Saturday, 3rd Sept - Arrival in Seoul
(Apple Tree Guest House, My Cute T-Money Card & The Kimchi Jiggae)
We arrived in Seoul at around 8am, exhausted and stinky. We had taken a flight together from Sydney to Singapore and after a 5-hour stopover, we flew to the Incheon Airport in Korea. After spending some time in the airport freshening up, buying T-money cards, using ATMs and such we finally made our way into the city via subway.
We were a little too early to check in to our accommodation so we decided to get some lunch. After wandering around for a little while we came across a small restaurant and decided to head in. The staff spoke no English but were very helpful as I struggled to read the menu. We ended up ordering some kimchi jiggae (soup), it was incredibly spicy but was so delicious. Helen was beginning to get a little sick at the start of the trip but after having some spice stuck in the back of her nose, she ended up sneezing unexpectedly and snotting all over herself. It was so gross but we were both laughing hysterically.
After finishing our food we made our way back onto the subway and rode to our accommodation.
After finishing our food we made our way back onto the subway and rode to our accommodation.
We're staying at the Apple Tree Guest House for 7 nights. The room was very small but our host Shawn was very nice and his puppy Coco was absolutely adorable.
The rest of the day we spent in our room, under our air conditioning and whinging about the intense heat. Definitely time well spent!
Sunday, 4th Sept - Palace Adventures!
(Gyeonghui-gung, Markets & King Sejong)
After some much needed sleep, we were ready to explore. We took a subway to Seodaemun and began to walk towards Gyeonghui-gung (Gyeonghui Palace). We walked through some markets before stopped for a photo with King Sejong. Then just a bit further up was the gate to the palace where we took quite a few photos. There were many men & women dressed in traditional Hanbok, some couples were wearing matching styles and colours. It was amusing to see the contrast of these young girls wearing Hanbok with Nike sneakers whilst using selfie sticks.
We spent a few hours walking through Gyeonghui-gung, stopping for a cold drink and some postcard shopping before making our way into the Korean Folk Museum (partly to get out of the blazing sun).
After some time we decided to head home but not before dropping into the convenience store for some cheap kimbap! It was actually surprisingly good, convenience stores here in Korea are definitely better than in Australia and FAR cheaper!
Monday, 5th Sept - Dongdaemun Markets
I had a nail appointment booked today at Sunny's nail studio (link to her Instagram here). It took us a little while to find the studio, we spent ages looking at online maps to figure out if we were heading in the right direction. I've noticed that Google Maps is a little more difficult to use in Korea, it'll show us where our destination is but can't give us any directions.
After struggling for at least 20 minutes to find the right direction we found the place pretty easily. Sunny asked me to sit at the desk and she immediately got to work. The whole process took about 2-3 hours but I was very happy with the result. I wasn't too sure what sort of design I wanted, I'd spent the past couple of months trying to decide but I came up with nothing (indecision is truly a curse). I ended up telling Sunny that I wanted something delicate, pastel and geometric and what she designed was all of those factors tied in beautifully. I'll definitely go see her again next time I'm in Korea!
After my appointment we headed off to Dongdaemun to explore through the markets, they weren't quite as busy as I had expected. But I was able to buy a new belt, I needed one as I had accidentally left my previous one on the plane. We walked through the Dongdaemun area for a few hours before deciding to head back.
On the way home we stopped at a porridge restaurant for dinner. Yet again, we had trouble translating the menu so we sat there for ages with my phrasebook and Google Translate trying to figure out what everything was until a woman approached us to take our order and saw our struggle. She laughed and explained in Korean that she'd left us with the Korean menu because she thought Helen was Korean. She then laid an English menu on the table, our jaws dropped for a moment in shock before we sighed the biggest sigh of relief and thanked her profusely. With a menu that we were actually able to understand, Helen ordered a seafood porridge whilst I got oysters and mushroom porridge. They were both amazing! They were also really quite inexpensive (only about $9-10 AUD for each) and rather than only having a measly amount of seafood these dishes were packed! Every spoonful had at least 1-2 oysters!
We then walked home with very full tummies, showered, put on a sheet mask and then went straight to bed!
Tuesday 6th Sept - Myeongdong
(Kyo Bakery & Myeongdong - Right Photo Courtesy of Helen)
This morning we stopped in at Kyo Bakery before venturing into Myeongdong for some shopping!
I walked in with a pretty lengthy list of products that I wanted to try out and I ended up purchasing almost everything on that list and more. We spent quite a few hours walking into each store, looking around and swatching makeup. I made a lot of purchases of things that I'm excited to try out.
One of the stores I wanted to visit was The Saem, just to pick up a few eyeliners but we got caught up talking with one of the sales assistants. She started showing us this snail essence cream and it felt SO soft on our skin and she started explaining these special gift sets should could give us if we bought 1 pack of the snail cream each. The creams were quite expensive so we started to use the excuse that our Korean wasn't very good to try and escape, even though I could understand most of what she was saying. But then she realised that Helen could speak Japanese and she started trying to explain all of the sales to her and we eventually caved in and bought them... It was so expensive... And after we bought them, she talked to her manager and offered us a bigger deal if we bought another pack of cream each with more free stuff! ....We caved into that too... We spent WAY more than we should have there but the woman was very persuasive and at least we have a lot of gifts to take home now.
As it got a bit later in the evening and closer to sunset, it became very busy and we decided that it was probably best to start heading back. Every time we'd come out of a store, there'd be more and more people walking through the streets and it was getting far more crowded than we were comfortable with. We considered buying some food from one of the many stalls along the streets but there was no where to comfortable seat and eat without being trampled.
By the time we took the subway home, the bags I was carrying were really starting to weigh me down and cut off the circulation to my hands.
Helen wasn't feeling very well towards the end of the night so we decided to get an easy takeout dinner and head to bed.
Wednesday 7th Sept - Venturing Alone!
(Myeongdong & Fried Chicken At Noona Holdak)
This morning Helen was feeling even worse so while she rested in bed, I returned to Myeongdong on my own. I visited MusicKorea to pick up some albums and stopped in at a few more makeup stores. I noticed that it was a lot quieter earlier in the day and none of the food stalls had been set up. It was definitely much more pleasant compared to yesterday. I picked up some throat losenges and essential oils for Helen on the way out of Myeongdong before buying some takeaway porridge at the same restaurant we'd eaten at a few nights before to bring her for lunch.
Later in the afternoon she started to feel a little better so we decided to go out for dinner. I'd heard good things about Korean fried chicken and just down the road from our guesthouse was Noona Holdak - a fried chicken restaurant, so we decided to eat there. Oh man... It was so good! If you ever have a chance to, you need to try Korean fried chicken if you haven't already. We completely cleared the plate; it was so tender and juicy with a hint of spice. Best fried chicken I've ever had~
Thursday 8th Sept - Museum Hunting and Gangnam
(A Rainy Morning in Mangwon, Museum Display & Gangnam At Dusk)
The weather was really quite rainy this morning as we made our way to the subway station, it was so nice to feel the weather really cool off. We went into Seodaemun where we quickly stopped for breakfast at a cafe before entering the Seoul Museum of History.
We spent a few hours in the museum and bought some souvenirs before hopping back onto the subway. We decided that we wanted to visit the COEX Mall but we accidentally got off at the wrong stop and ended up in the middle of Gangnam. We thought it was worth checking out anyway so we spent the rest of the afternoon walking down the streets and visiting a few shops before returning to the guesthouse after sunset.
Friday Sept 9th - Visiting Hongdae!
(Streets in Hongdae & Light Bulb Watermelon Juice)
This was our last full day staying in the Apple Tree Guest House so we wanted to visit Hongdae which was only a little bit further south.
We wanted to see some of the street art but I think we were in the wrong part of Hongdae.
We were also looking for the Hello Kitty Cafe but we weren't able to find it with the directions we found on the internet. But! We made a fun day of it anyway! We went shopping for a little while before exploring all the food stalls. I ended up buying a light bulb watermelon juice and we also stopped for some ice cream rolls at another stall. We decided we wanted to try the ice cream after watching someone else's order being prepared. It was amazing to see how it was made. Below is a video that Helen filmed of the ice cream being made! It's also up on her Instagram @98kmh
We wanted to see some of the street art but I think we were in the wrong part of Hongdae.
We were also looking for the Hello Kitty Cafe but we weren't able to find it with the directions we found on the internet. But! We made a fun day of it anyway! We went shopping for a little while before exploring all the food stalls. I ended up buying a light bulb watermelon juice and we also stopped for some ice cream rolls at another stall. We decided we wanted to try the ice cream after watching someone else's order being prepared. It was amazing to see how it was made. Below is a video that Helen filmed of the ice cream being made! It's also up on her Instagram @98kmh
We then headed back to Mangwon, picked up some more fried chicken from Noona Holdak for dinner and packed our stuff to be ready for our move to another guest house further into the city the next day.
Thank you all for reading, especially if you've managed to get all the way to the end! I will be posting the next week of adventures in the next few days so please keep an eye out.
Don't forget to subscribe and feel free to comment down below~
Also follow me on Instagram @DArcyRhyana for more photos of our trip!
Also follow me on Instagram @DArcyRhyana for more photos of our trip!
See you next time! xoxo
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