South Korea Trip: Day 4

It was a super duper cold day! Checked the weather and found out that it had dropped to -15 degrees Celcius! This made me want to just hiding under blanket in my warm hotel room.

Today we went for Seoul city tour. First stop was Gwanghwamun Square, the home of King Sejong Statue. I saw not many people there, perhaps they were also lazy to face the freezing cold weather haha. I was fully protected with beanie, earmuffs, scarf and handcuffs. I once tried to take off my handcuffs and straight away my hands and fingers went numb.

Not far from Gwanghwamun Square, there is Cheonggyecheon Stream. This stream becomes an oasis during summertime - people love to dip their feet into the water, but during winter who dares to do that?!

I threw a coin and made a wish that I could come back again to Seoul *prays*

Is that an ambulance or a police car?

Then we visited Ginseng Center. A lot of Indonesian families from another tour also visited the place. My family brought a few boxes of ginseng drink. It is quite costly, but worth the after-effect!

Next, we went to Doota Mall located in the famous Dongdaemun Shopping Street. This mall (basically most shopping malls in Dongdaemun) opens till after midnight! If you still have enough energy, Dongdaemun is the right place for midnight shopping. There are some cheap Korean souvenir shops, and the staffs understand a bit of Bahasa. I also had lunch at Burger King located at the food court.

Namdaemun Market was our next stop. It is a traditional market selling miscellaneous goods at cheap prices. I did not buy any stuff for giveaway here, but I managed to try some Korean snacks like tteokbokki.

After Namdaemun, we moved on to NSeoul Tower. Do not leave Seoul without paying a visit to this legendary tower! You can actually walk up to Namsan Mountain to get to the tower, but I took cable car instead. Boys Before Flowers' shooting took place at NSeoul Tower and the cable car. The ride was only about 2 minutes, very short compared to walking which might take up to 30 minutes. 

Taking cable car to the top of Mt. Namsan

NSeoul Tower is famous for its Locks of Love. Couples can lock their memorable stuffs written with their names (padlock, phone case, doll, etc.) and then throw away the key. Seeing thousands (or maybe millions?) stuffs locked here made me believe that Seoul is one of the most desired places in the world to fall in love...

*insert romantic quotes here*

We also visited the Teddy Bear Museum inside NSeoul Tower after going to the observatory. Those teddies are soooo cute!

I had 삼계탕 / samgyetang (Korean ginseng chicken soup) for my last dinner in Seoul. Dinner was served at 고려삼계탕 (Korea Samgyetang) located at City Hall area. It is said to be the best in the city (I could tell by the long queue outside). It was sooo good! The broth was light and warming, each of us ate one whole chicken, the portion was just right though. Now I understand why people are willing to queue outside, in the cold winter air - they are seeking for a bowl of warmth. Curious how the samgyetang looks like? The restaurant is featured on Daniel's Food Diary's blog.

Our last stop was not listed on the tour itinerary. It was my special request (as a K-Poper) to Eunjae eonni. She brought me to Hottracks shop, located inside Kyobo Bookstore. Hottracks is a shop selling K-Pop albums. It was a K-Pop heaven indeed, I just wanted to buy everything! All albums I bought were not newly-released, instead they were all released like 1-2 years ago. I bought 2AM's F. Scott Fitzgerald's Way of Love, Girls' Generation's Genie and Sungha Jung's Irony for my cousins.

Going around Seoul was fun! I saw many spots from K-pop MVs and K-dramas in this city. While exploring the city, my mind was playing some background songs like Seoul Song (SNSD & SuJu), Fly to Seoul (2PM), and even mellow song like I Hate Seoul (2000won). Time flew so fast, suddenly it was already my last night in Seoul. Tomorrow would be the end of my Korea trip. See ya!