5th Korea trip stories part 2

Day 2

Sinchon + Hongdae

First night was kind of hard because we were really tired from previous day but on basement level in the same building that our hostel was, was noraebang aka karaoke bar and we could clearly hear the noise from over there.. well, they stopped around 1am but still, it was pretty annoying (korean buildings have really thin walls..)

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.

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).

From this spot if you turn right Kyobo building would be about right in front of you

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.

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

Somewhere around Coex

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!

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.

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 :)