Travel Diary: Seoul 2016 (Part 2)

This post is the second part of my travel diary to Seoul. You can read my first part here. I’ll start from Day 4 till my last day.

DAY 4

We haven’t get our shopping done until the 4^th day of our stay. So on this day we went to Myungdong, the most famous place for shopping. Not only for shopping, but I also met my sunbaes a.k.a seniors there. 

When we arrived at Myungdong, I spotted something different. They have LINE Friends Store&Café there now! I’m so happy and excited. I was planning to go to their Insadong branch. But, since we didn’t have much time left, so the Myungdong branch is enough for me. I bought their soft ice cream both Brown and Cony one. The ice cream are nice, the cookie was okay. I prefer the Brown one than the Cony one for the cookie flavor. 

Then I went to see my seniors, leaving my mom alone. She will do her shopping by her own. My seniors and I ate at Gangnam Myeonok. I’ve never been there before, but this restaurant was featured in The Return of Superman. Lee Hwijae’s twins ate at this restaurant before, but not in the Myungdong branch. The restaurant serves delicious and juicy ribs. They have marinated it for few days before serving it. In conclusion, it was very nice meal!
 

The Marinated Beef Ribs a.k.a Galbi-jjim

Lee Hwijae's Twins

I didn’t spend much time with my seniors because suddenly one of my seniors got a bad news from his father. So he has to go back earlier. I went back to my mom afterwards.
My mom has been craving to eat butter rice from School Food. So, since we have come to Myungdong, we ate there. My other cousin also joined us to eat School Food. Yeah, I know I just eaten with my seniors and now I ate again with my mom and cousin. Well, that’s life when you travel. You cannot resist good food while you travel, right? We ordered Beef Butter Rice, Mari or kimbab or small sushi, carbonara ddeokbokki, and pineapple aide. You should try the butter rice and the carbonara ddeokbokki. It was their specialty, for me. Oh by the way, ddeokbokki is known as rice cake. 

Carbonara Ddeokbokki

Special Mari 1

Beef Butter Rice

Pine Aide

After eating, we went for our shopping. Buying all of our relatives favors. I’ll post all of my purchases on the next post (soon!). I went too Innisfree, Etude House, Holika-Holika, Aritaum, and The Faceshop. Myungdong is a haven for makeup stores. I prefer buying makeup in Myungdong because they provide global tax-free and they provide sales assistant for foreigner. So, if you can’t speak Korean, you can find an English speaking or Japanese Speaking or Chinese Speaking assistant to assist you choosing the products you want. They are also has much more range of products rather than their branch in the downtown. 

After some hassle, we went back home. And also my aunt wants to treat us dinner. I ate (again) at a very Korean vibe restaurant. My aunt treat us a Galbi tang or Beef Ribs Soup. I don’t really eat Galbi tang but this one was pretty good. Their kimchi was also nice. The restaurant name is Ojang Galbi. After having a very meaty day, I slept really well that night. (Shown in the video)

DAY 5

On my fifth day, I went to eat lunch with my aunts at a cold noodles restaurant. The restaurant name is Ojangdong Hamheung Naengmyun, it was the most popular and original cold noodles restaurant in that area. Actually, I didn’t like cold noodles that much, but since I misheard my aunt’s offer so we ended up eat cold buckwheat noodles. Cold buckwheat noodles in Korean are called Naengmyeon. We ate at the famous restaurant specialty in cold noodles. We ordered the spicy cold noodles and a sliced beef. It was quite spicy but nice, even though I didn’t like it. (Shown in the video)

After the lunch, my mom and I went to Dongdaemun Market to buy some lace fabric. Then we headed to Hyundai City Outlet. It was a new department store in Dongdaemun area. It was rainy that day. I have a bittersweet relationship with rain when it comes to traveling. Korea is entering rainy season at the time I went there. My mom bought a rice cooker in Hyundai City Outlet. At the time we went back home, it was raining and I have to brought that rice cooker all the way home. It was a struggle though. 

Meeting them in Hyundai City Outlet coincidentally! I want to take them home!

While we were inside the Hyundai City Outlet, we stopped by at Joe&The Juice, which is a juice and coffee shop. The juices are quite expensive, but they use natural and fresh ingredients. And most of all, the “barista” are quite eye-candy!

We waited until the rain stopped inside the house. Then we headed to Nokbeon area to eat our dinner with my other aunt. I was expecting to eat with my cousin, but he has to work. So I was left again with my aunt and uncle. It’s been a long time since I didn’t saw my aunt’s husband. We ate at UJUMI, the short for Uri Juin Micheosseo. It mean “our owner is crazy”. They named it like that because the foods they serve are spicy and have a big portion. It was one of our favorite restaurants in Korea. Even though it was spicy, but I really like it.
When we finished eating, it was raining heavily! And also we had to walk to the subway station. We usually went there by car, but now we don’t have any car, so we had to walk. Since it was quite dark, we tend to forget our way back. My shoes are wet and skirt is quite wet because it was a windy rain. After much trouble with rain and walking, we arrived at the station and went back home. 

those red madness!

DAY 6

It was sad to leave this city soon, because it was my last full day in Seoul. And, I just realized that I made a mistake on my video. It should be six day travel diary, but in the video I made day five twice. I’m sorry for the mistake. 

On my sixth day, I visit Shinsaegye, one of the big department stores in Korea. They have undergone some renovation, but they are already fully operated, except the highest floor. We wanted to buy Korean Ice Tea in sachets, but they don’t sell it in there. In the end, my mom bought Korean strawberry and peach. We also ate in our favorite sushi bar inside. But, they have changed their system and menu, so I think we won’t be eating there in the future.
Since we are already in the city area, we decided to revisit Myungdong again! This time I was more into window-shopping and café hoping. I also bought a street-food snack (that I regret buying). I bought Ddak ganjeong, it is a sweet sour fried chicken with rice cake (ddeok). We went to LINE Friends Café & Store again and bought some stuff and took pictures with the giant Brown inside! I’ll make a video specially about LINE Friends Store and my hauls! (SOON!!) 

Ddakganjeong a.k.a Sweet Sour Chicken with Rice Cake

After a quite time inside the LINE Friends Store, we decided to try Teenie Weenie Café. We ordered few cakes and drink to chase away our tiredness from shopping. They have a quite good taste for the drinks and cakes. Plus it is in a shape of teddy bear! How cute is it??
After some refreshment, we went back home because my aunt has cooked last dinner meal for my mom and me. We ate galbi-jjim at home for dinner. We also finalized our packing after dinner. 

 

Cutie Chocolate Macaroon

Strawberry Fresh Cream Cupcake

Hot Chocolate

I was so thankful to be back to Korea and treated so nicely by my family. I can’t wait to be back to Korea soon! That’s all for my travel diary to Seoul. Thank you for reading and watching my video! See you on my next post! 

Details: 

Gangnam Myeonok
Address (main branch): 588-9, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu
Phone: +82 2-3446-5539 

Myungdong branch: 5F, 48-2, Myeong-dong 1-ga, Jung-gu
Phone: +82 2-3789-7117

School Food
Address: 83-5 Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu (M Plaza 5th Floor)
Phone: +82 2-3783-4111

Ojang Galbi
Address: 69-5, Ojang-dong, Jung-gu (Dongdaemun Area)
Phone: 02-2267-9328 

Ojangdong Hamheung Naengmyun
Address: Jung-gu, Ojang-dong 90-10
(Korean: 서울특별시 중구 오장동 90-10)

Joe and The Juice 
Address (Hyundai City Outlet): 13-ga, 20 Euljiro 6(yuk)-ga, Jung-gu (Dongdaemun History Cultural Park Station) 

UJUMI (우주미)
Address: 185 Nokbeon-dong, Eunpyeong-gu
Phone: +82 2354-7788
How to get there: Take subway to line 3 and take trip for Gupabal Station and stop at Nokbeon Station. Take exit number 4. Then use your Google maps to direct you from the exit to UJUMI. 

Teenie Weenie Café
Address: It is in Myungdong Street. You should spot a Teenie Weenie boutique, and take a lift to 2^nd floor if you want to go directly to the café. Or by stairs if you want to look around the shop.