Korea Trip Day 1: Myeongdong and Namsan Tower ♥♥♥

 
Finally I will share about my trip to Korea. I decided to write it before I forget most of the details later. This will be a very long post, I hope you don’t get bored with my story 😀
 

I think photo of Myeongdong Cathedral is a good start, isn’t it? 
 

This is my first time going abroad alone, and going quite far to East Asia. Actually I asked my mom to accompany me but she don’t want to. And I asked some of my friends too but they couldn’t so I’m alone. Well, fortunately Aehwa Onni wants to accompany me during my trip so I’m not that alone, thank you Onni! :’)
 
So I took flight on April 11 at 11.20 pm using Garuda Indonesia Airlines and arrived at Seoul around 8.30 am the next morning. When we were about to landing on Seoul, the pilot gave us information about weather in Seoul and he said it’s around 5 degree Celcius. I was just like “…. @#&^??!”, I was shocked and panicked because I didn’t expect the weather to be still that cold. I mean it’s spring, right? Spring should get warmer and two weeks before my flight, I read weather forecast of Seoul, it said that it’s around 15-17 degree Celcius, but why is it 5? Only 5??? -___-”
 
Okay so the day before, Onni told me that suddenly on April 9, it’s snowing there. Spring but still snowing? Nowadays, weather is getting more and more unpredictable, I think it’s because of global warming, huh? To be honest, I don’t prepare any thick jackets for this trip, I just want to bring cardigan and scarf, but after getting that news, I decided to borrow thick sweater from my mom’s friend who just got back from China.
 
When I stepped out of the airplane, hahhahaa brrr, it’s really really cold! Geez.. I planned this trip on April because I don’t want to taste any winter weather, but why oh why? T.T T.T T.T
 
After picking up my baggage, buying mineral water (so thirsty) and T-money, I quickly went out from airport to find Aiport Bus Limousine to Myeongdong. Lucky me, the bus is right in front of me, so I quickly got into the bus. By the way, if you want to use Airport Bus Limousine to Myeongdong, you should take no. 6015. 
 

Inside the bus. The seat is quite comfy and not full of people, still many seats available. 
 

Look what I found inside the bus. It’s BNT News magazine with 4 languages inside ^^
 

And then, I saw cherry blossoms on my way to hotel and I quickly took photos of it. So excited because I was really in Korea at that moment, and I can enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms too XD
 
After around 1 hours inside the bus, finally I reached Sejong Hotel and I could see that Onni had been waiting for me there. >.< I got off at Sejong but I didn't stay there, just my hotel was near there. Just walk straight from Sejong Hotel, then turn right, walk for few steps and then we arrived at Nine Tree Hotel.    After researching for few months on which hotel should I stay at, finally I picked Nine Tree Hotel. I reserved   standard double bedroom from Agoda. I choose Nine Tree Hotel because it's located in Myeongdong area, it's quite new so the furnitures inside must still in a good condition, and read many good reviews on Agoda and Trip Advisor.        Check-in time is at 3pm and I arrived there around 10.30 am so I couldn't check in and just asked the receptionist to keep our things first. Then we headed to Myeongdong! Yeayyy!   Let me tell you my itinerary first. At first, I didn't have any plan to visit other cities beside Seoul (except Nami Island). So on my itinerary, the first day: Myeongdong, second day: Nami Island and Gangnam, third day: Palaces, Hanbok Museum, Yeouido Park, fourth day: Ewha Girls University, Hongdae, and Coex Mall. But Onni came out with more interesting itinerary so I decided to just follow hers. Hahahha.. Actually from her plan, the first day we will go to Gyeongbokgung Palace, Hanbok Museum,  Cheong Gyeo Cheon river, Namsan and Dongdaemun. But we decided to go around Myeongdong, and then Namsan, then Dongdaemun. ^^   We walked around Myeongdong and it's still not crowded. Then I told Onni that I want to go to Myeongdong Cathedral. After asking some people, finally we found it and it is really beautiful. It is one of the earliest and most notable examples of Gothic Revival Architecture in Korea (taken from wikipedia).       Feels like at Europe xD     After looking around, we went back to Myeongdong area and decided to try this snack. 😀 Ming Tong (or Myeongdong) Go Ro Kae     Since I like potato so much, I ordered the potato one, and it tastes quite good :9   After some shopping, we decided to have lunch. Onni said she wanted to eat Andong Jjimdak, I just said okay, didn't know actually what is that but I have told her before that I don't like seafood and ginger so I think it's okay.   So it's a famous food from Andong. We ordered Boneless Chicken and I'm surprised of how big the portion is! It tastes delicious, I like the kamja (potato) of course xD and at the end we finished it and felt so full.     Look at that chubby face -__-     Before back to hotel, I went to Artbox store. (≧∇≦)       View from Myeongdong. Walk straight and you'll find the main road and way to subway.   Finally we're able to check in and got inside our room. It's small but still comfortable.   My shopping stuff s 😀   After taking rest, we went to Namsan Tower before it's getting too dark. We took bus there, I forgot how long is the journey and what is the bus number. ._.   From the bus stop, we still need to hike some distance. It's getting cold at night yet I have to hike at mountain, it's just so brrrr.. Freezing!    And finally I could enter Teddy Bear Museum! Yeay (^0^)/   Psy's Teddy Bear hahahha.. And it's so akward to pose like that 😐     I think the Teddy Bear Museum is divided into two parts: the first one is showing history of Joseon Dynasty and the second one is modern part of Seoul.   I will just show you some of the photos, otherwise there will be too many teddy photos xD   History area       Modern part       After feeling content with Teddy Bear Museum, then we went to Namsan Tower Observatory. There's nothing much to do here, but seeing Seoul from here is very pretty.       The next stop is Doota at Dongdaemun. I didn't take any pics there because it's a mall. I think the price is expensive but maybe for Korean, it's just a stadard price 😐 Ended up just buying one skirt there, cost me 20.000 won.   So tired of walking, my whole body is so stiff. >.< By the time I went back to hotel, I think it's about 11pm and most of restaurants there are already closed. So we just went to nearby restaurant that served soju and ordered snack.    Actually it's not soju, but cheongha. Onni said it's other type of soju which tastes sweeter. I tried it and I liked it xD It instantly made my body warmer.   And this is the snack we ordered. I was not hungry that night so it's okay. I think it's satay? I forgot the Korean name but it's delicious. Unfortunately the price is quite expensive, it's above 10.000 won, I forgot the exact price. I mean for just few sticks like that and it costs more than 10.000 won? Crazy 😐 My head felt dizzy after seeing the price. Hahaha -__-   Anyway that concludes my first day trip. I feel that the time is not enough, I still hadn't felt satisfied shopping in Myeongdong but one day passed already x(