Korea trip diaries Day 2: Block B concert

Hi again, continuing my korea trip diaries with day 2. I decided to divide this day as it's own post because it's about concert and would be too long if I put it together with next days :P

So at sunday morning I met with Anniina to go to Block B's concert. We went to eat lunch first and then headed to Olympic park where you can access most easiest from line 5 olympic park station. Be careful though because line 5 is parting to two different directions and to olympic park you should take subway to Macheon direction.

We weren't sure of our exit when we arrived but we pretty much figured it out seeing where all teenagers went lol.

As soon as we got out from the station we were greeted by couple sales persons who really wanted to get us buying some fan merchandise. We were like naah, let's just search ticket booth first.
So we looked for ticket booth but then I got distracted lol and was like well, let's just buy small lightsticks and get over with it lol. So we bought really small but convenient, they cost 5000won which is like 3€.

After it we headed to ticket booth.
 We had bought tickets beforehand but for foreigners only option is buying online first and pick up the physical tickets at concert day (I have never seen korean sites using email tickets which are very common in europe). When you arrive to ticket booth, you have to have confirmation email from your purchase printed with your id (basically your passport if you're foreigner).
We were a bit lost at first because there were 3 lines to ticket booth and we didn't even know what time it would open. There is always staff around, some speak little english, some not but we managed to get by speaking in korean. Although many korean fans were also like "ok....what should we do" :,D

Just to be specific: staffs even though they are mostly fans also, they are official. They are usually hired through fancafe's by artist's company and they have staff badges and staff shirts so you will recognize them easily. They are very reliable and they usually know all the info you need. So don't hesitate to ask anything from them. If you don't know korean and they don't know english, they usually search english speaking staff for you~

We figured out the system pretty quickly how every queue went; they had signs announcing where everyone belonged. First was those who wanted to buy tickets from there. Then the line for foreigners and next 3 lines for koreans depending on their last name alphabet.

We got our tickets pretty quickly and then we just spend time in there and took some photos. It was raining a bit so it wasn't that ideal of a weather.
I wanted one eco bag but unfortunately it was sold out. Every concert has a bit different way of selling official merchandise, some has paper forms you have to fill and then you can go to line up, give your form to staff who will give you products according to it. And then some concert like Block B, you just go to booth and tell them what you want.

We at some point were wondering why is everyone running and what are these small queues everywhere. Turns out fans giving away free stuff. We got some stickers and I got one so cool moomin stickers which were made in each Block B members characteristics xD
We met one italian fan in one queue who talked with us a little while. She was admin of Zico fanpage italy. Nice person^^

Oh by the way, we were in seating place so if you have standing ticket your system will be a little different; there is one tent in each of venue doors and you have to look your section and go to the tent according to your section. There, they will give you a bracelet when you present staff your ticket. This is important to know because without bracelet, you are not allowed in even if you have your ticket.

About an hour and half before we got in, we decided to go and buy something to eat. And our time went quickly because soon we were in queue and getting in. When we first got to our section doors and saw the line we were like nope. It was raining and queue was extremely long but I guess this is how efficient it is in korea because too much people always in everywhere; we got in less than 15 minutes. We found our seats easily. What we noticed is that there were alot of foreigners near us xD we were like omg what is this xD
Then a little before concert started me and Anniina were wondering why is everyone suddenly screaming and we noticed some movement like everyone were looking in just one direction at audience. We weren't sure who it was because we were so far but we later read from articles that it was couple of Winner's members. And then just few minutes later we saw some Seventeen members xD they walked really close from our seats and Anniina was like "OMG look!" and I was like yeah yeah because I'm not a fan of them xD

Concert itself was awesome! There was strict rule of no photos and those taking photos were punished. Even when I took photo _before_ concert even started from audience staffs were complaining and shouting that no photos...
Block B started with their newest song 'a few years later' and from there I don't even remember xD I just remember seeing my favorite songs along with 'nillili mambo' and 'conduct zero' which they didn't perform in Helsinki's concert (latter because they didn't even release it then yet).
My favorites were Very good rough version and conduct zero. Just OMG their energy and all! And those fire props, we could feel warm heat even when we were quite far, I just imagine how hot members must have been lol.

At some point one japanese girl in front of me got dragged away by staff because she was taking photos with her cellphone. She came back like 15 minutes later and complained to her friends that she got a warning and had to delete all her photos and next time they would throw her out. (I have studied japanese so I understood what she complained about).

During few last songs audience stood up, we too and we were just jumping around and feeling the music. We were little sad it was over when it was but it lasted about 3 hours lol.
We had fun time and totally would go again if we have a chance! Korean concert are awesome, compared to kpop concerts in europe, korean is 100% better! I know that small stages in europe have their own charms but like experiencing kpop concert in korea is just something I hope everyone will get to see. And I have to say one more thing; fanchants blew my mind. Whole venue was echoing when fans passionately shouted~ We just shouted along what we knew lol xD

As you can see from my few photos, we had pretty good places. We were in row 4 in seating section.

After concert we were soooo exhausted but still decided to briefly visit Myeongdong before going back to our places. All in all, I had fun day!

Next time will be days 3 to 5~ so until then :P

Korea trip diaries: Arriving and first day

Long time no see! I am so sorry for not updating while I was in korea but my crappy tablet crashed all the time and it was difficult to write with it so I decided to write everything afterwards. And thus, named my blog post series as Korea trip diaries :P

I'm posting only now, two days after my trip because first I was so so tired on monday when I arrived back to Finland and yesterday I was having travel sickness symptoms afterwards :/

Travelling to Korea

My luggage was quite heavy when I was departuring from Finland but I had like maaany souvenirs with me. Everything went fine in Helsinki airport and flight was on time. 

Now, I really really dislike long flights mainly because of my travel sickness. I got new medicines so I was half afraid what would happen. But I had to get them since the old ones didn't work for me anymore. I felt fine up until two last hours (where we experienced 20 minutes of turbulence somewhere around china's airspace). And afterwards discovered that one of the medicines actually caused me to feel worse.

When we landed and I got out of the plane and headed towards immigration I was like nope, this is not true. Queue for immigration was looooooooooooooong like seriously! Whenever I have arrived Korea, I've gotten through immigration within 15 minutes. Now I had to wait an hour because there was people from three other flights lining up in there.

Eventually I got through and got my luggage quickly and then I headed straight to airport railroad. This is kind of task if you're a first timer in Korea but basically you first have to notice that you're in wrong floor so look for escalator or elevator to go down. Then just follow the signs. I first had to load my T-money, which is kind of equivalent to finnish "matkakortti." Machine to load my card was located just next to subway gates so no problem in there. (you can also load t-money in most of convenience stores which you can find from airport too). To those of you who are arriving Korea and Seoul for the first time, if you're spending one week only then 35000won is enough for t-money. To those of you who are staying two weeks I advice you to load at least 45000won. That way you don't have to keep looking your card sum everytime you pass through subway gates or bus doors and you don't have to worry loading t-money for awhile. Just a note; I use subway alot so those sums are based on my experience.

I had a very big luggage with me so it was quite an achievement to arrive my destination which was Hyehwa (혜화) in subway line 4 (light blue line). First coming from airport I had to change one time in Seoul station but it was pretty easy because it's a big station with lots of escalators.

I didn't know that exit 1 had escalators so I headed to exit 2 which was the exit I was going to use when heading to my hostel... but like korea's style is, it had veeeery long stairs. So I was struggling with my luggage when suddenly one korean girl just grabs my luggage and helps me carry it to the top. Again, I'm amazed how koreans are so helpful and friendly!

I don't know why some people had complained in hostel reviews that it's hard to find because I found it pretty easily. It was like 7-minute walk away from subway station, Hyehwa look really interesting place with many shops and restaurants. Definetly liked the area! Just to say; even though this was my fourth time in Korea, I have never been in Hyehwa.

To be honest I wasn't that happy with my hostel (Bong House hostel). Anniina recommended it to me so that's why I decided to stay in there but I have been in better hostels with same amount of money. Well, at least location was great and hostel staff nice. I reserved single room which was the size of a shoebox but I didn't spend alot of time in my hostel so it was fine for me. The only thing that really disturbed me was that two out of their three bathrooms didn't have any locks! They told everyone staying in hostel that if door is closed you cannot enter but still one time when I was doing my skincare routine and evening stuff before going to bed an accident happened; I was just changing my clothes when one chinese old lady just rushes to bathroom, didn't care I was in there... just stared at me couple seconds and proceeded to toilet stall... it was soooo awkward and I was definetly not happy with that accident.... for the rest of my stay I happily changed my clothes in my smaller than small room.

First day

So after checking in to my hostel I waited like two hours before my boyfriend sended a message he finally arrived to Seoul and he was waiting me near my hostel. So I met him after being apart a year. Obviously I was happy to see him :P we went to Sinsa to one restaurant my bf had searched that was apparently famous for it's tonkasu (it's basically a pork cutlet dish). But just before arriving travel sickness hit me. I don't know why it hits me afterwards these days >_< but I was sooooo sorry to my bf who bought me a dinner and I couldn't even eat but just a little. I was apologizing to him even in the evening. I seriously felt so bad for him that he travelled to Seoul to meet me and I wasn't feeling very good.

After Sinsa, we headed to Changdeokgung palace which is one of the oldest in Korea. I haven't ever visited there so it was new experience for me~ I just loved the scenery and what is more perfect than seeing it with bf while walking through beautiful alleyways.

After walking there awhile we decided to go to Bukchon hanok village which was in walking distance from Changdeokgung.

We were first kind of lost but found our way eventually. From exiting Changdeokgung, turn right and from first intersection turn right again and start heading up towards the hill. You will find Bukchon there.

This was my first time in Bukchon also (yeah, everybody usually visits there when they come to Korea first time lol) and I enjoyed it. Even though I didn't enjoy climbing up lol. We browsed through alleys and one point stopped to buy smoothies (banana smoothie is yummy). But there even though I was clearly with my bf and he even ordered two smoothies the sales person was like "hello what can I get you" to me... *sigh* But we just enjoyed the day like that, walking through streets and enjoying each other's company. But I advise not to go to Bukchon on weekend, because there was seriously too many people! It was even hard to take photos because people kept passing by in front of camera. At least we got some photos together with my bf :P

You can access to Changdeokgung and Bukchon from subway line 3, Anguk station.

After Bukchon my bf asked if I want to go back to hostel or continue to visit Hangang park. I said I want to continue the day even though my legs were already hurting so bad and I wasn't feeling good. But it was first time I was seeing my bf for a really long time so of course I want to spend more time with him~ in the end I didn't even feel my legs hurt that much :P

So we visited Hangang river park next. Just walked around there and enjoyed the evening. We stayed until they started light show in the bridge and then left. I said my bf goodbye in Chungmuro station and continued to Hyehwa alone. Sorry I don't remember which station we got off to go to Hangang :,D But basically you can access there from like four stations~

I got back to my hostel like 9pm? Can't be sure because I was so out of it lol. Anniina visited my hostel that evening to get her rye bread :P which she asked me to bring to her lol. We had to go to sleep pretty soon because on Sunday we went to Block B concert which I will tell you in my next post~

That's it for this post. I was hesitating if I should include my concert experience in this post but in the end decided that then this post would be overly long so until next time~ (going to post in few days again).

Going to South-Korea!

Just a small update because I've been so busy this week. Finally going to South-Korea today! Going with Finnair's straight flight and arriving to Korea tomorrow morning~

I don't know if I'm updating this blog while I'm in Korea because I'm only taking my tablet with me and it's total pain writing with it. And it crashes often so if I'm writing a long text there is possibility that it will get erased if my tablet crashes =_= so we'll see. But when I come back I'll tell all two weeks how it went :P so be prepared for long posts at least when I come back after 18th of april.