♥ 1991년 09월 23일.: 18 Days in Korea (Seoul). [2013 Free & Easy Trip]

Day 1 (051013/Saturday)

I packed my luggage and was done within three hours. I slacked a little and double checked the luggage to see if I have left out anything. When the time came, mom drove me to Rach's house to fetch her. I then, found out that she haven't finish packing. Her room was in a mess, I was so shocked. I was speechless. I was a little pissed off because Im scared we might miss our flight. She rushed through everything and I helped her packed a little. It was chaotic.

We managed to reach the airport on time and did check in whatsoever. We entered the departure area and bought ourselves starbucks while Rach ate her leftover food for lunch. Sorry but I was starving okay! =_= We waited about fifteen minutes for the gate to open and boarded the plane. The plane was so small omigoshh. It was really hard to fall asleep so I stayed up till we reached KL for transit. We spent like 2 hours there, bought dunkin donuts and slack around. guess what? The dunkin donuts they had there... TASTE AWFULL omg. When it was about time, we queued and boarded the transit flight to Korea. It was slightly bigger but still small. I managed to sleep for like 4 hours when the plane suddenly shook like mad. Most of the people were like screaming. They thought they were going to die. But, I stayed calm with my eyes closed and continued to sleep while everything took place. Im just calm like that.

Day 2 (061013/Sunday)

Finally, we arrived in Korea. We got our luggages and took maps and bought out first meal of the day. They were so delicious I swear. Oh we bought our T-money too and uploaded money in it.

Two banana milks & Two sushis. Jeonju bibimbap flavor and beef flavor.

(T-money :13000₩)

(Sushi + Banana milk : 2000₩)

After we ate everything, we headed to the metro station and took the airport railroad to Hongik University Station. We had our directions ready, we were heading towards the correct direction and there came this weird korean guy asking us if we know our way. We told him we know the way but he insisted on showing us the way so we followed him. We later found out that he was one of the guests staying at the guesthouse. I laughed so hard.

Okay so, we reached the guesthouse and someone opened the door for us and this guy said hello to us. I was so shocked. They were all so friendly. Guess who's that guy who said hello? It was Chan, the friendly friendly manager.

We put our luggage at the reception area and wanted to do a check in but the lady said we cant. We can only check in at 3PM. It was 11 by then. So we had no choice but to leave our luggages there and come back at 3PM.

We left the guesthouse and I was feeling unsecured with our luggages. What if somebody steals them? Nevermind. I shook off all the negative thoughts and headed to Hongdae. Ours was Exit 4 and Hongdae was at Exit 9. So we walked through the station to Exit 9 and there were lots of people there. Youngsters, teenagers, gangsters. I fell for it instantly. I love Hongdae right at that moment.

The first thing we did was to find the shop I wanted. It was Hats' On. I spent time searching for it. It was no where to be found. I didn't give up but I was sad. Mann... am I really not getting any of the caps? We asked the staffs of the shops around us, everyone shook their heads and said no. We waited outside this shop and this man came over to us. He asked if we were lost and Rach nodded. I then, quickly searched for wifi and entered the korean name of the shop. The man was like " ohh.... let me search it on my phone " So he searched it and led us towards it. That was the second time I encountered such a friendly man. First was the nice weirdo and now the friendly man who led us to Hats' On.

I was so happy that I found this. All thanks to that man. My face was full of smiles as I entered the shop. 진짜행복해요~ ㅎㅎ

I searched for the one I wanted, infact there was two but not being greedy, I only bought one.

ignore my face!

(Playboy cap : 59000₩)

So.. this was the cap I bought. Its so pretty. 예쁘다! ㅋㅋ

After that, we went to walk around Hongdae. We saw shops and oh the Catcafe right at the corner. Rach was mesmerized by the green highheels and the walker. She was so tempted to buy it but nah.. She wanted to check the price and see which one's the cheapest.

We walked around and was hungry already. The first thing that came into my mind was Jjamppong. The spicy seafood noodles.

THIS WAS SUPER DELICIOUS. SPICY AND DELICIOUS. 짬뽕 진짜 맛있다! 잘먹었었어요!~

We even ordered this sweet fried pork which tasted extremely delicious too. Both Rach and I shared the food. It was huge. We couldn't finish but we forced it down our throat.

Sweet and Sour fried Pork.

탕수육?

(Lunch : 13000₩)

Everything was so delicious. We were so full. HAHAHHA. We walked around for awhile and it was about time for us to head back to the guesthouse for check in. I was praying hard that our luggages were still there.

So.... Here it was....

Rach @ Kimchee Guesthouse.

We went in and put our things down and asked if we could check in and the same lady from before said yes! Guess who's the lady? It was Vini. She's so friendly and nice. She has a nice smile too. And later we found out that she's from Indonesia. We checked in, paid, got our keys and it was time to move our luggages up. oh! We got 20000Won discount off because I linked the kimchee website on my blog. The person in charged said okay! The bad thing was there was no lift in this guesthouse. But the good thing was, I CAN EXERCISE. 대박! So the both of us carried our own luggage five flights of stairs up. We lived at the highest floor, which was the 5th floor.

I managed to carry my luggage up to the 5th floor. I was the first. I was panting hard i almost died. HAHAHAH.

I put the key in and unlocked the door. I was happy to see the clean tidy little room. Here it was...

Room 507

I fell in love with this place right away. It was perfect.

After settling down everything, checked out the toilets. THE TOILETS WERE SO CLEAN. :D

We took the subway and alighted at Ewha Womens' University Station. The sun was going to set. It was evening by then. The second thing I wanted to find was SAKUN. The same thing happened. I couldn't find it. I asked the people there and they all shook their heads. I was getting so pissed off. We walked so much but we couldn't find it. It was depressing.

It was dark and cold. I was going to give up already.

We saw this for so many times. We were basically walking in circles. The SAKUN shop was nowhere. omg. I bought banana milk again on our way.

I bought a leopard print shirt too as I was about to give up finding sakun. (Leopard print shirt : 5000₩)

.... Sakun brand was in a shop called ALAND. IT was located somewhere around here. I was so tired i was about to curse. I went in straight to Sakun section and searched for the hood I wanted but there wasn't any. So I search the Sakun sunglasses for my sister.

(sunglasses : 30000₩)

I bought it and entered a shop and settled our dinner there. It was late like 10PM. We had this for dinner.

Dinner.

black bean stew ddeokbokki

(dinner : 8000₩)

We went back to guesthouse. We were so tired and exhausted. Before we head upstairs, I wanted to rent a universal adapter so I asked the guy doing reception that night. He was good-looking and had tattoos. I couldn't get my eyes off of his tattoos. Okay. I love Tattoos but I couldn't have it. So I told him I liked his tattoos hahahha. It was hilarious. guess who's this guy? It was Tim. :D

I took the adapter and went upstairs, showered and everything and decided to go downstairs to the common area. It was so cosy I loved it instantly.

I used the computer to check the routes for the next day and there came this 4 guys, laughing and playing. They were so cute. I couldn't get my eyes off of them. Haha. okay just ignore me.

It was Tim and the other guy was 준태. He was so tall omg. I don't know about the other two. But one of two was laughing. His laughter was contagious, it had me laughing too. MANNN that was.... HAHAHHAHHAHHAH

After that, they all left after playing the table soccer. I went back searching the routes together with Rach. We slept at around 3AM. We are a pro.

Day 3 (071013/Monday)

So...

We woke up early the next day, well it was early. It was around 10AM. I woke up first and called Rach but she was too tired. So I took my things and went to the toilet.

When I came back, she was still sleeping. Omg. I shook her hard and she finally woke up. She took quite some time to wash up and I was on whatsapp and twitter and Facebook while waiting for her.

We took our things and double checked our stuffs and off we go. I said good morning to whoever was doing reception that morning. I don't remember who it was but hey this person was friendly. We headed to the subway and here's the surrounding and neighborhood of the guesthouse.

took the train to Seoul station and alighted there. Oh! we didn't had breakfast. haha. Seoul station was huge. It was big. There were so many exits. It was huge so we checked out everything. HAHA.

Seoul Station

서울역

But, our destination wasn't Seoul Station. We were just here because we need to take Line 1(Blue Line) to where we're going.

KTX

We went down and happened to see this group of people standing together. They were reciting something. I just don't know what it was. I told Rach maybe they were protesting about something. I just don't know.

After exploring the station, we took Line 1 and alighted at Jongno 3ga Station.

Well, it wasn't our destination too. LOL. So I transferred from Line 1 to Line 3 (Orange Line), from this station.

So..

After so many transfers, we were finally at Gyeongbokgung Station. 경복궁역

Our destination for that day was Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Sorry for not telling you guys about the destination first. haha

This is a sculpture of a door. I don't know what door this was. I couldn't read the chinese characters but it was situated at pathway at the station.

Ohhh. okay so its Pullomun. There it is the english description. heheh.

Passage way to the Palace.

Here it was, after the long pathway:

The Gyeongbokgung Palace.

I came to Korea 4 years ago... but going to Korea again, this time with friends. Its different. Its totally different. really, you guys should go on a holiday with your friends. no restriction whatsoever.

The palace didn't change much compared to 4 years ago. So everything's good.

We bought our tickets for the palace.

(Ticket : 3000₩)

There were so many people that day and mostly there were all kids. Maybe a school excursion or something. I don't know.

Rach

So... this little kid came over and wanted to see the sundial but he was too short. I wanted to say hi and carry him up so that he could see but he turned away without me saying hi to him. His mom was calling him or something. He was so cute, super cute.

We walked around and explored this palace. This palace was huge, super huge. I was getting tired and exhausted. We didn't have our breakfast. We didn't eat anything. So I was being tired, while Rach was still busying taking photos of parts and bits of the palace. I saw the cute kid again and I decided to take photos of him. Hahaha. It killed my boredness and tiredness.

I swear he was so cute! Like omygoshh..

So I decided to follow where he was going and kept a distance. I later found out that he had a younger brother. HAHAHHA. They were both so cute omg.. Thank you mother, to whoever you are, to give birth to such cute kids.

hahahhah! so after shooting photos of them, we went off to the other part of the palace.

So you can see the little statues on top of one of palace. They said they were the Journey to the Wst. I don't know much about it so... lets move on to the other stuffs.

I have no idea what's written there... try figure it out yourself. sorry.

Finally. After a longgggg walk, we came to the back of the huge palace. It was the garden and thaw could see the mountains too. There were birds too, pretty looking birds which I don't see it in my country. LOL.

청와대

So, after a long walk at the palace, we made it out. Right at the exit of the palace was the Blue House, Cheong Wa Dae. Rach was thinking if we could go in but I refused. I went in before years ago. It was boring. We were famished too, so we walked all the way down to get some food.

Rach told me about this market so we searched our way there. It was near the palace but not very near. lol. I asked this lady and another man joined in the conversation. They were so friendly and helpful. I love it. So he directed me and left.

And... Here we were!

Tong In Market! :

We walked around the market and I wanted army stew so badly and we found the shop. It was a small shop though but they had like the best army stew ever.