KOREA: DAY 3 & 4: Shopping/ uhh....SHOPPING LOL

Haiii everyone ^-^ Ok so we have successfully moved out of Crib 49 into Seoul Backpackers, but before I move on about how Seoul Backpackers is, I must firstly give the most praiseful and fantabulous review of Crib 49!! 

Ok so although it's located on top of this crazily steep hill and everytime we go back to the guesthouse, it kills our feet, THE SERVICE IS AMAZING. And the aircon is awesome!!

The guy that owns the place speaks amazing english and if you guys recall, he also was the one that drove us from Eco-guesthouse to Crib 49, free of charge! Also, on the day that we moved out, he also DROVE us from Crib 49 all the way to Seoul Backpackers with all our luggage and everything AND IT WAS PRETTY FAR!!!

We didn't even ask, he OFFERED!

And we sorta got lost since Seoul Backpackers wasn't the easiest to find, and poor him, lol he had a hard time navigating through the crowd to find the place ^^"

BUT OMGSH, he's so nice T-T LOL If we didn't already make the reservation at Seoul Backpackers, I would've totally stayed at Crib 49. Here's the list of reasons:

-Crib 49 has aircon, SP (Seoul Backpackers) only has aircon for June-August

-Crib 49 has large tv, SP has a very VERY VERY small one

-Crib 49's wifi works very well, SP's internet doesn't work on my laptop, only iphone

-Crib 49's sink is larger, mirror is larger, overall place is cleaner, SP is pretty small and not THAT clean

-Crib 49 has washer and dryers to use free of charge and kitchen is big with free ramen and coffee and water etc, SP has laundry service that costs 5000 won and kitchen is very small and only free water and coffee, no ramen

-Crib 49 has an amazing rooftop view, SP's view is blocked by buildings and more buildings

There's prob more reasons, but generally....I prefer Crib 49! So if you guys are ever looking for a place to stay and somehow had to pick between these two, now you know which one to pick! :)

(I would upload pictures of SP, but the thing is I haven't taken any yet because 1) too lazy 2) too tired everytime we get back 3) too lazy LMAO) One day I will, but not this week hehe

OKOK, enough about guesthouses, time to move on about what I've done for the past two days.

Because the past two days have mostly been about shopping and eating and REPEAT, there wasn't much to blog about so I decided to combine day 3 and 4 into just one post ^^

Ok. 

Day 3:

We basically wandered around today to Gangnam (yet again, I know == but don't worry, we plan to explore Itaewon, Insadong, Edae, Hongdae, Lotte World, ETC ETC in the days to come. Whole schedule is planned out ^^) again and on the way we bought some amazingly delicious waffles

 Yep, ok bad picture, but hey, we were walking and it was weird taking a picture of the food you're holding in public and...yeah...xD

I forgot the price, but I just rmb that it was DEF CHEAP!! AND SAO GOOD.

After not doing much, we ended up going back to Myeongdong. Here's how the city sorta looks like in broad daylight

 Again, sorry about the bad pictures, but it's just really weird taking pictures in public xDDD

And you can spy the subway station that is closest to our guesthouse that we always use in the picture ^^ Line 2! (to this day I am still confused as heck about the subway system. It's all Lillian. Without her, I die)

At night, we were in the mood to eat something western and...uhh...we settled for McD's xDDDD

Yes, I know, what the heck? Come to Korea to eat McD's xD But HEY, in our defense, the McD's was sorta different here, AND CHEAPER :DDD

 

And again, I forgot the price, but I just rmb it was cheaper than in Canada! (this is why I should always blog ON the day of, not after =___=)

Oh, and the drink cup was different  hehe. And they don't call it 'combo' here, they call it 'set'.

The McD's we went to had two floors (I guess it's because there aren't many McD's around and so when there is one, it's big). We ate pretty late so the second floor was completely isolated, which is very sorta soothing in a strange way xD and the view was pretty good.

 After that, we sorta called it a day. It had been a very tiring two days from when we first landed, so we decided we should just chill and rest. We didn't really get much sleep either for the past few days so we completely passed out :P

Day 4:

Ok, I lied. We didn't just pass out, we actually researched a bit about Exo's fanmeets and whatdoyaknow, their last fansign is tmw!!!! So being the hyped up fangirls we are, we stalked about how to get the tickets and where the fansign is at ...ANDDDD, turns out that they give you 4 days to go buy the album from the Lotte department store bookstore (AND ONLY FROM THERE), and they will give you a number and a ticket. Day 4 was actually the last day to buy the album to be eligible for the draw for the fansign. Call us lucky...or whatever.

So we subway-ed to Lotte department store (one hecka long ride), in the early morning (ok more like early afternoon, but it was like morning to us xD). Here's the bookstore we bought it from:

 

 (albums were slightly more expensive here than in other places we checked out. SO here's a tip for shopping in Korea, : NO MATTER if you think that what you are buying should be the same price all over, it's most likely NOT. For most of the items we've been buying, we've had lotsa moments where we found the exact same item elsewhere for cheaper!!! So yes, DO look around and DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

Ok so, obviously we will have no chance of winning LOL. But hey, now I can say I honestly tried :D This other girl, she bought 60 Exo albums @.@ She got in (we got our results on the same night later) which ofc, is good for her lmao cuz 60 albums...is...o.o LOL

And we checked a few minutes ago, and we didn't get in T-T

BUT NOT TO WORRY, we shall go stalk them tmw at the fansigning regardless and see their awesome handsome faces <3 LOL

Darn it, I really wanted to talk to them and troll them =( SIGH

Anyways,

I also bought BAP power album:

^ Exo cost about 12000won, BAP cost 11500 won

BAP will come in handy later, for our weekend adventures ;) It's a secret where we're going atm, but it'll be exciting :DDD Weekend will be full of kpop. I might just die.

Ok, moving on, here's some pics (horrid and blurry) of the Lotte department store (it had many many levels, the bookstore was on the 6th floor)

 

 

 This is from the food area in the 2nd or 1st floor, I forgot. This pic was of the rotating sushi table thing that you always see in dramas and whatnot. ONE DAY WE WILL GO EAT THIS, rotating sushi things are cool, I like rotating sushi things :D

There were some AMAZINGLY COOL and awesome foods on this level, ranging from awesome macaroons to intricate sundaes, to fondues, to ETCETC. I couldn't really take pictures because it was...well WEIRD, LOL but here's one I managed to get. So many desserts, I'M GOING CRAZY. 

But ofc, being Lotte department store, it'll be hecka expensive. SIGH. FOOD WAI U DO THIS TO ME?!

After we bought the ticket, we stopped by at a cafe (trust me, when you're visiting Korea in the summer, the most treasured things are aircon and free wifi LOL), and we stayed there for about 2 hours.

 The name of the cafe...sigh...way to make us lonely LOL

Here's what I ordered (since cafes are pretty expensive, I didn't get a drink):

 

If I rmb correctly, this was 6000 won.

Yep, cafes are def not the place to eat a cheap lunch.

As we subwayed back to Myeongdong, we bought quite a few things from the unerground subway stations (there are quite a few stores down there and some are really cheap and cool)

 

^ 15000 won

^ 20000 won

(OH OH, at this store, this young guy (looked about our age or slightly older, heehee he had blonde dyed hair) was the sales person and LOL he kept looking at us while we shopped...like rly closely xD And so we spoke English to try to sorta throw him off, but he ended up still standing there and following us around but trying to decipher what we were saying xDD LOL sorta annoying but cute.

And lol he started talking to me (in Korean ofc) and we had a convo and LOL it was hilarious. So I talked about university, learning Korean, coming here for vacation, and SOMETHING ELSE WHICH I WILL KEEP A SECRET BUT OMFG IT CRACKED ME UP SO BADLY). 

He seemed really talkative and I felt really good using my Korean to carry a convo :DDD

LOL Lillian and I dubbed him to be a "good friend to go drinking with sort-of-guy". XDDD

Ok, anyways, I also bought:

 ^iphone backcover (cuz the back of my iphone is always so dirty, even if I have a case). 5000won

 

 ^necklace, 4900 won

 

 ^ I'm not sure what you call this, but it's the thing where you plug it into your earphones jack on your phone or etc when you're not using your earphones to prevent water or other dirty stuff from coming in. This one WAS SO CUTE. THEY had tons of other cute amazing ones, but i really only just need one (and I prob don't even NEED it since I use my earphones so much anyways)

 8900 won

Then we walked around Myeongdong to eat again ^^ This time it was at Myungin Mandoo

^menu

^where you order from (yes, you'll need to know how to read Korean)

^what we ordered: Mul naengnyun, regular naengmyun, Kimchi Mandu, Meat Mandu, plus coke and calpis for drinks

Total  cost was SUPPOSED to be 18000 won (so 9000 won each) BUT the ajusshi charged us 13000 in total o.o I'm not sure whether he made a mistake or we calculated wrong, but we were glad we could save some money because I was about to go broke =___=

Here's a pic of Myeongdong at night again! I love nightlife <3

Here's a random horse:

don't judge me

And here are some pics of the subway trains:

 

^very spacious, but ofc during rush hours, it's hecka crowded

Oh OH, and sometimes there's ajusshis walking around with large boxes trying to sell hair ties or small light-y spin-y things. LOL I feel so bad because I always look away and pretend I'm doing sth on my phone because I feel obliged to buy it if I look at it for too long xDD

^ Regular seats are blue but these seats are red. This is what I call the forbidden seats. Why? Because they're reserved for elders, pregant ladies, military people, people with strollers, etc. If you sit there, even when it's empty or when there's none of those people in sight, people will either yell at you or look down on you and give you dirty stares. 

SO DON'T SIT ON THE RED SEATS!!

Lol I was about to, until Lillian stopped me :D

One more thing about subway etiquette. In Canada, we have skytrains and like it's common courtesy and almost an unspoken norm to wait for the people to get off first before the people waiting for the train gets on. 

But there is no such thing in Korea. LOL it's free for all. People push and budge and don't really give a crap. So, don't expect people to wait for you to get out of the train before they get in, they will knock you over xD Just get out asap!!

And one more thing.

Fruits.

It's hecka expensive here. LIKE REALLY EXPENSIVE. 

Lillian and I have been craving fruits the entire time we were here. It's so hard to find places that sell fruit here on the streets (UNLIKE CHINA LMAOLMAO)

And even when we do, it's unbelievably expensive, so we buy only the bare essentials we need.

 

This is actually the first serving of fruit we've had since we've got here....sad, isn't it?

Very very very expensive.

Beware!

Ok, tmw is Exo day and more food! Will update those tmw later ^^ MEOW!

KOREA: DAY 2: Gangnam/ Coex Mall/ Myeongdong

Ok! On to day 2!!

So after we got back to our guesthouse last night, we spent about 5 hours researching (about subways, T money cards, good restaurants to go to, planning the rest of the 18 days, organizing our stuff, recounting our money, ETC)

AND we found out that....a boyband is doing a fansigning at COEX mall the next day at 7pm (which is our day 2) AND SO, with that in mind we decided to explore Gangnam!

COEX mall is the largest underground mall..in...Seoul, I THINK. Soooo, we were excited to shop :D AND for the fansigning :D

(We got up at 8 am~ Slept only a few hours T-T So we were still pretty dead, but still super excited !!!!)

BUT FIRST, we had to figure out the subway system. 

 *pokerface*

Looks....easy....heh...NOT!

Since the fansigning was at 7pm, we decided to go to a different area of Gangnam first~

Subway was so confusing @.@ So many transfers and exits and etc (getting out at the right exit is important!!).

Thank goodness Lillian is good with these things...'cuz I'd get myself lost within the first 5 minutes. o.o

Hehehehe, we were so excited to use our T Money Card (you can buy it at any convenience store), in which you load money into and beep everytime you take the subway/bus/etc and beep again when you get off~ It deducts how much you've traveled in terms of fare from your account, and you can always redeem the leftover amount (if you decide you don't need it anymore) at convenience stores :)

(OH OH and it comes in the form of rilakumma/hello kitty/ ETC phone charms but we aren't staying long and our iphones don't really have a place to hang the charm so we just opted for a plain card).

BUT STILL, ARGH KOREA YOU AND YOUR CUTE STUFFS <3

OK. 

So after we (Lillian) navigated through the subway stations and transferred to all the right transfers,  we finally got to Gangnam!! (took about an hour)

^So after exploring a bit of the area (AND MELTING FROM THE HEAT), we found a small kimbap store and decided to eat breakfast there~

 

 

^ ajummas making our kimbaps :D

They were so sweet and nice :DDD

^ We ordered Wonro Kimbap (regular) and Modeum Kimbap (total cost was 5,000 won) 

They were so good!!!!!

We were full and satisfied and it cost us only 2,500 won each!

Only thing was...the restaurant had no air-con...and we were dying.

SO, OFF TO A CAFE to kill some time before we head over to COEX.

^So we just ordered some cold drinks (prices were similar to an average Starbucks drink's overpriced price~ but whatever, we really just wanted to use the wifi :3)

And so we sat there for about an hour and a half, skyping and oovoo-ing our family and friends :D

And then back to the subway station we go!!! 

 ^Took us about 20 minutes to get from this part of Gangnam to COEX mall area~ 3 transfers @.@

AND WE ARRIVE!!

^After noob-ishly walking around the stores, we discovered very sadly that the stores were, indeed like any other large and well-established mall, expensive and beyond our budget T^T

But we did manage to buy some schtuff likeeeeeee

ALBUMS!!! (We bought it from Evan's Records inside COEX, which is next to the bookstore that Exo had their fan-signing at last week I believe.) SAO SAD...IF only I came a week earlier...if only...T^T

(Exo albums cost 13,000 won each [although we later saw them selling for 9,700 won at a different place =___=], BAP cost 8,700won, Nu'est cost 5,500 won)

And I also boughttttt

skycare schtuffs ^^ Total cost came out to be 40,000 won~

But even though we were inside the mall, it was STILL hot as heck!

So we had to take a breather and sit in the food court (after getting lost countless times inside the mall) with our lovely banana milk <3

^STILL my favourite drink (aside from maybe Shikhae)

It was about 5:10 ish now, and though it was hecka early, we decided to head back towards Evan's Records area where the fan-signing will take place!

ANDDDDD

after waiting diligently for almost 2 hours~

:DDDDDD

:DDDDDDD

 

^manager (?) setting up area~

TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

DORADORA

<3

:DDD

U-KISSS (minus Dongho and Soohyun due to busy schedules T-T)

^ HEEHEEEE

Although we personally did not get into the fan-sign (first of all, we weren't really sure how..., second, we were too tired to really try, and third, we just sorta were satisfied watching them :D)

A few things:

-Kiseop is def the winner in terms of fanservice LMAO

-Hoon interacted the least with the fans, but maybe it was because he was just always busy while others had some time in between signings

-Kevin is cute :D

-Eli is velly goofy

-AJ was similar to Hoon (ish)

-They all had perfect skin, were taller than imagined

-person that left deepest impression is Kiseop, which surprised me 'cuz I never really paid attention to him before, but I sure as heck will now! :)

LKAJSNFD:KAJSFNSKJDFNSKDJFNSKJFKSdf

OK.

Oh, turns out IU had a fan-signing at the same time as U-Kiss, but at a different place~ :\

AHH MY FANGIRL HEART CANNOT TAKE THIS xD

I would spaz more, but atm it's nearing 4:30 am and we have a long day ahead of us so...I shall move on!

Anyways, back to subway station to get home!! (1 transfer)

^Heh, I was bored waiting for our train to come so...

So we got back to our guesthouse first to drop off some stuff. On the way, however, we stopped by some small stores located in the subway station and bought a few more stuff!

I bought:

^Infinite iphone case (12,000 won)

^ Infinite and Exo phone charms (5000won each)

 

^a bag~~ (38,000 won)

So after we got back to the guesthouse, we organized our stuff once again (gotta prepare to move out of Crib 49 and into Seoul Backpackers tmw!!! Argh, still sorta confused how we'll do it. I guess we'll need to call a taxi....def not willing to lug our suitcases through Myeongdong again x.x)

Then we went outside, once again, to explore night life and to eat! (mainly to eat, we were too tired to explore the nightlife for today xD)

 So after walking (and being incredibly indecisive), we finally settled on eating at

this restaurant~~

^ we ordered this~~

^and tadaaaa!!!

It was SAOOO GOOD T^T

Total came to 17,500 won ~

Before heading back to the guesthouse, we stopped by Tous Les Jours and picked up some bread~

(three of these only for 4000 won!!!) The top one is Melon (:O I have no idea how it'll taste, but I'll be brave), the bottom is black sesame (I think), and the one on the right ....I totally forgot...but just some sort of sweet pastry :P)

And we also stopped by family mart to buy some water andddd

 

^Bakha mints! If you watch Rooftop Prince, you will understand their significance :DDD HEHEHEH, very crunchy candy indeed~

And back to guesthouse we go!!!

Here's how our place looks like!

^This place is on the first floor and is shared. It is open 24/7. The water and ramen are free~ Computer usage is also free~ Washer and dryer use is also free~ ^^ Since we're not allowed to eat up in our rooms, we have to come down here to eat~

^And our room~~ Because we opted for our own private bathroom, the fee was a bit more expensive~ 

I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the amazing rooftop, but trust me, it is amazing~ There's a few tables and chairs located up there and it's very close to the Namsan tower so the view is amazinggg!!! And coupled with the amazing weather and slight breezez on a warm night, it's perfect for just chilling out and chatting~

But yah. Sorry for the lack of personality in this post~ I'm totally about to pass out~ T^T Long day ahead! 

Tmw shall also be dedicated to Gangnam (last day for Gangnam)! And more of Myeongdong (actual shopping, we hope).

Cy'all soon!!!