Seoul - Day 1
December 19, 2013
Helloooooo.
Been wanting to update about my South Korea trip but my mind just drifted away, doing something else. No worries, here I am! I'm gonna blog about my day 1 in Seoul, there's only gonna be 46 pictures for this post since by the time we got to Seoul, almost half of the day was gone...
Enjoy!
Alright, as stated in the previous post, we bought KTX train tickets to Seoul Station from Busan. KTX is basically a train most suitable for long-haul journey. It's comfortable, there's a cabin crew pushing trolley up and down the aisle, selling food & drinks (& they look delicious but we didn't get any), free WiFi in the train (!!!), clean and spacious... Oh, and it's faster as well, compared to the rest of the normal type of train. It was indeed a pretty pleasant ride from Busan to Seoul but the tickets are not THAT cheap either. So... What you pay is what you get!
Here's some pictures of the train interior for you!
Oh, there's a screen/monitor attached to the roof, similar to those that you often see in the coaches but throughout the whole journey, it was just advertisements, and ALL IN KOREAN... Even the magazines... So it's better if you prepare your own entertainment such as books (if you wanna step one intellectual), portable game devices, poker cards, crossword puzzles and whatnot. You could just use a nap as well, but just something that can keep you entertained throughout the ride!
We got it at a cheaper price, youth pricing!
It's good to go into deep/intense research for an overseas trip if you don't wanna spend extra $$ on unnecessary items! Thanks to Shini a.k.a my BFF, lol she found all these good deals online, we got almost all our attractions, & transportation tickets at cheaper price hahaha.
& the train conductor didn't actually check our train tickets...
We played poker cards, listened to our own iPod, read some storybooks to keep ourselves entertained!
Look how clean is the KTX!
Totally worth every penny spent.
Ajummah is so comfortable with her foot saying "hi!" to you!
After a 3 hours 15mins or so, we finally reached Seoul!
Pictures taken before we left the platform!
Seoul Station.
We got out from the station & started navigating ourselves to our hostel!
The route we took daily to and fro from our hostel to the station.
Tadah, 21 Guesthouse!
It's super clean (with a super handsome hiphop style receptionist, totally looking like some ABC...) but if you have SUPER LARGE LUGGAGE, I advise you not to stay here... The room is kinda small, more of Asian fit rather than Angmoh fit hahaha so yup... But it was really a cosy hostel and the handsome receptionist is really really helpful. He helped us to list down directions - which subway line to take/exchange, buses to take to Naminara Island, and also helped us with the DMZ Tour which we didn't go in the end.
Our room key!
Or you could say, metric card.
After unpacking and stuffs, we proceeded to their Myeong Dong Street which is REALLY similar to Singapore's Orchard Road. It's packed with super lots of shops, especially those beauty, cosmetic shops. You LITERALLY can find at least... 5 along the same street like seriously. Oh, not to mention, their convenience shops are everywhere as well. E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.
Oh, we went to this... I forgot which building to this Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center.
It's a place where you can book your appointment and then try out their traditional clothing for free! You can only, and have to book a few days (or is it one day...) before the actual day I think. We didn't know about this so we just paid a visit there without trying the outfit (It's okie for me since I wore it before hahahahahaha but sad for Shini) and took some maps and guides for us to tour in Seoul.
We walked out from the building and started our food hunt omg hehehe I finally get to try my grilled shredded squids! Actually, it was the flat flat, fishy thing in the cup on the left middle of this above photo hahaha. I had it when I was in South Korea 4 years ago and had been wanting to try it again and so I DID. OH YAYYYYYYY!
We bought both the fishy thing and the shredded squids.
Guess what?
SHINI WENT TO SOUTH KOREA AND EAT SOTONG/SQUID.
REALLY, she is a picky-eater. She doesn't eat seafood, unless it's erm, LOBSTER, crabs, fishes... She doesn't eat prawns, octopus, shellfishes, clams, and whatever that's in the sea. It's not because of health problem, such as allergy... BUT SHE DOESN'T LIKE THE FISHY SMELL. RAGEEEEE, so fussy but then she ate octopus in Jeju Island, and hahaha this grilled shredded squid. HAHAHA I just kept psychoing her that there isn't any fishy smell, just try and eat it. WOOHOO.
Here's a picture of their police post along the street, look at the statues.
SO CUTE.
Oh, when I was in New Zealand, one of my parents' friends ordered this sweet potato snacks as dessert because she had it in South Korea when she went there to visit her daughter who flew there just to learn Korean.. Anyhow, it's coated with maltose candy (melted syrup???), so it's sticky and sweet. OMGGGGG totally similar to the one I had in New Zealand, another craving satisfied. Happy girl.
Eat, walk, time to hunt for a place for a proper dinner.
So, we entered this shop and had this typical Korean food which you can find it easily now in Singapore/ Malaysia. It's similar to the Uncle Jung Korean Restaurant in Malaysia, like they fry your order of chicken/beef, with rice cakes or noodles or both, and many cabbage, with their spicy sauce. Nothing's exceptional but good for some spiciness!
Why doesn't she look pleased... Hahaha.
After dinner, we continued walking, exploring the Myeong Dong Street.
As you know, South Korea really have a lot of such caps.
We came across this shop which sells array of different kinds of caps/hats, and we both bought beanies instead hahaha. I think beanies are much cheaper than the caps...
The theater at Myeong Dong Street like duh...
HAHAHA, they were having this NATAS show, supposed to be really worth watching but my friend nicknamed "Tadpole", told me that I actually can just watch it on YouTube HAHAHA so we didn't go for the musical. There's really too much things/ many places to cover in Seoul, we really didn't have the time.
Some random alley...
It's so crowded, even on a drizzling night, on a weekday.
THERE ARE A LOT OF MASCOTS along the street.
Here's one of them.
Buildings are slowly dressed in Christmas decorations.
Before we ended our night at Myeong Dong Street...
We really couldn't bear to walk past this stall without trying the sausages omg thank goodness we stopped and bought it HAHAHA not bad, one stick with different variety of sausages.
No idea what are the different variations but worth the try.
I only know the white thing you can see above, it's actually the rice cake being wrapped by the sausage!
Okie, we had that sausages before walking out to the train station and took the subway back to Seoul Station and to our hostel! A slow shutter night shot to end this post!
Happy Thursday!
Bear with it, tomorrow is TGIF and it's weekend!
Also, Christmas is coming!!!
Good day, everyone!
x
Oh hello, there!
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