Day 4

Haha JYJ greets you at the start of this entry, taken at one of the platforms while waiting for the train to come, and as usual, I was cast some weird looks. I have a shirt similar to what Micky was wearing. Secretly happy, lol. I think this is an ad for some medicine, which aids digestion. Not entirely sure because I only understand a few words. 

Told my mum to take a photo of me with jyj and this was the result. She cut off Junsu! I tried lightening the photo using photoshop but my expression was so horrible so I just uploaded the original dark photo. I was clad in Korean fashion from top to toe. Just had to wear them out immediately after buying them the previous days. I now have to think twice about wearing this skirt here because there're so few girls wearing such skirts.

We were on our way to Changdeokgung. I had quite a lot of expectations for this place because some scenes of Rooftop prince was filmed there and I was hoping to see the place where they filmed. Kind of expected the palace to be quite empty but then where I took this photo, there was an excursion bus and out came school girls in their uniforms and teachers. I was a little upset because it was going to be crowded and noisy and I wouldn't be able to get nice photos of the scenery alone. Okay that thought sounded so selfish and self-centred. But things turned out better later on.

I had to walk very far towards the road to take this photo below and I couldn't even capture the two ends of the roof. I can't even take nice photos. Maybe I just had to walk even further.

School girls. It was a girls school, I think middle school. Felt that their uniforms seemed a little uncomfortable. It looks quite body hugging but nice la! But the wearer will just feel uncomfortable in it. Don't think I want to wear such uniforms. Loose blouses anytime! And their skirts look really short. Those you see in the below photo were already considered long. If my memory didn't fail me, that is!

Quite good of the school to bring them on an excursion like this! There wasn't really a guided tour for them. They were also just like tourists, taking photos with the scenery and buildings. Quite slack right! Not like here where we need to listen to the history in the hot sun and all.

Hahahaha my family was sitting at this area while I explored the rest of the palace on my own.

Again, I attempted and failed at an artistic shot. But I still think this is pretty nice.

Artistic shot #2. This one really quite nice!

Tourist shot! I really liked my asymmetrical hem skirt that I bought from Dongdaemun but I realised the lining was very thin and I could expose myself if I wasn't careful... So, I became very self conscious the rest of the day.

Typical tourist look with the guidebook and camera case. My brother took this candid shot which turned out quite nice, if you minus the facial expression.

More ancient structures. Should I even call these buildings? In my impression, buildings consist of high levels. So structures they shall be.

Oh! And then I need to record this down. Going to sound so thick skinned but this really happened! I was walking around on my own, taking photos of the structures and all. Then all of a sudden I passed by this group of school girls. And it seemed like they were talking to me, probably because they thought I was a local, given my dressing that day, I figured. And then they said something like 예쁘세요? Which actually means pretty. Then they started waving to me. I had this very stunned look and then they started smiling, or laughing at me. So what could I do? I just smiled and then waved back. And really, if I didn't hear wrongly, one of them said 이여신. Which for benefit of my face, I shall not translate what it means here. I was really -.-??? And obviously very puzzled. Also secretly happy of course. That a group of school girls found me pretty? Really didn't make this up!! So I hurried and went to look for my family who retreated to the cafe to sit and told it to them. They then started making fun of me and made me pose for this photo.

I obviously didn't know what I was thinking when I took this photo. Because I can't understand what the Korean words mean, except for the 3 chinese characters. So I guess this is a fire extinguisher? And during the guided tour in Jongmyo shrine, the guide also mentioned it.

Very nice colours. It's really amazing how the ancient people managed to build such structures without the huge machines we have now. And I guess this must have been hand painted as well. Must have been very painstakingly done. This was seen on almost all the ceilings. Very amazing indeed.

We left the palace soon after and headed for lunch at Insadong. Really had no idea how to go to Insadong and it was by a stroke of luck that we found it when we turned into a small alley. Witnessed a protest on the way there. It's almost like how it's seen in dramas, except that it's less dramatic. I realise you can't really see it here, just the banner and some boards.

Lucky us who found this restaurant because the food was really very good.

Found this photo funny because I told my brother to take a photo of me, but I had to adjust my hair. And this was me fixing my hair.

You can see the shop was quite small, and homely, I might add. That's the lady boss in the apron, who was very patient with us when we ordered in half English half Korean.

Side dishes which she promptly refilled for us when we finished them.

The best seafood pancake that I ever tasted! We almost ordered another portion of this but decided not to after thinking of the street food we could try later. But we really should have!

My brother's Kimchi jjiggae.

My Bulgogi stew which was really good.

And this should be saba fish?

Street with shops selling traditional stuff, or should I say tourist stuff.

This is another palace, a small one I think.

I actually would have liked to take more photos of the surroundings, like the convenience shops, subway stations which were different from Singapore, but I kept forgetting so this is the only photo of the subway station. Stairs most of the time.

Anguk station! They have so many exits that every time we alight from the train I need to start flipping my guide to find out which exit we had to look for.

Headed to COEX (Exit 5, Samseong station, Subway Line 2) next and was greeted by JYJ again. This time it's their ad for Nintendo. So many of their faces and I was so delighted to see them. Need to stop sounding like a fangirl. Haha!

There wasn't anything much to do at COEX. Given that it's such a big mall, there really wasn't anything nice, be it the shops or attractions. There's an aquarium there but we didn't want to visit it. So my family sat at Starbucks while I went around and looked around to shop. It was the departmental store kind of shops, like what you see in Metro. So I just looked. Saw an Artbox there and was tempted to buy so much stuff because it was so cheap. I think there was a lot of stuff less than S$10, a far cry from the prices in Singapore. But I bought a few pens and a notebook which I think amounted to less than 10 000 won (about S$10). It was such a struggle because I still had 3 more days left in Korea and I already spent a lot on masks. Wanted to save my remaining money for clothes (okay such a shopaholic or a bimbo I know), so I ended up controlling myself. And I got the Starbucks tumbler though I already had one because it was exclusive to Korea or Seoul. I think it's generally easier for me to spend money overseas compared to in Singapore because it's a holiday and I'm just there for a limited time. Kind of the kiasu mentality. 

So we had quite a lot of time and had no other place to go, so we visited the Kimchi museum, which was located at the COEX. It was quite difficult to find but the customer service staff was very helpful. They had the 'map' printed on a notepad and. So they just drew arrows on the map to direct us. The entrance fee was quite expensive and we didn't get to spend a lot of time there. I think it's just for us tourists because we were the only people there. 

For people who think kimchi is just the red looking cabbage. These are all kimchi. Hahaha. But my favourite has still got to be the nappa cabbage kimchi which is the red looking cabbage.

Trying to identify the kimchi that we ate over the past few days.

Very cute figurines to show the kimchi making process

 Haha posing!

 Kimchi is actually very healthy food. It's like Yakult/Vitagen, just that it contains a lot more good bacteria, which should be either lactobacillus (I don't think so. Lacto means milk or something><) or other species.

 Sample kimchi for sampling.

And then we went back to Hongdae for dinner! Somewhere near the trick eye museum and not very near our guesthouse. Not fried chicken anymore. The words say Fish and grill. But the menu wasn't fish-based or grill-based or anything at all.

Wasn't really expecting much from this restaurant until I saw Army stew and cheese ddeokbokki in the menu. This was named tempura steamboat or something, but when it came I asked my mum why she ordered yong tau foo. -.-

This was a chicken roll or something with fries. Tasted not too bad but the sauce killed everything. The sauce was the vinegar type and was really sour. So I just had one piece.

 Looks very disgusting like that with all the cheese I know but it tasted so good! I always thought cheese ddeokbokki would be cream sauce based and all. But this is just the normal type they sell on the streets with a thick layer of cheese and calamari. Still nice though! But it was a really big plate and we even had to takeaway because we couldn't finish.

And then the long awaited army stew! Been wanting to try this since episode 36 of running man when they had the camping episode and Jong Kook's team cooked army stew. And I still remember them saying that baked beans make it taste a lot better. Because I watched that episode x times. My favourite stew of all time after the bulgogi stew. That one still comes first because I like beef more and is healthier compared to this because of all the processed food like ham, baked beans, cheese and sausage. Getting hungry as I type this out.

Forgot to take a photo of all the dishes before we started so I had to settle for this! Lip balm on the table because my lips were cracking like nobody's business and they bled. So if you're heading to Korea in May or June please remember lip balms and moisturiser because the air can be really dry, though it feels really good (the wind and weather I mean).

And then my mum and I headed to Hongdae streets to shop while my brothers went back to the guesthouse. And I got scammed of 10 000 won because I gave the shopkeeper an additional 10 000 won and she was dishonest. I kept thinking that I needed to give 50 000 won when I actually only had to give her 40 000 won.  And when I finally snapped out of my trance I asked her how many notes I gave her and she insisted that I only gave her 40 000 won. Anyway, stuff at Hongdae wasn't cheap at all. Most of the clothes were more than 20 000 won from most of the shops.
Went back to the guesthouse and drank soju to lament over my sad case): Like they always do in dramas. I remember I kept watching the re-runs of Rooftop prince over in Korea. Without subs. I don't think I ever fully understood the last 2 episodes of Rooftop prince because I watched them without subs. Everyday they kept playing the climax episodes until I got a little bored of it. And they also kept re-playing Running Man.
Loot for the day. That's the navy dress with the cream sash that I got scammed over. And the very pretty traditional pouches, the idol stuff for my friends.