Travel Log

We spent our night at the Hi Korea Hostel during our stay in Busan and I was suprised how lovely it was! The staff was very friendly, the shower was big and already had soap, shampoo and conditioner there, so you don’t have to bring your own (unless you want to). On top of that they have two adorable cats! 

Although the rooms were pretty small I could rest quite well and thanks to those curtains attached to the bunk beds, I felt comfortable and felt as if I had enough privacy. They also offer a simple breakfast consisting toast, boiled eggs, jam and orange juice. I would definitely recommend this Hostel, if you want to stay somewhere near Haeundae Beach without spending a lot of money! The next subway station is only 10 minutes away from the hostel, so I really can’t complain about the location. If you plan on only spending the night there it’s perfect!

For more pictures and more information go to there website: here.

Nina, my brother and I spent almost an entire week in Seoul and decided it would be nice to have a change of scenery, so we bought a Happy Rail Pass each in order to get on the KTX to Busan! (If you want more information about the Happy Rail Pass klick: here)

Of course we had some Kimbap on the train while enjoying the landscape :D 

In less than 3 hours we arrived in Busan!

We found this at Busan station and decided to take a photo xD

After getting the “Dr. Fish Treatment” Nina went to Gangnam, in order to meet another friend of hers, while Kevin and I went to Happy Lemon to meet Heejin and Han Wook. It was getting cold, so my brother and i decided to get some hot drinks: Oreo Milk Tea and Salt Cheese Oolong Tea. The latter was not a good choice... No idea who though of that and why that became one of the best selling drink there.

After meeting up with the others we got dinner, and we finally got to try Samgyetang! Samgyetang is Ginseng Chicken Soup and it’s said that it prevents illnesses. I love the taste of ginseng, so that dish was right up my alley. In addition to that we also ordered porridge, one with ginseng and another one with seafood <3

That’s quite random but here’s a picture of all the K-Pop cds I’ve bought in Seoul :D

Nina, my brother and I went to Ssamziegil, in Insadong, on our own and it suddenly started snowing! 

As you can see in the following pictures, it’s a rather artsy place, and they even offer all kinds of workshops! You can paint your own mug, for instance.

Nina and I bought key chains with our Chinese zodiac sign as souvenirs. On the back it says “South Korea 2016″ in Korean.

Afterwards, we went to a “Dr. Fish Spa”, where we let little fish nibble on our dead skin for 45 minutes. I’m quite ticklish, especially when it comes to my feet, so I couldn’t stop laughing for a few minutest.

After the three of us put our feet into the water you can see how many fish wear nibbling on Nina’ s feet and how there were basically none around my brother’s feet. So we had a long talk about feet hygiene and how she should wash her feet more thoroughly :P

In this post, I basically just show you guys, what I’ve been eating. Nothing too exciting to be honest xD”

For breakfast, Nina and I tried the Korean „Hangover Soup“ 해장국 Haejangguk! It was so cheap and so delicious! My brother didn’t want to wake up that early, so he didn’t join us. He bought some curry buns later.

Afterwards, we went to this store in Myeongdong and bought „DeliManjoo“, a cake shaped like corn and filled with custard. 10/10!

More food, we had ramyeon with cheese and fried rice with cheese for lunch. Yep, we’re all cheese fans <3

For dinner, we had fried chicken :D

No idea what happened here, but Nina looks like she’s about to hit my brother, the photographer xD

After having dinner, we went to DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza 동대문디자인플라자 ), where 25,550 electronic roses were spread out. The reason behind the number 25,550 is to celebrate the 70th year anniversary of Gwangbokjeol 광복절, the National Liberation Day of Korea (365 multiplied by 70 equals 25,550).

We went to Changdeokgung 창덕궁, one of the „Five Grand Palaces“, and did touristy things :D So here are just a bunch of pictures.

Apparently, Nina thought we wouldn’t jump for real....

Height difference :D 

We took a picture in Gangnam in „Gangnam Style“, and I’m thankful to the kind stranger, who took our photo but why did she cut off the „Gangnam“ T_T

Anyway, we had lunch at a rather fancy place, as you can see:

And that was our lunch for that day:

We spent the entire day in Lotte World, the biggest indoor theme park in the world! Before we went into Lotte World, we had some Pho for lunch :D

No need to say what people usually do in a theme park, so here are the pictures:

Nina, Kevin and I played some basketball! 

Yosuke, Kevin, and Han Wook all won some plushie seal...

Dinner:

There’s another LINE Store in Myeongdong, so of course we had to go in there, after seeing this gigantic bear.

Tonight’s dinner:

We went to a board game cafe, after having dinner:

We got ourselves Hotteok 호떡 for a late night snack :D

I’m a huge Kim Jaejoong Fan, that’s why I simply had to go to his café. No judging! If you want to go there, too:

Adress: 중구 명동 2가 54-6번지, Seoul, South Korea 100-022 (romanized: Jung-gu, 54-6 Myeongdong 2-g)a Operating Hours: 11:00 - 22:00 (Mon - Sun) FB-Page: https://www.facebook.com/cafejholic00/ Website: http://cafejholic.com/

It’s a bit confusing because the cafe is actually upstairs, so yo have to go through this “Atticell” shop in order to get to the cafe, which you can see in the first picture.

Counter:

Cups, mugs, bags etc.:

Matcha cake <3

Iced Matcha Latte

Outside of the bathroom, I thought it was really cute how it says “Jenny” and “Jonny”

Fan Letters and Fan Art

In Myeongdong, we went to a place where we could rent a Hanbok 한복 and the girls could get their hair done. I remember that we could choose between 3 sets. Set A being the cheapest one, where you could rent hanboks, which were super simple, and weren’t that pretty to me. So, Nina and I opted for Set B, prettier hanboks and we got our hair done. Pictures were taken by friends, you could get your pictures taken professionally but that would cost a bit more. Here are the results:

After spending the night at the Jjimjilbang my friends went home first, Yosuke, my brother and I picked Nina up from the Incheon Airport and went with her to our guesthouse, while Yosuke went to Han Wook’s home. 

For lunch, I’ve made plans with someone who I’ve met in Berlin, when I was a staff member for BTS’ showcase in 2014. So we met in Hongdae and went to a place called “Meat-ing”, where they offered you meat, as much as you can eat, for 12.500 Won (ca. 10,20€) per person. Also, they charge you an additional fee of 2.000 Won per person, if you have too many leftovers and you only have one and half hour to eat everything. To be honest, I think that sounds fair.

Heejin, Han Wook, Yosuke, my brother Kevin and I decided to spend the night at a Jjimjilbang 찜질방. The most popular one is the “Dragon Hill Spa”, so we decided to try that one :D

That’s what the entrance looks like:

The “Dragon Hill Spa” was even a filming location for the popular variety show “Running Man”!

After paying 14.000 Won each (around 11,50€) and getting our keys and clothes for our lockers, we went inside and that’s what we see:

We looked for our lockers and put our shoes inside.

That’s the “foyer”:

They also have something like a snack bar there, but of course, it’s overpriced.

We decided to split up and try out different hot tubs first, and then meet up in the “resting room” where girls and guys can be together.

They have tons of saunas, scrubbing rooms and even a cinema in here!

Obviously, I didn’t take any photos in the bathing area. So here are photos of a sauna, which isn’t too hot, so I could still take pictures. In South Korea, when going to the sauna a lot of people fold their towels like this. Honestly, I don’t know why but it looks fun :D

We also brought animal-themed face masks with us :D

It’s supposed to be a dog and a pig xD”

Apparently, it’s necessary to eat eggs, when you’re in a sauna, so we did that, too. We also tried to crack them open by smashing them on our heads. Yeah, didn’t work that well. It just hurt a lot.

The sauna was around 30°C and we decided to sleep there. For me, that was totally fine, since I’m not really sensitive when it comes to heat. But my male friends woke me up around 3AM because they couldn’t sleep D: So we moved....

The guys decided to sleep here, it has floor heating, so it’s wasn’t cold at all. Heejin and I went to an only women room but I had trouble sleeping because someone was snoring the whole time >_< But it was still a really nice experience, loved the saunas and the hot baths, and I would definitely do it again :D

For dinner, we had Samgyeopsal 삼겹살 also known as Korean BBQ in Itaewon :D Samgyeopsal 삼겹살 was probably one of my most favorite meals in South Korea. It’s a lot of fun to get together with friends and have a BBQ. To be honest, I was a bit worried about the smell because of all the smoke, and I didn’t really want to smell like grilled meat afterward. But in South Korea, you can use your chair as a “clothing container”. I just put my coat and scarf in there, so that they wouldn’t smell :D

For a short rest, we went to a café called Majo Sady, and I have to say, I really like Korean cafés. They’re so cute and special!

Afterward, we went to a LINE Store. LINE is an instant messaging app, which is widely used in Japan nowadays, but Korean engineers took part in the designing of this app. So there are a few LINE Stores in Sout Korea, where they sell stuff like hair bands or T-Shirts with LINE Friends, featured characters which are shown in stickers of the app.

For a snack, we went to a milkshake café called O Shake. 

We ordered two milkshakes. One was the “Oreo Double Devil Milkshake” (8.900 Won/ca. 7,30€) and the other one was the “Nutella Double Devil Milkshake” (9.5000 Won/ca. 7,80€). Soooo good~ 

Here’s the menu:

For lunch, we had some Tteokbokki 떡볶이 and it was so delicious! I love this dish so much.

We spent the afternoon at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza 동대문디자인플라자 also called DDP and took lots of photos :D

Here, you can see Han Wook, Yosuke and me with baby food in our hands. It was surprisingly good!

Heejin and me in a toy store having fun with a cardboard house.

Obviously, us three are the coolest people with some badass trolleys. 

Here, a few photos what the inside of DDP looks like.

SUM! The SM Entertainment Shop :D

After walking around for the whole afternoon we had to sit town and spend some time on our phone. I know, our generation is horrible.