Wow, this post is so long overdue. I still have my Japan blog to do, and I’ll try to finish it all this weekend.
Day 5.
For our 5th day, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace first. Locals and online reviews said that this is the most famous palace in Seoul. This is also where they shot most of the scenes in Jewel in the Palace and palace scenes from popular K Dramas.
It was really surreal as I only saw these places in TV. Not to mention that I really loved Jewel in the Palace and most of princess story K-Dramas like My Princess and Princess Hours.
You could see girls there wearing Hanbok while taking pictures around the palace. Inggit is acoe. I should have rented that costume too! Huhu.
Anyway, the place was really big and was breathtaking. The palaces and rooms still stood up where they were exactly built and was reconstructed. It was like you were transported back in time.
We took a free English guided tour, and learned a lot about the history of the palace and of Korea in general. The tour guide was a sweet and patient Korean lady in traditional uniform as you can see in the photo below.
We learned about who’s quarters should be nearer which royal family member. They also showed us how they heated the floors back then.
There was like a small hole at the side of each room where they put charcoals inside, this connects to sort of vents inside the room.
The guide also showed us the royal kitchen where Jang Geum used to make meals and cook for the royals. We were too excited about this part! Haha.
After a long walk inside the palace, our feet were so tired that we went to Namdaemnun Market, which is like the Divisoria of Korea and went on with walking AGAIN. Hahaha.
I did not get to take photos here as I enjoyed shopping too much. Haha.
Day 6.
Everland day!
Everland was like the Disneyland of Korea, and it is situated outside of Seoul. We had to take a 1 hour train ride to reach the area, and man, it was cold! Again, it was supposed to be Spring already, but it felt like winter! Hahaha.
There was a lot of fun rides here but I again, I was wearing the wrong outfit and I just want to go inside establishments as it was damn freezing! Hahaha. I was wearing shorts with tights inside (which is how some girls dress in Seoul, as I have observed). I told myself that my legs can take it, they are tough! But no… oh no… they froze like chicken legs. Hahaha
In the afternoon, there was also a parade just like in any other theme park. We sat ride beside the road and got to watch the parade up close.
There was also a big tree made out of flowers. This is part of their spring special. There was a garden full of wonderful and colorful flowers.
It was a perfect spot for a mini photoshoot so you can imagine how many shots we took from this place. ;)
We spent a whole day in Everland trying to ride every single attraction. But because of the intensifying cold, we went home before dark.
Funny story though, at the train station, we kind of got lost as we cannot remember which line we took going to Everland. We spent about a good 30 minutes in the train station letting every train coming in pass by because we were not sure if that was the correct one. We did find it out though, and we got home a bit late.
Day 7. (Last full day!)
We didn’t want to tire ourselves much out on our last day so we saved a nearby trip for this day.
We went to Hongdae to go and have coffee at the Coffee Prince shop from the same named K-Drama from when I was still in highschool.
I was so excited as this was the place I wanted to visit ever since the drama exploded in the PH, about 6-7 years ago. Unfortunately……… the place was closed on that day, and I was so sad. I just had some pictures taken outside of the store though, which was not that bad.
After that, we went back to Myeongdong to spend the last of our Korean Wons and buy more pasalubong for friends and family back home.
I discovered this great BB cushion foundation from Missha which retails at 25.000 KRW. I loved this one so much that I asked a friend that also visited Korea a few months after to buy another one for me as I finished it all up so quickly.
I also got an Adidas Originals sneakers which was so cute and lightweight and retailed for about 3,000 Php.
While around Myeongdong, Julia and I tried more of the street food and they were all good! There was fried bananas, takoyaki, bread, fish cake (which is my favorite by the way).
By the end of the day we ate some more Samgyupsal, one last before we head home for Manila.
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Overall, it was an unforgettable trip and I really cherish the time we spent together as a family. Since as I mentioned, we are not always together at home, this was a one of a kind bonding experience that all of us enjoyed.
We did travel again abroad after this. We went to Japan for 8 days, which will be featured on my next blog posts! I promise to finish it by this weekend. :)
I did not detail everything here as I do not like to follow a format for this blog post. I wanted it to feel like I was simply telling a story. :)
If you have questions though, do not hesitate to hit me up and ask away.
Thank you for reading my extremely long blog post and bearing with my one year delay. Hahaha!
See you at my next post!
xx
V Sayson 