korea – The things I've seen. The places I've been.

For our last two days in Seoul, we didn’t have any concrete plan. We just walked aimlessly hoping to find something new and interesting. This day, we walked towards Insadong and found a very aesthetically pleasing cafe that served amazing sandwiches. Then we found a pretty traditional tea house and tried 팥빙수 (Bingsu) with Jujube tea. The shop lady said, we were sat at a very famous place where a scene from Guardian, a very popular South Korean television series, was filmed. For the K-Drama fans out there, apparently, I was sat where Kim Go-eun was sat as shown in Episode 11. The Korean Traditional Ice cream was really good though!

However for the evening, it was decided that we will spend our last evening in Seoul by the Banpo Bridge, something that we’ve missed last time because we ended up in Hanggang Bridge. It was so pretty and lively! Watch the reel here.

We continued walking aimlessly the next day before heading to the airport for our 21:40 flight to Helsinki. We passed by familiar places but also found new ones. We saw many office people walking back to their offices after lunch carrying iced americano. We saw many restaurants where the locals go, passed by lots and lots of interesting cafes, a supermarket selling strawberries and muscat grapes, an empty Gyeonghuigung Palace that was free to enter, Cherry blossoms turning into leaves…. Seems like we’ve experienced the first bloom, full bloom and the falling petals during this trip.

We ate spicy noodles at a local restaurant then had our last Bingsu at a Traditional Tea House with Citrus Tea. It was the end of this holiday and time to say goodbye to Seoul. You can watch the reel here.

Lastly for the ever repeating tips:

Good walking shoes are important. I don’t have to say more!
Carry cash! You will not regret it as some places only take cash.
TMoney is a must-have when using public transport! (IC Card in Japan)
Make use of Naver Map or Google Map for route and transportation schedule.
Having a pocket Wifi with us all the time was very good. I highly recommend it and it was not costly at all!
Buy your flight tickets early as prices tend to spike up.
Book accommodation that has free cancellation. At least, I did many cancellations in this trip.

I felt like coming back to South Korea made me do what I missed doing last year. I must also say that I’m not planning to go back to South Korea anytime soon, except if a miracle happens, like being able to go to a Kpop concert. I’m always thankful to South Korea for its great music, good food, efficient and affordable public transport, kind and helpful people, cleanliness, for making me feel safe and for allowing me to use the little Korean that I know. But Japan is still in my list. I would not mind going to Gunma (again), to visit Kanazawa and to take the train to Fukui. I would go back to relax at an Onsen and look for Eki stamps. Hopefully, this will come true! And here is my travel journal. And the very last reel is about food, the very essence as to why I travel!

After exactly a year, I was back in Seoul! I just can’t resist the thought of not seeing the Cherry Blossom season in this part of the world. So after an 11 hours and 45 minutes flight from Helsinki, we arrived in Seoul and this time we stayed in Hongdae. The initial plan was to stay near the Namsam Park and immediately climb the N Seoul Tower once we were settled at our hotel. But a few days before our flight, I learned that the Cherry blossom was not there yet. So I cancelled our hotel near the Namsam Park and decided to explore Hongdae instead. They said Hongdae is for the young and for watching Baskers perform. Unfortunately, we didn’t come across any Baskers during our one night stay in Hongdae. However, it is true that this is a place for the young as there were many young people walking in the street. There were many nice cafes though and I really like the Hot Yujacha Tea that was recommended by the staff of one of the cafes we visited. Because we were already in Hongdae, I also visited the flagship stores of both Kakao Friends and Line Friends. And one of the best things was to enjoy Banana Milk again! You can find the reel of the day here.

Here is a coffee moment in Hongdae before we took the train to Busan. When we were in Busan a year ago, I really wanted to take the ferry to Fukuoka, Japan. But we didn’t have enough time as it was our first visit to Busan. But this time, we did it. We took the overnight ferry from Busan to Fukuoka and it was an adventure of a lifetime! Please click on the links to catch a glimpse of how it was.

The next morning, we woke up in Fukuoka, Japan!