South Korea
Where do I even begin? I am still in awe of my time in this beautiful country. South Korea recently was added to my bucket list. As soon as I added it, I quickly made this trip a reality. So, this blog is going to showcase my love for this country, its people, culture, and especially its food! Here we go…
It all started when I received a deal for a $700 roundtrip from Philadelphia to Toronto to Seoul, South Korea with Air Canada. I looked at the screen so quickly and was shocked. $700?! Philadelphia?! A quick stop in Toronto?! Oh, this is perfect! In May!? WHAT!! I called my little sister right away and she was freaking out! She has been wanting to go to South Korea for the longest time. She has been a fan of South Korean culture since she was 12 years old. She discovered a K-pop group named “Bangtan Boys” aka BTS in 2017. Ever since then she always wanted to visit South Korea and learn as much as she could about the culture.
I had a $720 Air Canada credit since I had to cancel my Japan trip twice because of the pandemic. So, with that credit, I was able to book my flight and then I surprised my little sister and paid for her flight also! Her friend Veronicah decided she wanted to join us, and I began to start planning!
6 Months Later…
While I booked our trip to South Korea, I still visited other countries in between this trip, so I went full force on planning my South Korea trip within 2 months prior to our flight. While the girls were saving up their coins, I started to emerge myself into full-blown planning mode. Booked all the hotels and also decided to do a 4-day stay in Tokyo, Japan during this trip. Oh, did I mention that we booked this trip for 2 weeks? Plenty of time to explore and enjoy ourselves! Did I also mention that I am taking two teenage girls with me? One is the first time ever out of the country? Well, I sure did it and I tried my best to financially, mentally, and emotionally prepare for this trip. Haha! As May 4th started to creep up, we exchanged our American Dollars with Korean Won and Japanese Yen, we started to get extremely excited! I did an itinerary as much as I could. I knew with this trip that I couldn’t overwhelm the girls and plan every single day like I usually do. So, I gave ideas and received input back. So, I created a loose itinerary and prepared all of us the best I could.
May 4th arrived and we were up bright and early for our first quick flight which was to Toronto, Canada. That flight was only an hour & a half. By the time we arrived in Canada, Air Canada let us know that our flight was slightly delayed to South Korea. Over an hour later delayed, we finally were up in the air to South Korea! While we tried to get comfortable in our economy seats, we realized that this flight was really 13 hours. Reality really set in.
We Arrived.. Seoul, South Korea!
After 13 long hours on a flight, we arrived at Incheon International Airport near Seoul and honestly were so ready to get into the city, to our hotel, and relax. It was a long travel day and we arrived a little later than we originally wanted to. But, we got our bags and headed to the train to take us directly to Seoul Central Station. While we were about to board the train, my sister’s nose began to bleed and that’s how the night began haha. She was okay by the way, it was just the long flight that had her nose super dry. Finally, on the train, all 3 of us fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we had to leave. We tried our hardest to find a cab to our hotel that was large enough for our luggage. We arrived near our hotel and didn’t realize that our hotel was right in the action of Myeongdong. Myeongdong is the area where we decided to stay for most of our stay in Seoul. It was the perfect choice! Our hotel was only a few feet away from the amazing train system that Korea is known to have. So many restaurants, stores, and people everywhere! Oh my goodness K-pop music all throughout the city was playing! We tried delicious food ranging from hotteok, sausage & Tteokbokki skewer, tteokbokki, tokkebi hot dog, bibimbap and so much more! Ugh, it was delicious!!!! We went to so many different cafes including a cat cafe! We of course went to Lotte World and had a ball! Lotte Aquarium was a fun experience seeing my bias Jimin, from BTS during the walk to Lotte World didn’t hurt either!
After a few more days, we enjoyed going and spending so much money at BT21 in Hongdae. While we shopped, we decided to visit HyuGa. HyuGa is a bakery that was just recently done for ARMY to come and see where BTS used to live for a few years together. We got to write notes, listen to music, drink, and eat delicious items. Boy, let me tell you! Them hills and steps are NO JOKE in South Korea!! You will be so out of breath and will certainly lose weight coming here 🤪. Of course, we had to visit the legendary Starfield Library, located at the Starfield Coex Mall. Craving some pizza, we had some and just enjoyed walking around engulfed with this amazing culture. We had so many locals help us, but with apps such as KakaoTalk, Papago, and Naver, we always felt comfortable moving around the city. The train system was so easy and we honestly felt safe the entire time. People were concerned for us back home because not only were we far away, but we were going to a country where we looked nothing like the locals. But, everyone we met was extremely nice, helpful, and understanding of our language barrier! We were truly not ready to leave Seoul yet, but like I said we decided to go to Tokyo, Japan for a few days then return back to South Korea to go to Busan! Tokyo would be another day and another blog. Skip ahead, we come back from Japan and go to Seoul then jump on the KTX train to go all the way down to Busan! I know, it’s a lot of travel but extremely worth it!!
My favorite city… Busan
Busan is most likely in my opinion the second most popular city in South Korea. But, to me, it was number one. The people we interacted with were the most down the earth people that we met in South Korea. The ocean breeze, the beautiful skyline and the warmth was totally different compared to the hustle and cold air of Seoul. We stayed right by the beach and was very easily able to move around the city via buses since there were stops all near our hotel. First stop was Busan X The Sky and was able to dine at the highest Starbucks in the world. While be on the 100th floor and looking down seeing the city, I realize I am incredibly blessed to be able to see and experience this beautiful world. That same day we relaxed and hung out at Haeundae Beach. Absolutely the cutest children dressed up in their school uniforms were playing on the beach and we all just melted. The next day, we got up and ready to go to Magnate, which is BTS member, Jimin’s dad’s cafe. Did I mention that Jimin is my bias of BTS?! So, of course we had to go! The cafe was so laid back, comfortable, extremely large in size and way more affordable than we thought. Jimin just hit #1 on the Billboard Charts in America with his solo song, Like Crazy and everyone was extremely proud, it really was showcased at his dad’s cafe. We then decided to hop on the smallest bus to The Gamcheon Culture Village. The Gamcheon Culture Village IS a popular tourist attraction because of its beautifully colored buildings and houses that sit on the hillside. From Gamcheon Village you can see a beautiful view of the ocean as well. It's worth visiting Gamcheon Village because of its rich culture and history of Korea. That same night we went to Gwangalli Beach, ordered some pizza and listened to the locals sing on the beach. We truly didn’t want to leave Busan and felt like we needed more time. Also, forgot to mentioned we finally were able to have the legendary Fried Chicken and Beer that South Korea was known for. Yes, it was just as good as you imagined.
South Korea absolutely owes me NOTHING!! We had the best time and surprisingly I loved the country way more than I ever thought! South Korea is my top country that I would love to go back and experience over again! Visit more cities and hopefully I learn more Korean before than!! 💜💜💜 ARMY!
