[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 6

Today is a really bright day, the sun was shining so bright and we are all set to go to 하늘공원 for some sightseeing! It is located at the World Cup Stadium station. But a lot of walking is required although this is the nearest station. The area was so big, it was kinda tiring to walk to the Sky Park entrance. As soon as we are out of the exit of the station, the World Cup Stadium is on our right hand side.

The stadium is so so big. And there are literally 4 area of Parks and stadium where the Sky Park is located diagonally opposite of the World Cup Stadium. I tried to follow the direction given online by people who went before but it was hard to follow. So I used Google map to locate the park and walk for at least 30 minutes. The place is really big so wear some comfortable shoes so you can walk! 

As soon as we enter the entrance of the Sky Park, you can either buy a one way or round trip ticket up to the park by cart or walk. It cost 3000won for a round trip ticket. If you choose to walk, get ready to walk for 1.4km! I really recommend you to take the cart because there are lots of uphills along the way. 

It took me 8-10mins to reach the park by cart. It might take around an hour or less if you were to walk up. 

The park is beautiful although it looks even better during autumn where all the grass turn brown. The grass we're so green and the sky was so blue. There are a lot of pathway for visitors to walk into the grass area to take pictures. You don't have to worry about queuing up to take photos at a certain spot because every spot is photo worthy! The only con for me was that it was so sunny that day and I didn't bring my sunglasses and suncream with me. 

It was so tiring yo walk around, sweaty, and trying to take pretty pictures while posing. Thank God there are pictures that turned out well. If you continue to walk towards the end of the road, you can step up to a platform where you can see Hanging river and the whole view of the city. It was amazing! 

After taking pictures for a few hours, I went to Hongdae for dinner! It was so crowded as it is a Sunday. The weather was just nice by then and people ate picnicing on the grass. It is really nice to see people spending time with friends, family and lovers together. I can't believe Koreans still do that! I don't see any Malaysians who like to go picnicking on weekends. Maybe because of the weather. 

The kimchi jjigae restaurant is a restaurant where Running Man went before. Not sure which episode but since they went, the food should be okay. The stew comes in a portion of 2, minimum. It costed 14,000won for one 왕길비 김치찌개. It tasted quite okay and I shared it with two other people. So it is fair to say that it is almost a 3 pax portion. The lady working in the restaurant is a Chinese women who speaks Korean. She knew we we're foreigners so she spoke Mandarin and explaining and describing the side dishes she served to us! How friendly!

Hongdae was extremely crowded by evening. I was on my way to LINE X Elcube at Hongdae. It is another branch of LINE FRIENDS where there is cafe and clothing store. There is also a big Browny at the entrance. However, the one at Shinsa is much prettier.

I'm sure many cosmetic lovers have heard about Style Nanda, a famous cosmetic and clothing shop located at Hongdae. I've heard that it looked pretty at night tho taking ootd pictures are better during the day. Went there at night purposely for 3CE but end up buying only an eyeliner. Their lipstick colours are nice too.

Selfie outside Style Nanda with their lipstick on :)

However, the clothing wasn't quite much of my taste and it was a bit pricey.

For dessert, I wanted to visit the Hello Kitty cafe again but sadly I went to the wrong direction and it took me almost an hour walking. It was so tired and I gave up. It was around 10pm so I headed home and ready to pack up my stuffs as I am heading to Song do tomorrow!

I have packed all the soiled clothes that are needed to be washed. The accommodation at Song do doesn't provide laundry service so I have to wash all my clothes here. The laundry took forever. It took 1hr 30mins to wash.

Totally worn out, didn't have enough sleep at all. I have to wake up early tomorrow to check out and be on my way to Song do. It would be a long train ride before I could reach Incheon. There are a total of more than 20 subway stations with numerous transits to reach Incheon.

[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 5

Woke up really late today around 11am. By the time i am done cleaning up, make up and dress up, it was already 1pm! I had an appointment with one of the 고시원 이모 which I have found through Facebook and I have planned to stay there if I were to successfully apply to study there in this coming December. I went and look the room and to make sure it was okay to stay! 

The appointment was around 5pm so I went to Ewha again, this time, to take beautiful photos in the Ewha Women's university! It is a famous landmark in Ewha as the university is one of the top 10 university in Korea and the university building itself is a masterpiece! 

Well, look at the pictures and you will know! Many tourist came with friends and took photos here. The weather was bright and sunny, it was a good day to take pictures in the open air.

There are a lot of people walking around, especially students of Ewha and also tourist. If you are a shy person, I think it would be hard to take pictures here because as soon as you start to pose, the eyes beside you will just start to peek or just stare, because they want to learn new poses too haha. My pictures might look like there are not many people but trust me, there are like a flock of tourist constantly walking pass you and photo-bombing your beautiful ootd shots.

For lunch, I stopped by a random restaurant at Ewha called 김네. I had ice cold noodle and one donkatsu kimbap (pork cutlet rice roll). It costed 6000won and 4000won. This is the first time I has cold noodles, the noodles are so so so chewy and slippery. You can just swallow without chewing. Chewing was hard because it was too chewy. On the other hand, the kimbap was delicious! There were pickled radish, cucumber, carrots, eggs, vegetables and pork cutlet in it. It was so big. The cold noodles came with side dishes like kimchi and yellow picked radish.

After lunch, I went to meet up with the 이모님. The 고시원 is located at 신촌. I went there around 5pm and went in to look for 이모님. She was already there, waiting for me! 이모님 couldn't speak any English, it was a bit hard to communicate at first but the more I talk to her in Korean, the more she can understand me.

Random street photos at Sinchon

She showed me around the room, and explained all the stuffs in the room. She showed me the toilet, the bathroom and also the kitchen. 이모님 said that eggs, rice, ramen and kimchi stew is always provided in the kitchen and you can take it for free. There are also some stove, pots, microwave and toaster to make your own food.
I told her I am planning to go in December and she said normally they will have rooms available. And although it is winter that time, the room will be working warm because it is located in the heart of the building. And during summer, there is air conditioning too!

이모님 asked me to drop her a message when I am about to come so that I could secure a room. She handed me her phone so that I could add her kakaotalk and also add mine into her phone. But her kakaotalk was a bit different than mine, I didn't know how to search for her ID and how to use her phone to search my ID. She then asked her son to help. She said her son is a university student.

After a few bumps here and there, I finally added her. 이모님 praised and said my Korean was good (I'm sure it was just a nice gesture of her to say that haha), and asked me how did I learn. Well, obviously through dramas. She asked me what is my name, i said 효리 because i don't think she can pronounce my English name, then she said oh not 이효리? We have 이효리 in Korea! Yeah, that sexy goddess 여신. She then waved me goodbye and and took her business card.

After that, I went to a nearby coffee shop called Holly's coffee for some drinks. The weather was kinda hot so I decided to buy some ice beverage. I ordered the cold brew and sat down to relax. It was so nice to be able to spend time sitting in a cafe, sipping coffee, watching people walking around, and just look at everything moving on its own. it was a nice feeling.

I went to back the guesthouse and asked the receptionist to order me some black bean noodle 짜장면 for dinner. It tasted okay, not really delicious as I have had better ones. It costed 5000won, no delivery fee and it came within 5 mins. Talk about punctuality!

Ending my post with more selfies. *alert*

*feel free to share the photos but please CREDIT, thank you :)*

[HRKRTRAVEL] Seoul - Day 4

I went back to Ewha today for some small shopping, again! Compared to other places like Gangnam, Myeongdong and Shinsa, Ewha has the best clothes at the best price!

I've bought a few new clothes and dresses, spend around 30,000won on them. I went out a bit late today and had instant noodles for brunch! 진라면 매운맛 is very delicious, kinda taste like 신라면 but a little less spicier.

I spend almost the whole afternoon at Ewha, shopping and sightseeing.

After walking and shopping around Ewha, I went to Anguk, for dinner! I'm sure any YongSeo couple fans would know this place called 별다방 미스리 Miss Lee cafe.

They have this small game machine that is so petite I couldn't fit the chair properly

It is a really cozy and cute restaurant where they serve lunch boxes! Koreans used to bring their own lunch boxes to school for lunch break. It is a gold stainless steel lunch box, filled with rice, fried egg, fried kimchi and some laver. You are supposed to close the lid and shake the ingredients to mix them together. Once you open it, it would be well-mixed! 

This lunch box is called 추억의 도시락 which means 'Memory lunch box or Lunch box of memories', I guess Koreans dont reallt bring lunch boxes that looks like that to school anymore. I ordered the lunch box which costed 6,500won and 전투 떡볶이 which costed 5,900won. Both tasted really good!

There are a lot of people who visited the place left small cute notes and tied them around the restaurant. Some wrote on the walls too! There are a lot of foreigners who went and left encouraging notes for their friends and family, marking down their footsteps in Korea.

There are some cute benches with the Miss Lee doll sitting on it. It is cute!

After having dinner, I bought a hoddeok by the street. It tasted awful! It taste like it has been deep fried and put aside for a really long time and re-fried it just to make it warm. The inside of the hoddeok was tough and oil and there are some oil-smell I don't even know how to explain. It really tasted horrible.

After having dinner, I went back to my hostel and clean myself up. I was so tired although I came back early but couldn't move a muscle until 11pm.

*feel free to share the photos but please CREDIT, thank you :)*