My sister and I decided to go back to South Korea because we love exploring Seoul, especially during Spring. It also happened that our stay there coincided with Shinhwa’s 18th anniversary, so we joined the so-called “ShinWar” just to obtain those prized concert tickets.
Anyway, if I were going to compare our 2016 trip from our first trip in 2014, I could say that we had little pressure to visit as many places as we could this time around. This is because we’ve already visited the most recommended tourist destinations, even visiting the faraway Nami Island and Petite France. For our 2016 trip, we just wanted to be more relaxed and spend as much time as possible in certain areas.
Without further ado, here’s our itinerary:
Highlights:
- Staying at Nana Residence was such a steal! For two people, the room had decent space for our bed, luggage, and shopping bags. We also had discounts because we booked a room directly through their website and we paid in cash upon arrival. For 6 days and 5 nights AND with breakfast (though it was just bread, egg, coffee/milk/water), we only paid Php15,000.00. Considering the location is very near the subway, the Airport Limousine Bus Stop, and in the Myeongdong area itself, I was very glad to stay here. Not bad, right?
- Since Nana Residence wasn’t a hotel, it was a new thing for us to place our trash outside our room every morning for disposal. There was also no room service such as cleaning and free bottled water, but we didn’t really mind. Across the street, there was a discount store where we bought our food souvenirs and our everyday supply of bottled water.
- Speaking of that particular discount store, the owner and staff had a fantastic customer service. I was coughing while I was looking at their display, and a lady who seemed to be in her 40s gave me a warm (paper) cup of green tea. She said it would help soothe my throat. On another day that we were buying some stuff from their store, the owner became excited upon knowing that it was our second time in South Korea. Thus, he gave us each a bottle of vitamin drink.
- I loved Myeongdong and Insadong. I’ve already been to these places in 2014, but I still included them in our itinerary. A visit to Seoul wouldn’t be complete without these two places. Period.
- To finally see cosmetic surgery clinics lined all together was a dream come true. I had no intention to have cosmetic surgery, but I always wanted to see how prevalent these clinics were in Gangnam.
- Shinhwa concert! As always, Hyesung shined like a prince whenever he’s singing. Though Andy is my bias, Hyesung is my second bias. For my sister and me, it really didn’t matter that we couldn’t understand what they were saying because we still had fun and we understood Junjin’s prank to the other members just by watching their VTRs.
- I LOVED the COEX Aquarium. It was interactive, informative, visually appealing, and had various themes all throughout the place. You wouldn’t think that the aquarium was inside a mall.
- I had little expectations from Samsung D-Lite Museum, but really enjoyed visiting this place. I probably wouldn’t enjoy this place if I visit it for the second time, but the first time was a treat. Never skip this place when you visit Seoul.
- Shopping at Myeongdong = LOVE!!! Period. If I’d go back to South Korea, Myeongdong would always be in my itinerary.
Not so Highlights:
- I had a cold during our trip, and I was super paranoid at the airport, wondering if I’d be quarantined because of my cold. Fortunately, I had normal body temperature, and despite the cold weather, my cold went away at the latter part of our trip.
- Speaking of colds, I finally experienced how it felt like travelling with a cold. At first, I thought that the online articles I read were only exaggerating, until I experienced it myself. I was horrible, and halfway through the trip, I felt like my ears and eyes were going to burst. I never felt so relieved upon landing at the airport.
- While researching for palaces to visit back in 2014, I came across a blog post that specifically mentioned that once you’ve visited a couple of palaces, it felt like you’ve visited them all. And yeah. That was what I exactly felt while strolling around Deoksugung Palace. It was nice and very informative, but still similar to other palaces, only smaller.
- Musem Kimchikan in Insadong was such a tourist trap. Yes, it was interactive and informative at the same time. Yes, there were different types of kimchi on display,. Yes, there were some activities, but for some reason that I couldn’t understand, I found it very lacking.
- Seoul Animation Center’s activities were really just for kids. It was nice to take pictures of various paintings and with different Korean cartoon characters/mascots, but other than that, we didn’t do anything else here. It also didn’t help that there was no English version of their brochure. My sister and I had fun searching for the exact location of the place though.
- When we visited Myeongdong Cathedral, there was a banner protesting against a certain priest. The name sounded Pinoy, so my sister and I chatted with the two older men who were at the post. They informed us that they were indeed protesting against a Filipino priest (I already forgot why.), and asked us if we’re Pinoys. We answered them honestly, and thankfully, they had no ill behaviors towards us. They just wanted to bring awareness and to have the Filipino priest face the consequences of his crime.
- COEX Mall was just like any other mall. It was also quite far from where we were staying.
- Jogyesa Temple was part of our itinerary, but when we were already near the temple (it was a short walk from Insadong), we suddenly became lazy and went back to window shopping at Insadong.
- Bummer that we failed to visit these places due to various reasons: Edae (again!), Hongdae (again!), and Seoul Grand Park Zoo.
Hyphenized Changjo 