Minnee in Korea Day 7 : Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namdaemun, Insadong

It's been 5 days since my first day of intern, and

so far I'm having lots of fun at my workplace!

Too tired to blog after work though, I've been trying to complete
this post the past few days but I always fall asleep halfway hahaha.

BUT I'm still gonna continue blogging about my Korea trip!

Today's post shall bring you to one of the most beautiful
palaces in South Korea, Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The palace was near our guesthouse so we started the day off with brunch at
a restaurant nearby before walking to the palace.

Kimchi Sundubu Jigae for me and Budae Sundubu Jigae for my bro.

Look at this yolk omg my mouth is watering right now.

This restaurant is located opposite Paris Baguette after exiting from exit 2 at Gyeonbokgung station.

I've visited the palace before, but I've never seen it during winter.

The view was just breath-taking.

After coming out from the subway station, just outside Gyeongbokgung.

Got our tickets and we're ready to go!

This is the gate that faces Gwanghwamun square (I think).

Look at the blanket of snow!

Hehe

The mountain in the background made it feel even more like we were back in the past
where there were no skyscrapers and tall lamp posts.

Not sure what gate that it is...
We were just wandering around.

Successful jump shot!
My mum's a pro at this hahaha.

I took a selfie with this guard!

I think it wasn't allowed because a guy at the side asked me to step back

after I went towards this dude lolol.

Me, my quick reflexes and my selfie stick.

Haha xP

A family who looked like they were at the North Pole or something.

With the exception of that dude in blue.

More mountains and trees.

I actually liked walking in the palace during winter,

because everything feels serene and peaceful.

I think it's a must to visit one of the palaces when you come to Korea

because it gives you a brief glimpse into their history and culture.

They have guided tours available as well (which we unfortunately missed the timing).

Afterwards, we headed to Namdaemun for some shopping.

The lady whom we were buying seaweed from told us that

they were praying for Namdaemun to prosper.

Afterwards I think they were giving away food?

Everyone just crowded around and were packing oranges into their bags.

Errr.... I pocketed 4 oso la haha.

A lot of clothes to pick from, but we weren't there for the clothes.

We ended up buying some chopsticks and spoon sets, and lots of food haha.

We then walked to Shinsegae department store nearby...

 

And had burger for lunch lolol.

 They actually have a foodstreet at the basement selling a variety of cuisines.

Once we've filled our tummies, we took the subway to Insadong.

There were many shops selling souvenirs that are more traditional,

such as pouches and handicrafts.

I saw many shops selling these and wondered what they were.

I finally asked one of the shop owners and he told me they were table cloths.

Super cute!

We walked around and chanced upon this place called Ssamziegil.

They have an Alive Museum here!

Those little hats are freaking adorable.

And now... who ate shit before?

I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

They really look like shit omg HAHAHA.

This is literally called a shit bread lolol.

According to a signboard at the shop, this is a traditional snack made out

of various grains seasoned with fruit sauce.

Traditional? Hmm...

I'm not sure if they looked like this all along hahaha.

We walked back to Gyeongbokgung station by following GPS

because we didn't want to waste a thousand won each by taking the subway for one station.

Walked past the palace (or rather, the gate in front of it)

and it looked gorgeous at night.

Glad we decided to walk~

Really a lot of 光 LOL.

Dinner was at a restaurant near our guesthouse, called Jjam Ppong Nam.

Yum yum in our tum tums!

Alrights that's all for now, can't wait to share about the rest of my trip hehehe.

Cuz the last few days were more exciting ;)

Thanks for reading!

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 & 5 | DAY 6

With love,

Minnee  

Minnee in Korea Day 6 : Lotte World

Day 6 was theme park day!

Me and my bro spent the day together at Lotte World by ourselves.

Talk about sibling time heh.

We planned to go Everland initially,

but it was too cold and our host Mrs Yim suggested that we

go Lotte World instead since it has indoor rides.

It's been a long time since I've been to any theme park because I was busy preparing for As.

I screamed like I have never screamed before that day.

We didn't take many photos of the rides because we kept our belongings

(including my camera) in a locker.

Take a glimpse of what it's like in Lotte World through my video!

Click here to subscribe to my channel. ^^

These were our tickets!

We had to keep them with us at all times because we had to show them

to the staff before every ride we went on.

I think it's because they have different tickets, like tickets that allow you admission to Lotte World but you can't go on rides, so they need to check and make sure.

The queues at Lotte World are quite long, and some can go up to 80 minutes.

They had a lot of rides, which was impossible for us to go on

every one of them given the waiting time.

We went on the Viking ship first.

IT WAS THE BIGGEST VIKING SHIP I'VE EVER BEEN ON.

The ship swings freaking high, and it seemed almost 90 degrees to the ground at some point.

Would have been crazy for the people who sat at the back.

We were one of the last to go onboard so we got the seats right at the front.

Don't know if we were lucky or unlucky.

It was still quite scary though!

Luckily nobody puked on us from behind haha.

Afterwards there was a parade!

Cherry boobs omg lolol.

Another ride I wanna mention is the Giant Loop!

I didn't take a video of it but if you watch my video can see this blue circle at the start.

We would go around the circle and at times we were hanging upside down.

Pretty scary because I felt like I would drop off any moment,

but it didn't give me the kind of heart-dropping feeling that rollercoasters do.

I just felt like I was going around in circles.

Get it? HAHA

We went out to Magic Island, which is the outdoor part of Lotte World.

 

The castle was prettyyyyyy.

 

Several rides that I wanted to try like Gyro Drop and Gyro Spin

were out of service, probably due to the cold weather.

We managed to go on Gyro Swing though!

It was one of the craziest things I did.

It would swing us over a lake and I was so scared of getting flung out into the freezing lake.

Practically screamed throughout the whole ride LOL.

Didn't even feel cold at all.

They had this plastic shield thingy in front of each person,

so I think that prevented the cold wind from blowing into my face.

Not sure if they have it during other seasons too though.

 

50 minutes of waiting time in the freaking cold.

I was turning into a statue already.

Always thankful for heaters.

They had heaters at the side of the wall where people were queuing too.

But the queue was so long, we were far far away from the heaters :(

Had to rely on our heat pads instead.

Or go to this heater thingy to de-frost my hands when they started freezing.

Can't stop admiring the castle.

Too long never see one already haha.

 

The building under construction in the background kinda spoils the view lo.

 

We were freezing outside so we went back in after snapping the photos.

It felt like a different place at night because of the lights.

 

 

 

 Can't remember where we took this ...

There was a performance going on at the Garden Stage with a storyline

very similar to Cinderella's story, with lot's of dancing.

Reminded me of a ballet performance with different acts.

After going on more rides and walking around,

it was time for the parade!

The lighting made the whole thing seem magical and I was super enthralled by it.

Watch my video to have a feel of what the parade was like!

The actual parade was more grand and had many more things to see.

This heart was formed by the lanterns which seemed to move by themselves.

Crazyyyyy but cool.

 

They had fireworks too!

What the heck, indoor fireworks!

Unfortunately, I didn't see it cuz I had my back facing the castle to watch the parade,

and the fireworks came halfway through the parade.

Must take note if you're going to watch the parade ok haha.

There was a concert by a band from the Philippines called MusicMix after

the parade so we stayed to watch them.

Actually I've never heard of them before (sorry!) but they sounded good!

They sang some Korean songs and some of them involved rapping.

I was impressed.

We were there till around 10 before heading home by subway.

 The entrance is so pretty at night~

Love their street decorations!

Even the green bushes were glowing like magic.

Really had the winter feel :)

I'm not sure if Everland would be better, but Lotte World is not bad for winter

because it had both the indoor and outdoor rides.

If you don't mind waiting for long periods of time for a 2-minute ride,

Lotte World is the place for you!

Many of the indoor rides are more for kids, while the outdoor rides are more thrilling.

They even have an indoor hot air balloon ride,

which seemed interesting but we did not try it.

The parade at night was really fascinating, the concert was great and I think it was worth it.

We enjoyed ourselves, except for the queuing part, that is.

I wanna go to Everland next time if I get the chance hehe.

Thanks for reading!

Read about Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here and Day 4 & 5 here.

With love,

Minnee