Day 5!

Breakfast for day 5! I think some pastry from the bakery and this cup of coffee! We loved the convenience stores because they always have the special promotions like 3+1 or 2+1 events. Then we get tempted to buy more just to get the food for cheaper. And they have different convenience stores like Family mart, ministop, GS25. I had to google because I forgot all of them except family mart. I don't know if stuff there are more expensive compared to supermarkets there because we only visited convenience stores. And I love how the white straw below is extendable so it reaches the full length of the cup! Very convenient indeed. I didn't even need to open the lid. And food/drinks is allowed on the subways! Because of the relatively longer journeys I guess. I even acted suspiciously and drank my coffee secretly because I was so used to the no food/drink law in Singapore.

We headed to Gyeongbokgung!(Subway line 3, Gyeongbokgung station, Exit 5) Took a photo with the palace guards. They aren't allowed to smile or anything. Must be quite difficult when so many tourists pose with them everyday. But maybe they are already used to it.

Asked my brother to take this for me and you can hardly see me from this photo. Haha!

With the trees~ Haha I think almost all the palaces look almost the same. But I walked through almost the entire place because we already paid the admission fee! I think it's 1500 won for adults and 500 won for children below 15 or 18.

Candid shot! My favourite bag I bought from Dongdaemun for 40000 won! Found it quite expensive but I really really liked it! And 40 000 won was after bargaining some more><. I remember talking to the ajusshi in the shop, and he told me his shop sponsored bags for a drama. And I felt happy that I could converse with them! Thought it was similar to something Micky carried in Rooftop prince.

Photo of my brother in his Korea bought sunglasses, cap and bag. Hahaha!

There was no guided tour so I just took photos of whatever caught my fancy. No explanations either.

Photos of random tourists posing as the Police and crown prince! Because my photos turned out weird so I took photos of other people posing.

Headed to Gwanghwamun next!

And I saw these beautiful flowers. Why U NO grow in Singapore!

King Sejong! I think he's a great King, after watching the 'drama' they played in Sejong story. And he created the Korean language and characters because the commoners found the Chinese characters too difficult and they couldn't communicate with him.

Just my head with King Sejong><

Sejong story~

On the King's chair.

I always wanted to visit this place because Running Man filmed here! It was one of my favourite episodes with Yonghwa, Jokwon and Eunjung. The place had audio aids you could borrow or rent but I didn't because we were in a rush.

And I remember they hid one of the haechis in this.

Spent most of the time in the room watching the Sejong story. It was very interesting and I wonder if it was ever released as a drama.

Wore my favourite item I brought to Korea. The tinsel rack's happy 100th denim dungaree skirt! Most of the toilets in Korea were rather clean. No stench coming from any one I went to if I remember correctly^^

Other than King Sejong, there was also the story of Admiral Yi Sunshin. Didn't hear of him before this actually.

This is the turtle ship that he built which was very effective in a war or something. Didn't read much there so I won't attempt to give any extra information. Lest I embarrass myself!

Lunch time! At a restaurant in the same building as well because we were all famished!

My brother and I!

Our bibimbap! Which had no meat at all): There was the meat option but it was in a metal bowl and I think the beef would be raw.

I think we all had bibimbap except my mum who had kimchi jjigae and ordered dwaenjang jjigae to share. One of the rare times that I didn't have meat as my main meal. Haha! I sound like some carnivore.

The restaurant we ate at. Very few people though it was lunch time. Maybe it's not popular, or Koreans have too many options to choose from! Headed to dongdaemun next for shopping again before going to Namsan tower, also called N seoul tower! The nearest subway station is Chungmuro station (Subway line 3 or 4, exit 2). Then we took bus no 2 (Bus 5 also goes there). We reached the bottom of the tower, but we had to walk up this very very very steep hill. You probably can't see how steep it is from the photo below, but it took a lot of energy to climb up. And it was super cold as well. We saw others walking down this hill and eating ice cream at the same time. Surprisingly I also felt like having it though it was really cold.

These locks look like christmas trees. But anyway, it's for couples to come here and write their names on locks and put them together. I wonder how many of these couples are still together. It's a sweet gesture, leaving your locks in a foreign land (for tourists I mean). And maybe you can come back x years later to see if it's still there.

 Some even printed neoprints and pasted them on the locks!

Only my brother and I went up to the observatory. It was really nothing much because it's just looking down at the scenery, which didn't amount to much because we were there too early. I went around looking for the country/city furthest from Seoul. But I don't remember which city or country it was!

My brother and I decided to send a postcard to ourselves which did eventually arrive. Couldn't remember addresses of any friends so I couldn't send it to them as well):

And I think these wooden blocks are an extension of the locks. It's in a way more high class because it's indoors and it won't get rusty or dirty. I guess you need to pay though!

And satisfied my craving for ice cream at cold stone creamery! Couldn't make up my mind on which flavour to choose but I think I settled for brownie chocolate in the end! Served by a very very good looking guy who seemed to think I was local because I spoke in Korean to them and remembered me because I ordered twice, once for my brother first ah! Haha! Not that I ate twice. It was quite funny because he actually asked me if the first flavour was nice. And I made a fool of myself by leaving and forgetting to take a spoon. They then looked at me oddly when I returned to take the spoon. 

Loot for the day! 10 000 won dresses and the knit top in the middle which was super ex, and seaweed! Didn't buy a lot of seaweed though I said I would! Seaweed always reminds me of childhood, where my aunt who is Korean would give us a lot of these Korean seaweed which my brother and I love a lot! It was always in big pieces!

Dinner was fried chicken from the frypan again and kimbap which we ordered to-go and ate at the guest house! My mum ordered jjajangmyeon from a restaurant which was opened by Chinese from China. And they actually thought we were from Thailand! Hahaha first time. But in the end we spoke in chinese to them when we said we were from Singapore, and they became very hospitable to us, serving us tea even when we ordered take out and allowed us to sit while waiting. I think hospitality like this is so rare in Singapore when restaurants even want to charge for plain water or when we even need to ask them to serve us plain water. It is such a given in Korean restaurants. Like when you sit down, they immediately bring out the bottles of water and put it on your table. Haha sudden outrage at the type of service restaurants in Singapore provide. But I guess it all boils down to a difference in culture. Perhaps if I stayed in Korea for long enough, I would have had something to nitpick about.