As you guys already knew, my second semester has been finished (well, the fact is the grades are not even out yet). Weeks ago before the semester exam itself, I had to face the reality that my journey to another travel will begin. I applied for a summer program which is also partial scholarship (the flight ticket is not included) for the summer holiday. And here we go, two days ago I touched Seoul down!
Seoul as part of South Korea is well - known with its crowd and modern buildings and technologies and sophisticated people that work professionally. First time I got in the Incheon airport was totally unimaginable. I just arrived and it felt like I saw all of those people that are tuned in the Korean drama or band. Gladly, me and Mbak Nisa (one of another UGM student that received the scholarship) got there with two humongous size of luggage. Oh, and just for info my luggage was overweight when they measure it at the local airport in my town Semarang. I was in safe zone though to overcome my not-very-good-situation by upsizing the maximum lbs of my luggage. And yeah, I made it safely from Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur -Seoul.
First day of Seoul
Seoul is a populated by nice people ever :)
We were out of the bus when finally the bus speaker says something in Korean and then she says "Dongdaemun". To get there all you needed was taking the bus that the transport info center at Incheon suggested us to take. We stopped the bus and we had no idea where to heading. Looking at the map (which is all written in Korean), we were at the end of our hope. Our own journey was totally begun. We asked people around and they responded very well, they tried to find the most accurate information from their galaxy notes, tabs, or even the sIII which is like the most sophisticated one. Anyway, they were failed to give information. I think it was because of the one way communication, you know. Then, there is this old man or "harabuji" that came to us and spoke in English (finally!) He helped us and recommended a different place which he said was a lot better than the place that we booked online. He took us with busway for free and we reached the place. Although, issue came when we had to carry our super duper huge luggage on the stairs. We almost fainted over that, that was pretty painful, and definitely not gonna try that again. Anyway, we got into the place and it was very nice place with one room for both of us and the design of the place was kinda neat because it represents the old style of Korean house in the middle of the downtown. The "harabuji" left us and we gave him food to say thank's. The price to stay for the place was a lot more expensive than the one that we booked. But it was worth it for the free wifi, foods, and kitchen that we used. The lady that take care of the place or the "ahjuman" was very nice too. She'd help us if we found any difficulties (which means a lot).
We got pretty whipped out of the airplane and we got jetlagged, so after we took shower, we straightly went to bed for a couple hours nap. By the evening started to appear, we got up and took a little walk down there. Bytheway, our place was at Pi run dong. There were foods, markets, and shops around the corner. It was a very great place to stay. We finished our pretty long walk and I met lots of people got out at night and got drunk after worked. I think that's one of the common culture there. So, they would be done with drinking and hald-drunkly walking down the streets. That was kind of creepy though. Not like Seoul becoming unsafe. It was still very secured, however when you got that annoyed feeling by weird people around you, yepp that was totally what happened :)
Second day and next days of Seoul Journey
What would we say? Seoul is uh-mazing :)
We spent the next days ahead in Seoul. Visited some places that we could only see in movies before, like Tower, palace, museums. Even when we got into the "green bus" which is typical Korean buses and when we walked down to the small ally by the neighborhood seemed so Korean to us. So mesmerizing we could only say.
The foods are everywhere, though they are not that suitable for our tongues. Let's say the goods one include porks or any kind of things that we're not supposed to have as Muslims. So, apparently we just asked to every kind of vendor or street markets that sold the foods like real tourists "fish?" or often we asked with mimics of the animals. So funny and yet normal, I guess.One day we went to one place for shopping, called Insa-dong. Got so many stuffs and we met a guy who sold cheap stuffs to us and he even gave us discounts for almost everything. So awesome! Once we walked down the street and there were this man selling "dragon beard" food, it was like "kue mochi" in Indonesia. Anyway, this food is good and the way they attract everyone to look at him. He even knew some Bahasa Indonesia which were so making me and Mbak Nisa even more attracted to look at those.
Then we saw a lot of shops for make up and face with the Korean Brand, like Misha, The Face Shop, Etude, and many more. They are pretty cheap compares to the one that they sell in Indonesia. They offered several good deals that women cannot ignore at all. Anyway, haven't I told you yet that Korean girls in Seoul (and even boys) are so sophisticated in dressing? They dress up almost everytime and everywhere. You cannot find simple kind of style once you walk in the Seoul streets. One more thing that attract me the most is the stigma of Koreans who love about appearance, I'd say somehow yes since there are many many mirrors in every possible corner. Can you believe? You don't need to bring any mirror because it's Korea! :D
Last day of Seoul
It was a really great morning after a good sleep that we had in ahjuman's house. Everything was so peaceful until the birds that Ahjuman have for pets are still half-way-awake and did not do chirping at all (they usually do). So, we went into the kitchen and ate bread plus jam for breakfast. What funny since the first day we stayed there was the breads and everything that ahjuman kept on the fridge. It's weird somehow because people hardly put bread in the fridge. Well, but we use toaster afterwards, so yeah I could get along.
Then we spent sometimes in the several places to just had our sorta last walk in Seoul. We already figured out some stuffs like the bus that we should take to train station. Anyway, for the next four weeks I stayed in Daejeon, which was like the fifth biggest city in South Korea. It was like two hours journey with regular train (KORAIL), and one hour if you take the KTX (fast train). I chose the cheaper one, so I went on two hours journey. We stepped out of the Seoul by using train so we went to the station first. It was huge station full of great technologies and people. Many young men were in uniform for the military purpose training. Most of them are either done or almost starting the training, so it was not a huge shock when they met their girls there.
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| Seoul's street |
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| ahjuman's pet: cute birds :3 |
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| A night in Seoul |
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| Some words in Hangul :) |
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| Street markets :D |
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| Ahjuma's house :) |
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| buildings everywhere |
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| Incheon Airport |
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| a shop by the street |
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| me on the plane :) |
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| murky bridge |
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| red palace |
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| a street at night |
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| typical road in Seoul |
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| SEOUL! |
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| night time |
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| the street |
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| just the trees |
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| me, market, and food <3 |
And there you go, my end of the story about Seoul. Many things happened in only few days. And obviously, more things happened in a month at Daejeon. I'll keep posting more and more. In case, you wanna read it.
Anyway,
감사합니다 and 안녕히 가세요 :)
Hanadia Yurista
