Trip in South Korea (next) :

3rd Day (10th august 2012) :
As usual we waked up in the morning and took a really good breakfast. Then we went to a district called bukchon (북촌) where there are lots of traditional houses called Hanok (한옥). We went to a tourism office (the tourism offices are not the same than in France, in every district there is a small tourism office where you can find the map of the neighborhood and some attractions that you can do and also of course some maps of Seoul ^^) and they gave us a map. In it there was a walk to see the sightseing of the neightborhood, it was going trough some old houses, some little museums of korean traditional art and on some beautiful views that we could see. It was really pretty and cute here are some pictures for you :)

A street in Bukcheon with cute little hanok !

Me near a mixed traditional (hanok) & modern house 

A guest house with prays on its doors to make the bad spirits go away :)

One of the main street in Bukcheon ! See all those roofs right between each other ! It is soo beautiful I think ^^

Okay... I gotta admit this morning was really rainy but it stops so we decided to go back to Changdeokgung (창덕궁) to finally get a chance to see the secret/rear garden (후원) !

The visits are ONLY with guides so because we didn't want to wait we took the one in korean and actually they are really cool about letting you do and go wherever you want. But of course CCTV are not very far from you ^^ ! If you don't damage and respect the different places they will let you live the group and do your own visit :)

 A part of the secret garden 후원

 Being silly because of the hot weather with my lil sister in 후원 ^.^

 As you can see it is definetly beautiful !

After all this walking we decided to go back to our hotel to rest because we were really tired. Then before going to Seoul we (my mom, lilttle sis and me) promised each other to go to see a non-verbal show ! So we went to Hongdae (홍대) or if you prefer Hongik University (홍긱 대학교) and it is a really cool district ! There are affordable and new designers stores where you can buy really good clothes and you can see students everywhere. 

My little sister at the hairsaloon getting a haircut :)

My lill sis with her new hair 

It is really lively and so entertaining ! I think it's the neightborhood that I prefer :) I bought a phone case with chocolate drawings on it and some CD's (in Korea, Kpop CDs are so inexpensive ! It's unbelieveble the price that we pay when we are not in Korea !), my little sister got a hair cut at a saloon and then we ate at Tacos Bell it was really delicious but a bit dirty I gotta say.

 

 Designers shops at Hongdae (홍대)

 Still cute designers shop in Hongdae 홍대

A stylish woman in Hongdae (홍대) doing some shopping :) 

Then at 7PM we went to a building and in the underground there was a little "theater" where we went to see a B-Boy showcase or a non-verbal show if you prefer (yeah we kept our promise ^^). They are worlwide know, their name is Gorilla Crew (고리라 크루, I believe we wright it this way) they even went to Broadway ! The show was called Khung (쿵), they danced so well it was AMAZING ! In the end they were doing self presentation by dancing and I can't believe it but one of them came to me and took me to the stage to dance with him ! They gave me tickets to come back for free :) I know they might do it on every show but still I was really happy ^^ I felt proud LOL!

 Before the show starts :) 

 Me and my little sister at the B-Boy show waiting for the beginning :)

 I don't know if you can see but in the back there are some people in red, white etc... They actually are the dancers who are hiding in the back because they come from this place to dance during the show :)
P.S: I know it is still has the same problem but I can't find any solution, if you do please tell me !

After it ends they do a little "fan moment" as they call it like that, actually it is the moment when you can take pictures with them and talk to them :)

 From left to right : The leader (in blue),the main dancer (in white), a woman who wants a photo with them, and the clown who is soo funny and cute (the favorite one for my sis)

With the leader, clown and the main dancer (he was going to come with us but our mom took the picture too early ! Too sad :'(  )

 With the dancers the one with the red pant was one of my mom's favourite :)

He was the funniest and the bad guy in the story ! :) And he is the one who took me on the stage !

We went back late at night to our hotel but the neightborhood was still alive, everybody was outside and the shops were still opened ! OMG I LOVE THIS COUNTRY <3

By guys~~! 안녕~~! :)

Trip in South Korea (Next) :

2nd Day (9th august 2012) :

We ate breakfast at the Hotel and I gotta tell it was delicious. 

Then because we didn't know that the rear/secret garden (huwon or biwon) was closed on mondays we just got there and when we discovered it we decided to go to to a different place. But while we were walking back to the metro station (Jongno 3/sam-ga) we saw a temple hide behind the buildings so we decided to go and take a look a it. We discovered that it was one of the places where the independant movement against the japanese begun. So we entered and got upstairs, there was a man with a monk, they said that we could take pictures if we wanted to and as they saw that we were interested by the inside of the temple and because it was really hot outside they offered us to come and sit with them near a big fan. Then they asked if one of us could speak korean and I said that I was speaking just a little bit, so the monk take us with him and he started to initiate us to the bouddhism rituals and we prayed with him. And then when we finished the man explain to me the story of the temple and after complimented me ^^ it was kind of funny because he told me that I could do television like appearing of tv shows or be a kpop artist LOL ! But I was really thankfull and happy when I heard that :)

  

The temple 

 Bhudda & inside of the temple

Me - the monk - my mum in the temple

 A turtle at the entrance of the temple

We walked to Jongmyo shrine, it's a place where a lot of kings and queens are buried and we saw the incestral rituals to honor theyre spririts. We visited the inside where there was a palace and a garden of course ^^ It was kind of tiring because it was around 12 so it was really hot and for this place too you have to visit with a guide you can't do it on your own unfortunatly.

Ritual to honor the king and the queend (The 2 little boxes at the back of the picture) 

The king seal

The queen seal

A part of the "palace"

Because of the heat and because we were tired we decided to go to a café to refesh ourselves and to gain more strengh because we were still jetlaged (when it was 12 in korea it was 5am in France ^^). It was called Tom and Tom's coffee and this is where we discovered how does it works in korea (actually I already knew how it was working thanks to the drama Rooftop Prince :p) ! So basically you enter and you choose a table, you put your things on a chair or on the table and then you go to the order desk and you order what you want, you pay and they give you a small round thing thas has the same size as a cookie. You go back to your seat, no one has touchs yours things or stolen something or tooken your place (which is absolutely NOT possible in France or if you wanna be stolen then do it ^^) ! You wait and when the round thing starts to flash and to vibrate then it means that it is ready. So you go to the order desk and you "make an exchange", you give back the round thing and they give you what you ordered. 

Korea rocks for those kind of things thats seems to be so uninteressting but it is actually really funny and helpfull because when you are tired you don't wanna wait to order and to have your drinks and then when you try to find a place where you can sit you figure out that there are NO empty seats and it makes you even MORE tired !!

The round thing that lightens up and vibrate (front of the pictures) and what we ordered first ^^

Then after an hour or more we decided to take the metro and to go back to Dongdaemun because there are a lot of malls and we wanted to shop. We went to Doota!, Apm (and not 2PM ^^) and Migliore. Actually Doota! is a mall where there are lots of new designers (if I can say so) it is not as afordable as Apm or Migliore (which is the cheaper) but the clothes are just GORGEOUS ! So if you wanna have beautiful clothes you have to pay the price but it's worth it. And as we were shopping more and more we didn't know that we spend the whole afternoon trying and buying clothes so when we figured it out it was like 6pm. 

 Seoul metro's station Jongno/Jongro 3/sam-ga

Inside Doota! 

We got back to our hotel to put our purchases and then we decided to take a little walk in the area of Dongdaemun (because in the "Guide Vert Corée du Sud") they tell you a lot of little walks that you can do in different places and because we love to walk and discover new hided places we did it !

We started at the Dongdaemun historical&culture station and we walked until we discovered a little market. It was really cute and funky but not smelly even though there were some fishes :) and then we arrived at Cheonggyecheon (the river) and we took it to walk back to our hotel it was like a 1-1h30 of walk by taking our time and stop every where we wanted. 

 At the beginning of the market

 Pork feet (they love to eat animal feets such as pork or chicken)

 Some bread that taste just like in France ! 방 (bang)

 Some pepper pouder (고춧가루)

Dried fishes being refreshed 

Then we went to a café (yes I know again but they are soooo delicious in Korea and there are soooo many ^^) called Caffé bene and I took a waffle, so delicious and an ice choco. So yeah it was the end of the day and we were still tired so went to our hotel and slept. 

see you on the next day... :)

 At the Cheonggyecheon river in the beginning of the night

Me and my little sister really tired of our day at the caffé bene ^^

P.S.: You might have saw that some of the pictures are not on right side ! I tried to put them back at there original size but they don't allow me to do it because it is too big to be on the vertical. So sorry guys for hurting your neck ! Hope I will find a way to change it but until this point I hope you liked reading this post Bye guys~~! or 여러분 안녕~~!