89: Korea (I)

I wish I was in a better mood while typing this but I'm not. But I also wanted to put up the photos I took during the Korea trip! 

I didn't take many photos on my g12, everything was mostly taken on my phone but that'll be uploaded another day. 

for now:

this was day one! (excluding the last 2 photos)

we had gotten off the plane with barely any sleep, and we took the airport shuttle to the hotel (which took about 40 minutes to an hour to get there)

dropped our bags, and immediately left for the subway station at 830am. on a saturday. with 1 hour of sleep.

We took the train from Konkuk Univ. Station all the way to Hongik Station, which was a painfully silent and long journey. The trains are really silent compared to the MRTs in Singapore. People are also allowed to consume food and beverages on board the train (pls sg govt pls)

I forgot to mention - we went up the wrong flight of stairs, bringing us to the opposite direction of where we had planned to go. We realised our mistake quite awhile later, and quickly made our way to the correct side. 

We arrived in about 50 minutes or so, and we were completely lost. We had planned a full day out and we couldn't even find the first cafe......... (cue sad music) 

The streets were dead. How were we supposed to know that shops only open at 11am?! The weather was terrible (-8deg) and we were both wearing 3 layers. After walking around and occasionally slipping (dang u ice), we decided to settle down at Belief cafe, which was the only place open and our only option. 

I had a hazelnut/caramel latte (I can't rmb lol) and it was reallllllly good. I guess when you're freezing your butt off and in desperate need of some warmth, everything tastes good.

After many attempts to connect to the WiFi nearby (only bc Belief's WiFi was password protected and we had no balls to ask for the password lel), I finally managed to use the internet. Clearly, I'm too dependent on the Internet.

We sat at Belief for about an hour and a half before heading out as most shops were opening by then.

Shopped for maybe about 2 hours around Hongdae (ily stylenanda and your free Photo Booth) snow started to drizzle down. At first I was mega excited. I mean, living in Singapore - the only chance you ever get to experience 'snow' is at Snow City. But then the snow got heavier, the roads got extra slippery. We were hungry and made our way to the most random Korean restaurant and were greeted by grumpy Ahjummas.. We had our fill and decided to move on to our next location - Ehwa Women's University.

It's supposed to be a very very very pretty place with lots of shopping in the neighbourhood. By then, the snow had gotten a lot heavier but we decided to go for it anyway. It was only 2 stops away and we were really excited but the snow got heavier..... and heavier... and heavier... 

We walked through the streets really quickly (slipping occasionally again) and we didn't even get to see the University. I really wanted to take a cab back to the hotel, seeing as the train ride would be - once again - long and torturous. But it was only our first day there, so we decided we wanted to fully experience the subway and also to save money. (note - we cabbed everywhere else subsequently)

And so begun the long journey back to the hotel. 

By the time we got back, we were completely wiped out. 

Obviously we took a short nap and BAM when we woke up both of us were feeling so so so unwell. 

Jade was shivering and I, burning up. Super thankfully, Jade's parents (who decided to come on the trip w us as well) came back and started nursing us back to health (lol) 

Ok this has been a very content heavy post but yes - by night we were fine and ready to go the next day!

aaand the next post will be on the following days and some photos from my phone. 

Short video compilation (and the only videos I took):

Korea from Alyssa Wong on Vimeo.

(bg music: No Diggity (Bondax edit))