Spontaneous trips are the best because you never know what you will make out of it. Planned, packed and flew within 24 hours, I found myself en route to Seoul, South Korea in my first ever standby experience, flying business class, with my flight attendant cousin! Thanks girl for this amazing experience!
After a 14 hour flight, with possibly an 1-hour nap, I dashed to a CC convenient store to purchase a T-Money Card before heading to Myeongdong, where the hotel, the shopping and the food are at. I unfortunately lost my T-Money card from my last trip to Seoul, but I think it was for the better since this one is so much cuter!
The ride to the hotel took about an hour (this includes looking for the hotel and check-in). Once we settled in, we quickly went for our first street food adventure of our #seoulspontaneous trip! Still can't believe we made it to South Korea, we hopped from the street food vendors to the shops on the streets of Myeongdong.
Within the first two hours, enough damage was done to our wallets on food and skincare. Oh, why must the stores at Myeongdong have all these BOGO deals, there's not enough space in my carry-on! (A sneak peak to all my goodies from Seoul! \^v^/)
We probably had a real meal around 10:30PM Korean Time, because we got too carried away, at Yoogane. It claims it makes Korea's number one chicken galbi. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! (but I could be biased since I was extremely hungry by that point).
Stores in Korea closed around 11PM with exception of the night markets, like the one at Dongdaemun, that remain open until 4AM. I would have made it there, if subways weren't closed at 12PM and/or if I wasn't deathly tired from my one hour nap on my 14 hour flight. So back to the hotel it is, a 5-10 minute walk, tipsy from a bottle of soju consumed too quickly.
The second day was a much more productive one with visits to three different and unique coffee house / cafes.
Osulloc. My first experience of this cafe was at Jeju Island, a beautiful island in South Korea. The store itself was surrounded by rows and rows of green tea, and the store itself was packed with customers getting food, drinks and souvenirs. Osulloc in Seoul, in the Gangnam region, was much more relaxed and quiet. Maybe because my cousin and I went there when it opened, not a lot of customers were there. But the the food and drinks are just as great - it was a delicious green tea meal, from green tea cake roll, to green tea shaved ice, and finally to my green tea latte. It was green tealicious!
One in a Million. I absolutely love this place, the decor, the minimalistic interior, and just the overall environment. Okay, maybe the walk in the streets near Itaewon got me lost a bit, but this place is amazing! Killing myself due to jet lag, I got myself an ice cold Americano and sat indoors, away from the scorching sun, but outdoors must be nice too with a nice breeze. By the way, I love the nice pink touch to the cups and the entrance.
Innisfree Green Cafe. Found this gem while shopping at Innisfree in Myeongdong. It's found in the second and third floor of the flagship Innisfree store. My cousin really want to try the pies, and I really want to try the fruit teas, so we sat down from all the shopping, to have a bit of both. It was a great idea! Shown below: Jeju Sea Lemonade, Jeju Apple Iced Tea, Blueberry Pie and Lemon Pie.
Aside from cafes, my cousin also continued shopping and got a huge haul from Cree'mare. Honestly though, I believe half of them were gifts.
Cree'mare is a standalone store in Gangnam and it was definitely an experience shopping there. Unlike the streets of Myeongdong, where stores are everywhere, Cree'mare seems to me like a huge Sephora with mostly Korean brands and some other international brands. The interior design of this store was again simplistic, similar to most stores in Gangnam.
What I really like about walking to this store was the building front! It reminds me of a hive. Don't you think so?
That was like the perfect segue to the place where I had lunch. The Bee Dining Lounge at Itaewon. Itaewon is generally a more international community, where you would likely see more Caucasians and English speaking people. However, while I was at the Bee Dining Lounge, I only saw Koreans. Maybe because it was a Saturday, and everyone is out and about.
My favourite item at this restaurant was probably the extra cold Asahi with honey drizzled on top. Got to say, it looks good, and it taste good!
Aside from the beer, my cousin and I also got two amazingly delicious seafood dishes. roe pasta and squid ink pasta.
To wrap it all off, there were obviously more shopping done at DongDaeMun, where I got some cute socks and accessories!
And as we were departing Seoul, we even received a royal send off at Incheon.
Did I mention that spontaneous trips are the best? Aside from the stress of trying to get back home on a standby flight, I think it was worth it! Until next time!
