Seoul Archives | Page 8 of 8

Day Two in Seoul (Part 1)

May 3, 2012

Yes, I am also amazed at my blogging speed. It often takes me a week or more to update but look at me go. Ha!

Our second day in Seoul is probably my favorite. The weather was perfect! I wish everyday we spent in Seoul was like that. I wish the weather in the Philippines was like that. I’m tired of waking up every morning drowning in sweat. Haha. But we can’t always get what we want, eh?

Despite our hopes of starting the day early, we still left the hostel at around 10AM. Quite late, I know. We headed first to Bukchon Hanok Village which was only a block away from Insadong. Instead of walking, we rode the taxi since we learned that it wasn’t that expensive anyway. Heh. And besides, we were running quite late. It would take us 20-30 minutes if we’d walk.

We had quite some troubles communicating with the taxi driver, though. He couldn’t read English so he couldn’t understand what was written on the map. We also probably couldn’t pronounce Bukchon right because he couldn’t understand us. Heh. But he did understand Insadong so he dropped us there.

Good thing tourist information centers are abundant in Seoul! There’s one in almost every tourist destination. They gave us a map around the village and learned that there are actually 8 viewing spots in Bukchon. But since we were running quite late, we decided to only go to 3 spots!

View #1 is Changdeokgung Palace, the one we passed by yesterday! It’s just amazing how you can be right in the middle of the city, then this kind of view would surprise you. It’s a welcoming site, and I sure hope that the people who see this everyday appreciate it. It’s a nice remember of your identity, of where you came from and where you can possibly go.

After View #1, we decided to skip #2 (Ha!) and went to the Bukchon Cultural Center. It’s not exactly part of the 8 views but it’s on our way so why not. And we indeed made the right decision of visiting the center.

There’s a little museum where you can learn more about Bukchon. Hanok is what you call the traditional houses thus, Bukchon Hanok Village. There are about 1,000 hanok houses in the area and only 33 are owned by the government. But still, it’s nice to know that the government even help the house owners in preserving the hanok houses. This just shows how the government are hands on when it comes to taking care of their culture. It’s amazing that you can really see all their efforts pay off.

Visiting the hanok village is actually one of the best parts of the trip. In my opinion anyway.

What I love about Seoul #19342: The brochures are amazing. By that time, we’ve already noticed how they seem to give so much importance to art everywhere! Be it architecture, design or landscaping, you can see how they give importance to art. It’s everywhere! It’s in every street corner, in every wall and store windows. It didn’t came as a surprise to see brochures looking like a work of art. We made sure to take tons of brochures everywhere we go. It’s free anyway. Heh.

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Day One in Seoul (Part 2)

May 1, 2012

Hello! This is the second part of the first day of my 5-day trip. Try saying that five times really, really fast.

I’ll start with where I leave off in my story-telling. After our short and quite tiring trip to Changgyeonggung Palace, we went back near our hostel and scouted for a good place to eat. Surprisingly, our walk back Sungkyungkwan area seemed shorter. We’re either really hungry that we decided to walk fast or we’re just a bit more familiar with the place.

My mother said she couldn’t eat too much and bought donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. There are tons, LIKE TONS, of Dunkin Donuts in Seoul and the one near our place is three stories high. I guess it’s really popular in Korea? But nothing can beat Starbucks where the line extend to the streets! There sure are a lot of coffee shops in Korea. There’s one in almost every corner.

For our first meal, we chose this one dining place where we can grill beef and pork. Yep, our first meal’s samgyeopsal, and we were surprised that we spent more in the Philippines when we ate samgyeopsal. Maybe because we’re in Korea, or maybe because we’re really hungry, that’s why I enjoyed our samgyeopsal meal in Seoul by greater lengths. It was so good! We also ordered rice and were surprised that the rice looked different.

When you come to Korea, make sure to try their rice! I don’t know what rice it is but it’s so good! And for some reason, their service water was amazingly good, too. (Yes, you can go ahead and count the number of times I’ve said ‘good.’) Even before we ordered, they were already delivering side dishes! So when you eat in Korea and you don’t eat that much, make sure not to order too much because they’ll give you heaps of side dishes anyway.

After lunch, mommy and ate went back to the dorm while my father I looked for international calling cards. Roaming isn’t available in Korea (Hindi rin uso ang SIM card!), and my parents need to check on their business everyday. We passed so many convenience stores before we came across one Family Mart that sells the precious cards. We walked quite far but it’s okay! I got some time to explore the stores near Hyewa Station! [Read more…]

Day One in Seoul: Changgyeonggung Palace

April 29, 2012

How do I even start to write about the trip that I’d been dreaming of since I was 13? I’ve been thinking how I could properly record this memory and I couldn’t come up with the best plan. There’s just too many things to say about everything that happened during our 5-day trip to Korea. One thing I know for sure is that it’s definitely the best trip of my life. I want to cry just by thinking about it and I’m not even exaggerating. Heh.

It’s no secret that I love Korea. The amount of ‘congratulations’ and ‘I’m so happy for you’ I received the past week can attest to that. Heh. I guess I’m not so quiet about my Korya trip. How could I? How could I possibly contain my excitement?!?

I actually thought we wouldn’t push through with this trip. A week before our trip, we still didn’t have our tourist Visa and a day before the trip, we still didn’t have a place to stay in. We also had some problems with money matters, and we figured that this trip wouldn’t exactly be cheap. I didn’t even finish packing before going to Makati that week because I already believed that this trip was no more. I didn’t want to expect too much. But my parents agreed to go through with it and I almost cried! /sigh

Our flight was scheduled on 1:20 AM, April 19, 2012. I filed for a three-day leave since we’d be staying for 5 days. Good thing we have relatives who volunteered to take us to the airport! Whoosh. We arrived at around 10PM and gave us enough time to check in and eat dinner. We also didn’t have to wait long, and I hate waiting especially when I’m so excited. Hee.

It was also the first time my sister and I wore boots! We’re not exactly fashion forward, and dressing up in the Philippines is just too bothersome. However, we’ve heard A LOT of things about the fashion in Korea and we watch tons of Kdramas, anyway, to know that we should really dress up a little. Also, it was probably the only place we could ever wear boots! Let’s abuse that opportunity, shall we? (I’ll never understand people who wear boots here. Unless it’s raining. Or cold.) My boots are kind of childish, though. But hey, I got it on sale so I don’t care.

We waited for less than an hour before we could finally board the plane. Surprise! I saw a grade school classmate who probably no longer knows me. I kept staring at her because ~~she’s pretty~~ I’m waiting for her to recognize. But she gave no sigh of recognition. Oh well.

I tried so hard to sleep in the plane since we’d be landing at around 6AM, leaving no time for us to sleep at all. I do not want to spend too much time resting once we arrive. We only had five days and I want to make the most out of it! But I couldn’t sleep at all. I only had about 2 hours of sleep, and I convinced myself that I could function well without decent sleep. And I did. Ha! I was drunk on fangirl spirit.

We arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, or maybe I got the time confused since South Korea’s an hour ahead. It didn’t really sink in that easily. I had a hard time convincing myself that I’m in Korea. Home of KPOP and oppas and saranghe. Or maybe because I was still in the airport and besides the signs written in Korean and the staff all Koreans, I could probably still be in the Philippines.

I only fully absorbed (??) that I was in Korea when we stepped outside the airport. I had never felt so cold in my life. I think it was 6 degrees outside. And I though Spring wouldn’t be so cold! It was the coldest I had ever experienced. I love it.

We didn’t get to take that much photos in the airport because our bus would leave in 5 minutes. Our bus stop (Bus #6011 – Sungkyunkwan Station) was on the other side of the airport so we had to move quickly. Huhu. I only got one shot inside the airport where 3/4 of Kdramas film. It broke my heart a little. But still! I was in Korea, and at that point, nothing could break my spirit.

Incheon is beautiful. Though we only saw a vast space of land, I still think it’s beautiful. It’s amazing how they lined up the streets with spring flowers, and I had my first glance of cherry blossoms! Not all trees were in full bloom, though. Spring’s only starting and it was still quite cold, but it’s the type of cold that I can tolerate and definitely love.

I didn’t want to sleep because I didn’t want to miss anything. Besides, there’s a showbiz magazine in every seat. I couldn’t understand anything but I still enjoyed browsing through it. After a couple of minutes, I fell asleep! Good thing I didn’t sleep the whole way through. I was too afraid that we’d miss our stop.

The trip was quite enjoyable anyway because hey, I was in Korea! I could be faced with the sight of traffic and I’d think, “OMG, I’m stuck in traffic! In Korea!” And yes, there’s a little traffic but it was tolerable. It gave me more chance to take in everything. We passed by a lot of universities (Hongdae, Ewha, etc.) and a couple of palaces, too. I was surprised to see palaces in the middle of the city! But I notice how it’s not out of place at all. Yep, a palace in the middle of a bustling city seems so commonplace.

We stayed at Backpackers Mr. Sea in Jongno-gu, Seoul and rented a family room. It was cheaper than expected but the place was nice. The room reminds me of a Kdrama heroine’s apartment. Ha! But it was really nice and there’s this one staff who’s really cute. OMG. My sister and I were like, parang model! He arrived just after us and when he took of us his jacket with this adorable look on his face… swoon.

Once we had unpacked, we realized that we forgot a lot of things such as shampoo and conditioner! My sister and I decided to buy what we forgot to bring (it was a lot!). To our surprise, they don’t sell shampoo nor conditioner at convenience stores! And instant coffee on sachets! I remember this one thing my college instructor told me, how other countries don’t sell tingi-tingi products. Okay.

We were about to go back to our dorm when we saw our father. Together, we found an underground grocery and tried to buy everything we need. And more. It took us a while to realize that they call conditioner rinse. We also bought snacks we could bring us with us when we tour, some chocomilk, many yogurt, and three packs of Yakult. We made sure to drink the Yakult Rooftop Prince style! [Read more…]