winter in seoul 2012

Winter in South Korea: Food, food and food (on the cheap)!

February 18, 2013bryologue 4 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

Before we visited Seoul in 2011, I was really worried over our food, as well as the amount of money we had to allocate just for it. However, we were surprised that we were able to survive that first time without having to tighten our belts and pinch the penny, and we were actually very liberal with the food we ate. So for 2012’s vacation, I did my best to take note of every food we had, as well as their prices, especially for those who might be worried about surviving in Seoul and not having to eat from convenience stores every single meal.

DAY 1

Arriving in Incheon International Airport, we had our first meal of the day from McDonald’s, right next to the heavily-decorated fountain. KFC was located on the other side BUT wow, their menu was really expensive. An average meal costs at almost KRW 10,000 for an all-chicken meal. But in McDonald’s, you can have a good breakfast in less than KRW 4,000 and that will include a cup of coffee. Yey!

Bacon McMuffin, hashbrown and coffee from McDonald’s of Incheon International Airport

Day 1 - Coffee from McDonald's Incheon International Airport

Brewed coffee from McDonald’s

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Winter in South Korea – Day 4: Lotte World and leaving Seoul

February 8, 2013bryologue 2 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

It has been three weeks since I last wrote a post regarding our trip to Seoul, and it did not help that this post concerned two things that made me unenthusiastic: Lotte World and leaving South Korea. From Simone Handbag Museum, we took the traingfrom Sinsa Station going to Jamsil station, which is connected directly to Lotte World.

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement in Sinsa Station

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement at Sinsa Station

BK Hospital plastic surgery advertisement in Sinsa Station 2

Another plastic surgery advertisement

Fountain with people sitting around it

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Winter in South Korea – Day 4: Simone Handbag Museum

January 17, 2013bryologue 7 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post*

For our last day in Seoul, we already have our itinerary in set and it was non-negotiable for us not to go to one of my must-see places. Back in October 2012, I previously expressed my anticipation of visiting Simone Handbag Museum and I could not believe that I finally had the chance to go and visit it. It was very uncommon for tourists to include a bag museum to their travel itineraries but I consider it a sin for sort-of bag lovers like myself not to drop by when in Seoul. So from Myeongdong Station, we travelled all the way to Sinsa station in the upscale Gangnam-gu to visit the museum (directions to this place can be found at the end of this post).

Simone Handbag Museum’s building in Gangnam-gu

Rainy winter - me on the bright side, while Mon in his neutral ensemble ---- and I love out transparent umbrellas we bought for only KRW 3,500!

Rainy winter – me on the bright side, while Mon in his neutral ensemble —- and I love our transparent umbrellas we bought for only KRW 3,500!

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Winter in South Korea – Day 3: War Memorial of Korea

January 13, 2013bryologue Leave a Comment

*extremely picture-heavy post

It took me a long while to continue with my Winter in Seoul series because a lot has already happened even before reaching half of January.

I do hope to document the remaining ones more frequently as I am now beginning to forget the finer details of our trip. LOL Looking back, it has been exactly a month already since our third day trip to Korea.

So, following our eventful trip to Nami Island in December 13, we had a quick lunch back in Myeongdong (it was quite a disaster, truth be told) before heading out to the War Memorial of Korea. I would not allow our trip to finish without visiting this place because it was after all, the first place we should have visited on our first day right after checking in the guesthouse had we not taken more time resting.

We had a knack for visiting war and history-related areas right off the bat, the same way we went straight to the Joint Security Area trip last year. But unfortunately, it did not materialize on our second visit.

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Winter in South Korea – Day 3: Nami Island

December 27, 2012bryologue 31 Comments

Sculptures on Nami Island

*extremely picture-heavy post*

(Applying for a visa to South Korea? You might want to read here how to quickly check the status online!)

Since we have started travelling together, Mon and I have never woken up early for the following day’s activities. We usually leave at around 10:00 AM the earliest, or even almost lunch time the latest.

However, it was different for the third day of our trip. I set my alarm clock at 7:30 AM because we had to travel all the way to Gapyeong to visit Nami Island (although the title of the post is misleading because Gapyeong is NOT in Seoul. It’s just a a bit of work to edit all the backlinks, though). We were to originally go to Petite France but we have half-decided the night before that our first priority was Nami Island, and should we have more time, then we’d visit Petite France.

Map of the distance between Seoul and Nami Island --- Winter in Seoul December 2012 - Day 3: Nami Island

(CLICK PHOTO TO ZOOM) See how far Nami Island (upper right) from Seoul (lower left) is?

I already knew that it was no good because it was more difficult to go to-and-from Petite France due to the limited (and expensive) transportation options.

Truth be told, my only motivation to visit Petite France was the supposed convenience of it being situated in the same train route to Nami Island. But since we had already half-planned going to the War Memorial of Korea after, I was honestly more excited for it.

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Winter in South Korea – Day 2: Cat Café in Myeongdong

December 21, 2012bryologue 5 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

On our first day walking around Myeongdong, the sight of the Cat Café made our hearts skip a beat because of the potential cuteness inside.

Before going to Seoul, we had Gio Cat Café in mind but has scrapped the idea because it was too far off from the place where we stayed. It was in Mapo-gu and since we did not want to visit Trickeye Museum, nor it was futile to visit YG Entertainment’s bulding again, so we scrapped the idea.

Earlier that day, Mon with Cat Café’s tarp outside

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Winter in South Korea – Day 2: Bright, snowy day

December 19, 2012bryologue 1 Comment

*extremely picture-heavy post

Continuing our adventure from the day before, we’ve learned our lesson on how to best deal with the extreme cold, and that would be putting more garments.

Granted that I had a hard time feeling myself and my surroundings with the clothes I had the day before, I thought that it would be easier to remove a garment and stash it in my bag if it gets too warm.

Timberland yellow puffer jacket, knitted Radic Color sweater, brick colored pants, black PathFinder boots

Bright, bright, bright

Knitted Radic Color sweater, V-neck blue stripes sweater, Vivienne Westwood wool scarf, brick colored pants, black PathFinder boots

I’m not ready

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Winter in South Korea – Day 1: Testing out the winter breeze

December 16, 2012bryologue 9 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

So, here starts the strenuous “Winter in Seoul 2012” series. As earlier mentioned, I will not be doing the typical day by day account of our trip, rather complement it with thematic and specific posts that can’t be elaborately explained within a ‘daily’ post, and that will include the breakdown of our budget for the trip (note: like all-in-all, with the tickets, accommodation and dues we paid in the Philipine airport, I have personally shelled out less than Php 25,000 for the whole trip. =D)

Our flight to Incheon International Airport wasn’t until 1:30 AM but we were already in NAIA Terminal 3 before 10:00 PM. When the check-in counters opened by 10:30 PM, we immediately rushed to present our itinerary ticket and paid for the Php 1,620 travel tax. The staff manning the counter also weighed in our baggages to check-in and even if they were already quite heavy, we were still almost 7 kilos short of our combined 30kg limit as we have already paid for 15kg each. It was actually our first time to check-in luggages because since we started travelling together, we only have two carry-ons each and has been used to travelling light. But as we were obviously travelling to a wintery place, our usual baggage won’t cut it.

Mon and I waiting for check-in at NAIA Terminal 3 for our flight to IncheonAt around quarter to 1:00 AM, we decided to head for the boarding gate. Going there, we had to first pay for the terminal fee, which was already lowered from Php 750 to Php 550. Then next to the immigration officer who had to take a look at our passports and ask questions on how long we will be out of the country, as well as our employment record. It took me only three minutes to finish the whole thing over, but Mon took a longer time. The immigration officer even mistook him for a Korean and immediately talked to him in English. LOL One more thing, they no longer made us remove our shoes, which wasn’t the case when we travelled last year. Good thing because I was already unknotting my laces when the security personnel stopped me.

Cebu Pacific weighing our check-in baggages and we were almost 7kg short of the combined 30kg limit

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Leaving Seoul behind

December 15, 2012bryologue 2 Comments

It has been days since I last posted on my blog because I found it extremely hard to open WordPress without going into too much detail of the things we did for a particular day.

First three days in Seoul, South Korea: : Gyeongbokgung, Namsangol Hanok Village, Nami Island and Namsan Guesthouse 2

As expected, we had a blast in Seoul, notwithstanding the amount of mishaps that happened to Mon and I within four days (like leaving my earmuffs in the guesthouse before going to Nami Island, and eventually losing them in COEX Mall on our last night before heading home! I almost cried).

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