Korea Day 6: Seoul

Woke up late today so we quickly wash up and head for lunch at Bonjuk 본죽, a popular korean porridge franchise, located near Bukchon hanok village (nearest station: Anguk). We ordered a sweet pumpkin porridge (comes with rice balls) and a savory abalone porridge to share. Total bill 18,000won (S$21.50). The portion was huge, and we love both the porridge and the side dishes!

After lunch, we went to check out the Bukchon Traditional Cultural Centre and the Bukchon Hanok Village which sits between the two palaces of the Joseon Dynasty, Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung.



Random boutique shop in the centre of the village

Next destination, Changdeokgung Palace at 3pm to catch the English Tour.

Admission Fee: 6000won (adult)

Entrance

Lovely tour guide carrying a cute umbrella

 

After the tour, we took a stroll to the Gwanghwamun station and saw Admiral Yi Sun Sin (이순신)'s statue in front of Gyeongbokgung palace and Gwanghwamun Square. Yi Sun Sin is Korea's famed naval commander and national hero. You can read more about him from http://www.koreanhero.net/en/home.htm

 

 

One of the things that I love about Seoul is that there are mountains in the city, it is always such a beautiful sight especially when the sun is setting.

 

In Jeju, we chanced upon a cartoon called Larva, below are the 2 main characters from the cartoon. Sis said it is very popular especially amongst children, it's really quite hilarious so do check it out on Youtube.

Took the subway to Insadong to buy the hair treatment from Etude House.

 

And we noticed a really long queue outside this ice cream shop so we decided to queue too, thinking that it might taste amazing. After queuing for 10 mins, we got our spiral cone filled with vanilla ice-cream which cost 3000won (S$3.60) - quite expensive yea? The vanilla ice cream tasted normal but the cone reminded me of the childhood days, tasted like some corn crackers :)

 

Met sis for dinner at Hongdae, we wanted to try the barbeque franchise store owned by Korean variety show -Running Man member, Haha. We ordered 2 servings of samgyupsal, 1 serving of large intestines and 1 makgeolli (korean rice wine) to share. The bill came up to 40,000won (S$47.70).

 

The large intestines were too chewy for my liking, but the samgyupsal was good but the jeju black pork was still the best! First time trying makgeolli, so nice! Goes well with barbeque, do try it!

For dessert, Sis brought us to Puzzle cafe @ Hongdae. Koreans love to eat, sis says that when they are out, they will go for many rounds - dinner, coffee, drinks, supper. Love their culture haha..

Anyways, we spent 25000won (S$30) for 2 drinks and a chocolate banana pancake. You can loan any puzzles on display or purchase puzzles and if you can't finish piece-ing them together, you can ask them to safekeep for you and you can come back another time to complete it. Isn't it very interesting? :)

 

We chose the small puzzles haha

PetiteFreckles ♥