Waygook Travels: Buddha's birthday in Seoul

Update on the long weekend.

Ok so the weekend before last was buddhas birthday so it was a public holiday in Korea so we didn’t have to go to school. It was the first long weekend we’ve had so sally and I decided to go to Seoul since we have been here for three months and still haven’t explored it. It was amazing!! We stayed in a hostel (Kimchi Hostel) for fri, sat and sun night and then came home late Monday night.

On Friday we could only leave once school was over so we caught the KTX at about 6:30 with my co-teacher and her friend and arrived at about 8:30pm. We then checked into the hostel and turns out that in our dorm there was this really religious Indonesian family who pray like every hour. And we were going out so we went down to the bathrooms and got changed and did our make up and all and then when we went back up to put all our stuff down they were asleep! This was like 9:30…. So it was pretty awkward! And so was the fact that we came in at about 3am and they definitely judged us for that!! Oh well, if you wanna stay in a hostel with your family that’s what you get I suppose.

So Friday night was good, sally and I explored bars and clubs in our area which was awesome because we stayed in Hongdae which is the university area so there are people everywhere!! And we met up with some friends later on.

On Saturday we woke up really early because lets face it, who can sleep in a hostel with 6 other people in the room? Its loud. Haha.

Anyways so we grabbed breakfast and then made our way down to Myeongdong which is the famous shopping district in Seoul. It has forever 21 and H&M and topshop and all those places. I was in heaven. Forever 21 had four floors!! And each floor was huuuge! It was like a sensory overload for my brain. Needless to say we spent way more than we should have.

After that we grabbed a late lunch and then headed back to Hongdae because there are more like marketish shops there so its cheaper and we browsed around and did some shopping there too.

That night we had dinner with some of our friends and then we all went out again around the Hongdae area. One of our American friends is dating a Korean girl and she came out with us. She’s awesome! Her name is Shin-young, I’ll add some photo’s…

On Sunday we were dead tired but again woke up early and headed over to the palace to do some sightseeing. It was really pretty but the queue’s were really long so we didn’t get to go all the way inside because it would have taken ages to stand in the line to buy a ticket. So once we looked around a bit and took some photo’s we headed to the art museum near by and this cultural centre thing.

After that we went back to Hongdae and got our hair cut! Mine is super short compared to what it was but it was ridiculously long after not being cut for three months and the ends were like rats tails! So now its nice and healthy and they thinned it out A LOT so its much easier to handle in this humid weather.

After we got our hair cut we went back to the hostel, got changed and headed out to go have a look at Cheonggye stream. Its like a man made stream underneath a main highway, its really cool and because it was buddhas birthday weekend there were lanterns everywhere which was really pretty!! BUT Korea is like couple central as men and woman are not really friends here, they are either in a relationship or married so if you see a guy and a girl together, they are in a relationship. Oh and they wear matching clothes… Anyways I think the entire of Seoul’s dating population spent the night at the stream, looking around was depressing! As if I don’t already feel like I am going to die alone, Korea reminds you of the fact that you are single and alone EVERY second of EVERY day. The response when you say you are single is, aaaaah, shame…. Um thanks?

We walked to the end of the stream and then up into Insa dong which is also quite a famous part of seoul for shopping and such and we had dinner at this really cute Italian place and then wondered around the streets and ended up finding this really cute little Belgian waffle place on a random corner in the middle of nowhere… We started talking to the guy who owned it and he was born in America but moved to Korea about 10 years ago (He has family in Korea). He was really sweet and was telling us all about Seoul and where to go… As we were leaving he says, well how funny is this!! Here is a girl from South Africa and a girl from England getting Belgian waffles made for them by an American in Korea… When you think of it that way it is quite strange…

That night we were dead tired so just chilled at the hostel with some friends and then went to bed.

On Monday we went to Han river with Liz and her sister (Her sister has been working in Australia and decided to come down to visit for a while). It was really nice to walk along the river but it was not the most amazing day as it was hot but really overcast so the view could have been better. After that we headed back to the hostel, fetched our bags and made our way to Seoul station for dinner and then caught the KTX back home at about 6:30pm.

All in all it was a very successful weekend!! I think I am still recovering now though…