Because this is my second time in Seoul, Korea, I will not go into much details on the places I went. Instead I will just share about where I went during "Day 11 to 21" in summary.
Day 11-21
Myeongdong
A favourite spot for tourists when they come to Korea. To be honest, I thought I would buy a lot at Myeongdong because that is where you can find most, if not all cosmetics brand in Korea. However, I did not buy anything there as the discounts there are not so appealing as to other places.
We had our dinner at "Myeongdong Kyoja" based on my friend's recommendation. They only served Korean dumplings, bibim-guksu, kalguksu, and gongguksu, so orders were done quickly. The food there was above my expectations, or maybe because it felt good to have hot food on a cool weather.
SM Coex Artium - Apgujeong rodeo street (grill5taco)
A place to go if you are a KPOP fan and a SM stan! It is actually located next to Coex station, so you do not need to worry if you're lost. My friends were very hyped up when they saw EXO cartoon figurines outside the building and standees inside the store. Be careful that you may overspend there when you see your favourite idols' name on the merchandises!
My friend led us the way to Grill5taco for our dinner. It is actually opened by Super Junior member, Donghae! To a person who don't like cheese, like me, I can accept the food there. The only sad part is that the food is not filling for us. > <
Nami Island and Petite France
Nami Island and Petite France is actually located at Gapyeong, outside of Seoul. Because we did not buy ITX tickets beforehand, it took us slightly more than 1 hour to get there.
There are actually 3 tourist attractions at Gapyeong: Nami Island, Petite France, and Garden of Morning Calm. If you actually plan your day well, you can even go up to all 3 places.
As I have always wanted to try zip-line, I decided to splurge 38,000 won to enjoy the zip-line experience to Nami Island although I was left with not much money for the remaining trip. I think that the part when you are going up to the platform was much more nerve-wrecking than the part when you actually zip-line, because tension was built in a small area without your friends along. It was really once-in-a-lifetime experience and I totally enjoyed the moment!
Nami Island is really pretty in Spring, and I think it will be prettier in Autumn. Unfortunately, there were even more tourists than I expected, so the excitement went down a little. We still enjoyed Nami Island a lot and took a lot of artistic and crazy photos. It was indeed a beautiful place to go to, despite the tourists.
I was more disappointed when I went to Petite France. For all this while, I have imagined Petite France to be much more larger and grand in terms of scale when I watched "Running Man" or some other programs. In the end, besides the colourful architectures, there were not much things to see. I would want to go to the Garden of Morning Calm the next time if I ever come back again.
On a side note, we had a thrilling bus ride back to Gapyeong station from Petite France. My friends and I got motion sickness and needed to rest at the bench before heading to take the subway.
LINE Friends Store & Cafe (Sinsadong) - Ehwa Women's University
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| Super cute! They bought my heart away and you just can't keep squealing at their merchandises. I think this was one of the place that we just became children, wanting to buy all the merchandises home! |
Express Bus Terminal Station
We managed to get a lot of cheap clothes there, ranging from 5000 won onwards. It is a super long stretch of clothing stalls that encouraged you to buy clothes straight away when you see your favourite piece. Why? Because you will not remember which stall you passed by after walking all the way to the end.
Stylenanda (Hongdae) - Sinchon, Hongdae
I can't really the events well on this day because we only left the apartment in the evening to Stylenanda and had dinner along the roads of Sinchon or Hongdae. (The forgetfulness when you have passed by these places at least thrice throughout the trip)
Everland
We experienced T-express ride, Safari bus ride, and the Hurricane ride. A little pity that one of my friend could not ride with us due to her fear of heights. And because we had time constraint, we did not get to play more rides and I felt sorry for another friend, who enjoyed more exciting rides. When we left, it was pouring heavily that we were drenched from the head to the bottom, freezing as hell.
The most enjoyable meal got to be ordering jjajjangmyeon, jjamppong, tangsuyuk and mandu from our apartment! Nothing beats warm food on a rainy night, only that we had ordered too much!
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| When we entered |
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| & When we left |
Bukchon Hanok Village - Namsan Tower - Dongdaemun Plaza
Kudos to Korea, trying its best to preserve historical architectures. We need to keep quiet when walking along the village as there are still people who live inside. It was such a beautiful sight!
We also managed to try the famous Ginseng Chicken soup there :)
Not forgetting Namsan Pork Cutlet (which comes with rice instead of Fries; and the portion is really huge!!!) We sat there all the way till sunset before heading to Dongdaemun Plaza.
The LED Rose Garden is really gorgeous at night and if there is a chance to go there during the day, it would be a good place to take OOTDs. *ideas, ideas*
Direction:
Bukchon Hanok Village - Anguk Station line 3 exit 2 and go
straight for about 300m
DDP - Dongdaemun history and culture park
station exit 1
Hongdae noraebang - Common ground (Konkuk univ station exit 6) - Ehwa
Because the rate before 12 noon is way, way cheaper, we went to a nearby noraebang to sing. Not only there is free flow of drinks, we also got free extended singing time. The only downside is that the rooms are not really sound-proof, so it can be kinda embarrassing to sing with bad vocals. When we left the place, it's time for our lunch and we headed to Yoogane. Yoogane in Korea is definitely more than half price of what we get in Singapore!!!
We then headed to the new and instagram-worthy Common Ground to take photos! It definitely strikes a contrast to the surrounding buildings but the clothes there were slightly expensive than what we can get at price-friendly Ehwa and Express Bus Terminal.
Direction:
Common ground - Konkuk univ station exit 6
Gwanghwamun - Cheongyecheon stream - Samcheongdong - Lotte Mart
My solo day!
It was quite interesting on that day. My friend wanted to sleep all the way till the afternoon at the apartment by herself during our solo day, but she got woke up by me because the glass on the window was separated from the frame. It was still a nightmare to me till now!!!
To be honest, I wanted to make use of my solo day to write Thank-you letters to my friends. However, my schedule got disrupted but some unplanned events so it was a little regret. :(
I first headed to Kyobo book store to get my favourite VIXX album and left there quite fast because the book selections there were mostly in Korean. Afterwhich, I went to the Gwanghwamun area to take photos of Sejeong-king statue and found a museum behind his statue. Thank goodness that there was no entrance fee and I got to enjoy the unplanned visit to these exhibitions.
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When I was finding the way to Cheongyecheon stream, I passed by Deoksugung Palace and got so tempted to buy the entrance ticket in. However, I hesitated because there will be no one who shared the joy with me, and partially because there were so many mid-schoolers/ high-schoolers there for field trip. Please do not be tricked by the word "stream" hahahaha because it is 10km long and I only walked 1/5 before I decided to leave for my next destination - Samcheongdong.
Based on my little research that I did the previous night, I was supposed to head back to Gyeongbokgung Palace and walked to Samcheongdong. The stubborn me did not want to take a detour, so I continued to walk along the streets, passing by places that are less visited by tourists. It was definitely a new experience to me because there is a high possibility that I would be lost but thanks to my internal GPS and the policemen, I managed to reach there after half an hour. The only time that I hoped to stay in Korea was my love towards the architectures of the cafes there. I had my dinner there alone at Miss-Lee Cafe (the place where Goguma Couple WGM visited) because I was craving for the old school doshirak. My friend was envious and complained why I did not bring her along.
The three of us finally met at night when it was time for us to go food shopping at Lotte Mart. However, I think it would be better to shop at e-mart or local supermarkets if you want to avoid a whole bunch of tourists, because I don't like the atmosphere there and there is a feeling that Lotte Mart is not any cheaper. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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| This is the nightmare!!! |
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| MY VIXX! |
Direction:
Kyobo book store - Gwanghwamun station line 5 exit 2
Samcheongdong - Anguk station line 3 exit 1
(Note: if you want to include Insadong in your trip as well, you can plan these 2 places together as they are next to each other)
Lotte Mart - Seoul Station
Yeouido Hangang Park
Our last official day in Korea was spent at Yeouido Hangang Park and apparently, exiting at Yeouido station or at Yeouido-nara station will bring you at different places of Hangang Park. That shows how big Hangang (Park) is.
My wish was to have a picnic at Hangang Park and trying out their ramyeon (cooked on a stove instead of the usual cup ramyeon).
We did not get any picnic mat before we head to Hangang Park and that day's weather was too cloudy for a picnic. Hence, we bought food at the convenience store and had our picnic at the seats outside the mart instead of sitting on the ground. It was until four months later when I watched Eric Nam-Solar Couple WGM that I realised that we can actually buy picnic mat at the mart. I felt so stupid about that. > <
There were a few memorable incidents there as well, such as an underage girl approached us to buy cigarettes for her (we rejected, of course) and tourists from HK asked us for directions.
As we walked along Hangang Park and back to the subway station, we realised that the famous 63 building was also located at Yeouido. Next to it was a high-end departmental store with groups and groups of loaded Chinese tourists.
Our last dinner in Korea was at a BBQ restaurant at Sinchon, which specialized in 8-flavored pork belly. Thanks to my friend's recommendation, we got to enjoy cheap and delicious pork belly.
Direction:
8 coloured pork belly - Walk straight after exiting from Sinchon station exit 6 and the restaurant is in the basement of the Kia Motors building
