SEOUL VACATION DIARY DAYS #4 & #5

Hey guys ! 

As you can see, I took a small break from blogging. During the past week I've been just relaxing, meeting up with few of my friends, being addicted to Pretty Little Liars & binge watching it and baking and cooking amazing food. (No oven in Korea really limits the stuff you can do in the kitchen) Also I've been planning next Spring, taking care of school & visa stuff, planning my apartment, et cetera. Restraining my mental health after a busy mess I call my first year in Korea. But more about that later in a separate post, now's time for the last 2 days of our vacation in Seoul. 

I decided to put these 2 days into a one post because our last days were pretty much just shopping and walking around. On the 4th day we headed to Idae, where I used to live, and did some hardcore beauty shopping. It was a rainy and kinda gloomy weather so I didn't snap much pictures. After spending too much money on skin products, makeup and bags we headed to Sinchon, to a meat buffet called "nice pig" (the name cracks me up every time) and Sara joiner us for lunch / dinner. 

Our next stop, in the evening, was Hongdae. We had a whole Han-river cruise thing planned for the evening but we were all so exausted and carrying million shopping bags so we decided to skip the whole cruise and then the next day decide between Namsan-tower & the cruise. So for the rest of the evening we just wandered around Hongdae, watched some street performances and also by accident discovered the prettiest home decoration store, ever. I've walked past the building hundreds of times but never seen it before. Again, it rained the whole day so my camera stayed in my bag for the most of the evening. 

Our last day was the first clear, sunny day. It had literally rained and been foggy everyday since my family arrived. We started the day by visiting my university. That was something especially my mother was really excited to see and I also had some paper work to handle before returning back to Finland. We walked around a bit and took some pictures. Before leaving we also stopped at the campus store. I finally got the official Hanyang university jacket, too! I've been wanting one since the weather started to get chilly again. It's amazingly cozy and warm. Wearing it all the time now.

 We returned back to the hotel, had lunch at a nearby "Arista coffee" - cafe and then handled some plane ticket stuff for our next day's flight. We decided to visit Namsan tower because the sky was finally clear with not even one cloud on it. The cruise would've been absolutely beautiful too, no doubt, but we had been riding the taxi around the city for 5 days already so instead of seeing more of the city lights I wanted to show them the whole Seoul from above. So after a small siesta we walked to the Namsan cable cars and up the hill we went.

Our next and last stop was, once again, Myeongdong. We did some last minute shopping, tasted some  new things we had yet to try out and had pasta in this small pretty restaurant.

Our flight left early the next morning and the plane was half empty. Which was pretty cool because I for example was able to occupy up to 4 seats all by myself and had like my own private couch and movie marathon going on, hahah! 

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up our 5 days in Seoul together. It was really amazing to show around to my family, and they absolutely loved the place. My mom's already planning to go back with me on February, hahah! It's been 2 and a half  weeks since I came home to Finland and I've literally just concentrated on relaxing and clearing up my head. And that's what I will continue doing until I have to start stressing about next year's university  & apartment stuff! Need to enjoy this while it lasts, hahah! 

xx,

Julia

SEOUL VACATION DIARY DAY #3

Hey guys !

The next day of our small Seoul vacation, day #3, was spent in Gangnam mostly. I don't have much to write about this day to be honest, because it was mostly just touristing (Not sure if that's a word but I am gonna use it) around and shopping, so I am going to let the pictures speak. The previous day was full of culture, history and old traditional buildings so I wanted to show the more modern side of my home city to my family too, so we headed to Gangnam next. Our first stop was COEX mall and I took my little sister to the COEX Aquarium. If you ever visit COEX mall, I'd recommend you to stop by the Aquarium too. It's huge, they have amazing variety of fish & marine mammals (seals, manatees), penguins, monkeys, beavers and even bats. They also have various shows and small events daily, plus a room where you can actually touch different kinds of sea creatures like starfish, which is really cool in my opinion, and not something you have the chance to do everyday. After the Aquarium and grabbing some Japanese food to eat we took a taxi to Gangnam station where we spent the next few hours. 

It was a beautiful, clear day and the sunset that was just about to start made the sky and the buildings against it look incredibly beautiful. And of course, since our hotel was in Myeongdong, we ended up shopping there in the evening. I never really liked Myeongdong before, probably because I haven't been shopping and doing touristy stuff around Seoul this year that much, but it turned out to be a pretty nice shopping district when you actually go for a shopping spree. We also tried out these kimchi rolls, wrapped in bacon (ah-mazing) and found a pretty little vintage cafe that is very likely going to be featured in my Cafe tag - post series someday when I find the time to go back. It was tiny, cozy, calm & quiet and they served food, coffee & desserts. Especially their raspberry cafe mocha was delicious. The cafe was in the middle of the busiest Myeongdong street yet they still managed to create and maintain a very calm, classy atmosphere. Great place to relax and clear your mind after a busy day of shopping and skyscrapers. 

xx,
Julia

SEOUL VACATION DIARY DAY #2

Hello! 

For the second day I had planned out a handful of culture and Korean traditions to show to my family. We started the day early and were out of our hotel room already around 9am. We took a taxi to Gwanghwamun square and went to visit the Gyeongbokgung palace first. I also planned to show them the Bukcheon Hanok village and Insa-dong, but we ended up skipping Insa-dong and spent the evening in Myengdong shopping. The weather was reaaally cold in the morning but eventually got a bit warmer in the afternoon. 

We didn't buy tickets inside because there was still a lot to see that day, so we just visited the free areas and then watched the royal guard changing ceremony that takes place right outside the gate. I'd only visited the palace once before, so the whole guard changing thing was new to me too. It was like a really strict routine of walking around in perfect formations, checking that all of them were properly dressed, et cetera. 

After the ceremony we headed to the Gwanghwamun square and under the ground where they have this small museum about King Sejong's life and achievements, cafe and a small gift shop. Even though I might not look like it, I'm a huge sucker for history (favorite subject at school, studied and read books like a crazy person) so it was really interesting. 

My favorite part was this wall where they had small pictures drawn by kids. The theme was "my dream". It was really cute to read them. They had drawn about dreams like "a professional football player", "singer", "president", "announcer", "Wife" et cetera. We then sat down at this small cafe / gift shop, had coffee, talked and bought some souvenirs for people back here in Finland. 

After the museum we headed to Bukcheon Hanok village to see old traditional Korean houses. It was something also I myself had wanted to do for almost a year but never had the time to. We never actually found the actual most popular road with a view of Namsan tower that all the pictures are taken from, but instead wandered around the tiny streets around the neighborhood. It was actually pretty nice to just walk, with no other tourists, in the middle of I don't even know where, with small traditional cafes here and there. It was absolutely beautiful. 

Afterwards, before heading back to Myeongdong we had lunch in this small Korean traditional restaurant, where you had to take off your shoes before entering. We ordered Bibimbap (the safest option when travelling with parents) and a seafood Pajeon.

In Myeongdong the rest of the evening was spent shopping (bought the most amazing new winter coat), walking around, sipping coffee and taking pictures. Especially Korean street food received lots of love from my family, hahah. Before returning back to the hotel we stopped at Paris Baquette to get something to eat and drink. Another food that was popular during this trip was "Kopan", a bread filled with sweet red bean paste and whipped cream kind of thing. 

The second day was crazy busy and long, but we also saw and did a lot. I had planned the next day destination to be Gangnam, so I could first show them the older Korea and then the next day take them to skyscraper jungle and show them the 2000's Korea. 

xx,

Julia