The Seoul of South Korea!

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After visiting and loving Busan, I was so excited to go back to Korea and to visit the capital for my friend's birthday.

We didn't arrive until late on the Friday evening and when we finally made it to Hongdae, where we were staying, we had a nightmare finding our hostel. It turns out the address they had put on the hostelworld page was incorrect which meant we ended up in completely the wrong place. A Korean lady saw us looking lost and offered to help us. At first she also took us to the wrong place and I must admit after that I started to doubt her. However eventually, after a bit of a walk, we arrived at our hostel. I don't think we'd ever have found it without her! It was so kind of her to walk us all the way there and call people in order to help us find our way.

By the time we'd checked in we were HUNGRY and we all had our heart set on some of Korea's famous fried chicken. Luckily we managed to find a place quite quickly and ordered two pitchers of beer as well as some hot and spicy chicken and a garlic one. The garlic one was good but it had more garlic than I've ever seen in my life - and I really love garlic! The sweet and spicy one was really yummy too, it had a cinnamon taste to it which was kind of weird but good at the same time. I don't think I'll ever enjoy fried chicken as much as in Korea!

The following day we were meeting up with one of my friend's Korean friends who she had met during a summer programme in Japan. They kindly offered to show us around. One thing that really surprised me is that they kept paying for everything. For instance we went to get coffee and when we went to settle the bill, they had already paid! It turns out this is a Korean thing where one person will just pay for everyone and it's expected that next time someone else will pay. A really good system but it made me feel kind of bad. We made sure that we paid for other snacks and for their dinner later on!

Our first stop was the imperial palace but before we could even get inside we were stopped by a film crew and asked if we wanted to be on TV. I said yes which meant that I was pushed forward to do it before even knowing what was required of me. It turned out we had to make a minute long story from a photograph shown to us. This was much harder than it sounds! I was really bad at it but my friend was pretty good.

After this there was big parade. It turned out that by coincidence, we had come on a special day. Apparently a big pot containing the umbilical cord of one of Koreas most famous kings (as he created their writing system) was being moved. This was a cause for a big celebration and a parade of people in traditional Korean clothing. Inside the palace was very beautiful and the gardens were really nice, especially since it was a blue sunny day.

Next, it was time for food! I wanted tteokbokki since I had loved it so much the last time we were in Korea. Tteokbokki is rice and fish cakes in a spicy sauce. There are some variations to it such as cheese tteokbokki which is SO delicious. It is generally pretty cheap so makes a great snack when walking the streets of Seoul. We also went to a dessert cafe for bingsu (shaved ice). We had one with oreos on which was amazing as well as a strawberry one and the traditional red bean and injeolmi one.

That evening, we decided a night out was in order to celebrate my friend's birthday. However, this was not before another culinary delight of Korean BBQ for dinner! We drank a lot of soju (Korean rice wine) during dinner whilst playing Korean drinking games. We ended up in an international bar which was really fun and drinks weren't too expensive. However, there were a lot of American army guys there because of the big army base in Seoul and they wouldn't leave us alone all night! I think we were some of the few western girls in there.

My friend, who's birthday it was, also bumped into some famous youtubers that she watches on the street. She was so happy about it that I couldn't help but be excited for her. I think this made her birthday that little bit more special.

The following day was a dedicated shopping day but not before we had dragged ourselves out of bed to the dog cafe! Birthday girl is an animal lover so this was on her 'must do' list for Seoul. I have to admit I was disappointed that they didn't have any pugs but there were lots of other cute dogs. I much preferred the dog cafe to the cat cafe we had visited in Japan. For one, it didn't smell even half as bad!! Also, dogs tend to like people a lot more than cats do. Although the dogs were most interested in those who had bought treats! There were some tiny dogs like Chihuahuas and other huge dogs such as a St Bernard (who kept trying to hump one of the workers much to our amusement!).

We spent the afternoon by the Women's University which is renowned for its plethora of independent shops. I bought three pairs of shoes, a handbag and some nail varnishes. I felt I was relatively constrained, especially since the shops were so good and so cheap. Some of the girls definitely bought more than I did. We all got over-excited about the prospect of shopping in the amazing Korean cosmetic shops again.

Our last evening was a chilled one as we had to be up early to catch our flight home. We had gone out hoping to get Bulgogi beef but unfortunately weren't successful in our quest since no-one really had any idea where we were going. I think thats an important lesson I've learned in big cities in Asia; you can't just go out and find somewhere. You need to have at least some idea of where you're going and what you want otherwise you'll be walking around for hours.

All in all, it was a fun weekend in Seoul but it was definitely not long enough. I think the birthday girl had a ball and thats the most important thing! I stand by my previous claim that South Korea is my favourite country so I hope it is somewhere I will be able to go back to again and again. I love the food, the laid back, coffee shop loving society and interesting culture. Whilst it is very diverse in comparison to the UK, unlike Japan it is not strict and feels more welcoming to foreigners and their ways of life which makes it a much nicer atmosphere to be in!

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