Seeing Myeongdong - Seoul Trip Day 4
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 getting a bit lost: I found a Paris Baguette! Paris Baguette is a bakery in Korea that is famous at least for me, so I was excited to try it. No, most of the pastries are not French in any way, shape or form. A lot of the salty stuff had meat in it but they had a chewy pizza bread that seemed good so I bought that. Continuing in the right direction I got my transport card (which is bright pink and has the bunny from Line-friends on it, fitting for me) and continued on my sim-card hunt.
I finally made it to the sim-card location and got it changed, it was really easy! Though paying 24 pounds for 10 days of 4g seems a bit steep it's so worth it to stay connected. I don't know how but somewhere between taking the elevator downstairs and walking out of the building I hurt my leg. It hurt to walk on it and I still can't let my right knee lock when I stand straight. This just meant I had to walk more softly than I usually do and not let my knees lock (which I love doing because it's lazy, woe is me).
Armed with my electronic back-up I started my trip to Myeongdong, which is a famous shopping district. Took a subway to Seoul Station and switched over to another line to get to Myeongdong station. The thing about the Seoul subway system is that yes, it is very easy to use, but you need to know exactly where you're going. There are often up to 10 exits at one subway station and the difference between them can be a lot in terms of distance. I got out at a random exit because none of them indicated the shopping street and got out and started walking.
My general philosophy for this trip has become 'walk now, check in five minutes' so I'll just walk wherever because it's not like I have anywhere to be at any specific time so I might as well take an uneducated guess. This time it worked out, because I found a Daiso! Daiso is like a dollar store where everything is super cheap but it's still good quality (and things are definitely over a dollar). I went through all 8 floors because I wanted to be thorough. Funnily enough I got a lot of Moomin stuff which is ironic because I'm basically confirming my national identity through another country. It was there, at the end of my exploration on the 1st floor of Daiso that my legs started shaking. It felt kind of like when you stretch yourself a bit too far at yoga or pilates class (relatable I know) and your muscles are aching so much that they just start shaking and jumping of their own accord. Anyway, I lined up to pay and decided I needed to have my breakfast lest I collapse at the checkout counter. Yeah, it was 4.30pm and I was having my first meal, sorry mom. I ate the pizza bread which was delicious and had like half a bottle of water because I was not going to be the foreigner that fainted of heatstroke. It was 25 degrees and I had sweat through my thin shirt within my first 5 minutes outside, I am weak and white.
After Daiso I wanted to find the actual shopping street so I put it into the map and started trying to find it. This didn't work out but I found the entrance to the Myeongdong Underground Shopping Mall which I had heard from a friend (thanks Nat) was a good place for Kpop albums. It was a cool concept to have a shopping mall between exits and transfer lines. I went into the first CD shop I saw and started looking around. It was amazing to see all the albums I had never actually seen in person! Getting a Kpop album shipped to Scotland is a costly, long and arduous process so having so much music readily available was cool. I bought the new BTS album "Love Yourself: Tear" which I've been listening to since it came out and got a poster too! There's 4 versions and I checked out the photoshoots, the R-version has denim on denim outfits which seemed the obvious choice. I also got the Red Velvet re-package because the outfits are so cool and I love Red Velvet a lot. I also got some merchandise like stickers and postcards for some friends.
Moving on from the Kpop speak which is probably relatable to 0.1% of you. The next store was one called Sale 50, and the main reason I went in was because they were blasting Fake Love by BTS at the entrance. I'm easy to please. It was a sprawling space with a lot of accessories everywhere. I got some earrings and an enamel pin that looks like a pair of pink underpants. It was cute okay! Something I noticed in this store was that there was lot of stuff that was just...meh. Like, instead of a store where I loved a lot of things it took me ages to find something I really liked. I don't know if I just don't have the same taste in accessories as Korean women but a lot of the stuff just seemed random and not of any specific style.
My main goal in Myeongdong was to find at least one piece of clothing that I liked and fit into, and to get all the make up I had on my list as necessary. I very quickly learned the ways of cosmetic shops in this district. It goes like this: you walk past and they lure you in by handing you a sample and ushering you inside. Immediately someone asks you what you are looking for. Whatever it is they will find it for you and then try and sell you some extra stuff too, or combine things together in a 3 for 2 kind of way. I'm very much a "let me just look around for ages" kind of shopper, so I learned very quickly that I needed to think about what I needed in specific shops before going in. I'm probably going to make a Youtube video on all the cosmetics I bought because I want to show them and I've got the time to film and edit! Look forward to that...
It was honestly so weird that all these shops were playing Kpop songs that I recognised but never thought I'd hear in public. Being able to mouth along to the words felt weird.
I found a clothes shop that looked cute and went in, and the girl that followed me as I stepped inside turned out to be quite the saleswoman. There was no fitting room and it was all one-size which felt daunting especially since I'm not as thin as Korean standards (at least around the butt and thighs and chest). The girl suggested me loads of stuff, speaking half in Korean and half in English which kind of worked for me because I understood the Korean bits too. It was a bit awkward though, because I'm not used to clothes shopping with a representative of the store constantly showing me things and expecting me to react. I did a lot of "cute!" and "that is nice!" out of politeness. I ended up getting a long skirt and a loose white top, and then she told me that if I spent 30,000 won more I'd qualify for a tax refund. Foolishly I decided to get something else and ended up going for a dress that they had apparently just got in that day! They had to take it off the mannequin for me because it was the only one in the store. I felt very posh indeed. Anyway, she told me the tax refund office was in the UNIQLO nearby and I'd be able to claim some money back there. After doing some research and also standing in line at UNIQLO I found out that I couldn't get any tax refund for outside purchases there, and in order to get money back I had to go through a three step process which included a step at the airport, which, no thank you. I don't need my 5 dollars back if it's going to take me longer at the airport and finding a specific office. Besides, the lower limit for tax refunds is fairly high already, and I won't be spending that much money anywhere else except this clothes store. I'm very much a guilty shopper and suffer with feeling bad about purchasing something expensive until it proves worth the money. Especially because I don't really buy clothes new I'm not used to paying full price for something. I'll definitely wear the new clothes on this trip and we'll see if they were worth it. I haven't counted the total of how much I spent today but it was definitely a lot. I'm consoling myself with the fact that this was my big shopping trip and I won't be spending this much daily. I felt very much like a shopaholic, because I had to alternate my Finnish and Scottish bank cards because one of them wouldn't always work. I'm thanking my guardian angles I don't have a credit card, I'd be too good at spending money I don't have.
By this point I was carrying a lot of bags and felt hungry but overwhelmed by choice. There was a lot of street food outside but I was told online it was overpriced (the best place for cheap street food was somewhere else) and a lot of it was meat or fish. I bought a cup of fresh strawberries which were lovely and researched restaurants on my phone. I decided to just walk down a street and see what looked possibly vegetarian. In a classic Becks move I chose a place that did pasta and pizza, and so my first warm meal in Korea turned out to be spaghetti with tomato sauce. It was delicious! Sitting alone to eat still feels weird and I'm sure it won't stop feeling weird but at least I have my foreign-ness as an excuse for not having friends here.
After eating I was ready to go back to my airbnb, it was 8.30pm and I just wanted to chill out for a while. Finding my way back to the correct station was again quite a trip. I blame the fact that Google maps doesn't do directions in Korea at all, so I have to use Apple maps. The interface is a bit slow which means I end up not turning or turning too soon. It took me probably 45 minutes to make a 10 minute walk. Then, through the station, onto a subway, another station, another subway, final station and out the correct exit! This time I didn't need a map to get to my airbnb, though I did walk a bit too far but I corrected it by turning through a random alley. Around this area shops are still recognisable so I can tell where my airbnb is by seeing specific ones. There's a shop that just has a room with some pairs of white sneakers on the floor in a row, it's a great marker for finding my way.
I got some instant noodles and some new drinks from the convenience store nearby and I've been writing this post for about an hour now! Definitely going to lay out all my purchases and try on the clothes next, and perhaps film tomorrow! Also going to open my BTS album and see whose photo card I got (honestly, western music needs to step up it's marketing, a Kpop album contains photocards, stickers, a photobook and sometimes even more stuff).
The area I'm staying in is the new hip and young place in Hongdae which is already a popular place. There's a nice walkway that goes through the area with benches and fake grass and it was full of people tonight as I walked by. All the windows of the restaurants nearby were open and you could smell the food and hear people laughing and talking in groups. I've been trying to find other solo travellers or people to meet that I could explore or even just have a meal with but there's a lot to consider in terms of safety as a woman on your own. I am meeting up with a friend from a long long time ago in a few days so I'll get to talk to another human being for more than a few seconds. This excites me a lot!
Once again, thank you for reading, and for those of you who have expressed your joy at reading these, thank you a million times! It makes me not want to waste my time here knowing that you will want to read about my experiences. If anyone's not already following me on instagram I'm posting photos into my story @forestchld if you're interested. Hopefully gonna take my camera out soon for some high quality photos.
Cheers,
Becks
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 getting a bit lost: I found a Paris Baguette! Paris Baguette is a bakery in Korea that is famous at least for me, so I was excited to try it. No, most of the pastries are not French in any way, shape or form. A lot of the salty stuff had meat in it but they had a chewy pizza bread that seemed good so I bought that. Continuing in the right direction I got my transport card (which is bright pink and has the bunny from Line-friends on it, fitting for me) and continued on my sim-card hunt.
I finally made it to the sim-card location and got it changed, it was really easy! Though paying 24 pounds for 10 days of 4g seems a bit steep it's so worth it to stay connected. I don't know how but somewhere between taking the elevator downstairs and walking out of the building I hurt my leg. It hurt to walk on it and I still can't let my right knee lock when I stand straight. This just meant I had to walk more softly than I usually do and not let my knees lock (which I love doing because it's lazy, woe is me).
Armed with my electronic back-up I started my trip to Myeongdong, which is a famous shopping district. Took a subway to Seoul Station and switched over to another line to get to Myeongdong station. The thing about the Seoul subway system is that yes, it is very easy to use, but you need to know exactly where you're going. There are often up to 10 exits at one subway station and the difference between them can be a lot in terms of distance. I got out at a random exit because none of them indicated the shopping street and got out and started walking.
My general philosophy for this trip has become 'walk now, check in five minutes' so I'll just walk wherever because it's not like I have anywhere to be at any specific time so I might as well take an uneducated guess. This time it worked out, because I found a Daiso! Daiso is like a dollar store where everything is super cheap but it's still good quality (and things are definitely over a dollar). I went through all 8 floors because I wanted to be thorough. Funnily enough I got a lot of Moomin stuff which is ironic because I'm basically confirming my national identity through another country. It was there, at the end of my exploration on the 1st floor of Daiso that my legs started shaking. It felt kind of like when you stretch yourself a bit too far at yoga or pilates class (relatable I know) and your muscles are aching so much that they just start shaking and jumping of their own accord. Anyway, I lined up to pay and decided I needed to have my breakfast lest I collapse at the checkout counter. Yeah, it was 4.30pm and I was having my first meal, sorry mom. I ate the pizza bread which was delicious and had like half a bottle of water because I was not going to be the foreigner that fainted of heatstroke. It was 25 degrees and I had sweat through my thin shirt within my first 5 minutes outside, I am weak and white.
After Daiso I wanted to find the actual shopping street so I put it into the map and started trying to find it. This didn't work out but I found the entrance to the Myeongdong Underground Shopping Mall which I had heard from a friend (thanks Nat) was a good place for Kpop albums. It was a cool concept to have a shopping mall between exits and transfer lines. I went into the first CD shop I saw and started looking around. It was amazing to see all the albums I had never actually seen in person! Getting a Kpop album shipped to Scotland is a costly, long and arduous process so having so much music readily available was cool. I bought the new BTS album "Love Yourself: Tear" which I've been listening to since it came out and got a poster too! There's 4 versions and I checked out the photoshoots, the R-version has denim on denim outfits which seemed the obvious choice. I also got the Red Velvet re-package because the outfits are so cool and I love Red Velvet a lot. I also got some merchandise like stickers and postcards for some friends.
Moving on from the Kpop speak which is probably relatable to 0.1% of you. The next store was one called Sale 50, and the main reason I went in was because they were blasting Fake Love by BTS at the entrance. I'm easy to please. It was a sprawling space with a lot of accessories everywhere. I got some earrings and an enamel pin that looks like a pair of pink underpants. It was cute okay! Something I noticed in this store was that there was lot of stuff that was just...meh. Like, instead of a store where I loved a lot of things it took me ages to find something I really liked. I don't know if I just don't have the same taste in accessories as Korean women but a lot of the stuff just seemed random and not of any specific style.
My main goal in Myeongdong was to find at least one piece of clothing that I liked and fit into, and to get all the make up I had on my list as necessary. I very quickly learned the ways of cosmetic shops in this district. It goes like this: you walk past and they lure you in by handing you a sample and ushering you inside. Immediately someone asks you what you are looking for. Whatever it is they will find it for you and then try and sell you some extra stuff too, or combine things together in a 3 for 2 kind of way. I'm very much a "let me just look around for ages" kind of shopper, so I learned very quickly that I needed to think about what I needed in specific shops before going in. I'm probably going to make a Youtube video on all the cosmetics I bought because I want to show them and I've got the time to film and edit! Look forward to that...
It was honestly so weird that all these shops were playing Kpop songs that I recognised but never thought I'd hear in public. Being able to mouth along to the words felt weird.
I found a clothes shop that looked cute and went in, and the girl that followed me as I stepped inside turned out to be quite the saleswoman. There was no fitting room and it was all one-size which felt daunting especially since I'm not as thin as Korean standards (at least around the butt and thighs and chest). The girl suggested me loads of stuff, speaking half in Korean and half in English which kind of worked for me because I understood the Korean bits too. It was a bit awkward though, because I'm not used to clothes shopping with a representative of the store constantly showing me things and expecting me to react. I did a lot of "cute!" and "that is nice!" out of politeness. I ended up getting a long skirt and a loose white top, and then she told me that if I spent 30,000 won more I'd qualify for a tax refund. Foolishly I decided to get something else and ended up going for a dress that they had apparently just got in that day! They had to take it off the mannequin for me because it was the only one in the store. I felt very posh indeed. Anyway, she told me the tax refund office was in the UNIQLO nearby and I'd be able to claim some money back there. After doing some research and also standing in line at UNIQLO I found out that I couldn't get any tax refund for outside purchases there, and in order to get money back I had to go through a three step process which included a step at the airport, which, no thank you. I don't need my 5 dollars back if it's going to take me longer at the airport and finding a specific office. Besides, the lower limit for tax refunds is fairly high already, and I won't be spending that much money anywhere else except this clothes store. I'm very much a guilty shopper and suffer with feeling bad about purchasing something expensive until it proves worth the money. Especially because I don't really buy clothes new I'm not used to paying full price for something. I'll definitely wear the new clothes on this trip and we'll see if they were worth it. I haven't counted the total of how much I spent today but it was definitely a lot. I'm consoling myself with the fact that this was my big shopping trip and I won't be spending this much daily. I felt very much like a shopaholic, because I had to alternate my Finnish and Scottish bank cards because one of them wouldn't always work. I'm thanking my guardian angles I don't have a credit card, I'd be too good at spending money I don't have.
By this point I was carrying a lot of bags and felt hungry but overwhelmed by choice. There was a lot of street food outside but I was told online it was overpriced (the best place for cheap street food was somewhere else) and a lot of it was meat or fish. I bought a cup of fresh strawberries which were lovely and researched restaurants on my phone. I decided to just walk down a street and see what looked possibly vegetarian. In a classic Becks move I chose a place that did pasta and pizza, and so my first warm meal in Korea turned out to be spaghetti with tomato sauce. It was delicious! Sitting alone to eat still feels weird and I'm sure it won't stop feeling weird but at least I have my foreign-ness as an excuse for not having friends here.
After eating I was ready to go back to my airbnb, it was 8.30pm and I just wanted to chill out for a while. Finding my way back to the correct station was again quite a trip. I blame the fact that Google maps doesn't do directions in Korea at all, so I have to use Apple maps. The interface is a bit slow which means I end up not turning or turning too soon. It took me probably 45 minutes to make a 10 minute walk. Then, through the station, onto a subway, another station, another subway, final station and out the correct exit! This time I didn't need a map to get to my airbnb, though I did walk a bit too far but I corrected it by turning through a random alley. Around this area shops are still recognisable so I can tell where my airbnb is by seeing specific ones. There's a shop that just has a room with some pairs of white sneakers on the floor in a row, it's a great marker for finding my way.
I got some instant noodles and some new drinks from the convenience store nearby and I've been writing this post for about an hour now! Definitely going to lay out all my purchases and try on the clothes next, and perhaps film tomorrow! Also going to open my BTS album and see whose photo card I got (honestly, western music needs to step up it's marketing, a Kpop album contains photocards, stickers, a photobook and sometimes even more stuff).
The area I'm staying in is the new hip and young place in Hongdae which is already a popular place. There's a nice walkway that goes through the area with benches and fake grass and it was full of people tonight as I walked by. All the windows of the restaurants nearby were open and you could smell the food and hear people laughing and talking in groups. I've been trying to find other solo travellers or people to meet that I could explore or even just have a meal with but there's a lot to consider in terms of safety as a woman on your own. I am meeting up with a friend from a long long time ago in a few days so I'll get to talk to another human being for more than a few seconds. This excites me a lot!
Once again, thank you for reading, and for those of you who have expressed your joy at reading these, thank you a million times! It makes me not want to waste my time here knowing that you will want to read about my experiences. If anyone's not already following me on instagram I'm posting photos into my story @forestchld if you're interested. Hopefully gonna take my camera out soon for some high quality photos.
Cheers,
Becks
These posts are really nice to read and give a personal view of a trip, which is nice! If you encounter any specific shops that are super recommendable, please jot down the name so we can visit them in the future! Keep it up, youll do just fine with our without traveling companions :)
ReplyDelete-Petra
Hey, thank you for this comment! I'll be sure to note down any names if I come across something super special. Cheers!
Delete