♡ Seoul Trip 2 부 ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Phew! The previous post was seriously the longest one I had ever written on this blog! This one will probably be equally as long.... oh well!

On the Tuesday, Rachael and I met up with our friend Anna who is out in Seoul studying for a year and we both missed saying goodbye to her over the summer so it was pretty sound for us to go and see her for a day! We met up with her at Euljiro-4, which is a really pretty area despite there being a really bitter cold wind that morning, but the sun shone for us and when Anna arrived we walked over to the Cheonggyecheon stream (another part of it which I had previously mentioned) because we were going to Myeondong for some traditional food and to explore as it was known for a tourist area.

Everything in Korea is so high! They seem to be a country that goes upwards not outwards like London (´Д｀) but everything is so clear... you can make out every corner and line of each building and the country is so polite (despite staring and spitting but I can look past all of that...) also it's so clean and fresh! Look at me rambling on about a country OH DEAR GOD I MISS IT AND I WANT TO RETURN RIGHT NOW.

*coughs*

I'm good. Right. As we walked along the Cheonggyecheon stream, we all noticed this massive figures being put up in the water and as we wondered what they were for, each one going along the river was unique and entertainingly funny. Some were of childhood games that we recognised and some were of traditional clothed people; Anna then found out that these were for a lantern festival that took place after we came back to London... we always miss the good ones (￣▽￣;)

After a while, we were all extremely hungry so we headed over to Myeongdong for some bimbimbap! It was nice to have some traditional hot food as all we seemed to be eating was quick, easy accessible food as we kept skipping breakfast. Anna ate glass noodles which looked really delicious whilst Rachael ate bimbimbap but I decided to go for some spicy soup (note here I actually cannot remember the name of it...) and it was seriously mind blowing hot! It made my lips tingle even after one sip but it was ultimately delicious and I would definitely go back for more!

Because Myeongdong is a tourist area, Anna took us a to Purikura shop and it was completely different to what we're used to here in London! But it was fun to try for sure and as per usual, the machine made my skin look healthy and gave me a "womanly" glow. I do love the purikura machines for doing that to my skin :'D

Also I noticed that Myeongdong feels like London's Oxford Street, in my personal opinion, it was because of the crowds and how everywhere is just so busy and it just felt like we were back home just with a different language obviously!

OH there was a Lotte duty free department store in the are so we kind of went and checked it out but it was just full of the really expensive brand stuff and even though it would have been nice to have something like that, it wasn't what we were really looking for on this trip!

Rachael and Anna can never pull a nice face for me ;___;

So yeah as it was dark at this point and a bit cold, we went into a coffee shop called The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, it's like Starbucks but much bigger and more well-known than Starbucks out there. They had some really unusual drinks so I decided to try a green tea latte and it was like matcha green tea... I did like it at first but then it got extremely bitter and then I stopped liking it ; 3 ; but the tiramisu cake I ate was delicious!

Look at Anna's amazing map drawing skills!

So by this point, it was really late so we decided to all part ways (very sad to say goodbye to Anna but we'll see her again /sobs) and as Rachael and I changed over at Wangsimni to get to Dapsimni... I spotted one of my favourite actor's new film that came out in the cinema's on Friday ♪(´ε｀ )

*sigh* it would have been amazing if it had come out in cinema's when we were in Korea because I would have definitely been in the front row!

Next part coming soon!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ Seoul Trip 1 부 ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

So as I had probably talked about in past entries; I went to Seoul on the 21st of October until the 31st (arrived back in the UK on the 1st of November though) and honestly it was the most immense time I had ever had! I still wish I was still there soaking up the atmosphere and night life and food!

We arrived at Incheon airport at 4.25pm on the Saturday afternoon and deciding to grab a taxi from the airport to our hotel, we happily drove along chatting to the nice driver about the places we did want to go to and listened to his suggestions also. His English was pretty amazing and he was so kind also only charging 65,000 won (about £57) for a two hour journey because we had arrived during rush hour and during the first hour of driving, I just stared out of the window before falling asleep for a while. We arrived in Dapsimni around 7pm and it was just pitch black and finding our hotel was pretty simple (because on reviews people had said it was hard to find and complained about different things but to be honest I found nothing wrong with location or the room/service)

The road outside our hotel, Dapsimni is like an "old" area as there honestly isn't much but there is enough for what you would need.

As you can see, our room was pretty basic. Two double beds, computer, television and a bathroom but it was extremely clean and the mattresses were a little hard but comfortable at the same time (if that actually makes any sense...) and after we had settled in and worked our way around the bathroom taps (they were really weird! you had to pull the out to make it work and then twist some bits to make certain parts work like the taps or shower head) we headed our down the road to see how far things were away from us. The receptionist told us that the subway station was about a 7 minute walk away (but turned out to be about 5 minutes as we walked faster) and that there was a Family Mart (food market) about 4-5 minutes away and so we headed down to there to get some food as we were a little bit hungry!

I was disappointed with the Starbucks mocha drink, I normally love the Seattle latte and this drink just tasted to bitter for me. The ice-cream tasted like strawberry mochi which is actually amazing and the banana milk was just orgasmic! Yes ok I said banana milk was orgasmic but seriously... banana milk here in the UK just tastes extremely sweet and overly processed where as banana milk in Seoul tastes like milk with a hint of banana and that is how I like it.

Anyway, on the Sunday when Rachael and I woke up (we slept a good 12+ hours) we decided to head over to Dongdaemun because we didn't know what Sunday's were like over in Korea (we're used to shops and everything closing at 4pm) and so finding out that Seoul is more of a night life city (even on Sundays) made us feel better about not having to wake up at some ridiculous time of the morning. But as soon as we walked out of the station and turned around there was the Heunginjimun, which literally is "Gate of Rising Benevolence" or the "Great East Gate"

Dongdaemun is also know as the "shopping district" as it has many underground shops and also some high-classed shopping centres dotted around.

Also running through Dongdaemun is the Cheonggyecheon stream (it basically runs through a lot of Seoul because when we went to Euljiro-4 it was there too and near the Kyobo book store!) but the stream was very pretty as it had spots where you could sit down and there were stepping stones you could cross and along the wall were little bits and pieces of art and facts etc.

When we returned back to the hotel for the evening, we decided to go explore Dapsimni a little more and see what there was to offer (as we had read that there was apparently nowhere to eat) and as we were getting ready, we were watching the repeat show of M!Countdown and who had to come on the screen but my all time favourite idol Kim Hyun Joong! Oh how I fangirled just a little bit too much...

But anyway, we found this Japanese restaurant down a street about 3-4 minutes away from our hotel and it was just a street dedicated to food/convenience stores and beauty shops. So whoever wrote the reviews about there being nowhere to eat around Dapsimni are full blown liars!

I ate donburi with udon! Delicious~

The street in Dapsimni dedicated to the restaurants~

*insert more fangirling here*

Next on our travels we went to Sinchon, which is actually an extremely populated student area as three universities are based around that area (I can only remember the Ewha's Woman's University...) and so everything seemed extremely exuberant and bright! Also around that area there seemed to be a load of beauty shops; especially Etude House, Nature Republic and The Face Shop, they are massive about their beauty products and it was weird seeing how different their products are compare to UK beauty products but it was nice to browse and buy some that were good for my skin (as my skin is sensitive and can break out when trying new products) as well as stocking up on my BB cream! Also what I liked about Nature Republic were their idol representatives; Jang Guen Suk and JYJ? Yes Please!

Walking down streets and streets of Sinchon, we finally decided to get a coffee hit and went into a Starbucks along the main road. I decided to try and Chai Creme Frappuccino and a Pistachio Macaroon and not even going to lie they were extremely buff to eat/drink! Rachael had a Caramel Frappuccino as she's not keen on coffee and she wasn't as impressed because it actually tasted like coffee (I tried some and can vouch that the taste of coffee was extremely noticeable in their version) but she enjoy her Strawberry Dacaroon very much. I think dacaroon's are just a bigger, squishy version of macaroons but all the same delicious!

After our buzz; we headed over to Etude House, which is Korea's answer to Boots/Body Shop (they did have Body Shop's over there but hardly saw them as much as you do in the UK) and the sales assistants were so lovely in there, I had a 10 minute conversation with one of them in perfect English! She wanted to know why I was here and who my favourite idol was and she seemed surprised when I said Kim Hyun Joong! She thought I was a Jang Guen Suk fangirl and I told her that I was also but he just doesn't come as close as Kim Hyun Joong to me. I swear Korean sales assistants are the nicest people ever... despite the fact that loads of people stared at Rachael and myself because we wore everyday, what they would consider "heavy make-up" as they are a country that wears minimum make-up yet pride themselves with shit-tonnes of beauty products bursting out of every street corner!

Still.... I loved being around Sinchon and now enjoy a few photographs:

Chai Creme Frappuccino and Pistachio Macaroon!

Bread fish? Fish bread? In a window of a bakery!

My free tote bag that I got from Etude house after I had spent about 100,000 won (about £85) on products! Mind you they did give me loads of free samples including a free travel beauty kit.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo