Seoul Trip - November

Had a short getaway to Seoul as I managed to book a super cheap jaw dropping flights! Seriously couldn't pass up the offer as it's just too cheap

Y15,000 for Sapporo - Tokyo - Seoul - Tokyo - Sapporo. 

And it was definitely a much needed getaway to end the summer and get prepared for winter. 

After booking the flights, I pretty much researched everyday regarding the best food to try in Seoul. Past few trips I traveled alone and didn't manage to try most of the food where the minimum order is 2 person. This time I finally had a travel buddy who is equally a big eater as me. 

After weeks of research, we've came up with a packed itinerary and have planned breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. What we didn't really plan was the activities to do in Seoul as our main motive was to eat. We threw in some shopping time, some typical touristy things to do and basically just chill apart from that. 

First Day

Best view I've seen from a plane yet

Arrival during lunch time and first meal for me was jajangmeon! I missed this dish the most after my previous trip half a year ago. Ordered both jajangmeon and jjamppong and fried pork to share. Awesome meal indeed!

After lunch, rushed to watch Nanta for 2 hours. Nanta was interesting but generally I'm not too into musical performance though..

After Nanta, rushed to Lotte department store to have the super popular Softree ice cream. Honeycomb on vanilla ice cream. After having it I'm really not sure if it's a great combination though, the ice cream became too sweet and after I've eaten all the honeycomb, the remaining ice cream became tasteless. Not to mention the wax sticking to your teeth. Trying once is really good enough.

After Softree, we moved straight to Palsaik Samgyupsal, Korean BBQ. I wasn't even hungry at all but we gotta do what we gotta do, eat! 

8 flavours of pork and will be cooked one by one. My favourite was the miso flavoured. The stew provided beside the BBQ was included in the set and we didn't really touch that as we were too full.

After dinner, we went to do some souvenir shopping! Since for Japanese culture, one who travels will have to buy some omiyage (souvenir) for the colleagues when they return. And it was really fun as well to shop for snacks. 

Best strawberries are from Korea!

After shopping we chilled in our room and then went for supper after that. It's something I really wanted to try for a long time but unable to do so when I was alone. The minimum portion to order in Kyochon is 24 pieces of wings and drumlets. That's madness for one person! And even both of us couldn't finish everything. We each ate 8 pieces and had another 8 pieces for takeaway. 3 person would be perfect for this. Or probably we were still too full from dinner.

Second Day

The next morning, we headed to the fish market, the famous Noryangjin fish market. We already knew what we wanted, just that we couldn't make up our mind on which stall to purchase from! Eventually we just bought what we wanted from a random stall and headed to a random restaurant and passed our goods to them to cook / butcher.

Horrifying Gaebul....

The food I bought were meant to be eaten raw so it got served real quick. But I overestimated myself and I had a real hard time shutting my brain and just start eating. Till now I still can't bring myself to try it again if I were given the chance to do so. It was the first time ever for me to put something that's still moving into my mouth! 

Next up, I was starving obviously as I only had a few tiny pieces of squid legs. We quickly moved on to our next restaurant that was meant for lunch but we went for brunch instead.

Mies Container was recommended by my friend and it was really really good! Western cuisine meet Korean and it worked! The bulgogi cream cheese was fantastic, generous cheese and best eaten hot! 

The famous seafood spaghetti was delicious as well, do be warned that it's deceptively spicy!

After brunch, we went shopping for a while and then rested in Starbucks.

Super love this tumbler! But just too expensive.

Later on we went to do some shopping at Myeongdong and then back to Hongdae. Hongdae really has everything! Cheap shopping, street food, night life. My friend and I joked that we really don't need to leave Hongdae at all, everything we need is there.

Dinner place is in Hongdae itself, we tried the cheese spare ribs by HongBrick! From the picture we researched on the Internet we were already drooling, and it was indeed very delicious!! Be warned that it is very very very spicy. The staff asked us do we want the normal spicy or less spicy, we went for less spicy and it was still like volcano in your mouth!

Don't worry about dirtying your hands though as gloves are provided. 

After polishing the ribs, leave some of the cheese and order a portion of rice and the staff can cook fried rice for you.

After dinner, we went to chill at a snack bar. 2-fingers glove were provided so once again, no dirty fingers were involved!

Third Day

Interesting plant spotted! 

Breakfast was toast with injeolmi. I actually regretted ordering this as there's really nothing special about it. Cream on top of the toast was a little odd for me.

Gave Softree ice cream another try again but this time with chocolate instead of honeycomb. 

Once again, nothing special.

Best part of the third day's meal was this! The much hyped Myeongdong Gyoza.

Based on the name, gyoza is the highlight of the store but me being not a huge gyoza fan, I opted for the knife sliced noodles. And it was indeed good. Perfect for the cold weather and the kimchi was the spiciest kimchi I've ever had! Still I went for 2nd round refill for kimchi. 

After my early dinner, I went for a stroll around Dongdaemun and spotted this pomegranate stall. Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice?? I'm so up for it but it was too expensive! I couldn't bring myself to pay so much for it...

It was so fortunate for me that during the period I was there, Dongdaemun Design Plaza has a LED lit roses for display for a limited time.

Truly truly beautiful sight! Ample sidewalk space to take pictures too!

Went for my all time favourite street snack at Ewha University. Fried chicken with rice cake in sweet sauce!

Ended my night with patbingsoo!

It was such a short trip but I truly did managed to recharge myself and get myself prepared for winter. It was also one of the rare trips where I traveled light. Brought only 1 small luggage and 1 backpack. For the past few years, most of my holiday has 1 huge luggage and 1 small luggage plus a backpack involved. So this trip I could really just travel light and didn't pay to check-in for luggage! More money for shopping then!

Since I've been to Seoul for more than 5 times now, for my next trip I look forward to travel with someone and not to travel alone as if I were to travel alone, there's really not many new place I could explore alone anymore. 

Hope for more holidays to come!