sometimes quiet is violent

31/5 22:57 Helloooo. Today was a super slow day as I've sort of ran out of things I can think of doing (which I'm aware is ridiculous in such a huge city like Seoul, but a lot of the stuff that's cool here is cooler with friends present). Basically I just wanted to go to Myeongdong and eat a hot meal somewhere, which, fair enough, did take all day (but mostly because I left at like 4pm). The reason I wanted to go back to Myeongdong is because the underground shopping center has the best deal on socks ever. Legit, it's 10,000 won for 11 pairs and they're really good quality! That's 7 pounds for 11 pairs of socks, I'm almost tempted to go get another 11 but I won't fit it in my suitcase. Another reason for Myeongdong was the Style Nanda Pink Hotel. Style Nanda is a huge Korean fashion chain that also has it's own make up line called 3CE. It's fairly expensive, but I wanted to go for the aesthetics. The whole building is 6 stories tall, decorat...

30/5 22:00 I felt very disappointed in myself waking up around 2pm today, but I couldn't fall asleep for ages and then there was annoying construction noises in the morning so I was trying to get my 9 hours for naught. I did eventually leave the room after trying on a million different outfits. I was convinced I wouldn't survive in this flowy off-the shoulder dress I had but everything else looked bad so I ended up in the dress anyway. Spoiler: I did survive! I kept having to tug the underskirt down tho so as not to flash the public all of my behind. After visiting thrift shops yesterday I decided I wanted to try going to a few more today, so I made a little plan. There was a few more Beautiful Store locations nearby and I discovered a new brand called Vin Prime that sells cheap-ish 'vintage' clothing in Seoul so today was to be basically a repeat of yesterday. I mean, it worked so why not do it again. I made my way to the first Beautiful Store which was a success,...

29/5 20:30 So, yesterday was a bit of a bust. I just didn't feel great so I stayed in bed all day (minus a quick nip to the shops for a snack at 9pm). I just felt like all my anxieties got the best of me and the thought of being seen by other people was just too much. I talked to some friends and family online which helped a lot, so thank you. All in all it made me motivated to do something more today. I decided I wanted to do some cheaper and semi-ethical shopping, but Korea doesn't have a huge thrift shopping culture so I researched a bit online. There's a lot of vintage but that's often overpriced, and I don't care that much about what brand my shirts are so paying for a logo doesn't make sense to me. Turns out a lot of the charity shops here are Salvation Army shops, which is a no-go because they're the worst aaaand I'm not supporting them with my money here or anywhere else just so they can go and mistreat people in their shelters. Finally, I did...

27/5 21:17 Last night was a bit stressful, I was up at 3am messaging my bank (they're cancelling my card at the end of the month and I was stupid and only realised yesterday) and writing down questions to ask my airline for my flights back, but I slept enough and woke ready for my cooking class! In the description of the class it said we would be paired up with others but I received a message from my host about an hour beforehand saying I was the only person today so I was going to get a private lesson! Pretty good. I made my way to the subway station indicated in the class description and met with the host. He was a really nice Korean guy who spoke English really well so we got along nicely. The class was preceded with a little bit of history, as the class was taking place in the Korean Cuisine Culture Center. After learning about what Korean food is made up of and when it is eaten the cooking began! The instructor was an older Korean woman and my host translated everything to ...

26/5 23:15 I really needed today. I met up with a friend from a long time ago (we met once at an Avengers themed sleepover movie-night in 2011) that I reconnected with over the internet almost two years ago. She lives in Korea right now and agreed to meet up with me while I was visiting. She's also Finnish so I got to speak in Finnish/Finglish the whole time which was really refreshing! After the usual get up and get ready I walked to the subway station and quickly realised my mistake. It was 30 degrees outside today and I wore long woolly trousers. Luckily they're cropped and wide-legged, so let a little air in, but boy today has given a whole new meaning to the term 'sweaty bottom'. We met up with my friend to go visit a cafe nearby that was doing a promo for Jeonghan, a member of the Kpop group Seventeen. It's Seventeen's anniversary today so there were cute photos and the cup-sleeves all had his face on them. The cafe mainly did bagels, so I got a pink ...

25/5 21:00 Today has been a slow chill out day to balance out the walking and traveling from the past few days. I decided this when I woke up at 3pm and couldn't be arsed to plan anything super complicated. As I got up in my pyjamas I heard the door jingle and...people arrived! I haven't met them yet because I didn't want to impose on them seeing as they just arrived but hopefully there will be a fateful meeting by the kettle or something. I heard them speaking what I assume to be Spanish so from my detective skills I conclude they are two Spanish girls. Here's hoping they're friendly! I got ready super fast and decided to just head out and walk into actual Hongdae, because where I'm staying is a small suburb within Hongdae and I've not seen the 'main' streets. Hongdae is a trendy and studenty area known for being hip and cool and having a lot of busking, whether that be singing or dancing or guitar playing. Since I had time I just wandered around...

24/5 22:00 The urge to yell "honey I'm home" to my empty airbnb when I get back every night is still here. There's two other rooms but I don't know how popular this place or time is for other tourists so they're empty for now. I'm really hoping someone else stays here too so I can have someone to at least pretend to be my friend, though I'm appreciating the solitude that means I can cook noodles wearing just a long t-shirt. Moving swiftly on, today I went to Gangnam! I fell asleep around 4am and got up at 2pm which is an improvement from yesterday. Got ready and went out the door, this time wiser about which direction to head in. I felt confident walking down the street with my earphones in, blending as much as I could and then I realised that the small piece of paper hitting the back of my leg was in fact the tag still attached to my skirt. Honestly all I could do was laugh as I removed the tag and continued on my way. I hope at least someone found...

23/5 22:16 Boy. OH BOY. Today I ventured outside. Which was surprising, because I had weird jetlag insomnia and only fell asleep at 6.30am. But, I woke up at 2pm and showered, got dressed and decided to head out to pick up a transport card and a sim card so I could finally start to explore without feeling like I was going to be stranded. This took a bit of convincing my brain because usually if I get up later than 1pm I feel like I've already wasted the day and might as well not go anywhere. The "you paid for this vacation now take advantage of it"-argument worked well enough. Foolishly I decided I didn't need to map out my way to the station and confidently started walking in a random direction from my airbnb. This ended as all situations in Seoul so far where I've needed to get to somewhere specific: me turning around and walking back, making a lot of turns, and in general just making a fool of myself by getting so easily lost. Today there was a benefit to ge...

22/5 Left my airbnb in a very simple get up, brush teeth, change, pack, go-rhythm. I had two hours before my second and long-stay room was available but I contacted the host and she agreed to let me put my luggage in the kitchen and come back later to check-in. I found the place with relative ease which I guess was the universe making up for yesterday. Oh, and the host had made a video of how to get there so there was a comprehensive guide as opposed to the previous airbnb. It was so freeing to only have my backpack with me! I walked around just looking at the stores and different places, smelling the smells and feeling the air. I was super thirsty so I stepped into a convenience store and picked out some peach ice tea and my favourite snacks: honey butter almonds. A bigger bag of these is 7 pounds in Edinburgh. I got a wee bag for 1,000 won which is about 70p. I walked about a bit more and found a long walkway in the middle of the area that had lots of little benches. I sat down to...

21/5, 00:15AM So, I'm finally laying in bed horizontally, in Seoul, while writing this post. Today has been my own personal living hell in a lot of ways. Let's start where we left off. I boarded my flight to Shanghai, which was confusing because of the damn CDG airport. I swear I've spent most of this trip so far with a look of confusion on my face. I felt jittery within the first hour of the flight which was a premonition of how the rest of the time was gonna go. I spent my 12 hours watching the 10 first minutes of a lot of different films and then turning them off because the subtitles were in Chinese and I couldn't hear the words properly unless I blasted them and I was worried it would bother the people next to me. Then, enter four hours of fitful sleep, in handfuls of 15 minutes. Each time I woke, hoping more time had passed but no. Dante should add it to his whole circles of hell thing, pink neck pillow and all. The food wasn't bad, except for a horrifying ...

Hello! I don’t use this blog anymore because life has been crazy and also I’ve had no new sage words to share. However, I’ve just embarked on the craziest trip I’ve ever made solo to Seoul, South Korea, which in my mind warrants some documentation. So, here goes. Before we go any further I need you to understand that I made some, perhaps, foolish decisions while planning this trip, so instead of flying from Edinburgh to Seoul with one stopover I’m doing Edinburgh - London – Paris – Shanghai – Seoul. This was to save a few bucks but if the pain in my back from that first trip down to London is anything to go by I might as well have spent the extra dough… I'm gonna do this day by day, and the further we go the more likely it is that I'm gonna bunch days together. Glad we have a mutual understanding of my laziness.  Day 1 – Travelling and more travelling Arrived at the bus station in Edinburgh 45 minutes early, just in case, and boarded the bus fine. Me...