andyhwaiting

On Day 2 , I visited the Namsan Tower at night with the thoughts that seeing Seoul lit from high up above would offer the most memorable view. While it did to a certain degree, I couldn’t help but feel that I actually saw less than I had hoped for so I made it a point to return during the day. I had about 4 things in and around the Namsan area that I wanted to visit and today turned out to be one of the most spectacular days weather wise for it. The sun was shining bright and it was one of the cooler days since I had been in Seoul due to a nice breeze. I took the cable car to the Tower on my first visit so I decided to take a different route this time around. I was actually tempted to walk up the Namsan to the tower and in an ideal situation I think I would have but I decided to save my energy and take the bus. I took subway line 3 from Dongnimmun Station to Chungmuro Station and got out using Exit 2. Right near the exit is a bus stop for the yellow colour bus number #2 that goes to Na...

I can’t believe I am at the half way point of writing about my trip. T.T . When I finish I will be sad to close this chapter but also happy to see what the future will have in store. I still have 10 days left to write about but with the frequency in which I’ve been posting lately, I’ll probably be on my next trip before I finish! Dah. I didn’t feel like doing too much on this day that involved a lot of travelling between large distances so I decided to head to Dongdaemun to check out the department stores and markets that were located in the area. I didn’t take many pictures on this day and that’s usually an indication that nothing really caught my interest or I was doing something, like shopping, that didn’t call for pictures to be taken. On this day, I think it was a bit of both. I arrived in the Dongdaemun area by getting off the subway at Dongdaemun History Station. If you are looking for soccer jerseys, there is an underground shopping alley connected to the station lined with sma...

There were about 3 times during my trip where I wish I could just press a button and magically appear back at my aunts place because I was tired or frustrated or both. Not being able to find that McDonald’s after visiting the KBS Exhibition Hall was one of those times. As my trip went on, I started to pay more attention to ensuring that I wasn’t running on an empty stomach, even if it meant snacking to fill me up along the way until I could find a place to sit for an actual meal. The walk from the KBS Building all the way to Yeouinaro Station felt like the longest walk ever and I actually had to stop and sit down a couple of times along the way because my feet were hurting. I was actually going to just hop on the subway and go straight back to my aunt’s instead of checking out the ferries because of how I was feeling. I rationalized though that since I made it this far, I might as well keep going and see all the things I came here to see. The pier for the ferries is located a short wal...

When I think back to when I first started getting interested in all things Korean (this would have been several years back), it really all started with a single cable box. Having that one cable box however allowed me to watch Korean programming from overseas from MBC and KBS and it snowballed from there. So while you may laugh that my reawakening (if you want to call it that) of my Korean identity all started from watching Korean dramas, I found over the years that I learned a lot about Korea, Korean society and the Korean mentality from those programs. While TV and dramas are often over-stylized and fantastical, you can still get what concepts and ideas are important to Koreans and what they value. Since then, my desire to build or mature my Korean identity has grown beyond just watching Korean dramas and listening to K-pop. My desire now is to be more than just a spectator but a participant as well. I want to be able to think Korean, speak Korean, understand the Korean psyche, have e...

Day 9 continues! On my earlier trips to Gwanghwamun Square, the latest I had been there was during the twilight hours where there was still a hint of sunlight remaining. I never got to check out the Admiral Yi Sun-Shin Fountain while it was running in total darkness so I always felt like returning when it was completed dark. Even though I walked around a lot earlier in the day, I must have gotten a second wind as I decided to go out again at night to check it out. Plus, it wasn’t too far away from where I was staying so it was convenient. I was going to head out via my usual route of walking to Dongnimmun Station and then take the subway but my aunt said that it was a lot easier to take the bus. I hadn’t taken the bus yet as I found taking the subway was really easy to use, logical and hard to get lost on as I had maps of all the lines and stations. I did do some research on buses in Seoul and had notes about what the different colours of the buses signified but I didn’t have any infor...

After leaving Bongeunsa, I hopped back on Line 2 and went one station over to Seolleung Station to visit Seonjeongneung. It was 2:30PM when I got to Seolleung Station and I had put off eating lunch because I had plans to eat somewhere specific. By this time, I was kind of hungry, weak and 멍 from not eating but not as much as I was earlier. I find that once you get over that initial hungry phase, you don’t feel it as much anymore. At any rate, one of places I put on my itinerary early in the planning stages of my trip was this ramen restaurant called Red Kitchen. Being a fan and listener of K-pop, one of the groups I like is 카라 (Kara) . They are super cute and their music is fun to listen to. One of the members of the group is Nicole Jung whose mom happens to be the owner of Red Kitchen. I saw Red Kitchen and Nicole’s mom being featured on Korean TV once so that’s how I knew. The program gave a tour of the restaurant and showed signed pictures of Kara all over the restaurant as well as...