That’s a wrap on Korea from us! Have our posts been helpful? Funny? Made you really REALLY want to go to Seoul?? We sure hope so!
Will we go back to S.Korea again? HELL YES!
There’s still so much left to see and do… ahh 3 weeks is seriously not enough!! :)
Well, it’s the start of summer and we cannot wait to start posting some summertime lovin’ entries since it’s our favourite season to dress up! We’ve been a bit mellow since winter, but this heat will give us the energy to show you guys some fun and exciting posts (fingers crossed)!
For us, summer’s style bible is all bright colours and fun prints to reflect the season so expect some vivid eye candy for the weeks to come :D
So what did our final days in Korea look like?
During the last couple of days it snowed making everything white! Siree finally kicked her blue, black and grey colour scheme habit as well and wore her new clothes out :)Seafood galore!Messing around with the friend’s iPad :P Koreans have a great sense of humour har har har…Walking through a small park at night. It snowed so heavily that night but it made the walk so worth it! We were on a mission to do something horribly illegal – setting off fireworks!! Wooo!! What rebels we are!
Finally, we would just like to mention something that really makes going to Korea stand out from a lot of the other countries we’ve been to, and that really is the people. Koreans are some of the most beautifully friendly people we have met, they are so funny, so outgoing, know how to have a fantastic time and will do anything in their power to help you out and show you the best time possible!
First of all, a big thank you to all the randoms who took the time to help us out when we were lost or confused – sometimes even without us having to ask! A big thank you to those we got to know in our area – Mandu man for telling us how much he loved us “Russians” haha and the ladies who owned the kimbap shop where we got out breakfast almost every morning. A big thank you to all those we met clubbing for taking us to different clubs, buying us food, getting us free alcohol and showing us probably the best night out of our lives!! Finally, a big thank you to our two close friends in Korea, who practically took us out every other day, showed us around and helped us out so much in general. Your efforts are much appreciated and will never be forgotten!
WE LOVE YOU KOREA!!!
So, what’s your game plan for summer? Beach parties? Workout regime? A new hairstyle? Let us know!
If you’re a traveler like me who is fascinated and loves to absorb themselves into another country’s culture, then this is a post for you! Believe it or not some of my friends hate sightseeing and think its boring! Why go to another country then!!??!
Anyways, in Korea a great way to have fun and learn about the culture is at the Korean Folk Village (KFV)! This time was my second time going to the KFV and after the enriching experience I had the first time round, I knew I had to take Siree this time!
The KFV is made up of the actual folk village itself, two museums and an amusement park. I’ve only been to the Folk Village and the museums, as the theme park ticket costs extra. At the KFV you can experience over 260 traditional houses from different parts of Korea, revived from the Joseon Dynasty, a traditional Bazaar with souvenir shops stocking traditional art products as well as traditional Korean foods cooked the authentic Korean way, and engage in traditional performances and activities. The Korean Folk Museum offers in depth knowledge into Korean folk culture and the World Folk Museum offers a glimpse into the folk culture of many countries – though I’m not sure how accurate it is considering what they said about Australia was completely wrong! haha.
The entrance of the Folk Village ~ Looks so traditionalTraditional HousingNice traditional Korean style architecture. Look how detailed the roof painting is!Soo pretty!! This would look so beautiful in Autumn. I can imagine a backdrop of red/purple/orange leaves.Kimchi Pots!! These were everywhere in the village!! I wonder if they had any kimchi in them. Kimchi pots are the traditional way Koreans stored and fermented their kimchi!Cute figurines and more kimchi pots!Buddhist Temple – I love this photo!Buddhist Temple – We could actually here monks chanting from inside these traditional temple buildings.Buddhist Temple – These huge statues were at the front of the Buddhist temple gates. They must be some kind of gods or something…but I never thought Buddhists believed in gods…hmmTraditional Performances – Farmer’s music and DanceTraditional Performances – Equestrian Feats. They do pretty amazing tricks with those horses!Traditional Performances – Acrobatics on a Tightrope! The guy who does it is no joke like 80 years old or something!! I worry every time he jumps and lands on the tightrope that he will collapse and fall!The image on the right is actually thousands of paper wishes tied up into the string. The picture of the left shows how bloody cold it was!! Even flowing water has frozen!!!Wish and messages wall!~Traditional Korean methods of tortureKoreans joining in with torture methods haha!The guy on the right is making traditional Korean MasksLOL I love this Konglish!!World Folk Museum – Apparently this is Australian Cuisine!? I have never had or seen this dish in Australia in my entire life!? Sayyy whaaa??Siree and I couldn’t handle the cold anymore so we went into a traditional tea house to warm up. We indulged in traditional teas, although mine was a little sweet! Still the tea cups and saucers were so pretty!
Map:
Folk Village Map
Transportation
From anywhere in Seoul, you can either catch a train to Gangnam Station (line 2) or to Suwon Station (Line 1)
From Gangnam, you want to catch bus 5001 – 1 from the main bus bay area. It can be little tricky to find the correct bus stand, so if any problems, ask someone. DO NOT trust the transportation directions on the Visit Korea site!!! They have the wrong bus number!! Half our day was gone trying to find bus 5000 – 1 which does not exist!!! (I believe the bus number has since been corrected.)
From Suwon catch bus 37 or 10-5.
Opening Times
Winter: 9AM – 5PM
Summer: 9AM – 6:30PM
Cost
Ticket entry: 15,000 won includes the Folk Village and the museums. That’s less than $15. Entry to the amusement park costs extra.
Performances
Farmer’s Music and Dance: 11AM and 3PM (MAR – OCT) 2:30PM (NOV – FEB)
Lunar New Year (LNY for short here) was in the month of February this year. So we decided to do something touristy and take a well rested break from shopping! Mind you, it took a great feat of effort to take photos in the cold since my fingers were being frozen inside my gloves. :(
Since usually three days leading up to LNY most things are closed, we were a bit worried when planning that we probably won’t be able to do anything since all the preparations will be for spending time with family and eating lots of yummy food.
What a typical LNY feast looks like. Delicious!
What will we doooo?! But lucky for us, there are some traditional places in Seoul that are opened all year round (even for free!) and during special times like this, all the folk cultural activities were being held. Fantastic! We spent our day visiting Namsangol Hanok Village and Korea House, both located conveniently close to each other.
Namsangol Hanok VillageJust making it on time for the performances at Namsangol Hanok Village, the performances included traditional fan dancing as well as drumming.The main courtyard of the Hanok Village had the most activities where visitors can play traditional games, giant Jenga and do arts and craft workshops.For a small fee, the arts and craft activities let’s you make traditional themed projects with an instructor. We made these paper outfit cards.
Namsangol also has a small art museum filled with beautiful Korean folk art which I appreciated since I really enjoy asian art. But NOTHING excited me more than when I saw this:
I don’t know why this was so special to me when I saw it!! I see this all the time in dramas where the couple makes a wish on a piece of paper and ties it to a tree. Even in some high school dramas/animes they have these scenes where they write something significant on paper that they wish will come true. And now I get to do it! 8 years of waiting!! LOL But I won’t tell you what it was! teehee ;)
Talyssa’s turn to tie her wish.Namsangol also has a very large pond in the middle of the grounds. It’ll look great sitting under the pagoda patio in the spring/summer time!Just outside Namsangol you can find some food stalls that sell street food and taiyaki!! (I’m not sure what it’s called in Korean ><)Nearly time to go to Korean House. But before that we went out to eat meat! Our efforts not to smell like we just came out of Korean BBQ failed when we found out the dish we ordered came with a gas stove. EepKorea HouseThe traditional performances at Korea House were such a treat! When we went inside the performance hall it was such a beautifully decorated theater with live percussion and string orchestra pits on the sides it felt so intimate, like a private session!Cudos to the art director! CONFESSION. I can be superficial when it comes to the looks of things. Glasses, engagement rings, book covers… but the performance visuals were just LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I loved it!! Each performance had it’s own stage effect like fog machine, lighting arrangement, BG change and props.
How to get to:
Namsangol Hanok Village
Take the train to Chungmuro Station on Line 3 or 4. From Exit 4 walk along Hanongmaeul-gil st. for 5 minutes.
Operating days
Apr-Oct: 09:00-21:00
Nov-Mar: 09:00-20:00
Closed every Tuesday (except if the Tuesday is a holiday, it is closed the next day)
Korea House
Take the train to Chungmuro Station on Line 3 or 4. From Exit 3 it’s very close from the exit.
Open all year round.
Traditional performances:
18:30-19:30 (first show) / 20:30-21:30 (second show)
There are other cultural programs to do besides the performances which you can book online.
Apologies for the late FML, however we have decided to stretch our Korea shenanigans over two months…because there was just way too much Korean goodness to fit into once month only! So we decided we’d share as much knowledge with you as we could and spread it over 2 months.
Talyssa’s style
My second IU look is much the same as the first with my blouse and skirt being the same. I instead paired it with a burnt orange jumper and added a black neck tie to give it an extra preppy look.I kept my socks and shoes very plain in this look – almost school-likeClose up detailing of collar, jumper and neck tie. I absolutely love the colour scheme!!Please ignore the lack of socks…Here you can see the panel-knit detailing of the jumper. I love jumpers with unique knitted patterns! It is something I always look out for when buying a jumper.Once again hair and makeup is kept simple. When it comes to curls for an IU look I think it’s important to have them looking a little bit more natural/messy rather than perfectly tight curls.
Siree’s style
Colour faux pas would definitely be green+red. At first, I didn’t know if the combo of mint green and pink would work but I was pleasantly surprised!
Mint green being one of the many colours for this season, this peter pan collar also is a reverse shirt with a button down design at the back. This time around, I broke the flowy nature of the skort and loose bagginess of the shirt with a structured black blazer to neutralize the palette from being overwhelming.
Mint Green Top – Forecast. Blazer – Dotori. Skort – Dazzlin’. Boots – Yesstyle.IU has either sheer white or opaque white sockings paired with some of her performing outfits. The design on mine are almost like a garter at the top with a faux sock line at the bottom which I thought was unique. Stockings with different stitch patterns are great to play around with for new outfit combos.Painted my nails with a glitter french tip. I love the colour tangerine since it goes very well with my skin colour.Hair close-up time! I took a classic old-school vintage hairstyle but made it a bit casual… since I just came from work lol.
Stay tuned for our final look for FML – IU month!
Wanna know where we bought our clothes for this look?? Check out our lookbooks! We put the store links for all our clothing pieces:
When you go travelling, it’s usually for two reasons: holiday or work/study. And when you hear about your friend’s student exchange for (XX) of those awesome months, you’re not only gonna be bitter about those awesome experiences, but also sour over all those new exotic friends they made (When. You. Were. Being. Replaced!! Ahh lolz).
But! For the unlucky few who have not experienced a foreign school experience for credit *raise hand* making friends overseas on your short time there (or most likely not even thinking about it because you so crazy busy), friendships can be hard to initiate. When we went to Seoul, we didn’t expect anything but we walked away with not only our shopping, but with some really nice memories of friends (both Korean and foreigners) we met during our trip. Friends who some are now our Facebook friends.
South Korea has some of the most generous, most hospitable strangers you will ever meet in a fleeting moment. It doesn’t matter if you can’t speak a word, just use the universal language of hand gestures to try your best to communicate and you’ll be understood soon one way or another. And ladies, Korean boys can be so gentlemanly helping you with your heavy luggage up or down the stairs even in peak subway human traffic! Swoon~ <3
So how do you meet Korean friends in Korea without going to university or work?
Well, probably the worst setting to make chit chat but the best to meet someone is…
…Clubbing!
Clubbing + Kpop = POWERHOUSE (bigbangupdates)
I don’t want to be smug *evil grin* but no one can top the experience we had when clubbing overseas, and I literally mean best. This has to be the B.E.S.T clubbing experience we had in our lives! When in NB1, a famous club in Hongdae owned by YG, we felt a little shy and out of place at the start. We went there at 10PM, a little early for clubbing, and no one was dancing! It felt really odd being on a dance floor and not have people dance except a few couples. Is there some Korean clubbing etiquette we weren’t aware of?! But that was short lived when we met some university students who were so nice to put us out of our awkward state. They taught us dance hand gestures for LMAO – Party Rock Anthem, and also told us that the armband we had lets us have free club entry to three clubs: NB1, NB2 and Harlem for the price of ₩11,000! That’s amaze-balls!! Less than $11 for three clubs?! I don’t even!
What clubbing looks like inside NB1. Though NB2’s crowd is more like this when we went. (tumblr)
A good couple of songs later and we were ready to hop somewhere else and under the offer of our new friends, they invited us to go to another club which was popular for foreigners with them. How nice! Accept we shall! If you ever felt shy whenever there was some really impressive dancer next to you and all you knew was the two-step and everyone was closed off to their own group, the thing I liked most about our foreign bar experience was that it didn’t feel ‘cliquey’. Everyone was just group dancing with cool random encounters and our circle just grew bigger with everyone shuffling. Horray! Oh and did I mention free shots of soju…twice…yeah your mind in blown right? But what we didn’t expect was when asked if we were feeling hungry we would stopped over at a famous street food stand for some late night tteokbokki and twigim. We didn’t get a chance to get our wallets before we left NB1 but they said it was ok and paid for us both! Double niceness! Can I tear up over how well we were being looked after?! They would be rivers I can assure you.
Since we went clubbing in Hongdae, which is a university district, we met people our age who were learning English so obviously they would be looking for friendships over hookups. Though it does depend on where you are as there will always be people who want to hook up in clubs, lucky we only encountered only one sleaze of a guy who was on a humping spree.
Anyways, enough of my bragging but have a facebook account ready as well. Though a lot of Korean people use Kakao, many prefer Facebook so keep that in mind when making friends overseas. Also you might find that your new friends would want to contact you while you are still in Korea to have dinner and show you around, unfortunately for us we left clubbing to the last week of our itinerary so we couldn’t make it as we had a lot of things to do before we left. But next time… kkkkk
Soooo I just had my birthday, and as I grow older I’ve been really keen on the idea of someday living by myself. Living with your rents has its benefits for emotional/support needs but up until recently I really do want my own place. To work. To live in an image of what I want to live in as an independent adult (hmmm… does that sound right?). And Pinterest DOES NOT help! All those gorgeous pictures of interiors ahhh makes me jealous!!
And with the ultimate home needs to be paired with an ideal surrounding. If you have ideas of living in a sweet zakka neighbourhood like me, Samcheongdong gives off that vibe of calm and space, which is pretty funny seeing as Korea is always so fast paced. Even walking! When we both came back we really felt the change just by walking down George Street in Sydney. The human traffic was so different it felt like a lazy Sunday walk in the park in the heart of the city compared to our rushed 1000 pace a second while in Seoul.
Walking through SamcheongdongRecognise this street? It’s the setting of a scene in Coffee Shop Prince. Over the walls are two girl middle/high schools buildings. I wouldn’t mind going to school here :)
On the opposite side of the very touristy Insadong, Samcheongdong is definitely quieter, fusing that picturesque small neighbourhood stroll with its many (many) cafes, contemporary art galleries and handmade jewelry stores. You can also find some handmade clothing and nick-knack shops as well as the Bukchon Hanok Village and Gyeongbokgung Palace but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to visit. Definitely a great spot for couples who want some alone time and street walking real-estate ;)
One thing I noticed in Korean coffee cafes is the term “hand drip coffee.” Before Korea, I have never heard this expression being used as a marketing term for coffee consumption except “french press” (which is a different process). Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of espresso unless it’s affogato but I appreciate the art of a good smelling cupa :)
Unfortunately a lot of the jewelry stores have a “No Photography” sign so I had to take a lot of cafe fronts instead lol
Although Samcheongdong Sujebi is a must eat on tour itineraries for the area, Talyssa and I decided to try out this famous restaurant called Meokswidonna that’s popular for its tteokbokki. Ahh street food, what we do for your unhealthy empty carbs over healthy meals. Oh but this isn’t any ordinary tteokbokki. This has class it was even featured on television. Choose your favourite toppings and…. BAM!
Better than pizza any day!
Look how beautiful it is! Mmmm cheese and ramyun, and all for $8 per person!
I dare you to find a place that let’s you have seafood and beef for $16 of this size. I DARE YOUUUU!
Waaah cheese is in the same category as beef and seafood! I never really enjoyed American cheese (commercial Australian cheese is more natural being less processed in my view) but in this case, I will adjust :)
Walking down a bit further into the heart of Samcheongdong the scenery changes with distinctive slope-side shops with stone staircases to climb to the higher levels. Though mainly cafes, the look mixes the modern with traditional making it very charming to just walk and explore.
Oink!Guess who?
It’s a letterbox! How unique!
It became a ritual that after walking a bit, it was cafe time! So we stopped over at Palette Dessert Shop to grab some…
Macaroons!
So the verdict? Very nice! I guess if I was to compare it to a Lindt macaroon the ganache is more gooier, which I really enjoyed as you can really taste the flavour. I got the salted caramel of deliciousness.
Though Palette is known for macaroons, they had other cakes available as well.
Need a Map?
How to get there
To get to Samcheongdong take the Subway Line 3 and is 570m from Exit #1, Anguk Station.
Duration
Hmmm I would say 2-3 hours. Maybe longer if visiting the Bukchon Hanok Village and Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Tips:
Meokswidonna has a bit of a queue so line up early to get a seat. Though some of the wait staff knows a bit of English, the menu is completely in Korean and Japanese.
Samcheongdong has too many cute cafes to try on a full stomach.
Until next time, later tatters! :)
Run by two travel and lifestyle bloggers, The Hidden Thimble focus’ on creating truthful and in-depth travel guides, food & beauty reviews. Enjoy drool-worthy photography from around the world!
