South Korea Archives | Page 8 of 10

IMY, Seoul

April 25, 2013

It’s been a year since my Korea trip with my family. And everyday, I wonder when I’d be back. To say that I miss Seoul is an understatement because seriously though, I have never been more enchanted with a place.

I miss the doodles on every store window. I miss the coffee shops in every store corner with the catchiest and most attractive decor I’ve seen. I miss the ₩1000 stores that sell the cutest earrings, hair accessories, and phone cases. I miss odeng and bibimbap and ramyun and pretty much all the food that I tasted for the first time. I miss the lively shopping districts that sell the cutest and most fashionable clothes and shoes but I can’t afford anyway. I miss the walls and gates and every scenery that beg to be photographed. I miss seeing art and youthfulness everywhere.

I just miss the place so freaking much, which is kind of silly since I’ve only been there once for five days. But I promise to be back and if possible, experience every season! Haha. If I’d ever have the money for it anyway. I have tons of photos to share and it’s ridiculous that I’m only sharing it a year later! This lazy blogging at its finest. I actually planned to post these photos last year but real life is so fast and so many other things happened.

The next time I visit Seoul, I promise to take more photos, better ones, less grainy ones. I took thousands of shots but I was too busy taking photos of my family that I realized that I might have missed tons of chances. No regrets, though. I’ll be back anyway. 🙂

Day Five in Seoul (Part 2)

August 22, 2012

The last day in Seoul continues, as the the memories start to fade. No, not really. I was so sentimental that day that I tried to remember everything. Everything. Haha. It’s actually quite embarrassing that I’m still done blogging about my Korya trip. How busy could I be! I think a part of me is slowing it down. I guess writing about the last day means my Korean trip is officially over, I’m even done writing about it! I don’t know, I just want to keep going back to those five days. But alas, everything has to come to an end, so thus this Korya thing. I can’t keep dragging it on or else I’d really forget the details!

From the Gyeongbokgung Palaca, our next destination is just right across the street: Gwanghwamun Square!

I waited and waited and waited for the soldier to leave so I could take a stupid photo but he wouldn’t. Haha! You can still see the front gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace at the background.

Anyway, my sister and I had a pretty good reason why we wanted to go to the Square, the King Sejong statue is located at Gwanghwamun Square, and if you’re a true Kdrama buff, you’d know that City Hunter and Kim Nana’s first meeting took place at the fountain in the square! Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit because I only learned that during my research on places to visit with the filming sets in mind. Heh.

Like everywhere in Seoul that time, the place is just filled with all these pretty Spring flowers. The place was incredibly pretty mainly because of the fog hanging around in Seoul. It was the first clear day after two straight days of rain so it was still pretty foggy. But I loved the weather as I’ve said in the previous post. The place just looked so cold and gloomy and the atmosphere’s just amazing, okay.

It’s probably our lucky day, too, since we saw another celebrity! This time, it’s an actress and we know her! I’ve seen some of her works, and I may not be the biggest fan but it was still pretty exciting to see her in person! Wanna know who she is? I’ve seen her in Three Dads and One Momand Wonderful Life!

Here’s a photo:

HAHAHA. It was unintentional okay. [Read more…]

Day Five in Seoul (Part 1)

August 12, 2012

It has been more than 3 months since I’d been to Korea and sad to say, but I miss it already. I think I started to miss the moment I boarded the plane. But try as I might, I couldn’t stop our last day in Seoul from coming.

We wanted to make the most out of our last day so we decided to have an early start. We didn’t exactly have an early during the previous days. Heh. So while my parents were packing up, my sister and I decided to visit Sungkyunkwan University and have a last look around the neighborhood. I don’t know why we had to wait for the last minute to do it!

It was a lovely neighborhood maybe because it’s thriving with students. There are shops that sell clothes and little cafes and humble restaurants specializing in local dishes. In case anyone’s interested in visiting the neighborhood and visiting Sungkyunkwan University (especially you Sungkyunkwan Scandal fans!), the nearest subway station is Hyewa! I’m not sure which bus you can take, though, since we didn’t take the bus. For an exact instructions on how to get there, you can just ask around. Haha!

[Read more…]

Day Four in Seoul (Part 2)

July 3, 2012

Our Myeongdong adventure continues!

After our very filling lunch, we averted our attention from the glorious store displays. My sister and I immediately wanted to start shopping but we had to look for the Myeongdong Cathedral first. We asked for directions again and learned that it was right where we though it wasn’t! That sounds confusing but the point is, we were almost there when we thought we made a wrong turn then headed back and eventually got lost. Haha.

When we reached the cathedral, we thought it was closed because all the doors were closed. Then somebody came out and we realized that a mass was going on. It was a Sunday, which was why we went there in the first place. We entered the church and the mass was in Korean so we didn’t understand anything. Heh. But we finished the service, and I realized that it was the quietest mass I have ever attended. It was the most solemn one, too, I think. And my parents couldn’t stop raving at the discipline the Koreans were showing, even in church, especially in church.

Once the mass was over, we wanted to take photos inside since it was so pretty! But we were too shy and we felt as if we’re disrupting something sacred even though the mass was already over. So we just took some photos outside but it was raining and we couldn’t really pose that much because of the cold (which is pretty obvious in the photo haha). If the church looks familiar, it’s because it was used in You’re Beautiful!

It was around 3 in the afternoon and we were already so cold, as you can obviously see in the photo above. We had to walk really fast and couldn’t even glance around the place that much. We walked back to the shopping district and the first shop we went was the one selling KPOP goodies! Of course, of course. We’re in the land of the oppas, it’s quite stupid to not enter a DVD store.

I saw so many DVDs and CDs of DBSK and I wanted to buy so many things! But we were on a budget and I opted to buy Shut Up! Flower Boyband’s OST album and CNBLUE’s Earfun. Not the special edition but they had the special edition and I so wanted to buy it! But as I’ve said, we were on a budget and I felt bad to spend too much money on CNBLUE. Huhu.

[Read more…]

Day Four in Seoul (Part 1)

June 13, 2012

Day 4 of our Korea trip may or may not be the most memorable one. It was still raining but we could no longer think (or research!) of a place where we could stay indoors the whole day. So we had no choice to brave the drizzle and the harsh, cold wind. I made sure to wrap up extremely well because the night before left my bones chilling. It’s a really good memory. No, that’s not sarcastic.

So, what do we have in store for day 4? The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince! We rode the subway to get there. I can no longer remember if we made a subway line transfer or if we rode directly from Hyehwa station to Hongdae (Honggik University) station.

At that point, I was getting used to riding the subway and even enjoying it. I don’t think I’d feel the same way for our beloved MRT and LRT lines. Huhuhu.

From a specific station exit (I cannot remember which! How’s that for a frustrated travel blogger. Huhu), we walked to the coffee shop! It was so cold and there’s barely anyone out and it was already 10:30 AM! The business establishments in Seoul certainly open later than I’m used to. Heh. Anyway, we were getting nervous since what if the shop was closed? We traveled so far! Well, not really that far but far enough. And that would totally ruin our itinerary.

We kept walking and walking and we thought we were lost. But when we saw the shop, there was no mistaking the tree in the front yard and the little platform outside. That’s where they held the little concert! Also, there were some tourists outside. And yes, it was closed!

But we saw someone, a staff, sweeping outside so how could it be close? We had trouble accepting the fact that we braved the difficult weather but we couldn’t even enter. So we took photos outside, so ready to cry. Then the guy sweeping outside started signaling something to us and we couldn’t understand. We thought he was saying it was closed. Then another staff, someone inside, started signaling, too, and it was so hard to understand. HAHA. Then after a few more minutes of hand signals, we finally understood that they’re about to open in 15-30 minutes.

We then kissed and hugged the Hallyu fairy.

Since we couldn’t just stand outside (it was cold, remember?), we looked for a place we could stay. I suggested that we go to to Hongdae (the school) since it’s a famous tourist spot, too. But they didn’t want to do that so we went to the nearest 7-Eleven instead.

Daddy brought this glorious instant garlic soup. It was the first time I tried garlic soup and I never thought I’d love it so much. Then we also bought some bread that has the best texture ever. I do not know what it’s called and we tried looking for it in other places but we couldn’t find it. /sobs

After brunching, we went back to the coffee shop and to our surprise, there were already a handful of people inside, mostly tourists. If you’re also planning to go to this coffee shop, then you must be prepared to shell out at least W6,000. Everyone who enters the coffee shop has to order you see. You even have to order first before looking for a seat. So if there are four of you, everyone has to order something. If you don’t want coffee or tea, they offer cakes, too! The price is definitely not cheap (not even for Korean coffee shop standards!) but you know they set the price that high since people are willing to pay. Anyway, it was quite pricey but we didn’t really have any choice since we’re there already.

[Read more…]