Day 2!

On day 2, the first place we went to was Sungkyunkwan University (Hyehwa Station exit 4 - Line 4). I was quite interested in visiting this place because of Micky's drama. Okay but they didn't film the drama there. It was actually filmed at some korean folk village. But I was still interested in looking at the oldest university, since the Joseon period? Haha I watch too many dramas. It was actually quite difficult to find it because there were no signs telling us which direction to go in. We relied on the map in the guide but was kind of walking aimlessly. I honestly was not even sure if we were in the right direction. All I had was the road name: Sungkyunkwan road. Throughout the entire trip I was always holding the 2 guidebooks, be it to look at the subway map or the road. Though the idea of free and easy sounded very attractive. No following tours and doing everything whenever you want. But it was really tiring, having to constantly look to check we weren't lost. Maybe I just have a bad sense of direction, so thankfully my brother had a good sense which helped. 

Typical tourist pose with my guidebook

Was really on the verge of giving up and walking back and going to somewhere else and then I stumbled upon this! So we reached the university. It looked really modern so I wondered where the old buildings were. 

Kept seeing the old buildings but the signs were all 'Do not enter'. So I got really bored and disappointed because I really wanted to look at the old buildings! Until we found the entrance to the 'conserved'(?) section. We really almost left because we felt so out of place with some of the students being in a rush to get to school. But thinking about it now, it was a Sunday.-.-

I think these were the rooms the students slept and studied in. Very much like hall. It was really really small. I think only one person can live in it, maybe at most two people. Nothing much to say about these photos, except that I really  like these old buildings. And I wonder how students learnt in the past, sitting on the floor and listening to the lecturer talk about the analects. Really can't imagine myself in those days when education was only for the males, at least that was true in Korea in the past. Haha then we wouldn't need to study! But what would I do all day? Learn embroidery, probably..

When they still used chinese characters

Very few photos with my face because they're mostly selcas and I didn't look nice): 

One of the rare nicer ones with my brother!

This massive tree is so huge

It needed stilts to hold its branches

Then it was time for some food! Spotted Jaws ddeokbokki so I bought it because my friend told me it was nice. Cute and hygienic packaging considering it was a streetside shop and I ordered take-out. This was not lunch, just a snack. Didn't actually want to eat so much because I didn't want to gain weight, but I still bought it in the end. Didn't have to finish the entire thing on my own because my mum and brother helped me to eat some of it. About S$3 for this portion. In Singapore you just get a small container with about 3 pieces of rice cakes and some kimchi for the same price. So I might not buy from the Dongdaemun shop anymore! I'll just make them myself!:D

Song Joong Ki and Yoo Ah In! 

Our next stop was Dongdaemun to do some shopping! We wanted to look for the Dongdaemun market but we couldn't find it! Followed the map and walked in the right direction but we really couldn't find it at all. Asked some people for directions but they didn't know as well. So we decided to have lunch first.

Passed by this really really long stream. 

This was cheonggyecheon stream. Apparently if you just walk along this stream you can get to many places, it's like the subway, just walking instead.

Settled for lunch at a restaurant that served only chicken. In Korea there are no restaurants that serve everything that I like, since they specialise. Like some serve just meat, like the BBQ type, and some serve the cooked food like stews. So deciding what food to eat was actually quite a difficult decision every meal. Because I can't understand everything on the menu though I can read them, we usually need to ask the shopkeepers what they have, again in my limited Korean. We thought it would taste quite good because there were quite a few photos outside the shop which showed dramas being fimed there. So lunch was really one whole chicken in a metal basin. And the chicken was raw! The ajumma cut the chicken up just in front of us. I had my doubts about the taste initially. But it tasted really good! There were rice cakes and potatoes inside. And after we finished the chicken they added noodles in for us. I think they like their noodles soggy because the shopkeeper kept telling us to leave it in for a longer period of time when it was clearly already cooked. The sauce made by the shopkeeper was really awesome. Too bad I didn't notice what he used, because he mixed the sauce in front of us. I can only remember mustard was one of the ingredients. Really really awesome though!

The awesome sauce, wish I could have some right now

Kimchi!

Literally translates to "One chicken"

So after some shopping in Dongdaemun, we headed to Jongmyo shrine (Jongno-3-ga station, Exit 8). We were really lucky because we reached the shrine at about 15 minutes to 4, and the last guided tour in English was at 4. Imagine if we reached there past 4. Wouldn't be able to enter and would have made a wasted trip. It was quite educational because the guide explained quite a bit about why the shrine was built and all. Beats just entering and taking photos of the scenery and buildings.

Stuff used in the worship. 

All the doors to the tablets were closed. The doors open only once a year. But it's opening again in the last week of November this year. So you can catch it if you want(:

The area around Jongno-3-ga station. Saw many Koreans drinking soju at this hour (5 plus in the evening) and some even got drunk already. 

We left for Myeong-dong! Dinner at one of the 'tourist traps'? I say that because the workers there are Chinese, most likely from China. And when asked to recommend stuff, they had to recommend the most expensive item. Didn't really like their service but the food was quite good. Had our first meal of barbeque meat. We had one slice of pork and one slice of beef. And a beef set meal which was cheaper.

This piece of beef cost us 30,000 won. Most expensive piece of meat ever.
But I admit that the marbling was good!

The beef set which tasted really good as well.

At myeong dong, the only thing I bought was beauty products. Spent my entire time at Nature Republic and Tony Moly. Spent about a quarter of my money in those 2 shops combined omg. Haha so heart-pain to have spent so much. But I just kept telling myself that it's worth it because their products are good (at least for me) and are very overpriced here in Singapore. Just the Tony Moly tomatox cost $26 in Singapore, and in Korea it was selling for about $10. So you can tell how much they mark up the prices. Bought quite a few of the snail masks, which are quite the rage right now. Tried a piece this week and it was really good! Not regretting it at all.

With Jang Geun Suk (Oppa?). HAHA!