensive (I think it's over 100€) but better sure than sorry right?

You should also think if you want to just stay in Seoul or travel to another city in Korea. For this I actually advice to think before you even book your accommodation. Because some hostels can arrange so that when you're away couple nights they won't charge you anything from those nights and even let you leave your luggage to their baggage room for safekeeping. So then you don't have to drag heavy luggage with you. But this is totally depending from hostel, for me I have never had any problems with hostels I've stayed in and staff has always been super friendly and helpful with these kind of things.

If you go to major cities that are located south, for example Jeju or Busan, I advice to take fastest way there to save time. Even if it costs a little bit more it is worth it! You will save lots of time to see and experience rather than spending it in train/bus/plane.
Fastest way to Jeju is by plane from Gimpo airport. I recommend Jeju Air, it's usually also very cheap (like 50€ roundtrip). To Busan fastest way is to take KTX bullet train which takes you there in 3 hours (normal train takes nearly 6 hours). If I remember correct, roundtrip ticket cost about 37€. KTX has discount for foreigners so definetly check that out.

Plan beforehand some sightseeing places you definetly want to see. Seoul especially is a big city and you might end up not seeing what you originally wanted to see if you don't plan at least something beforehand. I don't mean you have to plan everyday but reserve one or two days and plan them beforehand. It also saves time because some sights are near to each other while some are very far. For example it's not worthwile to visit Insadong and leave there straight to go to gangnam because you have two main palaces and Bukchon hanok village near Insadong.

Remember to take travel insurance and for finnish people; send out the form to ministry for foreign affairs office to inform you are abroads. This way if a problematic situation in the country will occur while you are travelling, they can find you and help you more easier.

Also, if you plan on attending musicals, concerts etc. book ticket before you travel! For foreigners only option is to buy ticket beforehand from either interpark or yes24. Keep in mind that you will first have to sign in to these sites before you can buy tickets. When you have purchased ticket to event of your choosing, you will get confirmation email. Important! You have to print confirmation out as you will have to present it in ticketing counter when you are attending the event. You are also asked to show your passport with the confirmation so they can be sure you are the buyer before they will give you physical tickets.
If you discover some event while you are in Korea you can go and ask from ticket counters in the venue if they still sell tickets but this is usually unlikely because popular musicals and concerts sell out quickly.

What to pack?

One word: lightly. Korea has very affordable prices in cosmetics, food and clothes so for western person it can be a bit overwhelming and you're gonna buy alot of stuff! So pack lightly because your luggage is going to be full when you leave home.

If you're going in summer; there will be hot. Like humid hot. It will last from june until August and from September to mid-November it might still be warm so you will not need winter clothes.
From late November it starts to get cold and december might be a bit freezing already so take your winter jacket if you are travelling at that time. Cold weather last until february when it starts to get warmer. Last week of March might already be very warm so only light jacket is ok for more colder days.

If you get easily cold then take couple extra warm shirts and socks if you travel during winter time. Many hostels might be cold especially in winter. Koreans use floor heating in their houses and buildings so room might feel cold even though floor is warm.

I also recommend to take mosquito repellant. Those sneaky monsters are alive even in winter! I don't know how they do it... some hostels might not have mosquitos at all but some hostels have them even in winter.. I have experienced it.. did not like it. I hate mosquitos lol.

Pack as less skincare as possible, you will find lots of travel size products with cheap prices from Korea. This way you don't have to carry extra weight in your luggage.

Korea is full of hills so pack good shoes! You will end up walking a lot up and down hills.

Finnish don't need adapter to Korea, they use same electricity voltage as us and same plugs.

Take a travel guide with useful phrases in korean with you. Koreans don't speak that much english, older people almost none at all so it will be good to know some useful phrases or at least you will have some book where you can show sentences of what you mean. Don't trust on technical devices too much, sometimes some places might not have a wifi and then you can't use your cellphone to search for words or if you for example get lost.

If you know at least a little bit of korean you will manage. And locals are always happy even if you can only say 'hello' and 'thank you' in korean.

Other things to remember:

Check your passport if it's valid! For finnish travelling to Korea passport has to be valid at least 6 months when you go to Korea.

Take copy from your passport with you, put one in your luggage and one in your handbag in case you lose your passport or if someone steals it.

Check your phone company if you have data block etc so you will not get unpleasant surprises.

Pack your own medicine. Korean medicine isn't that effective and you know what's best for you so definetly buy medicine beforehand from your own pharmacy. Also pack some bandaids! I forgot to pack them for my last trip and it was pain trying to look for decent bandaids for abrasion in my toes what my shoes caused me for walking too much..

Separate your cash. Put some amount to your luggage and keep some in your wallet. Korea is reeeally safe country but you never know.. if someone success to steal your wallet at least you have money in your luggage.

I hope this helps all of you who plan a trip to Korea :) I might have forgotten something but if you have any questions just comment down below :)

I love me fair + Korea event

Hello hello~
I had a busy weekend going to I love me beauty fair on friday and Korea culture event + KDC on saturday. By the way I'm sorry for my crappy photos because my phone is slowly dying.. first it got reeeally slow, then it had been tilting once in a while and now the camera quality got horrible so I apologize my material in here =_=

I love me beauty fair

So, I went to beauty fair in Helsinki messukeskus on friday with my friend Annina. We met at train station and travelled there together.

When we arrived to messukeskus venue, it was 9.45am and opening of doors was 10am so we were like yesss we are on time. Well our joy was short lived. They had absolutely horrible arrangement of those with pre-booked ticket and those who had to get their tickets from different organizations (like they had won their ticket from competition etc.). So first Annina went to that latter line, she had to get her ticket there. I had already mine but it was pre-booked internet ticket and I slowly looked horrifyingly how my ticket line just grew and grew. In the end I said to Annina that I'm going to queue and I'll wait for her inside. But I got inside in 10 minutes while I had to wait Annina for half an hour! So in the end it took us total 45 minutes to get in! Annina said that the problem with her ticket line was that companies were only delivering tickets when they were already opening the fair so there was alot of problems because of that...

Anyway, we finally got in and started browsing around. We first went through makeup section and honestly, it was more smaller this year than last year. And we didn't get but couple samples.. would have thought that when you pay yourself in to a fair you will get something extra but apparently no. And companies didn't even have any major discounts from their products. Of course there were few companies offering great deals but major of them offered only like -20% discount from store prices so it wasn't that shocking of a deal.

NYX was the only one standing out really well from cosmetic companies. They didn't also have any major discounts but at least they had interesting display. I bought eyeliner from Nyx because I don't have one at the moment and many have been praising their eyeliners so I thought to give it a try.

Also, I don't remember this one company, I think it was finnish though but they made cosmetic products from natural ingredients and their packagings were so pretty! For example they had wooden eyeshadow palette which closed magneticly so it was awesome!

We went cosmetics around pretty fast and wandered towards health food section. Bad idea, there was too many food tastings going on lol. We tasted too much I think xD but I fell in love Twinings tea section which was prettily decorated and customer service was sooo good!

 After tasting some new tea flavors from twinings we stopped to take selfie right next to it where we could print out our selfie :P it was the fair's own kind of booth to print a memory of the fair. One other booth used this kind of machine also which worked that you posted photo to instagram with one specific hashtag, the machine recognized the hashtag and printed photo out~
This is what I printed out:

Then we just wandered around abit more, participated some lotteries and just had fun time.

This was Sokos Hotel presidentti display, very pretty right?

 There was also smaller hall across venue's bigger hall and we decided to go through it quickly because we were getting tired. But there was a fashion show that had just started so we went to watch it. First time in a fashion show, was interesting experience. There were brands like Kookenkä, Kalevala jewellery and vero moda.

So that was my experience in I love me fair. I'd say health side was biggest this year and better than last year but cosmetics side was disappointment.

This is all I got from there, makeup brush and nyx eyeliner I bought as well as real techniques cleaning tool for brushes.

Korean culture event + KDC

On saturday me and my other friend Anniina went to korean culture event in Gloria, Helsinki. Firstly we met at train station, went to eat and then to the event. We got there pretty late and there was really nothing to do. We followed a taekwondo show for awhile though but after it just waited for Kpop dance competition to start. This year competition was tough and all groups were so talented! And this year gloria had arranged a stream for those who couldn't come so it was super nice~

There was couple things though that were not arranged well. Firstly MC, it was so awkward and she tried too hard. Couple my friends watching the stream said the same... it was really hard to watch that. And second thing of negative feedback is that we had to watch Blackpink Whistle+Boombaya 3 times and Sistar's I like that cover 2 times... I'm sure organizers knew what everyone was going to perform so they had time to arrange things differently. It got downright boring to viewers to watch same cover many times. Of course groups performing them were amazing but it got boring just because there were so many...

Anyway, I enjoyed watching covers and I was glad to see there were many girl group dances this year~ And omg one group performed Shinhwa's Venus! I was so surprised, thanks to those girls for choosing Shinhwa! I tried to take photo from them but as I said before my phone camera has gotten so bad especially if there's bright lights. So I'm sorry for this abit crappy material =_=
And I also took video.. happened to be second Boombaya performance.

So this is it for this post :P
Next post is up sometime next week I think. I have some things this week so I'll be a bit busy.
See ya~

Zoo- and amusement park days + announcement

Last week was pretty exciting, I went to visit Korkeasaari zoo and Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki because they had events. I haven't visited Korkeasaari in about 8 years and in Linnanmäki I haven't tried any rides in about 4 years.

So what was going on?

Korkeasaari Zoo event

In tuesday Korkeasaari Zoo held an event that you got in for free. I couldn't let this chance slip since I hadn't visited there in many years. My friend Annina went gladly with me.

We were a bit lost at first since we thought to take waterbus but it had finished for this season so we ended up taking the only option to the zoo aka bus. It was reeeeally full of people but it was short ride so it was ok.

When we arrived we just started to walk towards top of hill (Korkeasaari is actually a hill island), there we encountered peacocks. They could move freely and didn't mind people as long as people didn't chase them.

We popped to visit a cafe and then left to search for big cats area. We found it quickly but most of the cats were sleeping or resting lol. But at least I saw a lion and cute tiger cubs <3

Then we just headed forward passing some animal cages like Reindeers. Korkeasaari also had fun small nature trail representing how trails usually are in finnish forests.

We continued to wander around and saw goats, wild horses and bears. One bear was really cute, it didn't care about anyone and just comfortably sat inside it's cage.
We started to think if it would be time to go home or if we missed something. We looked zoo map and noticed we totally missed tropic animals. So we headed to tropical house where we saw alot of lizards, turtles, frogs and snakes. Also some beautiful parrots~

Then it was already approaching 3.30pm and zoo would close at 4pm so we decided to leave. We had fun day seeing all different kinds of animals.

Linnanmäki light carnival event

At friday me and Annina went to Linnanmäki light carnival which is a yearly event in Linnanmäki amusement park. It was private occasion on friday actually, organized by Nuorisosäätiö. Officially light carnival opened last saturday. The event is open until 22nd October so if you're interested you still have time :) Lights this year were fantastic and amusement park looked wonderful!

There were many people, about 5000 in this private event so we had to queue for popular rides for quite some time. Because of it we didn't have time to try every ride (event lasted from 4pm to 9pm).

But we had so much fun anyways! First ride we headed to was of course Rollercoaster. It's a classic and you cannot miss it!

There was a bit cold but we didn't really notice it while we were in rides because we had so much fun! After rollercoaster we decided to take this kind of haunted house ride. After it we queued for Linnunrata eXtra for quite some time; it was a rollercoaster where you put oculus on and it made it kind of virtual at the same time you were moving with rollercoaster so it was exciting.

After it we toured through some rides before we noticed that time had literally flewn and it was nearing 9pm. We said bye to Linnanmäki and headed home.

So this was basically how my last week was. This week I haven't had much to do except my korean lesson.
Before my korean lesson I met my friend Sirja with whom I discussed about travelling to South-Korea next year. And whoops, suddenly at the evening we had flight tickets to Incheon airport and a hostel booked xD
Ok, we had to lose our temper first because we had problems reserving the hostel and then Sirja had some problems booking her flights so both of us were losing our minds. But in the end we got what we wanted and now I have a trip to Korea booked for 18th february to 4th March :D
We have another friend too who may be coming but she has other things to confirm before it so we'll know about in december if she's coming with us~
Anyway, we'll stay in K-Guesthouse Sinchon 2 in Sinchon area (신촌) which is right between Hongdae and Ewha. Basically center of Seoul.
So that was my announcement :D Look forward to my travel posts next year^^

Other things

Cosmetics

Now that winter is coming, I might as well recommend some handcreams~ Beware that your hands don't go dry and dehydrated which will happen fast when we're still not used to cold temperatures. I have atopy so if I don't use handcream everyday my hands will go dry very quickly and I get dry spots to my hands so I have to be very careful. That's why I have tried so many handcreams to find what I like best. Here's couple I have been using this year (I go through small ones seriously fast, in about 2 weeks).

I have tried alot of handcreams but Nature Republic is my number 1 when it comes to affordably priced handcreams that treats your hands well, moisturizes and softens. They are also in convenient small package which don't take up too much space if you want to carry it in your purse. These are must-have handcreams for a skincare lover! Only minus thing is that they are available only in South-Korea and few other countries so if you want to have Nature Republic handcreams, you will have to go to online store.

In the lower photo is also two Mamonde handcreams; Jasmine cashmere and camellia petal. I have tested about four Mamonde handcreams and only Jasmine cashmere I would buy again, it softens your hands instantly and is only mild scented. Other Mamonde handcreams had really strong scent and my nose wasn't comfortable with that..

Good second place in my favorite handcreams goes to L'Occitane shea butter handcream. I just love shea butter handcreams but this smells soooo good and is gentle to your hands. It's on a pricy side especially since tube is small but I recommend this to everyone who wants to have soft feeling hands instantly. Plus most of the bigger shops in Finland at least carry this so you can just go to store and grab yours without having to go to online and wait for your order for days (though if you're not living in an area where there's L'Occitane available, they have online store).

If you need heavy cream then this is your pick. Biotherm Biomains is thick but very moisturizing. Only thing I didn't quite like about it is that it leaves that sticky feeling to your hands for a long time.

 Innisfree handcreams are too thick for me but someone who has extremely dry hands might like them and they are really affordable too. They are available for example in online stores concentrating on korean cosmetics.

This Nature republic aloe vera handcream was very good but it's light so it's more suitable for summer use. So, it's very lightweight and absorbs fast leaving cooling and soft feeling to your hands. I don't know if this is available in any online stores because I bought this while I was in Korea.

This Clinique even better handcream was very good night handcream! I use two different handcreams for day use and night use. This was on heavy side but it was caring and softening so I put it in the evening and in the morning my hands were soft~ Side note; this has quite heavy scent so if you're not used to heavy smells then I don't recommend buying this.

 This The body shop Vanilla Chai handcream I bought last week, I tried it in body shop store and ended up liking it instantly! It has nice scent and very suitable for especially christmas season :)



That's all for now~ Next post is up after next week propably. I will attend I love me beauty fair in Helsinki next week's friday and in saturday I will go to this one Korean culture event in Gloria.
Thanks for reading, see you soon^^