Yvette : Seoul 2016: Day 1

Hi guys I'm finally back from my 8-day long Korea trip!!☺ As promised, I'll be sharing about most of the places I visited as well as the 558 photos (?!?!) taken over the duration of the trip.

This was my first time in Seoul and I really REALLY enjoyed the trip cause there's so much to do and so many places to explore. Honestly 99% of all we did was shop and buy and eat (a lot) but we still had lots of fun!!

We paid $15,000 won ($18) per person to take an airport bus directly to our hotel, Lotte L7 Hotel in Myeongdong. Thing is, the road was blocked cause of the huge protest and the bus dropped us off halfway at a random station quite far from our hotel. :( So we had to lug our luggage and take the train like peasants sigh.

Super happy upon reaching our hotel!!

Took these vain mirror selfies cause the mirror had lights surrounding it HAHA.

We were too hungry so once we settled our luggage we made our way to the streets of Myeongdong for dinner! Myeongdong is most famous for their street food so we made sure to try some as well.

Bread baked with egg

Soft-shell crab!!! (HIGHLY recommend)

Our dinner at Red Sun, a Jajang (Army Stew) restaurant. We weren't fans of this cause instead of soup, gravy was used for the stew and it was a little too sweet for our liking.

(FYI: SHINEE's Taemin visited Red Sun before hahaha)

Red Sun

The 2nd floor, 55-14, Myeongdong 2 ga, Jung-gu, Seoul

Continuing our hunt for street food, mom with her freshly-made pomegranate juice!!

((Secretly Twice trash))

This steak is a must-try!! It's around 8,000 won ($9.60) for a small piece but it is SO GOOD.

Our last snack for the night – grilled octopus skewers

On our second day, we visited Hongdae (Hongik University Station). Hongdae is known for selling handmade and customisable goods but they sell clothes at affordable prices too!!

Stopped by this cute little cafe at Seoul Station to get our coffee before taking the train!!

Mom and I got ourselves hats once we reached Hongdae!! But I'm probably not wearing it again cause I look so bad in it and it flattens my bangs :(

Hongdae is supposedly more of a shopping street but its scenery doesn't disappoint too.

We went around looking for this famous restaurant called Hong Gi Wa Zip but we couldn't find it even after walking continuously so we settled at a random kbbq restaurant for lunch!!

Order the pork neck rather than pork belly cause it's way more delicious

Steamed egg

Took these neoprints at a small booth near the restaurant ehhe

Glad we walked into this hidden, small but very cozy flea market selling all sorts of things like phone covers, socks, toys and jewellery.

Hongik has one of the prettiest autumn trees in Seoul :")

Hongik University

Probably my favourite part of Hongdae – the roadside stalls! On weekends, students will set up booths at the atrium selling original, customisable pieces like earrings and keychains. Quite a few booths do caricature-drawing too!!

Got 2 pairs of ear studs from this talented designer. Her brand is called LAMB if I'm not wrong!

After walking around for a few hours, I found a hair salon called Soonsiki that looked quite trendy so I got myself actual Korean air bangs HAHA.

Soonsiki Hair

5th Floor, Seokjeon Building, 29 (Seogyo-dong) Waoosanro 21-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul

Had our dinner – chicken and beer!!! Seoul is quite famous for this so be sure to try it out at least for one meal.

We decided on the mixed platter but the spicy was too hot for me LOLOL. We didn't quite like the chix cause it wasn't as crispy as the 4 Fingers kind. :(

Ended our day by visiting Dongdaemun! Chilled at Tomntoms Coffee for about an hour or so before doing late-night shopping wheee. I didn't take any photos in the malls but I got to visit Migliore and Hello APM before they closed at around 11 pm.

Most malls in Dongdaemun sell clothes at relatively cheap prices so be sure to drop by that area if you're one for shopping!!

VERY nice mocha

Cinnamon sugar pretzel

Tomntoms Coffee

24-14 Munbae-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Just in case you're wondering why we visit so little places in a day, my family wakes up at around 10+ every morning and we end up leaving the hotel room around 11 am HAHA. We had our brunch at Bonjuk, a well-known porridge restaurant in Seoul.

It rained in the morning so we had to get an umbrella whooops

Noob us took about half an hour to get to Bonjuk even after using Google Maps?? Bonjuk has a house rule where each person has to order a bowl of porridge but each bowl is really big so we couldn't finish sigh.

Beef mushroom porridge – 8,000 won ($9.60)

Oyster mushroom porridge – 9,000 won ($10.80)

Ginseng chicken abalone porridge (This was good!!) – 15,000 won ($18)

Bonjuk

65-2 Chungmuro 2(i)ga, Jung-gu, Seoul

We visited Go-to mall located at Express Bus Terminal station after the meal. Stuff sold there was quite affordable, most clothes priced around 5,000 ($6) to 10,000 won ($12).

Stopped by a stall selling french fries after hours of shopping! (Yep, 99% of what we do is legit eating and shopping).

Sour cream with fries!! Weirdly the sauce was sweet though

Our next stop – Common Ground, a cargo container shopping mall. It's located at Konkuk University station, exit 6 being the nearest exit. I was quite upset when we reached cause the sky turned dark and I thought our photos would turn out crappy but nope!!