Trip in South Korea (next) :

5th Day (12th august 2012) :

From now on I am not going to mention that we of course ate our usual breakfast at our super cool hotel ! Because this part is obviously always the same ! ^^

It was sunday and we didn't want to take the risk to see all the places we wanted to go closed so we decided to go to the Seoul national park in the mountains wich was called Bukhansan  (북한산).

If you wanna go there by yourself it is kind of hard. Or maybe because we didn't know where to go we felt this way but still I will try to explain you : We took the metro and got down at Gupabal line 3 (구바발) and then took the bus, I don't know wich line it was but if you don't read or speak korean you'll get lost in 3 seconds because there are only ajummas and ajeosshi who don't speak english LOL ^^ 

And when you hear the right station you go down by pushing a button, DO NOT MISS THE STOP ! Or else it'll get harder to find it. 

Then we walked until we found the beginning of the walk (of the mountain of course) and before we got through a little village with really nice and lovely people.
At the beginning of the walk there are lots of shops for hiking in the mountains. At first we were like dumb foreigners and asking to ourselves : why are they wearing mountains clothes and accessories because the road is perfect and it is made of concrete ?! And then when this road end we knew that we should have worn some better shoes and clothes because this was where the expedition started! ^^

 The road before and us being like :"we are so intelligent to have come with only city shoes, because the road is so easy !"

The road after and us being like :"Oh s**t we should have brought some stuffs for mountain ! OMG my feet are hurting so bad !" 

It was really hot and tiring because we were climbing like crazy, all the koreans were having their picnic and sometimes the radio with them. And you know what the most amazing thing is that even though they picnic in the nature on the mountains there is NO and like really NO waste left behind them ! And that is just like WOW for us because in France the nature is so dirty compared to the one in Korea !^^

 Buddha on the road to give us strength to go on ! ^^

 This time it was a cute little Buddah ! ^^

 Some statue for prayers, my dad told me that on the statue on the left there was a part where it was written "...man" and on the other one "...woman". It's in Chinese.

 Me, trying to climb the mountain and to keep my breath ! ^^ I was feeling so good at this time. I couldn't think of anything except from walking and not stoping :) 

 People were having a picnic and when they left there weren't any leftovers ! 

When we got half way up of the mountain it started to rain (2 hours of walk) so we decided to go back but the road was really slippery and it was raining like crazy so as we were going back we were totally wet. But still it was a great walk and really beautiful and the people speak more freely to each other, they even went to see us to try to speak with us ! Isn't it cute ? :)

 Sisters going back to the bottom of the mountain while the rain didn't stop any seconds ! So scared to slip that I was holding on really tightly her hand ! She is so courageous compared to me for those things ^^ Love her <3

 When it starts raining, the landscape became like that, it was like being in a dream or in an unreal land :)

Korean people avoiding the rain by coming under this beautiful place :)

When we finally arrived at the end of our walk we took a taxi so that it can take us directly to the metro station and I gotta tell you it was way much more easier ! So instead of the bus take the taxi :)

And we went back to our hotel to rest because we were litterally dead ! 

After a good nap and a good shower we decided to go to the Namsan Seoul Tower. Even tough it was still rainy we wanted to see the beautiful Seoul in a diferent way so we took the metro (again ^^) and we went to the Namsan tower under the rain again.

The love game at the last floor of the Namsan Tower, if you both put the heart coins in the round thing in the background of the picture, you'll be in love with each other forever ^^

Little sis' drinking her special coffee at the N. Tower 

View of Seoul in the clouds ! So beautiful and so huge :)

Another pic of Seoul for you guys. enjoy :)

THE Namsan Tower and it way to go up to it by the cable car. I filmed when we got down with it . here's the link if you wanna see : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLrbeQCZIlo&feature=plcp

After having such a happy and tiring day we went back to our hotel with lots of different beautiful views of Seoul (the nature from the mountain and the new & wide Seoul from the N Seoul Tower).

It was still raining when we were on our way back to the hotel but the streets were still alive and crowded with people.

Next day on a next post :) as usual have a nice day or night and bye guys~~! 여러분 안녕~~! :)

P.S: please excuse again the pictures not on the right side !

Trip in South Korea (next) :

4th Day (11th august 2012):

As usual we took our breakfast, and then we decided to go to see the Cheonggyecheon river (청계천) to see the entrance and to take a little walk :)

When we arrived we went out from the City Hall station line 2 (시청역) and we saw a big sculputure wich represents a big shell. At the beginning there is a cascade and lot of people taking pictures ^^ Some people asked me to take pictures with them maybe because I look too european next to the others asians :p

The city hall of seoul : On the right, under the flag you can see an "old" building and on the left a building made of glass and both are constituing the city hall this is the old and new Seoul ^^ 

 The shell that tells you where the river starts. You can see it from far away ! I swear :)

Me in front of the shell, in front of the river :)

My mom with a beautiful smile in front of the entrance of the river !

 Me and a men who wanted to take a picture with me.

Same as the picture above :)

We walked there for a few moments to see how it looked like and at lunch time you can see some workers coming here with their lunch boxes and eat with other co-workers or families with children or friends or lovers and even some military men. 

 The beginning of the river crowded by asian tourists and Seoul citizens

 In front of me there is a hole in the water where you throw a coin to make a wish.

A man being filmed in the river maybe he will be known later but now I don't know who he is ^^ Anyway if he is a kpop singer I'm happy to have this picture :)

Then because it was getting really hot and because we saw a Dunkin Donuts (my mum was obssessed with the idea of eating at Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins and Tacos Bell because it exist in the USA but not in France) we went there and ate a donut for 3 and took a refreshing drink. As we were eating we saw the end of the changing of the garde from Gyeongbokgung palace (경복궁).

My Ice Choco and our chocolate donut

After we regain forces we went to Namdaemun market (남대문). As we were walking we saw some info on the independence of south Korea, because on the 15th it was going to to be the national independence day.

 Me and my lil' sis' with Haechi the korean mascot (it's a dragon and lion) :)

On the info card there was a list of countries that have been helping South Korea to get free during the war and France is in it ! Yayyyyy :)

We found some chopsticks in Namdaemun market typically korean and some promotions on lots of skin food products (yeah skin food has a shop in a market and it's not a fake one ^^). It was really great to see another side of korea's culture and of Seoul of course ! 

The fist time I didn't understand why the sun was represented red in the historical monuments but now I know why because it IS actually red at a certain time of the day ! (view from Namdaemun market)

When we got out of this little market, because we were right next to Dongdaemun (동대문) and decided to go shopping there and went to lots of makeup brands and clothes brands. For exemple : Skin Food, Etude House, Holika Holika, Nature republic, Tony Moly, Missha, Banilla & Co, etc...

 One of the well known mall, like Lotte (JYJ made an ad for them) it's the Shinsegae mall with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel etc...

 At the "entrance" of Dongdaemun (동대문) my sister (in blue) and me (with the flower short) walking through

 Every shops of Etude House are designed this way ! Isn't it cute ? ^^

Holika Holika, the shop where Sistar (시스타) and Jung Il Woo (정일우) promote the brand, really cute as well :)

Then when it was like 4 or 5 pm we went to a café still in Dongdaemun and we tried the Patbingsu (받빙수) because I was craving to taste it ! And it is DELICIOUS and not so fat in calories for a desert compared to the others. It is really refreshing but if you want to finish it, you have to eat it with other people, it's a dish that you enjoy sharing and eating together, perfect for summer I would say ^^

 THE Patbingsu (받빙수) from the bottom : Pilled ice, korean rice cakes, red beans, pilled nuts and on top of everything a vanilla ice cream. You mix everything and you eat. I knew this thanks to eatyourkimchi.com if you wanna know look at their Youtube channel :)

Drinks we had with the patbingsu : 1 smoothie and 2 iced tea

And then we went back to our hotel to put down our shopping bags and decided to go to the Cheonggyecheon river again wich was also right next to our hotel. And it was really refreshing and funny, people were less stressed than during the day and they were more likely to talk to strangers I mean foreigners of course you understood me right ? ;) and to smile at you.

 From the front : my little sister legs and the mine ^^ and you can deep your feet in the river without being afraid to make your feet dirty. Yeah !

Quick tip for girls who use BB Cream as I do, if you want to not look white in the pictures like I do right now don't put any SPF on your skin or the lowest that you can or else you'll look like me in this picture : White face compared to my real colour. It's good for the day to protect your skin but not for the night with photo flashes ^^ LOL and the other girl is of course my sis !

Well then this is where the day ends and I will tell you what we did on the next day on another chapter ^^ Hope you'll have a great day and by the way happy belated Chuseok (it's the korean thanksgiving) 추석 !

By guys~~! 안녕~~! :)