Travel: South Korea Day 1

Hi everyone! Today's blog post is something I'm really excited about. I've put off writing about it for a long period of time but last night I decided it's time for me to reminisce my good old days in South Korea. Oh, and there's a vlog at the end of this post if you're interested to just watch what little clips I filmed during our first day.

credits to owner

If you're a new reader, I think it is just courtesy for me to let you know that since 2007, I've been a Korean culture enthusiast. It started off with my love for Korean drama, which actually helped me to stumble upon Korean pop music. Little did I know, I was already hooked on anything Korean. This is why it doesn't come as a surprise that one of my dreams is to actually visit the land of South Korea.

In the middle of 2013, a friend of mine gave me the question that changed my life. I remember we were walking along Gateway, looking for a place to get dinner before a K-Pop concert starts (DKFC2). She suddenly looked at me seriously and popped the question, "Would you like to go to Korea with me and my siblings?"

It was so random, I was shocked. My friend and I have been friends for a long time and we've actually talked about going to Korea a few times before but I never really thought we'd actually be able to. She told me her sister stumbled upon a seat sale from Cebu Pacific for a Winter 2014 trip. Long story short, I said yes. The flight was booked and the rest is history.

I wouldn't say the preparation wasn't easy. We  made our own itinerary so I had to do extensive research for our 6-day trip. Getting the visa also wasn't a breeze as I had a few issues here and there. I have a separate post on that, if you're interested.

 Terminal 3

 After checking our baggage

Fast forward to December 2, 2014, we took our flight and we arrived the land of South Korea late at night. When we arrived it was -4 degrees celsius. You can just imagine how a person from a tropical country would feel when faced with that temperature.

 The plane finally landed

 
After getting our luggage, the first thing we did was add more layers of clothing. a sweater and a coat just wasn't enough for me. Haha! After which, we went to a convenience store, loaded our T-money and bought our Olleh wifi card (Will do a separate post on this. Comment down below if you're interested so I can move it up on my blog post list.)

 

 Bus 6005 Schedule

 While waiting, I skyped with my brother and parents just to give them an update. I was like, "Guys, the plane has landed. I'm still alive and the luggage is with me."

 Inside the bus, on the way to City Hall station

 
After finishing all that, we went to the bus station and waited outside. It was freezing. When the bus arrived, it dropped us right at the station we needed to be at and we navigated through the streets and got to our hostel. We got in pretty late at around 11PM at Suitcasers Hostel (Review here). We left our things in our room and went out to try Namdaemun/Dongdaemun (not sure which). However, it started snowing and the road was getting more and more slippery. We decided that the snow was such a big fall hazard so we just went back to rest.

 One minute, we can still see the road. The next thing we know, everything's already white. It was Seoul's first snow fall.

 We decided to stop walking around in Myeongdong area and decided to capture some snow photos.

I tried my best to film vlogs during my trip and if you're interested to see them, I have the video up in my channel. I'm not really experienced with vlogging but I do hope I get better on it as time pass by. For the mean time, please enjoy my first South Korea vlog! :)

With Love,
Anna Luisa