And the journey continues to.... Seoul, South Korea

Well, it’s been awhile. Sorry. This summer was so busy with weddings and… babies. I finally have some spare time so now I can continue on with my Asia trip. So… here we go!

After Tokyo, we flew to Seoul for five days, four nights but what we failed to notice when booking our flight was the fact that the first and last days would be spent traveling. Our flight didn’t land in Seoul until 10pm because there was a delay in Shanghai (our layover flight) and we didn’t get to our place in Seoul until about 11:30pm, which means one FULL day of traveling. Note to self: Avoid flying through Shanghai; crowded, unorganized, and no working Wi-Fi. The only bonus of flying through Shanghai was our flight to Taiwan where we were lucky enough to share the plane with High4 (story about that in my upcoming Taiwan blog). So, technically we really only had three full days in Seoul. That was a sad revelation. After knowing this, we had to make the most of our time so every day was a jammed packed schedule with us spending the night before planning the next day so we didn’t miss anything.

The place we stayed at in Seoul was booked through AirBnB, which is a site for people to list their apartment, condo, home, etc. for vacation stays. We ended up staying at BBungalow #2. This apartment was located right in the heart of everything! It was just a few blocks from the bus and train station, walking distance to Myeong-dong, Cheonggyecheon Stream, and tons of other touristy attractions. In addition to its great location the host was also very responsive and helpful. We did end up renting the portable pocket Wi-Fi from her, which came in handy A LOT of the time. Considering that neither of us had cellular service overseas, the fact that we had portable Wi-Fi was a life saver. Lastly, another great thing about this place was keyless entry. So even though we arrived really late the first night, we were able to get to our place with no problem at all. Of course, the host did send me a packet with step by step pictures on how to get to the place. With her picture map there was no way we would have gotten lost. Many, many thanks to her!!!

Since we got to Seoul so late, we just grabbed dinner at the BBungalow’s owner’s bar/restaurant. We had to pick up the pocket wi-fi anyways so we took a stroll practically around the corner to the restaurant. I was a little hesitant to walk around at that time of night on not very well lit streets but for some reason…. It felt safe! Seriously, people were still out and about doing their own thing, minding their own business. Of course we were the only ones at the restaurant but it was still a very cute bar/restaurant. The food was… okay; slightly bland but the drink was GREAT, plus the waiter was good eye candy. LOL!

The first day we spent the ENTIRE day shopping. OMG! If you are a makeup or beauty guru/fanatic, this would be heaven. We shopped mostly in Myeong-dong but there were other shopping malls and street shopping that we ventured out to as well. I probably spent half of what I budgeted for the trip in this one day. However, I’m completely happy with all my purchases. I got a lot of facial products that I can’t get in the US without having to pay international shipping costs and got a few things that my sister had requested me to get her. We met up with a couple of friends who were also traveling at the time and in Seoul at that same time. We ate, shopped some more, drank a little soju, and eventually called it a night. I plan to go back one day, just to do more shopping. H.E.A.V.E.N!

 Shopping in Myeong-dong

The next day, we went out of Seoul because I just finished the Korean drama, “My Love From Another Star” and was obsessed with Kim Soo Hyun so I HAD to go visit the place where he filmed the infamous flying to kiss Jun Ji-Hyun. <3 <3 <3

So, when I originally Googled how to get there, it estimated a crazy 4-8 hours ride or something to that extent. However, it really took maybe two hours to get there. The good thing was that even though it took a while to get there, they also had other attractions to see too so we did get to experience the lighting festival, which was sooooooooooooooooooo beautiful. It was like Christmas threw up at this park. :D

Getting there was a little complicated because we didn’t speak the language at all! According to the directions on visit Korea, we had to take the train to catch a bus to catch another bus that would take us to the different attractions. Taking the train was easy, finding the “right” bus was…. another story. We got to the bus station, ended up standing in the taxi station thinking it was the bus station before we figured out it was for taxis. Then we went to the actual bus station to take us to the inner city bus station. Sounds complicated right? Well… when we got to the inner city bus station, we had to figure out which bus was the one for the tour that would take us to the different attractions. So we asked the gentleman in the convenience store and he told us which bus to take. Turns out the bus he told us to take was more like a city bus and just happened to be making a stop at Petite France. My friend who was with me wasn’t too thrilled about all these attractions because she’s not a huge k-fan like me. HOWEVER, when we finally got to Petite France, she realized the attractions was based off the book Le Petite France, which was a book she loved. So, of course now we have two crazed fans (for different reasons) running around this place taking every photo we can. It did rain on us for a little bit but it was just for ten minutes and overall, WE LOVED it!

Photos… Photos… Photos….

We're here!!!!!!!!!!!!

View of the town that Petite France is located in.

This kdrama was playing round the clock!

Remember this spot? Where Cheon Song-yi is flown over to Do Min-Joon and they kiss! Awwwww..... *tears* *happy dance*

There he is.... Do Min-Joon! <3 <3 <3

Goodbye until next time... *muah*

After Petite France, we FINALLY got on the right tour bus and of course it was clearly labeled too. >_< Originally, they were going to cancel the lighting festival because of the rain but halfway down the road, the driver announces they were going to open it since the rain stopped. Yay us! I read about this on visit Korea and was so excited how close it was to Petite France (not realizing it was on the same tour). We got there right before sundown so we got to see the lights turn on while the sun was still out AND got to experience the entire park all lit up like Christmas! Happy place!!!! :D

Look… so pretty!

This is when the lights FIRST turned on and it wasn't dark yet.

Slowly getting darker....

And now it's dark enough!!!

Gosh.. it was so gorgeous. I can't even explain how beautiful it was. Even though it was a little cold out, we didn't care, this was just too b.e.a.utiful!

Here's a quick video of the Lighting Festival.

Finally, on our last day the goal was to go to the Four Seasons House where they filmed dramas like Love Rain, Spring Waltz, and Winter Sonata and then go to Park Shin Hye’s mom’s restaurant but the second half didn’t go as planned. Ha Ha.

Getting to the Four Seasons House was easy (follow the directions on visit Korea). I was in heaven! My friend didn't care too much about this but that just means she can be my photographer. :D Let me just say one thing about this place… BEST caramel macchiato I have EVER drank. Hands down! It was a perfect blend of coffee, sweet, savory heaven! Seriously, if I knew that I wouldn’t find another one as good as this, I would have gotten one to go. Anyways, we ate lunch there and then I made my friend follow me around to take pictures.

YUM!!!!

From the kdrama - Love Rain. Seo In-ha's stuido. :D

Yes!!! Ha Na's room.

And... In-ha's room.

From the kdrama - Summer scent

Yellow roses hung from the ceiling! (No, not my wine. It was a prop.)

Bahahaha!!! Why not? A girl can dream. :P

From the kdrama - Winter Sonata. Yes! that's the bench. :D

Beautiful painting!

And this is where all the kdrama obsession started. From the kdrama - Autumn in My Heart. In case you forgot which scene this was.... it's this one (below).

Full shot of the place. Can you believe all these dramas were shot at this tiny little place?

From here, we attempted to go eat at Park Shin Hye’s mom’s restaurant but…. it was located in a non-touristy area so getting there was difficult. We tried our best to follow the directions and our “gps” but ended up walking for about an hour around this town before we gave up. Well, at least we tried. I was hoping our friend who lived there would be with us on this day but she was busy wrapping things up so she can move back home. Oh well… until next time.

We got back on the train and headed back towards our place. As I mentioned earlier, our place was located in the heart of everything so we knew there was still lots to do there. We went to Dongdaemun, Gwangjang, back to Myeong-dong and just enjoyed more shopping. Then before heading home, we stopped by Cheonggyecheon Stream and Plaza. In case you forgot, this is where they filmed the date in the Korean movie 200 Pound Beauty. Yes! I know I’m a Korean fanatic.

The shot from 200 Pound Beauty..

 And me... LOL!

And that pretty much sums up our trip to Seoul. Oh... wait... can't forget a quick photo collage of the amazing food!

Yassss!!!!

Alright... now, that sums up our trip to Seoul. On to the next journey..... Taiwan! That blog coming soon.

Until next time, bye loves! ((muah))