Korea trip diaries: day 6 + day 10

I'm sooooo so sorry that I haven't been updating like in a month... I have been super busy with everything and I've also had some personal issues to take care of so... I'm sorry and I hope you guys understand T.T

But let's get this going and next up is day 6 + day10 from Korea trip diaries~
Just to let you know why I won't tell about the weekend (friday to sunday) is that I was staying in Buyeo in my now ex-boyfriend's house. Yes, ex-boyfriend. That is mainly the reason I haven't been able to update here sorting this all out but let's leave it to that..

DAY 6

Bupyeong and Dongdaemun

In day 6 (thursday) I went to Bupyeong to meet my friend Emilia. She lives in Incheon and I just wanted to visit her and just chat what's up these days. She lives a bit far from Seoul though so we arranged meeting in Bupyeong where is for example underground shopping mall-ish space :D Why I say shopping mall-ish is because it's in underground level and full of small shops selling clothes in affordable prices (there are some cosmetic chain stores also).

If you want to get to Bupyeong from Seoul, take line 1 (blue line) to Incheon direction. It takes approximately 50 minutes from Dongdaemun station.

When I got to Bupyeong I was totally lost lmao. We had agreed to meet at exit 3 with Emilia but I didn't find it anywhere.. I luckily found wifi connection that worked with my cellphone and send message to Emilia and we agreed to a new place. When we met we headed to cafe first because both of us were kind of wanting something cold to drink. I ordered strawberry ade which was pretty good~

We talked for awhile and got hungry so we changed from cafe to restaurant :P We ate pasta and just spend time leisurely talking~ After eating we went to check the underground mall. I found couple shirts with very cheap deal :3 Then it was already evening so I left back to Seoul after saying goodbye to Emilia.

 

After shopping like two hours in Bupyeong and travelling back to hostel over an hour, I was getting quite hungry. I met the russian girl I had talked earlier with and we decided to go to eat together. We went to kind of my regular place to eat (because it's cheap and offers great food). I ordered manduguksu (mandu soup) and it was soooo good.


 After eating ourselves full we just decided to visit dongdaemun square because I hadn't been there yet in this trip even though it was literally the next station from our subway station.

Just a hint: if you want to visit Dongdaemun, visit at evening when all the lights are on. You can also see the beautiful led roses~ If you go daytime, there is big shopping malls right next to each other like for example doota.

To Dongdaemun you can get from two stations: Dongdaemun and Dongdaemun history & culture park stations.  For accessing the park, get off in latter and take exit 14. When you go out from doors head straight and slightly turn to right uphill.
You can also access to shopping malls from that station because it's right next to shopping complex.

We just walked around for awhile and then went inside the plaza complex. There are cafes right opposite side of entrance to plaza museum. Turn right from the doors and you'll see couple restaurants and cafes in there. We saw a smoothie bar Beesket from where I've seen great reviews in different blogs so we decided to try that.

It works that you first choose 3 ingredients for your smoothie yourself from different blocks and then give the blocks to sales person who takes your order. When you pick your order you will get card saying how much proteins etc your smoothie has. So it's kind of interesting concept.

My smoothie was banana-yogurt-cherry. My friend took yogurt-kiwi-strawberry. When we got our smoothies I was thinking that this looks way too dark to be a banana smoothie (but my card was in front of the smoothie), we took them anyway. We were planning to drink them outside while watching the beautiful view... when I tasted my smoothie, it turns out they mixed up our smoothies because I instantly tasted kiwi and my friend tasted banana in hers. But we had already walked out from smoothie bar and were like 300 meters away already so we didn't turn back and complain about it. I have kiwi allergy so my tongue started to go numb and my throat was hurting.. I didn't have any medicine with me but my friend had so as first-aid I took her medicine. So guys, trust your instincts and go complain if you encounter something like this... I was tired so I thought not to go to complain but later I realized it would have been right thing to do because who knows if I would have gotten more serious symptoms later... and I'm still thinking if it would have gotten more serious without the medicine...

After this episode I just wanted to go to hostel and rest. Next day I left to Buyeo and spend whole weekend there. I got back in monday morning.

Day 10

Coex, Express bus terminal, Hongdae

So after being weekend away from Seoul I got back to same hostel but got different room this time. It was little bigger so I was happy it wasn't size of shoebox again :P

After dropping my stuff off I went to grab something small to eat and then decided to go check out express bus terminal underground shopping area. When I was in subway I thought that coex is pretty close so why not visit there.

For Coex take line 2 (green line) and get off at samseong station exit 6. For express bus terminal take line 3 (orange line) or line 7 (dark green) and get off at express bus terminal station exit 8. You will arrive in middle of the shopping underground hallways from exit 8. To right and left hallways goes pretty long so if you plan to go all it through reserve at least 2 hours.

 So I stopped to go to coex; I visited couple shops like Åland (which is funny name because Åland is Ahvenanmaa in swedish which is self-government island in Finland). Funny how everyone keeps saying the name like "A-land" when right pronounciation is more like "Oo-land".

I also visited smtown complex which is in coex. You will see it right when you get off from subway station. I went to smtown shop first but I didn't find anything because I'm not sm artist's fan that much so I didn't want to spend my money on fan merchandises (which were pretty expensive if I may say..) Then I went to sm cafe where was also a little sum market (food shop). Everything was so pretty darn expensive but I got SHINee labeled sparkling water and Girls Generation labeled snack. Then I also ordered f(x) labeled ade from the cafe and you got to keep bottle that comes with the ade drink (ade cost something like 6300won).

By the way in each floors there are different displays of sm artists stuff like awards, clothes etc. And sm cafe has tables where the artists have signed their autographs.

After spending some time in sm cafe I headed to express bus terminal shopping area. Now, I'm used to Seoul underground areas being a little confusing but this wins by far. Every sign were pointing you to different direction and in the end I was like wait wut is exit 8 now this way or is the shopping area really that way. I somehow ended up in right place but it took me awhile lol...

Then it started to get late after an hour of browsing the shops in there and I had to leave because I had to drop my stuff to my hostel before going to Hongdae to see my friend Yeji.

I met Yeji like 7pm-ish and we had so much fun just talking and eating (lol). Yeji is a friend I met in one daum cafe (daum is a korean portal site for news and other stuff like forums and different artists forums are called cafes). I usually talk in korean with her while messaging but I'm really slow talking korean face to face so after awhile we naturally changed to english when I was trying to talk in korean first. Seriously, my brains just go blank with words, even easy words when I try talking in korean... seriously wtf brain.

Anyway, we first ate kind of kimchijjigae and then went for desserts in one famous cafe (I forgot the name but it's in Hongdae's main street on right side right at the end if coming from subway exit 9 direction. Near top10 shop and the parking lot in center of main street).
There was this traditional green tea bingsu and traditional korean tea. So good!!! And Yeji offered me this whole dinner and dessert so I was like OMG thank you xD I ate deliciously :P

Then we visited couple stores before saying goodbyes. We were like we had known each other for years, at least it felt like it. I miss my friend already and I hope to see her next year again (yup, I'm planning a new trip for next year already xD ).



Next up: day 11 when I went to Everland~

Korea trip diaries: day 5

Myeongdong & Jogyesa

 

I didn't have anything planned for wednesday so I decided to go to Myeongdong. I have mentioned Myeongdong in my previous posts but I haven't told anything specific about it.

So Myeongdong is a big shopping area that mainly tourists use. It can get a bit pricey in there compared to other areas and same shop brands but at least you can find all from one place. There are two so called main streets and then lots of little streets parting from them.
Main station to arrive Myeongdong is line 4 (light blue line) exit 6. You will arrive straight to the main street. Other way is to take line 2 (green line) and get off at euljiro-1-ga, exit 6 and walk towards lotte mall and lotte young plaza. You will arrive to the other main street.

When I arrived Myeongdong, even though it was something like 9am almost all shops were closed! I was so surprised because I'm used that in korea you can get pretty much whatever you want 24/7. Most shops had signs "open at 10.30". So in the meantime I just walked through the streets. When shops opened I first headed to lotte mall because on basement floor they have food court and I needed to buy osulloc tea and one ginseng product. Just a note that if you're a tea lover, osulloc tea is heaven for you :D even though I don't enjoy tea normally, I love osulloc's tea products! They can be a bit pricey but they are very good quality. They have their own shops at least in myeongdong and insadong where they also have a cafe you can order their various teas and taste them :)

So after purchasing what I needed I started just walking through myeongdong main street and just browsing in different shops.

 Left one is from big street right next to lotte mall. Right photo is from myeongdong's main street where there is lots of cute cosmetic shops that place products outside to advertise. Korea has low rates in stealing so shops can leave products outside just like that.

 In right photo, I found it funny when I spotted finnish design! Muurla collaborated with one of the most popular brands in korea called Line (which is originally a chatting app for phones)

Local H&M store, small take from their window

In this shopping round, I ended up buying Moomin mascara (yes, moomin xD It was cute) and Line notebook for myself. Then I left to my hostel to drop off stuff I bought and decided to visit Gwanghwamun and Jogyesa temple.

I have talked about Gwanghwamun before but you can access there from various stations. I like to use line 5 Gwanghwamun station, exit 8.

When I arrived I first went to the square and took couple of necessary tourist photos xD Then I headed to Kyobo book store and just browsed in there. I was getting very tired and decided to leave. I was in subway station when I first saw bandi&luni (book store) and I was like well why not. I walked in there a little and then saw a small cd shop that was having a sale. I didn't find anything that interested me but then I spotted Descendants of the sun OST and I had to get it. DotS was a very popular drama still airing when I was in Korea and it's OST was mostly sold out everywhere. But I finally got it so I was happy~ And sales persons were very nice so I recommend going to bandi&luni. You can find it in Jonggak subway station.

When I left the bookshop, I noticed signs to Jogyesa and I was like oh well, let's check that out finally. I was soooo tired but because it was close I decided to visit it and didn't regret a bit! I have only passed it by previously but never actually went inside Jogyesa. It's very beautiful temple right in center of Seoul. It's placing literally between gwanghwamun square and insadong.

After Jogyesa I went to my hostel but I was starting to get reeeally hungry. Anniina didn't have any plans for evening so I asked her to go out to eat with me. We went to eat samgyeopsal which is one of my favorite korean foods! It was so yummy~ If you're ever in korea, you have to try it! Only thing is that you can't eat it alone, you have to have at least one more person with you. Because all samgyeopsal restaurant portions are at least for two persons. Price was about 12000won per person so about 9€.

After eating ourselves pretty full, we decided to just walk in hyehwa's streets. But after awhile we went to eat dessert to paris baguette cafe xD But OMG every dessert in korean cafes look so good I can't even :D I wish in finland they would make an effort more in cafes for cakes to look like that. And what's more, the dessert we got cost only about 3€!

After eating our desserts we visited grocery store and then said goodbyes. I went to sleep pretty soon after. I had tiring but wonderful day~

That's all for this post (or this would be extra long if I would write about day 6 :P ). I will post soon again. Promise~

Korea trip diaries: day 3 and 4

Sorry I have been keeping quiet but I had some personal issues and then last weekend was a national holiday. But now I'm back :)

Day 3, on monday in the morning I had some time before meeting my friend so I went for a walk. I woke up soooo early for some reason and had nothing to do for two hours. But I had nice walk around sungkyunkwan university area which was basically next to my hostel.

Tong-in market and Insadong

So about 1pm, I met with my friend Hyojoo who was in same volunteer work place as me when I did volunteer work in Korea.

We met at Gyeongbokkung station and continued to tong-in market from there. It was so nice to see her after a year :)

Tong-in market is basically a food market where you can find traditional street food. You can access there from line 3 (orange line), gyeongbokkung station, exit 2. It's about 500 meters from exit 2 on the left side.

We first walked it through and just browsed what was in there. We were supposed to go to the restaurant where you buy kind of fake coins and then with those coins fill in your "lunchbox" with different kinds of food. But sadly it was closed.
So we ended up buying tteokbokki (떡볶이), tong-in market specialty small kimpab (김밥) and mandu (만두). And I got sikhye as a drink which is a korean traditional rice beverage (it has real rice in it).
Then we looked a small spot in one shed which was full of mainly older people spending the day and eating picnic food. We just stuffed ourselves in there and spend a little picnic ourselves :P
Just a warning, if you don't like spicy food, don't try tteokbokki. It's very spicy rice cakes but for me it tastes so good! Because I like spicy food :P

Our food :P

After eating all I asked if we could visit Insadong which is really famous tourist street for getting all the korean traditional things and souvenirs. I needed to buy my mom a picture which she asked (because my mom loves the korean mother-of-pearl art).

We decided to walk from the market to Insadong which takes about 20 minutes. It's not that far~

We walked next to Gyeongbokkung palace and partly through gwanghwamun. So If you're looking for nice day with sightseeing and lots of traditional korean culture, I recommend route tongin market-gyeongbokkung-gwanghwamun-insadong because they're so close to each other.

 Above is Gyeongbokkung and on it's right side gwanghwamun square. Literally, if you're walking you'll be seeing this as your left and right view :D

We found the picture pretty fast to my mom although first we had little miscommunication problems about what I was looking for but eventually all good~

Then we found Sulbing cafe which I had read great reviews before and wanted to try! Hyojoo had visited Sulbing before so she recommended me Mango bingsu. Sulbing is mainly concentrated on bingsu's which is traditional dessert in korea. It's made of shaved ice and usually comes with icecream topping. You have milk in side of the bowl and you can pour it over as you like. But it tastes definetly better with that milk :P

We ordered injeolmi toast and mango bingsu.

After eating ourselves full from delicious bingsu, we said goodbyes and planned that we have to see next week also.
After parting with Hyojoo I thought that evening is still young and I had some more shopping to do so I quickly stopped at myeongdong to buy some cosmetics what my friends had ordered.

It was a bit crowded even though it was weekday. But this is pretty normal because Myeongdong is popular shopping street. I recommend if you do shopping, go at daytime. Not too early though because I noticed most of shops open at 10.30am or so at most days.

Ewha and Hongdae

On tuesday it was so sunny and I was glad that weather had been nice whole time I had been in korea. I met Anniina at the morning and we headed to Ewha which is famous and popular university area (Ewha womans university).

You can access there by line2 (green line), ewha womans university (idae) station. I don't remember which exit but there are clear signs to pointing which way :P

We just walked through streets, enjoying view. And visited outside the famous idae (korean name for ewha university) library.

Then we were feeling pretty hungry and we went to eat chicken in one restaurant Anniina liked so much. I have to say it's propably best chicken I've had in a while :D And dem chips omg so delicious! And in that restaurant, if you have your passport with you they give -10% discount for foreigners.
It's a little hard to explain where it is located but when you're at main street which is going down towards idae, when you notice corner ice cream shop Baskin&Robbins in your left side, turn left to that side street. It's right on the left corner so basically opposite on Baskin&Robbins. Chicken restaurant is on basement level so there's stairs going down. It can look a bit shady but trust me, it's an excellent place for either lunch or dinner.

We were pretty full but decided to first go around smaller streets and then get back to main street and go get ice creams from baskin&robbins. I have to say they make delicious ice cream, and it's quite cheap. My serving cost 4500won which is about 3€?

Then just before we left I bought a bag for myself :P I recommend idae if you want cheap but very good looking bags. In the main street there was one bag seller from where I bought my bag and it was only 10,000won (about 7€).

We said goodbyes at idae station and I headed to Hongdae next where I met with Laura.
To Hongdae, you can access also from line2 at Hongik university station. It's like couple stations away from idae.

We met in front of exit9 with Laura. We decided to visit Thanks nature cafe which is basically a sheep cafe :D They have sheeps inside fence outside cafe. Animal cafes are pretty common in korea but sheeps are rare actually. They were so adorable and fluffy! And I totally liked their ade drinks and waffel!

It's a little difficult to explain location but I'll try; when you come from exit9 and see etude house in one corner, walk towards there. Pass etude house and turn right from next intersection. Walk straight until big H&M is on your right. Turn left from there. It's on that street. Just walk straight and it's on your left side. It's also on basement level so you have to go downstairs.
It's definetly a cafe worth visiting for. And pay attention to this: you can visit the sheeps only after ordering!

After petting sheeps and saying goodbye to them, we walked around Hongdae. I finally got myself converse shoes which I had been wanting about two years lol. They cost about 45000won so about 43€.

Then after awhile we sayed goodbyes and I left back to my hostel.

So that's that this time :) I will post next korea diaries propably on weekend~