Korea- Seoul, Jeju, Busan {Part 3 SEOUL}

Seoul Searching

Myeong-dong/ 明洞/ 명동; at one of the intersections

View from one of the restaurants. Just across this (2 floors above etude house) is an amaaazing fried chicken restaurant. We had chicken and beer before one of our night outs and it opened till late.

One of the alleys - they really have food everywhere

 That was a glimpse of Myeong-dong, the epic shopping area with endless intersecting streets.
We spent our remaining 7 days in Seoul here, where all the action is!

South Korea is well known for its beautiful people and wonder makeup, so it was not surprising to find multiple (and by multiple I mean like 3!) same beauty shops on a single street, say Nature Republic, Missha, Innisfree, Banila co., The Face Shop, Tony Moly, Etude House, Aritaum.. the list goes on and on. Alert: Girls heaven! Even for guys, you'd probably be able to find something nice to use, like a concealer, acne serum or facial scrub etc. The selection of clothes are a plenty too! It was the winter collection in most places though, so I barely found anything I wanted/needed T_T , but their fashion is seriously OUT OF THE WORLD. Every piece, especially all the winter coats!!! was so pretty it broke my heart when I couldn't/shouldn't get it. The rational part of me still worked most of the time lol. But yes I did have a mini haul, and I don't even usually have makeup hauls. 

 

A fraction of the area map in the station. Holyyyyyyy 

Since the final 7 days for us was a mix of sightseeing, shopping and partying. I'll just go by categories! We used the T-money card for travelling on the subway and buses.

Sightseeing:

Gyeongbokgung / Gyeongbok Palace 
aka the Royal Palace of the Joseon Dynasty

Opens 9AM-6PM closing time might differ for different months Closed on TUESDAYS
Entrance Fee: 3000KRW

Line 3 Gyeongbokgung Stn. Exit 5, Walk 5 mins.

Line 5 Gwanghwamun Stn. Exit 2, Walk 10 mins.

Guard-changing ceremony

Being the main palace back in the days, the place is HUGE. We got there at around 9.30am and the year-end crowd was already filling up the area, with lots of foreign tourists and school kids. Got there just in time to witness the guard changing ceremony, where the guards actually wear traditional clothing, full equipped with their weapons/trumpets/cool gadgets (lol) changing their posts with a traditional background music. Worth looking so be sure to check out the timing.

They have free English (Japanese and Chinese as well) tour sessions available so we waited for that, one of the sessions at 11am and plenty of other tourists were with us for it. Means so much more when there is someone to explain to you what exactly the designs mean and what the ancient folks do there. We toured around till say.. 12pm and left to visit the National Folk Museum of Korea - a 5 minutes walk from Gyeongbokgung area. The admission is already included with the entrance ticket for Gyeongbokgung. So be sure to have a look because the collection is pretty complete and informative, best place for art and culture enthusiasts!




Bukchon Hanok Village

No admission fee. Lots of restaurants, museums, workshops and art houses in the area.
Walk 15 mins from Gyeongbokgung or

Anguk Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 2. Go straight for about 300m to arrive at Bukchon Hanok Village

After finishing our tour in Gyeongbokgung we walked for approximately 15-20 minutes to the well-known Hanok Village, where traditional houses that were originally there since the Joseon Dynasty are located. This place is a MUST VISIT. Absolutely fell in love with the streets, although tiny but it feels like you're walking back in the ancient days, in between old brick walls and an occasional beautiful wooden door to each house. There are lots of restaurants and souvenir shops to drop by too. We had lunch at one of the restaurants along the street, while people-watching from the top floor. 

Korean lunchbox and seaweed soup!!

N Seoul Tower 

Cable car 10AM-11PM: Round trip 8500KRW, one-way 6000KRW
Observatory 10AM-11PM/12AM: 10000KRW
Boarding point: Myeong-dong Station (Seoul Subway Line 4) Exit 3, walk for about 15 minutes following the street of the right side of the Pacific Hotel.

We followed these directions > http://www.myeongdong.org/2013/11/from-myeongdong-subway-station-to.html  and had no problem finding it.

I've always heard about the famous N Seoul Tower (N referring to the "New'ly done changes) and the love lock platform with the signature bench. My advice would be to try to catch the cable car by sunset. We went straight after Bukchon Hanok Village and got to the Namsan Tower Cable Car station at about 5.30pm (i think). The sunset view while in the cable car was BEAUTIFUL. Take some pictures and try to get up to the observatory as soon as possible to see the transformation into the night view. ;)

Managed to snap this (zooming past peoples' heads lol) while in the SUPER CROWDED cable car

At the top of the hill!

TA-DAAAA! The popular lovers' spot and a background of love-locks, which can also be purchased at the souvenir shops there

Not ours haha

Night view!!!

Everland

Admission: One-day ticket 48000KRW (adults)

Tip: Keep an eye for Everland Vouchers, usually given to tourists. We managed to get our hands on 30% discount vouchers, so it was 33600KRW per person.

Jeondae-Everland Station (Yongin Ever Line), Exit 3.
- Take the shuttle bus to Everland. (Operating hours 05:30-23:30)

By Bus:
1) Sinnonhyeon, Gangnam, Yangjae Stations: Bus 5002 (~2100KRW one-way; approx 45 mins.)
2) Pangyo, Segok-dong, Suseo, Songpa, Jamsil, Gangbyeon Stations: Bus 5700
3) Sadang, Nambu Terminal Stations (via Bundang and Gwangju): Bus 1500-2
4) Gangbyeon, Gangdong Stations (via Gwangju): Bus 1113 
We took the subway to Gangnam Stn. and took Bus 5002 from there.

We had an epic night right before our initially planned Everland day so we couldn't pull ourselves out of bed lol. Fast forward to 2pm --- we decided to dash for it because it was the best time to go according to weather forecast. (People usually go at like.. 9am?) It was probably the coldest day ever but it was only going to get worse the next few days so it was then or never. Being on a mountainous area, the temperature was brought a few more degrees down. Talk about F R E E Z I N G COLD. Braving through the cold, we still managed to go for some outdoor rides and thank goodness they had quite a few indoor attractions! As the night approached, loads of people were gathered around the limited standing heaters in the middle of the park, sticking their palms out to get some warmth.

That roller-coaster seen faraway is the T-Express. Apparently the world's 4th steepest wooden roller-coaster. We didn't go on it PURELY because it was just too cold we couldn't even walk properly. What a pity. On a side note, I guess Everland is a better place during Summer/Spring.

The pretty night view!

Continuing our Seoul journey in the next post!