The title makes you think of blooming cherry blossoms in every corner in South Korea, but I would say about 60% were green and the remaining 40% were the colourful leaves, (not too many) cherry blossom trees, and all sorts of colorful flowers. It was spring season slowly switching over to summer, although summer doesn't start till June, I guess?
Yes, I finally got a chance to visit the beautiful South Korea on the 23rd of April with my family. Actually had been incredibly impatient waiting for that day, but it finally came anyway. We stayed in South Korea for such a brief time, that is, four days and three nights, and it felt just like a finger snap and boom I'm back in my hometown again.
Day 1
The boarding time from Jakarta was 11.45pm on Wednesday. then we arrived at Incheon International Airport on Thursday morning, picked up our luggages and went straight by a bus to an area near Nami Island to eat lunch. The trip from the airport to that restaurant took about three hours so by the time we arrived, it was already lunch time.
This was out first lunch in South Korea. Chicken barbecue with some other stuff that I didn't know. I should probably mention that in every set of meal they serve in Korea, there is always Kimchi, which, I'm not really fond of. But that's alright, the chicken barbecue tasted really good. Definitely my favorite meal of the trip. I even ate two portions of rice, don't know whether I was starving, or it just tasted really good. Probably both.
After we finished eating, we went to buy a ticket to go to Nami Island, and so we arrived.
Halfway walking on Nami Island, we found a praying room in a cool little cafe so we had to stop by
After a few hours, we got back to our bus and went to a restaurant to have dinner.
...and then we got to the hotel in an area near Mt. Sorak where we stayed for a night. The hotel was located in a small town, so there wasn't really anything, but at that night, we went for a walk outside the hotel. Oh and the most awesome thing about South Korea? Free wi-fi. They're everywhere. Literally everywhere. On the streets, hotels, even Nami Island.
Day 2
The next morning we went to Mt. Sorak National Park and got to the mountain by a cable car. We hiked up but not all the way to the top, because it was hella creepy and I was waring flat shoes so I could easily trip so no thanks.
Pictures that I snapped with my phone from the beautiful view of Mt. Sorak with my brother!
Next up was lunch
We had this sort of mixed vegetables with squid in the middle, with more vegetables around it, and also on the top right corner I'm guessing it was a fishcake? See, I'm not good at describing food, but it was good.
Next was a ginseng shop. When we arrived, there was a lady welcoming us and she was explaining about ginseng in general and how korean ginseng is different from other ginseng around the world, and the purpose was basically they were trying to sell us ginseng. And god, never have I had any idea they were ridiculously expensive, wow.
Kimchi school was up next. Basically we learned a little bit to make kimchi, and tasted different kinds of kimchi. I didn't take any picture because unfortunately taking a picture was not allowed. It was allowed after te process of making kimchi, but you know when you're having fun you don't think about taking any picture, right?
At the same place, after we were all done making kimchi, we went downstairs to wear korean traditional dress, Hanbok. And we got a chance to take pictures in them, so it was quite an experience.
The next destination was Trick Eye Museum and Ice Museum. Both museums were located at the same place, but we visited Trick Eye Museum first. I didn't take many pictures while I was there.
We were looking around at Hongdae Street were the two museums were located. They were selling clothes, food, korean cosmetics, and so many more. We bought dinner for ourselves this time instead of going to a restaurant with our group like we usually would. We bought taco bell and barbecue chicken on a stick (if that makes sense?) but we didn't consider it dinner, really.
Next was Dongdaemun Market. The first store we entered in Boota (Boota is sort of like a department store but much bigger, I suppose?) was a souvenir shop. Again, I didn't take any pictures. See, every time I go shopping, or least just looking around in a shop, I can't really take time to grab my camera and take a picture.
After we were done shopping in the souvenirs shop, we went to look around other stores. There was a LOT of really cute korean designers clothes in Boota (praise korean designers your style is outta this world), but they were crazy expensive. Or, clothes in general were expensive too, so I only bought a pair of jeans.
We bought ourselves some burritos after because we were still hungry from eating only taco bell. But after that, time passed so quickly and all of the sudden we had to get back on the bus and return to our new hotel in Seoul, where we would be staying there for two nights.
Day 3
Namsangol Hanok village was our first destination. This place is basically a village of traditional houses of Namsan Valley. While I was there, a traditional wedding was held inside one of the houses and everyone was watching the wedding outside the windows. The bride was wearing Korea's traditional dress, hanbok with their usual quirky traditional makeup kinda look?
This next one is pretty exciting. We went to a korean cosmetic shop. As usual, there were typical korean brands. We didn't really spend a lot of time there, so we ended up going to a convenient store across the street to buy some snacks while waiting for the others.
After that, we went to an amethyst shop. They were selling different kinds of jewellery made from amethyst. There were also huge amethyst stones that were chopped in half where you can see, well, the gorgeous purple crystals thingy, you know what I'm talking about. I wish I could take pictures there, but unfortunately it was not allowed.
Next was Gwanjang market. This market is literally a market. Mostly they're selling food, but we were honestly kind of grossed out of how the food was cooked, and koreans eat a lot of pork too, so we didn't buy anything there.
We went to The Shilla duty free shop after. It was crazy though. I could barely walk because this place was packed with over-excited people. There were literally all kinds of makeup, skincare, clothing brands from A-Z. There was also a cafe on the rooftop, the view was nice though, but we didn't get anything.
Going to this next place was probably my highlight of the day, or even my highlight of the whole trip. Yup, Myeongdong Street. I don't know where to begin because I basically just went insane.
As soon as we got there, we immediately ate dinner because we were starving, and went shopping after. There were endless Korean cosmetics brands and let's just say I picked up a lot of stuff. That's all I can say.
Day 4
This was the last day of our trip to South Korea. The first place we went to was NSeoul Tower. Me and my brother went all the way up to the tower and saw the view of Seoul from above.
There was also this place where they attach padlocks with a name of the people they love? It's the exact same thing as the padlock bridge in Paris, that's what I'm trying to say.
We ate lunch and bought some korean snacks after.
This was our last lunch here :(
Bulgogi with noodles and the usual vegetables on the side. Oh and the dried seaweed was gooood.
After lunch we went straight to the airport and basically waited for the boarding time. I ate again because I'm always hungry like that.
We arrived at Jakarta at about 11PM and got home at 1.30AM ish?I slept at 4.15AM and only got two hours of sleep because I had to go to work at the same day. Ha. Such an amazing day.
