DAY 2 (part 1): Seoul N Tower ～

Today we slept in… I woke up toward 11am and spent half of the day browsing internet and chilling out. Laogong went outside to buy some water and cookies and we just kept comfortable at the hotel.
Towards 3pm we took off and rode the metro to Myeongdong Station.

I was smart enough to carry a cardigan (only for the subway rides) with me - the air-conditioning is freezing!!

...not quite sure which way to take, the guide book only indicated which station we have to get off

a funny street art picture XD

there was a really cute coffee shop on the way... Koreans seem to be infatuated with "coffee shops" anyway

From there we walked up a hill to the Cable Car Station that would lead to N Seoul Tower. We took the Cable Car and then arrived at the Tower. There we took many camwhoring pix on the way and bought combi-tickets for the Teddy Bear Museum and Observatory.

finally found the cable car station! (;´ρ`) ｸﾞｯﾀﾘ


yay! N Seoul Tower, we're coming!! ( ^ _ ^)∠☆

view from the cable car

v
finally able to see the tower from vicinity!


decoration in front of the N Seoul Tower


'You're Beautiful' fan merchandise! ❤ The pig-rabbit was everywhere


I ❤ Korea goodies - how can you not love these? ヾ(●⌒∇⌒●)ﾉ わーい

 

a small part of one of the gorgeous pictures hanging at the wall in the tower ＼(ﾟ▽ﾟ=))／

entrance to the Teddy Bear Museum ⊂(●￣(ｴ)￣●)⊃

First we visited the Teddy Bear Museum… it was very informative and SO cute! I'll reserve some Teddy Bear Eye-Candy in a separate post. ^^
Then we played some games and also tried our luck on a cute ufo catcher but unfortunately didn't manage to win one of these cuties TT_TT

I wanted a red one so badly! (*´ο`*)=3 はふぅん

The observatory was nice, too. There were two observatory floors:
The higher one were you can enjoy the view standing and using a telescope to stalk the streets was quite funny because each direction was marked with the name of the countries in that direction and the distance to reach them.
The lower one was a café were you could enjoy the view sitting... but when we arrived it was already full of couples so I could just take a quick snapshot of how it looked like. (；⌒▽⌒)σ

 

the gorgeous view in the upper floor

 

KISS @ N Seoul Tower

 

trying out the telescope

 

the white thing in the middle was the cable car station

a panorama photo of the upper floor

The lower floor with all the lovey-dovey couples...

(lower floor) d'aawwwing at all these couples... 

the traditional wedding ceremony show

When we got out of the tower we saw the last 5 minutes of a "traditional Korean wedding ceremony" show... ―(T_T)→　サクッ 

Afterwards we discovered the surrounding of the tower and took the cable car back to Myeongdong...

  (read part 2 - soon to come)

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DAY 1 : Gyeongbokgung ～

September 1st, Thursday

I had some trouble sleeping because it seems that next to our hotel there's a karaoke place and there was a guy singing very loudly outside and music as loud as when you leave your iPod on full volume with earphones and forget to turn it off and then hear it in the same room… (Ｔ▽Ｔ)''

SOME PHOTOS OF THE SEOUL METRO:

buying metro tickets

a nearly empty metro...

this was a joke photo: look at all the phone zombies to the left

@ Gyeongbokgung Station: Even the metro station was decorated ☆彡

Metro at rush hour.... (;´ρ`)

Anyway, we slept till around 10am, then left thru Yeoksam Station to Kyudae station then to Jongno3ga station and then finally to 경복궁 (Gyeongbukgung). I like the biggest Palace in Korea very much because it's in a very good condition and there aren't tons of people visiting like in China. We took many many many pictures and then went back by metro towards 3.20pm.

at Gyeongbokgung... ♥ 

There are too many nice photos... I'll post more in a separate post! ♥ 

My bf enrolled in some complementary classes at the hotel and then we got out again to eat breakfast/lunch (yes, we hadn't eaten anything since the day before XD'')… We ended up in a small restaurant where we had bibim naengmyeon and mandu. The owner also served us some Kimchi we could cut ourselves.

cutting kimchi is serious business xD''

yum yum

Then we went back to hotel, took a shower and rested.
Towards 6pm we left the hotel for Guanghuamun where we met 리나 at 7.15pm.
We ate in a nearby place Bibimbab and Bulgogi and then strolled around the center to the 청계천 (Cheonggyecheon), where we sat down and talked.

eating bibimbab

some night photos...

Then we took the bus no402 to Gangnam station, walked around there and looked at the small street vendors and then got back to the hotel by metro (리나 left us at the gangnam metro station) at around 11.40pm.

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From Beijing to Seoul ～

August 31st, Wednesday

My bf had prepared the alarm for 4.30am so when we woke up we were both feeling like zombies…
We checked out of the hotel at around 5am (and had to pay for the two pink colored towels btw) and luckily they had prepared a taxi for us.
The drive to the airport took only 40min but at the check-in we waited around 1h.
After entering the duty free area we hung around at Starbucks waiting for our flight to Seoul at 8.20am.

The flight was pretty short, specially because I nearly slept while listening to some Kpop songs.
We arrived at Seoul Gimpo airport at 11am, I drew around 1'500'000won (because now that we're in korea it's my turn to pay for everything/hotel) and then took a special "airport limousine" for 7'000 won/person which was really spacious and nice and drove us till Yeoksam Station in Gangnam district, which is in the southern part of Seoul and the other side of the Han River.

My boyfriends first remark when we got out off the flight:
"There's a blue sky!! ...and the colors are shining!"
(meaning there isn't a grey coat of pollution on everything like in China)
and then we took the airport limousine and he continued:
"Everything is so clean! ...have you thought about a language stay in Korea?"
...and I was like.... （￣▽￣；）~  ♥

We were a bit concerned if we'd find the hotel and if we could check in because it was only 1pm when we arrived at the bus station. We asked some people on the way and they were so nice to google map for us the direction.
Then we finally found our hotel - the outside looked a bit…shady and I started doubting my choice but when we checked in (and there were no problems even though there were only two nice staff who hardly spoke English) I was really satisfied. The room is small but comfy, has a biiiig TV screen, a WINDOW!, a pc, wlan, a big washroom with a jacuzzi and one of the staff was so nice as to show us everything in the room (for example how to open/close air-conditioning).

We stayed in the hotel room, took a shower and browsed facebook/blogger (finally!!) till around 3-4pm, then we left to explore the area. Seoul is pretty complicated, because as soon as you leave the main streets you will get lost in all the nice side streets which are full of small shops/restaurants.

My boyfriend was hungry but all the restaurant were empty so we couldn't decide which one was good. We even found a cat cafe but decided not to visit since my bf wanted something "real" to eat…. in the end we landed in T.G.I. Friday…(lol) anyway, we don't have that store in Switzerland and I had eaten there before and really, really loved their ribs and my bf was really satisfied with the food and the staff who was wearing mouse/rabbit ears… (´･ω･`)

After stuffing dinner we tried to find our way back, taking lots of pictures. The streets were fuller now, there were lots of couples and young people and the small restaurants were all filled with some middle aged men eating and drinking. We even found an Artbox store (my favourite kitch store, full of agendas, plushies, tshirts and other CUUUTE stuff). ♥ ♥ ♥

We got back at the hotel toward 8-9pm and then I browsed the internet some more and now I'm really tired.

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