The Julie/Julia/Gisela Project: Korea and Me

It's no secret I love Korea, and when we decided to pack our backs an Travel the world, Korea was a MUST, after some crazy 5 weeks in Japan it was time to Fly to Korea for what would be (is) a VERY different kind of traveling, 1st because we are not staying for 1-2 weeks, 2nd because this isn't like Italy last year, that we got to live the Tourist life, this time we are staying a little bit longer and just enjoying the city in a more day-to-day kind of way, we are not staying in nice Hotels (or even Hostels for that matter), our expenses are not being payed by someone else and we are basically on our own.

Bye bye Japan.... see you soon!

Despite this being my 3rd time in the ROK, I can't help but to feel some pressure because I'm the one who is supposed to "know" around and because studying Korean for a couple of months (Self studying!) means I speak Korean according to my sister lol.

Bigbang welcoming us to Korea

We arrived 18 days ago after a VERY short 2 hour flight from Japan, while we were still in Japan I was very excited about comming to Korea and it wasn't until we were leaving for the airport that I realized that we didn't (still don't) have ANY plans for Korea, we only knew we were staying for a "long" time and that's when I started to panic, not knowing exactly where are you going is nerve wrecking, but somehow arriving at Incheon seemed more natural to me than last time I was here, so, it was decided... YOLO would be the new motto, I know some of you don't like that whole YOLO thing, but when you've nothing to lose, YOLO seems to be a good way to enjoy life.

This time we are staying with a friend, this is already a challenge because we are used to living on our own, yea, the WorkCamp was sort of like a Training of "how-to-share-a-room" but it was only for 2 weeks so, I feel like this is totally different, you have to learn how things are done around and just the basic House rules, if you have ever been here, you know the recycling culture here is different, I've read there are special bags for Cans, Glass, etc, so, that was something we had to learn from the beggining (more about this later), just being in someone else's house can be awkward sometimes, isn't it?

Anyway, we arrived on September 4th at 4:30pm, after migration and getting our lauggage, we took a Bus to Seoul where we would meet my friend, we got to my friend's house, left our backpacks and went out to have dinner... my sis' 1st REAL Korean food, we had Samgyeopsal and then went to hang out at the Banpo Hangang Park.

Samgyeopsal

The next day was our 1st Official day in Seoul and the plan was go out around the area and familiarize with what would be our "neigbourhood" for the next weeks, check out the nearby restaurants, stores, markets, buses, subway, etc, after this, we decided to take it slow and just make our plans day to day, meet some of my friends and just try to let go that "traveler" life for a little bit....

We found the GOOOOOOOOODS!

Of course we had some things we HAD to do, but besides the "touristy" things we are up to ~~almost~~ anything, so, if you are in Seoul and want to hang out...let me know! lol

The first days, I took my sister to some places I know, Insadong and the Chonggyechon stream being the 1st thing on our list, that day, we met the coolest girl outside the KTO Offices, she was promoting the KOINMO (Korea in Motion) event and we ended up buying tickets for the show Nanta and got Free tickets for the N Seoul Tower and a Free coffee from "Angel-in Us"... oh yea!!

We walked around, got lost, walked some more trying to find suitable food for my sister (She's soooo picky...) and walk some more, went for drinks to "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf" by the Chonggyechon (This is the Coffee Bean where Kim Sam Soon goes on the show... and you know how much I love Kim Sam Soon!!!!) and then went to chill by the stream and decided to call it a night by going back "home" after having Burgers(!!!) for dinner.