[210515-260515] SEOUL GRAD TRIP WITH CLAUDIA PART 3 (Day 3)

DAY 3

Stop #1: Breakfast take-out @ Paris Baguette 

Hahahahahah not exactly a stop but well hahaa. We took away bread and coffee to eat on the train before we set off for Songdo (to see the Song triplets LOL). 

STOP #2: Songdo

I can't remember how long exactly but it probably took us 1-1.5h to get there?

Stopped at the Central Park station and this was our first view.

All photos taken on the iphone.

These tables were set out because they were gonna have a flea later in the day.

TRIPLETS' HOUSE

omg our faces hahahaha

DAEHAN AH, CAN YOU SEE NOONA? SARANGHAEYO~ GROW UP BIG AND STRONG AND HEALTHY AND BE A GOOD BOY OK? ^^ 

Then we embarked on a very long and hot walking journey to find the mandu place where the Song family ate like dozens of trays of mandus.

Stop #3: Teacher Kim @ Songdo

 This place is also famous for their kimbaps.

And their mandus are filled with chicken, not pork, so it's something different! 

THOSE SEATS AT THE END BELOW THE LOGO WERE WHERE THE TRIPLETS SAT OK.

(lol actually when i was there i haven't even gone into the stage where i like the triplets a lot yet lol)

KIMBAP

massiseoyo! (Y)

MANDU.

we later on ordered another 2 trays.

In total, our scores were claudia 20: 10 wenyi LOL. It's yummy but I generally don't like dumplings other than xiaolongbao so...

OH AND THE TEA THEY SERVED THERE WAS SO GOOD? Liked it just like how i like dintaifung's tea hahaha but couldn't tell what tea it is and obviously couldn't ask hahaha so...I'll live without that taste until I go back to korea and find teacher kim again.

storefront

Long way back ahhaha

Stop #4: Central Park @ Songdo

 Didn't get to walk in NYC's Central Park, but get to walk in Korea's Central Park 也好!

DEERS!

Annyeong!

The triplets were on this bridge!

On our way back to the subway station, the flea had already started so the area was bustling with activity.

Families were out on picnics too so cool.

People mountain people sea.

Should have taken "ootd" (LOL) shots here leh nice ahahha like runway like that leh.

So sad we had no fate with the triplets. :(

And then we went back to Myeongdong.

Original plan was to get to N Seoul Tower, but decided against it in the end.

Stop #5: Myeongdong Shopping

Mascot sleeping hahaha

Stop #6: James Cheese Backribs @ Myeongdong

 This was an accidental find on instagram hahaha. I was just browsing the explore page and this tantalising picture of cheese ribs appeared so I went to find out more about it.

Turned out so good that it's one of claudia's favourites on this trip.

It's slightly expensive though. It was 14,000 won per pax. And the amount of ribs weren't very filling.

Stop #7: Dongdaemun shopping

SURPRISE SURPRISE!

We bought nothing. LOL

Half the time I kept wanting to shit and then i finally laosai-ed at one of the toilets LOL. 

The entire night we got no shopping mood hahaha. Saw one of the tops I bought last year still on sale lol. Maybe we went into the wrong shopping mall aiz.

It was very cold that night we were freezing everytime we were outside and the wind blew lol.

Took the free shuttle back to the hotel and that was the end of our third day in Seoul.

[210515-260515] SEOUL GRAD TRIP WITH CLAUDIA PART 2 (Day 1 part II - Day 2)

DAY 1 PART II

Stop #4: Bukchon Hanok Village + Samcheongdong

We temporarily turned into camwhores at this point in time, or rather after we manage to find the photo spots in Bukchon LOL. Very happy we managed to find the photos spots this time round, cos when i visited bukchon 2 years back, i failed LOL even after climbing all those slopes and getting a map. We did get some help this time, from those people dressed in red lol what are they called tourist ambassadors?

view from the first photo stop. 

nope, not up to standards hahaha i believe we were displeased with this view. LOL

It's really nice that the korean govt preserved these traditional houses. IMO, I think it creates a very nice mix of tradition and modernity in the country. And of course, it attracts tourists lol. 

One day, I shall visit the remaining kampong in SG. One day i will haha.

YUP, this is the view we were looking for. *hearts in eyes*

-loads of phototaking happened here-

selfie ninja using selfie stick lol hahaha "shun bian" take photo of the couple in traditional hanbok (is the guy version of the korean traditional costume called hanbok also? or got diff name?) i guess they were probably taking wedding shots in the area so got feelz

next time if very free, should bring along a tripod go everywhere in korea take nice artistic photos hahaha or singapore also can

(claudia 你听到了吗?)

As seen from the observatory terrace

After we cleared the places we wanted to visit in Bukchon, including some stone steps which were just stone steps though I believe they carry more meaning to it than just being stone steps, we went to walk around Samcheongdong while finding the subway station.

Walked till the end of the street, and no subway station in sight. Recognised the area to be near gyeongbokgung which I visited 2 years back and so we went in search of the gyeongbokgung subway station which was so freaking far away I almost thought my memory failed and we were lost. Yup probably walked so much that day (especially those slopes in the huwon and at bukchon lol) that it equated to being our entire year's worth of exercise. 

Here was when it started getting cold (during the period when we went. it was mostly hot in the day with random gusts of wind, but cooling in the evening think less than 20degC 

And then when we finally found the station, it was so quiet and ulu and quite dark cos the palace has closed for the day already so i guess nobody would have any reason to be there (other than us), it was quite scary lol cos the underpass was rather long y'know and we were two weak girls and there were random guys passing by lol we won't be able to escape if anything happened leh.

But of course, we managed to get to our next stop safe and sound for dinner woohoo.

Stop #5: Dinner @ Andongjang

While planning the itinerary, claudia requested for jjajangmyeon so we googled for korean chinese food and this place came up. We were there slightly after dinner time i believe and the place was rather crowded with koreans (sign that it's good!). Went up to second level to sit and ordered our food. The menu had chinese but i think it didn't correspond to the english/meanings of the korean names as we understood it.

jjampong for me

jjajangmyeon for her

i remember the portions to be rather huge and prices affordable.

i think i found my jjampong's spiciness to be ok, but claudia found it to be spicy.

And that ended our very packed first day in seoul omg how i wish i can be there now.

DAY 2

Day 2 was freaking hot and sunny hahahaha

Stop #1: Breakfast @ Isaac Toast

First thing we did in the morning was queue for breakfast! Interesting fact: the queue consisted of mostly females and mostly tourists lol.

ahjummas hard at work toasting bread for all of us hungry customers

wow nice shot of toast yeah love it so artistic don't you think so!

and a contrasting bad quality one shot using the iphone lolz

i forgot which one i ordered but i remembered mine had pickles (PICKLES ALL DAY EVERYDAY i don't get why people don't like pickles??) while claudia ordered the predictable ham and cheese (am i right!)

it was very hot though so rather hard to eat oh and it's very oily lolol and thus very tasty.

Very convenient breakfast choice though as it's just a short distance away from the hotel (of course longer than paris baguette)

Stop #2: Namsangol Hanok Village

Entrance

This place is FOC to enter and there were loads of school kids and elderly there.

Namsan tower as seen from Namsangol.

it was so freaking hot like burning hot here that we couldn't take it after some time (maybe 30min?) so we decided to go for lunch instead hahahaha.

Stop #3: Lunch @ Mabongnim Halmeoni Tteokbokki마복림할머니떡볶이

Came here for the first time last year, loved it so much I recommended us to come here again this time! One of my favourites which sadly can't be found in singapore.

oh i dropped my plate onto the floor here and had to ask for another one. But the ahjumma couldn't understand me so i started using a whole slew of sign language lolol and finally managed to get a new plate. must have looked retarded.

BUBBLING GOODNESS

and my favourite pickles at the side hahahaha.

this time we let it cook for too long so it got rather thick at the end and the noodles stuck to the pot lol cooking fail.

oh and i think claudia wasn't especially impressed with this. maybe i raved too much about it then the expectations were built up till too high a level to reach lolz. and now i am confused claudia did you say this was spicy but i didn't really think so, or was it the jjampong or was it both?? hahaha

STOP #4: Shopping @ Ewha 

Came here looking for nitrogen icecream but we failed LOL.

but hey look we found daehan minguk manse instead!!

at this point, i bought the daehoney one hahaha im biased like that.

coffee break @ angel-in-us where we had this view...

also visited the campus (and took photos hahaha)

Stop #5: Dinner @ Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu

This place was again filled with locals hahaha

the staff kept coming over to cook for us so we didn't have to lift a finger other than to eat hahaha.

i believe this time i wasn't too impressed with this haha

storefront

Stop #6: Attempting to shop @ Hongdae

 It was so so so so so so crowded there was a "queue" to get out of the subway station LOL luckily we followed some clever locals and walked via an alternative route to get out.

Disappointing

Disappointing.

So disappointing.

Maybe next time we will give it another try? hahahaha

anyway we struggled with the crowd and then decided the crowd was too much for us to handle. i believe we also went to take a look at 401 cos claudia wanted to hahaha. and my navigation skills really not bad if i may say so myself lololol