Discovering Seoul ~ Which Way to Go?

October 12 ~ Thursday

What to do on your first day in a foreign country?

Since 2 of our friends will be coming the following day. We decided to explore first the tourist spots near our place. But since we are all first timer, finding our way to the nearest exit and deciphering the map already took so much of our time.

Our first stop was Changdeokgung Palace. But when we went inside to purchase our ticket we learned that the English tour is not available on Thursday. So we then decided to postpone going to this palace and decided to go instead on a hop on hop off tour (Seoul City bus tour). Since we don’t know yet the area our feet brought us to Insadong to look for the nearest Tourist Information Center (TIC). We (4 of us, one at a time) asked the staff where the nearest bus station for the city tour and all she saidto us "It's just behind the gray fence” (where a construction at the corner of the street is on going). We kept on looking for the sign for about an hour and there was no bus station sign. Until we finally gave up and decided to take a walk farther. About a 100m away from the TIC, is where we found the bus station we were looking for.

Whew! Finally!

But then since it was already mid afternoon and touring the downtown or palaces will take lots of times, we decided to postponed it and instead went to Insadong which is only 100m away from where we were standing. So off we all went to Insadong to do little shopping and took a rest at the nearest McDonald’s ^^

Insadong is a nice place with full of souvenir items and lots of people. I love its small street, cute little stores and its pavement. The few phrases that we know such as “annyonghaseyo”, “kamsahamnida” and “eolmameyo?” had been practiced pretty well in Insadong.

Not much people yet at the street of Insadong

Beautiful wooden big masks decord at the street of Insadong

assorted wooden mask display

Rica looks so cute here. She tried on a hat that has
the same color as her jacket.

another rare photo of us together. taken by a stall owner who
mistakenly thought that i'm korean ^^

sisters, rica and anne

this stall caught our attention bec of the speil that they have
when doing the wrapping of the sweet candy. from a dough they
can make thousands of strands. their speil has japanese and
english which really attracks the attention of tourists.

Btw, in Insadong, there were some Koreans who mistakenly though that I'm Korean ^^.

After Insadong, we then decided to have the Night Tour. But since we didn't know where we were at, we again relied to the bettle map the TIC provided and looked for the “nearest” Seoul City Tour Bus Station. Geez, it was really a long long walk from Insadong.

But despite the long walk to our destination, we still have the strength to pose and shoot some photos of us ^^ until we reach the bus stop that we are looking for.

Honestly, up to now I keep on forgetting to ask my friends where we’ve seen that “nearest” station ^^ But I think it’s somewhere in Jongno-ga. Finally, we where there, hopped on the bus and enjoyed the ride for about 2 hours.

The bus made a stop over at Namsan. Everyone in the bus got off, few went up to Namsan Tower but we decided to stay and comeback another day when there’ll be more time to explore Namsan. So for 20 minutes this is all what we did…took photos ^^




After the night tour, we alighted the bus which i don't know whatstation. Despite the pain that we were feeling in our legs and feet because of too much walking for the whole day, we still found time to pose for some souvenir photos at this place.

i love the marble theme of this pass

we thought that this is a chirstmas tree and it's not

well, Rica is not a KSW fan but just of the fun of it posed for this one

After 2 hours or so, we decided to head back to the guesthouse.

We were supposed to take the subway (our very first time). But when we were looking at the neighborhood map a man approached us and offered to help us find our way. We were so happy when this man offered help and told us that SeBP is only 15 minutes walk from where we are. Again, off we go, took the underpass, walk…walk…walk…until finally we realized that the 15 minutes walk is about to turn to 50 minutes walk. Huh! Whew! And Phew! Gosh our feet and legs are killing us already. When we finally reached Anguk station we found a place to eat and rest our sore legs and feet.

We sat, ordered (the never ending kimbap and bibimbap and another one which we didn't take photo anymore), ravished our food, rest for a while, studied the map once again, paid our bills then left.

After eating and had rested for a short time, we left restaurant, took the underpass to cross the street (you should have seen us going down the stairs) and last stairs going up to the main road, we were like huffing and puffing and practically dragging or feet and legs. And this is only our first day! Geez, that man duped us…15 minutes by walking! It took us 1 hour! From the restaurant to the guesthouse it took us another 15 to 20 minutes of walking (until we discovered something the following day).

That was day one adventure …discovering our way in Seoul.