For one more day

Good morning sunshine! Today's our last day, and so far Korea had given us only great experience,  from good food, weather, people, the vibe..we are even eager to go back. But before anything else, time to do some strolling within our area to get breakfast. First stop: Namdaemun Market

Namdaemun Market

Namdaemun Market is a old traditional market of various goods at a very affordable price. Almost everything is on sale! Imagine Divisoria or Baclaran level. We're lucky that we came here quite early so we could walk leisurely from one stall to another. If I had known better, I would shop here rather than in Myeongdong (Myeongdong is still my fave though). 

But first we needed some breakfast, most resto and coffee stalls are closed and not open until 10AM but we saw this ajumma who told us coffee goes best with what else but toasts! 

She flipped the bread and butter and in no time whipped us a perfect Grandma Toasts!

Kamsahamninda ajumma!

We chose the open al fresco  coffee stall, and enjoyed sipping our hot 

cup with  hot toasts. Ah, perfection.

Nearby is a bakery and dumping stall which I got so curious about

Hmm so I went in to check out

Oh some freshly baked hot mung buns and cheese buns.

So I got 1 or 2 buns to try! Nothing beats freshly baked finds!

By this time, most stalls are open, and we walked around to see interesting souvenirs, some are really cheap than Myeongdong, so I got more stuff! Sorry hubby. 

Yes they serve this any time!

 Namsan Seoul Tower

So by this time, Daryl's eyeing me like telling me enough is enough. We dropped our shopping bags at the hotel and unto our next stop to Namsan Tower,  Gu Jun Pyo- I'm coming for you!

We took the bus from Myeongdong area to get us to Namsan, we traveled for around 30 mins, and finally arrived at Yongsan-gu to one of Korea's famous landmarks, thanks to K-drama.

Onboard to N-Tower! Prepare to hike a bit from the drop off point to reach the tower, 

standing 480m ASL, you are walking to the highest part of Korea!  

And guess what was our first activity...

Lovelocks! Lakas mka-Kdrama besh, tbh.

Christmas tree lovelocks in the air..

We didn't do much here except enjoy the great view of the mountain top and around the Namsan Tower. Unfortunately, we didn't get much a decent photo either of the tower because it was a bit crowded but worth a breath of fresh air! 

  

I found my bliss.

Love,

itsmelory (^.^)

MOM (Myeongdong Once More)

After an afternoon filled of walking, enjoying the scenes of great palaces I've only seen on TV, food tripping,  and being able to breath in the cold breeze in this lovely country, what could be better than this?  We stopped at small convenience store to get our to-go coffee to decide where to next? Riza suggested we go to Gangnam to check out interesting stuff. We hopped on to the MRT to Gangnam but it was less exciting after few purchases, are we even in the right Gangnam? Anyway we decided to go back Myeongdong! 

Kuya doesn't look too happy with his BBQ

This one is too eager to dig into this BBQ

Veggie and some ughm- streaks of lippie. 

Yes another round of shopping done!

Can you spot us?

Tonight calls for you know what- Soju.  

And before we call it a night, we happen to meet Cong. Romulo and Ms. Shalani! 

Lovely couple, selfie time!

Happiness and love,


itsmelory (^.^)

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Also known as Gyeongbuk Palace which translates "greatly blessed by Heaven", this was the main royal palace and the largest of the Grand palaces which served as home for royals during the Joseon Dynasty. Due to its status as national sovereignty, it was heavily damaged during the Japanese invasion from 1592-1598. The Royal court was then moved to Changdeokgung Palace and the Gyeongbuk was left in ruins in the last 3 centuries until the regime of Heungseon Daewungon or Prince Gung of  19th century, where the iconic symbol of Korea was reconstructed of 330 buildings and 5792 rooms according to wikipedia. 

From Hanok Village, its easy to reach the palace by just walking. Another thing I could commend here is that they have English and other language speaking guides within every stop light whom you could easily approach to ask for directions.  The walk to the palace is a mere 5-10 min until we are almost approaching the palace but we found some food kiosks so we stopped by to try it. We decided to give up the hanbok because it was so freaking cold by mid day to be walking on it.  I can imagine how other tourist must be feeling wearing it to the palace. Free admission to the palace when your wearing hanbok. 

Pork Cutlet Shop 

We found this small eatery along the way, the place was kind of inviting so we dig in before our palace tour. 

Definitely one of my fave dishes. 

Pork cutlet was just ok though

and some hot tofu soup. Yummers! 

To the Palace

Know before you go that the palace is closed on Tuesdays, changing of guards happen every hour from 10-2PM. Admission is free for those wearing their hanbok. Unfortunately we could not walk that far in this cold, entrance fee for adult is KRW 3,000, 18 yrs and below KRW 1,500.

We were just in time for the changing of palace guards, it was impressive! It must be like this during the regime of Joseon dynasty, in how they handed down the tradition eventhough the rule of monarch does not exist anymore.Unfortunately there were too many people, and we were being polite so we just watched from afar appreciating whats currently taking place. I could practically say that this is one of main tourist attractions because the place is soooo so  crowded! Oh the difficulty to find a perfect spot to get a photo. Anyway, we make use of this time to walk around, and just feel the palace vibe. Every corner looks familiar from all the epic KDrama I watched.  Ok so I managed some snaps..

Promise to go back here on a springtime, ok yes? 

Meanwhile channeling my ganda ka ghorl?

Cheers,

marzylorie (^.^)

Bukchon Hanok Village

Good morning, annyheong! Barely slept last night because of what happened trying to do what Tay-tay advised, just shake it off. We manage to drag ourselves to get coffee, and get ready  for today's activity- one major throwback day to the charming Hanok village. Yey!

Bukchon Hanok Village is a historic village dating back to Joseon dynasty featuring Hanok or traditional houses, and representing the old Goryeo. In here you'll find alleys of alleys of beautiful hanok, traditional craft items, beautiful flowers decorated on their rooftops well preserved and in fact this is a residential village. Many old rich or ancient wealthy as well as influential family reside in this area.

Of course I wouldn't miss it for the world, since this is on top of my list talaga! I love and has always been a fan of "old vibe", traditional homes, beautiful and colorful hanbok, matching accessories imagining myself strolling the historic street. I lived to watch Jewel in the Palace, Han Hyo Joo of Dong Yi, and most recently Love in the Moonlight with my oppa Park Bo Gum, OMG I'm so so excited! 

Take 1 from the shop. 

The owner asked us to pick a color, everything looked so beautiful so I just mix and match. and they also did our hair with some soft cloth hair accessory. 

Take 2 by our Japanese friend.  Arigatou tomodachi!

Kamsahamnida!

My first thought when we stepped outside was, my gosh I'm gonna froze in the cold. 

Hanbok is made of fine silk of 2 parts, the jacket (jeogori) and the skirt (chima) 

I preferred the upper part jacket (jeogori)  to be longer so I could hide my hands inside.

My real life oppa on fleek, and was game that day...good start!

I'm pretty sure he was telling me here "enough na"

And there you go, complaining already he wanted coffee na...

This time, I'm feeling exhausted na din, the place is just soo crowded! 

So we found a nice spot to sit down a bit..

Just laughing and brushing off the cold. Joke. 

Trying to get a good angle in this side of the road.

Another lovely day in Korea, we keep falling in love with the places and culture! 

Meanwhile, that's me and otw to the market to buy some pang-gisa. Kamsahamnida!

Love,

marzylorie (^.^)

Midnight in Goryeo

Beautiful day today, and lucky for me my eyes doesn't show how terribly I slept last night, here's a short story to the night that was. 

We had a lovely time in Everland, Myeongdong of course the night shouldn't go without  samgyup and soju, we headed back satisfied,ready to reboot for next day's activity. 

But we made a quick stop at nearby 7/11 to buy some loads, in short more Soju. Ah, this feels exactly some Kdrama blahblah. Nightcapping some soju.

Daryl and I continued our soju in the room while Riza prepared to go to bed. It was almost midnight when we settled in for the night or is it a day? We were almost asleep when I heard some weird sound at first I thought it was coming from the window, so I went up a bit half asleep and checked, nothing. So I went back to bed- then the sound keeps coming until my heart was literally beating so fast- like a someone is trying to get inside. I grabbed my bag from my top pillow side and hide in blanket (like duh, priorities di ba?) 

Turns out Riza heard the same thing and she stood up and announced, someone is trying to break in! We jumped out of bed and then we hear the doorknob and the beeping outside. We were so freaked out, and the soju did not help at all to calm me down!  We tried to look for emergency numbers in our booking- nothing! So Daryl suggested we call the police. Korea indeed has the fastest internet, in a matter of minute with all the doorknob being forced open and beeping, we called the police and we told what was happening, we gave the hotel address and the waiting begins. Daryl managed to turned on the TV, and tried talking to the person outside asking "Who's there?"while Riza grabbed the hair dryer- her idea of self defense. Minute later, we heard a car parked outside, and then some conversation outside. Someone knocked and a muffled sound of " Police here". Wow, that was sooo fast!  

Daryl opened the door and 2 policemen said their curtsies. He explained that the hotel manager made a mistake. Turns out, the person who's trying to get inside is a group of Thai's who's supposed to check in the same hotel , same room number just different building. They apologized and led the Thais outside, they will call the hotel manager to settle the matter.   

When the adrenaline has died down, I think I needed more soju, I thought hey how come the police managed to get inside when the receptionist's only until 11PM? I did not slept well enough, and its almost 2AM. 

Next day, we investigated and found out something interesting. The hotel is equipped with KT short for Korea Telecop.  A CCTV access, surveillance camera linked to the police station where they could - yes..peeked in for any possible emergency, also police has a special access codes in case they needed to go inside the building. Quite cool!  So that explains why the police were in the hotel so quickly and managed to get inside!

In the end, we were satisfied how they handled the matter, efficient and yes- FAST! We never felt safer, and yes, they're more than just Kpopolice face, oppa! Sarangheee.

Cheers,

marzylorie (^.^)