5th Korea trip stories part 4

Hello everyone! I've been super busy with school, I still have some exams coming up and assignments to do but decided to write this post anyway because it's a bit overdue.

Day 6

Olympic park

We started our morning by going to eat some breakfast to a cafe sometime around 11am. Then we headed up straight to Olympic park where 2PM 6Nights concert was held in SK olympic handball gymnasium. 2PM is one of the first Korean artists we both knew and coincidentally they had a concert in Korea at the same time we were there. So of course we had to get tickets. But don't even get me started about buying tickets because it was a total hassle.. Korean internet servers are much faster than Finland's so it's pure luck if you have a chance to grab tickets at all. We got them and our seating was waaaaay back from the stage but we were happy we could attend.

We arrived early because previously I have attended B1A4 and Block B concerts in the same venue area and in my experience it was really crowded in midday already. But when we arrived there were only few fans going around.

What you should know about korean concerts (if you ever attend) is that being a foreigner, your only option is to buy ticket online (from yes24 or interpark) and receive confirmation email. And with that confirmation email, you can get your physical ticket. But they require you to have your id with you. If your friend bought your ticket, you have to have your friend's id copy with you. ID always has to match the name in the ticket, koreans are very strict with that.

Anyway, we went around the area because ticket counters opened only 2 hours before they let us in to the venue (concert started 5pm). I haven't really gotten a chance to tour Olympic park before so it was nice, walking around it and seeing a famous Olympics monument also. The area hosted summer Olympics in 1988. It's nice area to explore and easy to get to, just take subway to "Olympic park station". There are few restaurants and cafes but the restaurants are pretty expensive. We had a coffee break in one of the cafes and then later had our dinner in one korean restaurant (it looked too fancy to be honest but it was the only option for us because the others were more expensive).

After walking around and eating dinner we just waited ticket counters to open. We had to line up to a tent where there were tables as "counters" and they had staff who checked our confirmations and gave us our tickets. It was efficient and we didn't have to queue long.

Then we waited some more time before going to queue in front of the doors. Opening of the doors was delayed by 45 minutes and we were suffering a bit because it was starting to get really cold outside. They let standing areas in first and that was taking more time than expected so that's why they were delayed. But when they finally opened the doors everything went smoothly, there were some pushing but not much. When people got in they were pretty calm at least in our side because all of us had numbered seats.

When we first saw our seats our faces propably said like "seriously". Because where our seating was it was reeeeally steep! I was afraid of falling down.. it was almost like 85 degree angle.. But we got to our seats safely and in every seat there was a banner placed which said something like "raise this up during this song". Koreans like to do this kind of events, I have done this kind of banner event before and it's fun and results are beautiful.

The stage setting was awesome, behind the screen you see in the photo was the actual stage. Unfortunately like almost in all concerts in Korea, photos weren't allowed. But I had awesome time just having fun and partying. Although I think the british gentleman in his 60's sitting next to me had more fun than me xD he was partying like crazy, his wife was into this concert too. I think their child was somewhere in the standing area. But it was funny when 2PM members came close by they noticed us because of this gentleman next to me and they were laughing at him but he had fun :D Junho and Chansung waved at us also when they went by~
We also saw GOT7 because they were in vip section close to us and 2PM members pointed them out at one point and thanked them for coming to their concert.

We had to leave during encore so we wouldn't miss last subway to our part of town (Sinchon). But it was truly a fun and awesome concert. We were so tired when we got to our hostel that we went straight to bed.

Day 7

Next day I didn't do much. Sirja went to meet some friend so I was alone whole day, just touring around Express bus terminal and Hongdae. By the way, express bus terminal in Gangnam connects also to a shopping center Shinsegae which is huge! There are lots of high end brands but you can find a little bit affordable stores also and lots of cafes and restaurants. There's also that Doredore cafe near bus stops inside terminal building, which is known from their rainbow cake.

Anyway, here's just some random food photos from the day :D

Bibimbap

Desserts are always delicious :P

Until next time!
Next up day 8 and 9~

 

Nordic travel fair

I have been unexpectedly busy these weeks... but I actually did write last week and almost finished my post but my internet connection went off and my text disappeared mysteriously. It didn't even autosave =_= I was so annoyed that day that I didn't start writing my post again hence this got delayed alot.

Anyway, as you know I visited Matka2017 (Nordic travel fair) on friday(20th) and saturday(21st) with my friends (on friday with Anniina and on saturday with Annina :P ).

On friday we headed up first straight to South-Korea's booth and in there picked up couple brochures and talked to one presenter a bit. She was friendly and got some travel tips too~
Then we just went around to see what everyone had to offer.

I actually honestly don't remember much that left really amazing impression because I felt the fair was much more smaller than last year. And last year was smaller than year before... so I feel like rather than evolving and becoming bigger this travel fair is getting smaller every year <_<

Well anyway, I went on saturday again with my friend even if I felt like I went through most of sections on friday and didn't really find but couple interesting things. Surprisingly on saturday I talked with lot more presenters and found more stuff to bring home than on friday. Strange huh? Maybe most memorable thing was that I won a gift card to furnishing store and actually got to choose one piece of furniture! Like I never win anything and now I won a big prize xD But I gifted my prize to my grandmom, I got to choose only specific things which I didn't really need and thought my grandmom would need it. So I send photos to my grandmom and she loved the furniture and next time she visits our home she picks it up~

But let's continue~ So I got more out of saturday than friday. Still, my mom's one sentence what she said to me can summarize my travel fair experience all up: "is that all?". She said that to me when I came home on friday. I had only small bag with couple brochures when couple previous years I arrived home with big heavy bag full of stuff.

So a message to organizers: try and make it more bigger again next year, return to golden age of travel fairs~ Please? :D Also, again this year I would have hoped Great Britain would be there which hasn't been there for couple years now and couple other countries like Germany and Ireland would have been great. I know Ireland had like golf tourism booth in there but I would have actually liked Ireland's booth as a country, not some specific area of tourism.
Also from Asia section I hoped to see Singapore (was disappointed again). And I would like to see New Zealand someday, it's one of my dream destinations but I haven't seen it represented in our travel fair.

All in all, I was a bit disappointed again this year like last year. I had fun with my friends but my afterfeels is that I ask myself what I got out from it and can't answer.

Here's couple photos:

I can't promise when next post is up because I'll be super busy meeting with friends this and next week and preparing my trip to Korea. I'll may be posting after my trip next time. (I'll be in Korea from 18th feb to 4th march). I'll hope everything is going to be ok because there has been a strike warning for some airport staff so it means flights might be cancelled or delayed. Currently the warning has been given only to specific airlines (lucky Finnair isn't among them) but security check might be badly crowded as some staff will be away because of the strike...
So wish me and my friend luck and that we get to Korea on time~

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^^