SHIKIMIKIE: Seoul 2016

Showing posts with label Seoul 2016. Show all posts

Tuesday 17 May 2016

War Memorial of Korea | When in Seoul

when in Seoul May 17, 2016 0

I kind of like history and it's only because when I was in highschool, I can perfect a test from my class or something. Easy to memorize, no computations involved.

Totally got nothing to do with why we went here. We went here because apparently, according to my friend TripAdvisor it's the #1 thing to do when in Seoul. Yup. Didn't see that coming?

It's a cool place! Like, no sarcasm or anything, I swear. It really is.

Also, free admission! :)

This captured my attention. Because I think it's true in a lot of ways. And it's sad if you think about it. But that's how it goes. Like people at work, they always say I'm lucky because I'm still free. Free of obligations and that I don't have my own family and all that jazz. They're right. Because unlike them, I work for my own survival. They do it for someone else. I think I should enjoy my "freedom" more then. While it's free.

Did you know that it is mandatory for guys to enter the military in Korea? Quite interesting, huh?

This park is also very near the American Base and so I am thinking that this is mostly about that war. Maybe. Was there even?! Hahaha

Azaleas though

United States Air Force

This scared the hell out of me. I was like, are those real men? But nope!

Missiles

Then we enter the hall and it's cool to have a glance at what happened to the country before. They even have there a long long list of the soldiers who fought before. It's very nice to commemorate those who fought for their freedom and stuff. Also kind of tech-y inside.

Yas.

I mean, if you have time to spare, even though if you're not into this kind of thing, it's a nice place to visit. You have nothing to lose. Plus! It's conveniently near the touristy spots of Seoul so I'm guessing it's near your hotel as well. Do check out! Ciao!

Monday 16 May 2016

Gyeongbokgung Palace | When in Seoul

Voyage May 16, 2016 0

Standing with a Guard

I heard that this don't happen often? But we were lucky to be able to watch the Changing of Guards ceremony. It's quite a show.

Basically, from hundreds (thousands?) of years ago, guards from a palace would guard another palace and so on...

The Guards

To be honest, I have no idea about these palaces. To give you an idea how clueless I was, I didn't even watch Jewels in the Palace. But I did watch Princess Hours though but that's only because I like the cousin of the Crowned Prince (the blonde). Irrelevant, I know. Anyways. There are 4 palaces that went to I believe. But if you don't have an idea like me, you wouldn't even know.

They all look the same. Like, I heard one tour guide said that the difference is the guards? The guards there are you know, the Chinese Zodiac thingy. Like Mushu in Mulan.

Imagine this is your backyard.

Beauty

This building is a hollow structure. I have no idea but it's quite a view.

Garden thing?

Then there's only one place where you can look inside and I don't even know the significance.

It's not very impressive. Again, I don't know. We should have signed up for the tour so at least we know the story behind everything. Well the excuse is, we squeezed in too much activity for that day that we couldn't afford waiting for tour time both in Japanese and English so we just pretended we appreciated what we saw. It's beautiful but I guess knowing what's up and what happened would be a lot more interesting. I'll come back for this.

So yeah I strongly suggest you do the tour or else everything will just look like a temple or something.

Friday 13 May 2016

National Folk Museum | When in Seoul

What to do in Seoul May 13, 2016 0

When you see a place like this along the way, make your way in. This is actually not part of our itinerary but somehow it made the list. No regrets. We were using Google Maps and then somehow it told us we were there and so we followed a randim guy and brought us there. Voila. Basically, we were lost and yeah hahaha.

NO IDEA

FANTASTIC VIEW

SELFIE GAME UP

So glad we did enter though because it's apparently connected to the real destination. Also, it's kind of touristy as well and it's FREE.

Azalea's everywhere. Pretty! It's so nice that even though it's Sunday, it's not so crowded. Me likey.

There are a lot of traditional stuff inside that I actually don't understand. Again, it would be nice to go here with someone who knows what's up because we just took pictures of unknown stuff. But traditional.

Like this one. It's touristy. Pretty. But I don't know what this statue is all about. Life. Anyways, there's that. Ciao!

Sunday 8 May 2016

Bukchon Village | When in Seoul

Wanderlust May 08, 2016 0

Moving on to our 2nd day. We went to Bukchon Hanok Village. It's probably the simplest place we've been to and it's quite amazing how this residential place can be one of the tourist spots.

Can I just say that if you would line up our house in Sagamihara in this area, no one would even notice. Hahaha. Basically, this place is where they kept the traditional look of the houses from before and I must say they kind of did a good job. Ancient.
Kind of.

I was telling my buddy that it's ironic how some of the houses are being restored to look traditional. It defeits the purpose. But that's only me.

It's a very nice place to walk around. It's probably nicer to walk around this place when shops are all open and not in the morning when we went because everything's closed yet. But it was nice. Probably nicer to walk with someone who appreciates the
vinategy stuff. There's so much to look at really.

Also, this looks pretty in winter with all that snow. But whatevs.

I would recommend going in the morning because when we arrived, there are probably only one group walking around and when we were about to go out of the place, it's already semi-crowded so yeah. Ciao!

Friday 6 May 2016

Dongdaemun | When in Seoul

Wanderlust May 06, 2016 0

This is the first time I went to Seoul and the first stop is Dongdaemun Market. We went there basically to meet my buddy's dad. So yeah after airport, we went straight to the market. No idea hahaha.

It was a mall-ish type of place. The one we went to more than twice is Migliore Mall. A lot of cheap stuff! We went there and got really amazed. Maybe because there's no equivalent place here in Japan. In the Philippines though, there's 168 in Divisoria! Much much cheaper but that 's besides the point.

So after we checked the shops floor by floor, we went to eat dinner. At this point, I'm not really hungry but I'm so happy that I get to taste my first authentic Korean dish. It was spicy! But delicious.

I love that the staffs kept coming to our table to mix and check on our food even though obviously we can just do it ourselves. Got me really confused there.

Korean buildings are usually of interesting structure. Like, irregular thing. This one reminds me of that building in Shinjuku that got me confused as well. It's pretty at night though with all the lights on.

Streetfoods!

Picture time

Yummy Korean barbecues

Potato Corndog

On the second day, we went back because my buddy said she'll buy something but ya know! Didn't happen hahaha. But we managed to eat a lot of street foods which is awesome! The barbecue though! So spicy considering we didn't order the spiciest! How can people eat that kind of stuff? Goodness gracious. But the cheese one is good!

Badass

Also, they were having this B-Boy battle when we went. As we still have time, we managed to watch a battle. It was good! Definitely a place for Sunday events. Quite interesting.

On our third day, we came back because buddy told me she'll buy the stuff she's been meaning to buy already. Thank goodness! She should have bought it on the first day but anyways. Food!