seoul + Boseong, Korea
September 2017
During my time in China I had to take visa trips. I think I've explained what visa trips are to pretty much everyone in my life now (the ones who don't do this sort of job at least), but I'll explain it again.
My China visa is only valid for 60 consecutive days, so I have to leave the country and come back to restart the 60 day countdown. I was in China for 4 consecutive months which means I had to take two trips out of the country. The typical place to travel to is Korea - a close and a relatively cheap place to get to from China. We only ever go for a weekend so I don't usually get a lot of time there.
Seoul, KoreA
Mt. Inwangsan
When I landed in Seoul, one of the first items on the list was to do a solo hike. I settled on doing Mt. Inwangsan which connects up to the Seoul Fortress Wall Hike. It's fairly quick to access from Seoul's public transport system. At the time, I was staying in an AirBnB in the Myeongdong district which is near the big shopping area.
While in Korea, Google maps was the most functional it has ever been considering its accuracy of train times and english translations. China blocks Google so having it once again available to me was great. Heart heart heart Korea. 💖💖💖
If you're interested, I followed these directions that I found on someone else's blog that were pretty comprehensive. The view of Seoul is amazing from the top. Lots of well maintained steps to get to the top* so its not particularly difficult.
*So not that much different than a CCR unit, eh?? Haha hehe hoho, sorry! 😏
You reach the trailhead by walking through a park and a small little village, I'm pretty sure the earth quaked in anticipation when I arrived, or maybe it was the earthquake generated by N. Korea's nuclear bomb test the day I was hiking. But ya know, anticipation too haha. The village had some cute old houses, lots of cats, and some huge murals. The trail leads past the village to some natural stone structures and eventually meets up with the city fortress wall trail. Following the fortress steps up will lead you to the lookout to Seoul.
I really recommend bringing a lot of water since there's really no place you can fill up on the way and it's approximately a 2-3 hour round trip and its hot and humid in the summer. Also bring snacks! Enjoy the view! Take a bunch of snack breaks to enjoy the view! I ended up sharing my chicken flavored cheetos (like a 5/10 for me, I don't think they're that great) with a cute old guy (COG) who shared his mochi (like a 10/10 for me, love mochi) with me.
Solo shipping & SHopping with Viv
I had another day to myself before I met up with Viv for some shopping. So I ended up shopping by myself. 😂😂😂 Seoul has some pretty cool clothing brands and you can't forget the Korean skin care everywhere.
I did most of my shopping around the Myeongdong area on my own during my first and second trip to Seoul. They have a lot of skincare shops that will just give you a free face mask for walking in. I ended up stocking up on a lot sheet masks (they sell facemasks in 10packs! it's amazing!) and Tony Moly hand creams.
Ok real talk though, I super love Korean clothing. Most things don't fit me super well since I'm relatively tall, BUT, I did find a few pieces that I liked when I was there. I was actually also on a mission to find some warmer clothing to bring back to China, since I didn't pack enough warm pieces. Cause you know, I made the mistake of thinking I was going to come home right after that assignment, whoops!
I went to some bigger flagship stores in Myeongdong and Hongdae but also had time to check out some smaller shops that lined the streets near Ewhas Women's University.
I wish themed cafes were a thing in the states since I 💖💖💖 themed cafes. I treated myself to a cat cafe when I was out on my own. When Vivian was in Seoul, we went to a sheep cafe. Thanks Nature Cafe serves waffles and has two sheep. I think their names were Anna and Sam and they were super precious.
On my second visa run, I met up with Sequoia and Brett since they were already in the country for a job. Brett was looking for souveniers to bring home for his wife and Sequoia and I suggested getting some Korean skincare since they're usually pretty nice. We took Brett to a bunch skin care places in Myeongdong to help him pick out some stuff. I remember him asking us how many sheet masks he should get and I remember Sequoia and I answering with something along the lines of, "How about one of each ?? We think you need like one of each."
Boseong, Korea
During my second time in Korea, I met up with Sequoia and Brett to go and try to find some fossilized dinosaur footprints. These were located near the southern end of Korea so we drove from Seoul for a few hours south. We thought they would be pretty easy to find (they were not haha), but we ended up turning to a hotel reception for help. They told us that we had to take a ferry out to an island and it only run a few times a day. For the day that we were there, we missed the ferry by like half an hour. Defeated :( On the bright side, Sequoia actually recently went back to Korea for a job on the southern end and managed to see the fossilized dinosaur prints! So jelly.
All was not lost for that day though! We ended up going to the Boseong Green Tea Plantation and it was really nice. The place was really well kept and the weather worked out well for us.
The green tea bushes were situated on a hillside and we could wander the fields and hike all the way up. They have a pretty well marked pathway up and through the hills and plenty of viewing platforms for pictures along the way. On our way out of the fields, we stopped by the gift shop and the little cafe they had. I got myself a green tea ice cream haha. Ok also, look at this ridiculously photogenic series of Brett that Sequoia took and me enjoying my ice cream haha.
** 📷: Sequoia and her Pixel
Korea was a good time and I feel like there's still plenty I haven't explored yet, so I'll definitely be making a trip back out there.
until next time,
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