Thursday, June 13, 2013

It's official!

We-are-leaving! 

I'm glad I can finally blog about this, we've had this plan for so long and it's finally coming together, we are going to Japan for 1 month and then Off to omgI'msoexcited Korea, the plan?... There's no plan!, the only sure thing for now is a 2 week WorkCamp in Japan, we'll be making Tōrō nagashi. We will mainly help and join the Festival by making the lanterns with local students, I'm very excited yet a bit scared (ok, A LOT), I guess I should learn some basic Japanese phrases RIGHT NOW.

I would just like to finish with a few points, basically just answers to some of the questions I've received regarding this trip-adventure-whatever.

1st of all, NO, I'm not RICH, just so you know, we are flying with Tickets bought with our Airline Miles (Yay!!, Thank you Aeromexico!), I should include here that we won't be staying in 5 Star Hotels or flying 1st class, we will be doing Budget-travel, 1 backpack and (here's the challenge) the least ammount of Clothes/Shoes possible.

2.- PLEASE, Don't ask me "How is it that you travel so much?", because I don't travel as much as I would like to and it's also called "Working for what you want", don't tell me "I'm so jealous cuz you get to travel" when you just spent $1000000 on the newest gadget, or if you go out every weekend and spend ridiculous amounts of money buying drinks for your friends.

3.- YES, I AM SCARED, but being scared is OK, according to Sponge Bob (lol) this is the normal reaction to the unknown.

4.- "Will you be back?", hopefully I'll be back to visit my friends :)

Anyway, I just wanted you to know because I'm very excited to start this journey with my sister, please DO NOT think I just want to brag about it and be happy for us :) lol

-Gisela 
P.S. If you have any advices, tips, info, or whatever about Travels, do let me know!!
P.S.2. If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email!



Friday, June 7, 2013

Seoul Walking Tour - App Review

Hi everyone!

I'm sort of back!!, I've been pretty busy lately, working, planning, catching up on some sleep, studying Korean and well, doing some research online, as you know I still have plans of going back to Korea but this time my sister is coming with me, yay!!!!, we traveled just the 2 of us for the first time last year when we visited Italy and it went better than expected :)

We are both very different, but so alike at the same time, the only day we spent appart in Florence we ended up doing almost the EXACT same things just in different order, I'm pretty excited to go to Korea with her and show her some of the amazing things I've seen/done and to do new things I didn't have time to do before like Jeju Island!!!, but the 1st thing is... SEOUL!

I got so excited that I didn't know where to start, until I found the App "Seoul Walking Tour", created by the KTO (Korean Tourism Organization), you know it's going to be good when is created by the KTO.

1st of all, it's totally User friendly, there are only 5 options:


Home


The Home has 2 views, Map and List, remember this is only for SEOUL and since it's a walking Tour it will only show you things within a walking distance, the map is precise, it has a drawing of the "place" to visit and the name, if you find this confusing you can see it on "list" mode, although I would totally go for the MAP version :)


Camera

I don't think I need to explain this, you basically use it just like the regular camera on your Mobile device.






Travel Info

This one contains the Korea Travel Hotline 1330, operated by the KTO, languages supported, Service hours and fee!





Attractions


This is the same as seeing "Home" on List mode, only if you click on each location it will give you a picture and a brief explanation of such place, it also gives you the "Map" option and it will display a more detailed map than the one on "Home".

Last but not least, you'll find the Settings, to change your language to Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. It will also give you "Related Apps"



















I found this app very usefull if you are planing a short trip to Seoul only, very easy to use and to the point, it reminded me to the "GuidePal" application, I've used other Apps for Korea but some of them had way too much going on and it was confusing using them, so if you are visiting Seoul for the 1st time, I would totally recommend this App, specially if you don't have much time and want to make the most of it!

-Gisela V.