Aug 24-29
First when I checked it I had to do it myself and something weird happened since I got another persons boarding card. So I had to explain in Japanese/English and ask some of the JAL staff to help me out! I have no idea how that could have happened, neither could them! They had to call for help, but at last they solved it and I got MY boarding pass.
Before boarding I bought some candy, Kit Kat with Green tea and Sakura taste, Sony earphones... I wanted to buy another magazine but didn't have time to check.
On the plane I tried to watch a movie I have wanted to see for quite some time, GANTZ 2! It even had Eng sub. However I couldn't watch it alone, the "grandma" next to me kept on talking to me.. You see when she came on the plane she asked the flight attendant things, however she only spoke Japanese and English, so I had to translate... Anyway since I'm much younger than grandma I just had to deal with it... I even offer her my wine, thinking she would fall asleep (^^;;)
Anyway she was a nice older lady. But what bother me the most during the flight was that the air attendant came back with other passengers, Koreans, and I had to translate between them.. To be honest I felt pissed off, it's not my job and I didn't get anything for doing it.. Or well the air attendant said 1 million thank you. Next time JAL give me some Arashi goods!! (^^;;)
I landed quite late and decided to take the subway back, because it was the cheapest method and also I have never taken it all the way downtown Seoul. It opened after I left.
I changed at Hongdae ip-gu(홍대입구) and took Line 2 to Euljiro il-ga (을지로 입구).
I checked back in to the Myeongdong hostel, got my bag, changed abit then went out for a very late dinner. It was already midnight but I was too hungry!!
I found a Kimbap Cheokguk (김밥천국) across the street and ordered a tuna casserole (참치찌개). Then went home to bed.
Next morning I woke up early and headed down to Krispy Kreme Donoughts where I met with Eri unni (에리언니). We walked to Coffee bean and had breakfast. We had a long talk, a fun talk before unni had to head for work and I went down to Lotte Mart(롯데마트) and bought lots of food, noodles(라면), seaweed (김), cookies (과자) etc to send home. I had so many things I decided to take a taxi back, and on my way I called Eun-jeong unni (은정언니) and asked if she had have lunch already but lucky enough she had not, so we decided to meet up. We had lunch at MyeongDong Gyoza (명동교사) we had their fameous noodle soup (칼국수) and dumplings(만두). It was fun seeing her again and had a good chat.
Myeongdong noodlesoup!
After lunch I headed back to the hostel and picked up all the food and other things I wanted to send back home, then headed down to the Central Post office(중앙우체국).
Then I headed to the massage place where I had made an reservation. I got a full body massage, it was like heaven! I didnt want the 75 min to end!! And the best part, it only cost aprox 250 Krona(43 ooo원)!
It was nice just to be by myself, tired after almost 2,5 weeks moving around ^^ in the evening I went to Dongdaemun (동대문) for some shopping, I ended up buying quite alot..as said before it's the dongdaemun effect. Also I bargain so I got good prices. I bought jeans, jeans shirt, skirt, west, umbrella and many accessories!!
The ajumma at my fave accessory store at the Migliore is always so kind to me, I havent seen her for almost 1 year still she remembers me!! (and imagine how many people who go shopping there in one year!!) I had so many things so while looking she took care of all my bags behind the counter.
I bought maybe 7 things, and when I finally paid I found one more item, and when I asked how much it was she said I could get it for free..!! she also gave me some other stuff for free!! she is soo nice!!
Friday morning, I decided to mail some more stuff home because I had been shopping and there was NO way I would be able to come home without overweight!
I also went to the Lotte Duty free and bought some Anna Sui stuff. As said before Anna Sui is one of my fave brands, and you can only get it in Asia and US.. so when you have it infront of you, you have to buy it right ^^
Afterwards I headed down to Keonguk uni (건대) and met JiSeon unni (지선언니). We had lunch at a BBQ place and ordered a samgyepsal set (삼겹살).
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| Korean BBQ |
I have missed JS unni alot and it felt strange in one way seeing her in Korea, we usually have met in London! However she moved back to Korea just a few months ago. Then we walked around the area and we ended up.. or JS ended up shopping alot, I only bought a few things ^^ (I know I shop a lot..but many things are cheaper in Korea and it's also nice to buy things that you can't find in Sweden.)
After coffee we headed down to Techomart and met a friend of JS, who wanted to sell her camera.
Time passed and soon I had to leave, I had arranged a meeting with MinYoung unni (민영언니) at Coex (코엑스). First we went to Bandi Lunis bookstore and unni payed for some manga books I wanted to buy, she said it was her b-day present for me.
Then we had dinner at Omuto tomato, a Omurice restaurant. A restaurant both me and unni loves ^^ To be honest.. I think our first meal in Korea we had together 2 years ago were at that restaurant ^^
It was a nice meal... then we walked around the mall and we also paid a visit at the Lotte Duty Free shop. I bought a perfume for my mum.
On thing that surprised me was that it was 20USD cheaper down there rather than at the Lottee Duty free at Myeongdong!!
I also found a Samsung Galaxy S2 phone but the price was outrageous!!so I asked the staff why it was that expensive, then he said it was for the chinese people ^^;; He also said it only came in English and Chinese langauge. Normally it comes in many langauges... well well.. Chinese like to spend money when they travel so why not!!
I came back to my hostel and some new girls had checked in, we said hi, then all went to bed.
Saturday morning, I talked more to the girls, they had come to Korea for exchange studies for a year. We ended up spending most of the day with each other.
First stop was Edae (이대) we looked around, did some shopping, I bought converse shoes and a hat. then we walked down to Sinchon, made a visit at penpia and bought some stationary before going to Yongsan (용산). In Yongsan I wanted to buy some movies, I ended up buying 9 movies and 1 tv series. All for 180 Swedish Krona! (30 000원)
We had lunch at the mall, because of the heat I had cold noodles (냉면). Afterwards I showed them to Dongdaemun and they went shopping. I helped them bargain since they didn't know Korean.
For dinner we went down to Namdaemun Market (남대문시장) and ate food from a street stall, we had ddeokbokki (떡볶이), kimbap(김밥), odeng (오뎅) and pajeon (파전). The girls found it interesting and tasty.
Then we walked back to Myeongdong(명동) and walked around the main shopping streets, shopped, ate icecream etc before heading back to the hostel. Time to pack!!
Sunday morning.
I packed my final stuff and checked out!
I had breakfast with Amy, one of my roommate before heading down to Jong-gak station(종각역) where I met up with HeeJung unni (희정언니) First we had lunch, talked alot, then unni wanted to buy some clothes since she had her hiking gear on from yesterday! She had slept at a friends house and she wanted to change since well.. we were inside Seoul ^^
Then we took a walk around Insadong (인사동) had a coffee then went down to Kyobo books (교보문고). I bought another movie and some pens and lots of stickers.
I still don't understand why it has to be so expensive in Sweden and so cheap in Korea!! That's why I love Korean stationary and bookstore.
Kyobo used to be my second home, I can spend hours inside just looking or pull out a book from a shelf and sit down reading it all. In a way it feels like a library rather than store..!!
Both tired and we sat down by the Cheonggyecheon stream (청계천) and relaxed and talked.
Busy sunday afternoon in Myeongdong
Soon enough we were back in MyeongDong... We were supposed to meet up with Pamela and David for dinner, we had decided to meet at 7pm however they didn't show, so at 7,30 we went and had dinner ourselves, then suddenly I got a phonecall from Pamela saying they just arrived and couldn't make it since I had to leave for the airport too.
Me and Heejung unni had a shabushabu similar dish for dinner, then we went back to my hostel and collected my bags, However when we reached Lotte Hotel there were no bus to be seen.
I ran up to the front desk and asked them, they said I had to take a taxi to Incheon, or the train.
I ran back to Heejung unni and we decided to go take a taxi to Seoul station, then take the train from there.
It was sad saying goodbye after such a short time. Unni means so much to me, she always help me out when I'm in trouble or if there is something I don't understand. She is like an ANGEL to me!!
I boarderd the train and after 1 hour I arrived at Incheon Intl Airport.
Since I had checked in online I could skip the looooong queue, however my bags weighted 29kgs! and I were only allowed 23!
The person who helped me asked what I had in handluggage then told me to take some stuff out and put it there, I managed to get it down to 27kgs and I passed!!
Before going through security I went down to McDonalds and bought some kind of Blueberry drink. I had seen it all through my travel in Korea but never had the time to drink it, and this was my final chance. And it only cost 10 kr (1800원).
McD Blueberry drink
At immigration the man asked me something in English but I didn't hear what he said so he asked me in Korean, I answered with I don't know, why!?. He said I had to come back to Korea before 2013, because of my Visa :P and I said yes I know.. I will be back!
Inside most places were closed, I picked up the Duty free stuff I had bought at the stores in Seoul.
Then bought some cookies and candy for my dad, had a small snack before it was time to board!
My flight left at 00.50 am!!
Time to go back to Sweden, time to be a regular student again....
Time to say goodbye to Asia, once again.. Time to be seperated from close friends.. AGAIN!
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