Seoul Day 5 & At Tomomi's Day 0 ~ Gimpo Airport, Seoul City Hall & Namdaemun Market; Sakurai

My last da in Korea... I got up in time and enjoyed my 'American breakfast' for the last time XD

I checked out and made my way to the subway station. I had to change one time but I was lucky and there was wether an elevator or escalator so I was able to transport my luggage quite comfortable then. The subway to the Airport took a bit of time and I got really sleepy so I kept my eyes shot. Then someone tipped me and tried to tell me something but I didn't get it. Then I realized we had already arrived at Gimpo Airport... and the doors were closing. Damn, missed the station >.<

So get off on the next one, elevator up otherside elevator down and wait for the train back^^;

I could say I was awake then. But nevertheless I reached the airport.

airport from the outside

I checked in at the self-check-in but unfortunately I couldn't drop-off my luggage this early >.< And lockers were too small... but they had another baggage storage so I could leave my trunk and my hand-luggage there for 7500 Won. Quite some money but what should I do.

I had planned to meet Kim at 11:30 h at the station of her working place but I wouldn't make it in time so I had to mail her that it will be around half an hour later. Finally I could go back to town.

Kim was waiting at the station exit when I arrived. But she told me that she had even less time than expected, so we didn't nowhere but she invited me for lunch with some collegues. We went to have lunch in the canteen of KDB (a huge Korean Bank). You could choose between to menues: pork with kimchi or fried rice with chicken. We both took the chicken XD

You also got three sidedishes with the meal. It was not bad.

lunch

the canteen

Shortly after us the other collegues arrived. Of course I can't remember the names (I'm really bad in this...) but it were two men and one women. The men could also speak English with me. They were really interested why I have visited Korea.

Atfer lunch they also invited me for a coffee and we had a little photo shooting in the entrance hall because Kim and I wanted to make pictures of our group with our cameras XD

It was so lovely and really sad to say goodbye. But finally I also had to say goodbye to Kim Q.Q I am so thankful to her but I know that we will meet again at the Book Fair in Frankfurt!

I still had around two hours left before I had to head back to the airport so I decided to go to the City Hall. The lady from the Palance Museum yesterday recommended that area and I thought this wouldn't take much time.
From the station one exit directly leads to the citizien's entrance of the city hall.

next to the entrance

I expected nothing special - I mean it is a City Hall - but I was really impressed! There was a picture gallery, a chill-out-area, a media corner and a bookstore in the basement.

the chill-out-area was really inviting

Through the bookstore I got up the stairs to the ground floor and the real entrance hall. Currently there was an exhibition about plants and green environment. Everything looked really impressive.

view towards the roof

You could also take the elevator to the 11th floor. Besides offices there was a café located for the public. Unfortunately you hadn't got a free over the city >.<

café on the top

But I liked the nterior very much. Now it was time to take a view from the outside. I head to observe that the City Hall was really new.

City Hall & National Library

The old building in front of the City Hall is the National Library. The building truly gave a contrast but this has also a symbolic character.

One hour left so I decided to take a quick view over Namdaemun Market which was located down the main street.

Namdaemun (=South Gate)

The market streets were crowded but there were shops for everything. I liked that and it was even better than Dondaemun Market, so I was a pity that I hadn't got much time for strolling around and shopping T^T

Nevertheless I bought some things XD New stickers for my purikura book, a writing book (for Asian letters) and a set of Korean silverware (chopsticks and spoon) and a typical silver rice bowl (I even got that 500 Won cheaper).
But then it got quite late and I had to hurry a bit^^; I arrived at the airport a few minuites past 5 pm and my flight would start at 17:45 h. I just made it in time XD The boarding time started even delayed. So I took my flight with Asiana Airlines from Gimpo Airport to Kansai Airport. It takes one and half an hour. For this short time the plane was really well equipped. I could watch movies and series and so on, so I started to watch the movie '47 Ronin' in German! We even got a cold bento as dinner. Everything went perfect and I savely arrived at Kansai Airport...

~*~

But I got some problems at the passport control. I couldn't fill in anything in the adress field of the immigration form because I couldn't remember Tomomis adress and I even hadn't the adress of any of our hotels in mind^^;
So a woman asked me to leave the waiting line and wait for her while she is resolving this case. I really thought the worst and that I even had to wait very long till I get through the control...
But after one minute she came back with a hotel guide and jut wrote down some hotel adress. She lead to the front of the waiting line and I was the next one to be checked XD That was fast *lol*
I even got my luggage quite quickly and the immigration control also didn't want to check the content of my trunk O.o Really weird but so I got through everything really fast.
At the exit Tomomi and her farther were already waiting for me. They fetched me by car, I was really thankful for that so I hadn't got any problems with my luggage. It took a bit more than an hour to get to Tomomis house. Her mother even served us dinner this late (it was already half past 9). Rice, Miso Soup, vegetables (tsukemono), fried salmon and salad. I was so warmly welcomed I could have cried Q.Q
Tomomi even bought me some shower gel, shampoo and face washing cream >.< So I could take a relaxing shower before I went to bed.

Tomomis presents to me

Tomomi showed me my own room and she even gave a Star Wars book of Episode III as a welcome present!!! I was so touched T^T
I am sure I will have wonderful days here! And the first thing to do is: sleeping out XD Then I'm excited what Tomomi will show me in her area!

Seoul Day 4 ~ National Museum, Gyeongbokgung & Seoul Folk Flea Market

Hello again!

This is about my forth day in Seoul. Time is running but I got used to the life here. Today's schedule is full again. I planned my day after the announced guided tours at the places I want to visit. So first I went to the National Museum of Seoul where a guided tour would start at 10:30 h. An exit of the subway just lead to the entrance of the museum so I had no problems in finding it.

National Museum

It was quite huge. There were many signs leading towards 'Exhibition Hall' and 'Tickets', so I first I searched the ticket counter... but I found any O.o

So inside the Exhibition Hall was an information desk, even separated in Japanese, Chinese and English. So I asked the 'English lady' first 'Where can I get a ticket?'; her answer: 'You don't need any ticket, it's free.' I must have looked at her like she's a ghost or something... but she wasn't kidding. At once she also adviced me of the guided tour which would start in 15 minutes. So I put my bag in a locker and just took my camera with me, I waited in the entrance hall till the tour would start. When someone was standing at the meeting point who looked the guide I talked to him. I was right and an older man would do the tour. Surprisingly I was the only one taking part, so I had my personal guide^^

So besides the information about the museum and Korean history and culture we could have a little smalltalk as well, that was really nice and relaxing. The tour took one and hald an hour and was totally interesting! He really told some interesting details about history, some Korean manners and religion (buddhism, konfuzianism and christianity).

The most impressive thing was the big stone pagoda in the middle of the museum.

stone pagoda

After the tour I also took some time walking around by myself. I explored the section about the Buddhas more and there was also an exhibition about other Asian cultures like Japan, India and the Middle East.

It was already 1 pm and at 3 pm the guided tour in the castle of Gyeoungguk would start. So I had lunch in a little shop near the museum. This time I really found a dish which wasn't hot spicy: rice with black-bean sauce. But of course you could Kimchi as a side-dish for free XD It was really delicious.

my lunch

From the museum I took the subway to Gyeongbokgung. It was just about 2 pm so I decided to also take a view in the National Palace Museum in front of the palace. I got the information that the tour in the palace would start at 15:30 h and that there would also be a guided tour in English in the museum starting at 14:30 h taking about an hour. So I already got my ticket for the palace and strolled around the museum and already took some pictures so that I can concrete on the tour later. In-time I was ready for the tour. This time an American family - the parents were originally from Korea and live now in San Diego with their two children - also took part. But it was very personal again. One of the girls asked many questions she was really curious. But it was funny and we got to chat a little. The guiding woman was also very relaxed and the tour was really interesting as well. She stopped in time because we told her that we all wanted to take the tour in Gyeongbokgung.

entrance hall

picture of ancient Seoul

So we arrived in time for the next tour. I must confess that Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung look quite similiar and what the woman told was quite the same in many aspects. But it was nice nevertheless and so I could contrate more on taking pictures during the tour so I would have more time afterwards for other things.

main palace

garden pavillion

But I was really exhausted so I hadn't got any motivation for going shopping on Namdaemun market. But I have read that there's a Folk Flea Market near my station so I returned to my area and decided to stop by. The market should have opened till 18:30 h and I arrived at the station one hour before... but I was too hungry and exhausted that I take a short break at a nice café and owe me a chocolate latte and a piece of mousse au chocolat cake X3

chocolate X3

But then I didn't even take 5 minutes to get to the Flea Market. It was huge hall and the market was spread over two floors. Unfortunately over half of the stands had already closed U.U

Flea Market entrance

view inside

But they really sold nearly anything: clothes, vintage, things for camping and outdoor activities, furniture and little goods, liquor and so on. There was even a little food court located but it smelled not so good so I didn't want to eat there.
But so I left with nothing. On the way back to my hotel I brought an onigiri and Matcha Icecream for dinner. Unfortunately I couldn't read what's in the onirigi, so I just took one. I prepared myself for Kimchi and tada ~ it was Kimchi taste XD

Matcha Icecream & Onigiri

I also bought a package of rice cake. I couldn't leave without having trastes at least one version of the famous rice cakes. There I took the ones which looked best *lol*

colourful rice cake

It has really an usual taste but it was delicious nevertheless. It was my snack while watching a super exciting volleyball game of the Korean Women League on TV ^.^

Tomorror will be my last day T.T
But I will meet Kim once again but first I have to try and get my luggage to the airport ~ somehow...

Seoul Day 3 ~ National Assembly, Myeong-Dong & N Seoul Tower

Today I met my friend Kim again. She made an arrangement to visit the National Assembly in Seoul for 10 o'clock, so we wanted to meet at the station's exit at 9:30 h. But the train tool longer than I expected, then I took the wrong train and in the end I just arrived at 10 am at the station...  that was somehow not my day and it could just become better >.<

Fortunaley Kim had waited for me and we could still enter the Assembly building and participate in the little guided tour. We were allowed to enter the Assembly hall where the parlament usually held their meetings. We should take a seat in the spectators' places. It was a bit funny because besides us there was a class of students of law from the university. So I felt a bit like a student *lol*

The woman introducing the institution only spoke Korean but Kim translated the main aspects for me. The most interesting part was that they have build exact the same hall on the other side of the building. The reason is really touching: it was build for the day when Korea will reunite so that the new Assembly of today's both countries will have enough space. This is a real touching idea and shows that South Korea - or more correctly the Republic of Korea - wants to end the war and be reunited again!

National Assembly

Assembly Hall

But the whole building was really nice and has got many symbols in its achitecture. For example the dome represents the sun (that's why it's also held in orange) and the both Assembly halls show to the North and to the South to represent the two parts of the country. --> one of the officers told us this. He could even spoke a bit German but we had just a little small talk in English XD

the 'sun' above Korea

me & Kim in front of the first law

Then we left for the Assembly Museum which was nearby. But we could take a small shuttle bus which brought us there. Besides us a group of four girls from Thailand took the bus as well. We chatted a little bit; one of the girls studies in Seoul and the other ones came to visit her. One of them was even learning German, I was really surprised.

The museum was also nice but I was disappointed that everything which is exhibited is only explained in Korean. How should foreigners learn something about Korean politics and history when it's only shown in Korean? Kim was wondering about that, too.

But there were mainly things about former presidents but really good exhibited!

view in to the entrance hall

me sitting at the president's desk, ha ha

in fron of the Assemly hall ~ I seem to be so tall...

speaker's desk in the children's room XD

After that we had still a little time before we would meet another German woman from the Book Fair of Frankfurt. Her name's Ursula and for a coincidence she was also in Korea at that time but different from me she was there because of business. Kim and collegue arranged a meeting in her office and reserved a restaurant for lunch.

But before Kim invited me to a coffee in the museum's café and we also looked around the gift shop.

Finally we headed back to her office. I was a bit excited to see Kim's woking place and even meet some of her collegues^.^

Ursula also arrived a few minutes after us.

f.l.t.r.: Kim's collegue, Ursula, me, Kim

Kim's office

After Ursula and Kim had talked a bit about their publishing business, the four of us went to lunch in an nearby restaurant. Kim's collegue had made a reservation and it was really nice! It was an traditional Korean restaurant where you have to sit on the floor. We had many dishes were offered to us: many sidedishes like different kinds of Kimchi, mushrooms and sea weed, also three different soups, fish anf of course everyone got a bowl of Korean rice. I love this kind of Korean buffet *_*

our opulent laid table

After lunch we had to said goodbye to each other. My plan for the afternoon was to visit Myeong-dong, another lively shopping district. There I also wanted to visit a Nanta Theatre. Kim was so kind and made a reservation for me for the show at 5 pm (ticket costs 4000 Won). So before the show started I had still some time left to stroll around the streets.

Myeong-dong street

In time I entered the Nanta Theatre. Nanta is a non-verbal comeday - so I wouldn't have problems with the understanding - and it is a kind of cooking show^.^

Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos of the show but I can really recommend this! It was really funny because they not only 'cooked' (you can't even call it that) but also danced, act and made just real good comedy. They also involved some people of the audience to 'help' with the show. I liked it a lot!!!

view to the stage from my seat

But the day wasn't over yet. Quite spontanously I got the idea to visit the N Seoul Tower afterwards to get a night view over Seoul. The tower is located on the Namsan mountin in the middle of the town with is very close to Myeong-dong area. I could walk to the cable car station which should take up the mountain. This was relaticely expensive (8.500 Won for the roundtrip) but I really wanted to go there. The cable car drive was really and offered alreday a nice view over the city.

At the top I was already almost standing in front of the enlightened tower. 

N Seoul Tower

With a fast elevator und got on top of the Tower (entrance fee was 9000 Won). Der even made a 3D show inside the elevator, that was really funny. At the top you really a beautiful view over  the city and the nightlights. But unfortunately it was hard to make photos because of the lights inside >.< They were reflected by the windows...
But I think I got some nice shots nevertheless ;D

nightview over Seoul I

Nightview over Seoul II

Back in the city I got yet a little hungry. Before going to the theatre I passed by a little restaurant which was specified for Matcha and Azuki (red beans) sweets and drinks. So I thought this would be a good place to go and try some delicious things^.^
That place was called 'Green Station' *lol*

Green Station

It was really hard for me to decide for something, everything looked so well >.<
Finally I chose 'Matcha Cream Dread' and a 'Azuki Latte'. It was sugared toast with Matcha Cream and Azuki beans with cooked milk. It was totally delicious *_* (unfortunately quite expensive but I couldn't resist XD Matcha Cream Bread: 6.500 Won, Azuki Latte 4.500 Won)

Finally I returned to my hotel. I was really exhausted and I got many expressions of Seoul but it was really a wonderful day^-^

The next day I will also spend all by myself but I have again many plans what I want to visit @.@ Another palace, the National Museum and maybe Namdaemun Market...
I need some sleep... XD

Seoul Day 2 ~ Changdeokgung, Insa-dong & Hondae

Hello everyone^^

The second day I had to spend by myself but I had enough plans to fill the day. Because of a bit of Jetlag I got up early in the morning. Breakfast started at 8 am and I was just in time, so that just not everything was prepared yet XD Breakfast was served in the main house of the hostel. I didn't expect much but I had not awaited this style of American breakfast. Toast with peanut butter and jelly was served *lol* I must confess I have never eaten peanut butter before and like I thought it isn't really my cup of tea but if I put a peanut butter toast and a jelly toast together it tastes quite good X3 Every day some kind of fruits are served, today it were wine grapes, so I also got some vitamins *lol* I don't complain, it is better than nothing or a savoury breakfast.

So I was fit for the day and made my way to Changdeokgung, one of the main palaces in Seoul. Changdeokgung is the palace where the last King had lived at last. Entrance fee for the palace was 3.000 Won. For seeing the secret garden behind the palace you have to pay extra. Because I was not interested in the garden and the there located library I skip this area and just wanted to enter the palace area. I found out that a free guided tour would take place at 10:30 h, so in one hour time. I wanted to join this tour but so I had some time left for something else.

On my way from the station to the palace I passed by the 'Institut of Korean Food'. That sounds very intersting to me^___^

So I went back and checked the building. Inside where a café and the Tteok Museum (Tteok = rice cake). That sounded funny and for 3.000 Won fee I decided to enter.

Tteok Museum

Unfortunately it wasn't allowed to make pictures in the museum >.<
It was a nice little museum with two exhibition halls located on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building. The other floors belonged to the institute and are not opened for the public. In the museum every kind of rice cake is presented and modelded. It was all coloured but you got also pieces of information about the history of rice cakes and for which occassion which rice cake will be made. In Korea a lot of different rice cakes exist, I was really surprised. It was very informative for me^^
But because it was so small, I made it easily in time for the guided tour in the palace. We were a big group for the English tour which should endure 50 minutes. It was really good thing because the women gave not only information about the buildings but alos about some history aspects, the royal family and history and many little details about the former times. I can absolutely recommend such a tour!

the tour guide gave basic information at first

entrance gate from the inside

gate for entering the palace area

more gates XD

You have to past so many gates because the Korean thought that the people clear their mind on their way to the palace this way. First to enter was the courtyard where the King and his officals met at least four times a month.

courtyard

We went further to the King's chambers, the queen's chambers and the east part of the palaces which was build for the crowne prince.

entrance to the King's chambers

the entrance gate at close look

view into the King's chamber

the Queen's chambers

We got also information like the current souvenir shop on the opposite to the King's chambers were usually used a the royal garage because the last King already had some cars *lol*

At the crowne prince's area the tour ended. After that I also walked through the district for the officals (chambers for the doctors, library etc.). It was really cool and totally different from Chinese or Japanese palaces.

From Changdeokgung I wanted to head to Insa-dong. My friend Kim told me that it is a lively shopping street also with many souvenir shops. But before I had lunch at a little street restaurant. I tried stir-fried pork with rice. Of course it was VERY spicy and served together with Kimchi *why not more hot spices* But it was delicious nevertheless^^

my dish

the restaurant

Not far away I reached Insa-dong and it was really a nice shopping street full of mainly young people. And I guess that one third of all shops really were souvenir shops.

Insa-dong

another view

In a shopping center I found a little 'green' shop which offered some Matcha specialites X3 So I grant myself a waffle of Matcha soft icecream X3

my icecream in front of the advertising XD

I also bought some souvenirs for myself:

slippers & bookmark

Unfortunately I got so tired because of my jetlag that I decided to return to the guesthouse and take a little nap because otherwise I couldn't survive the rest of the day U.U

Refreshed from a little sleep I went to Hongdae in the upcoming evening. Hongdae is the area near the main university and really popular for its lively scene and nightlife. Many students were around and there were many bars and clubs.

shopping street

street with many bars and restaurants

even a turkish kebab house is located there XD

another funny restaurant:

'Oktoberfest'-restaurant XD

The whole area runs from Hapjeong station to the Hongik University. Though there were many shops I didn't buy anything. And because I was there alone, I wasn't in the mood to enter a bar... so I just walked around and enjoyed the lively area.

Hongik University

Before I returned home I got myself something from the combini. But it was really hard to find something for my taste. I got an appetite of something savoury but many things were sold out at the time and I really missed the choice of onigir like there is in Japan >.< But finally I found something interesting: Bulgogie Pizza XD

Bulgogie Pizza

Maybe I left it a bit too long in the oven but it was tasty nevertheless. With a good Matcha Latte it was a good late dinner X3

Matcha Latte & a dark Bulgogie Pizza

After that long day I ws glad to get some more sleep. Though I shouldn't sleep to long because the next I would meet my friend Kim at 09:30 h at the National Assembly, she has made some appointement for us to visit the Assembly that day^^

I'm really looking forward to this!

So good night!