Seoul Travel Diary - Part I

I don't even know where to start. It has been a wonderful and unforgettable 6 days in South Korea with my 'Seoulmate' Trish. This trip was full of first time experience, encounters with interesting strangers, sleeping in terminals, getting lost in the subways, warming up in coffee shops, and a lot more remarkable stuffs that has made this really 'the dream travel'

Our flight was scheduled 7AM of Sept 03, which means we have to be at the airport by 4AM, and we did arrive early however on the wrong terminal. We did not get the memo that we will be departing at NAIA3, instead of NAIA4. We hurriedly grabbed a cab again and went to the right terminal, where we met this foreign guy named Allan, who had the same experience like us. We later found out that he works at Seoul, and just had a quick vacation in the Philippines.

It was a more than 4 hours flight to Incheon Airport, where we instantly got lost since we did not know that we have to transfer thru train to get to the main airport. Good thing that Allan, went over to us again and offered to guide us. After passing through the immigration, he showed us the way to the AREX (the express train to get to Seoul), and he even paid for the AREX fee. Funny how people can surprise you, at first I honestly felt scared because it's hard to trust strangers, but he turned out to be just a friendly guy with a great story, which made me realize that it's a necessity for all of us to escape the daily grind from time to time, to have some fun, discover life and explore the world while you are young.

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When we finally arrived at the Chungmoro Station (the nearest station to our guesthouse), we had to ask a local there in a gas station which resulted in a conversation made up of one word sentences and frantic gesticulation. Eventually, he gave me a phone, and had me talk to someone in the guest house who gave me instructions on how to get there. I learned that Koreans may seem cold and snob at first, which is probably because of the language barrier, but deep inside they are warm, friendly and helpful.

I wish I'd taken the weather forecast a bit more seriously, we did not expect that we would be welcomed with a heavy downpour, but unexpectedly the rain turned out to be one of the beautiful things that happened because this made us buy a clear, plastic umbrella, and really that's the dream!

I intentionally booked a guest house that is near Myeong-dong (the shopping center in Seoul) since Trish and I are both fan of Korean cosmetics. So after checking in, we hurriedly walked to the streets of Myeong-dong.

This place is such a feast for the eyes. There is like a hundred of skin stores. When you enter a store, they will already give you free samples of their products, and when you did buy something, they will even give you more freebies. Myeong-dong gave us such a warm welcome, if I could I would stay there forever.

Trish and I got so excited walking in and buying in every store, we forgot we haven't eaten anything yet. So when we passed by a cute coffee shop called hara donuts, we finally remembered to have a break and eat.

After a while we decided to have an authentic Korean dinner. I tried the omurice while Trish had bibimbap. It was really good, at that time I still can not believe that I'm actually eating Korean food in Korea, the feeling is surreal.

Myeong-dong gets even more alive and crowded in the evening which got us even more hype since the stores start to light up and everything get so attractive. Aside from the stores, there are coffee shops everywhere. For coffee lovers like us, it has always been "the dream" to sip in our favorite cup in here.

At the famous Holly's coffee shop

Being my first time and one of my dream destination, it was everthing I expected it would be and more.

Take off from Myeong-dong shopping.

♥ Ade 

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