Seoul: Day 1 - Arrival

Ciara briefly mentioned to me last year that she'd love to go to South Korea to see some K-pop. I thought about it and didn't need any excuse not to visit another country. Kevin and Caroline had both visited South Korea while on their way to Japan in 2019 and raved about it which was a good recommendation.

We flew to Munich first before an eleven hour flight to Seoul. It had been a while since I was on an overnight flight and it's strange when trying to manage when to eat but also to try and get as much sleep as possible. It was very foggy when we landed in Seoul. We could barely see the country until right at the end when the plane touched the ground. We were glad to be on solid ground and ready to move again after the long flight.

It took us a while to get through the airport and get our bearings in the new country. Once we got through security and collected our bags we tried to take some cash out from the ATM. In our tired state we couldn't figure out why our cards wouldn't work until we realised that we had to press "foreign card" as yes we were using a foreign bank card. With relief we took our money ready for our adventures.

I was warned before going on this trip that Koreans love to queue. I had pre-ordered a sim card to collect in Seoul airport on arrival. We had to take a ticket first with a number on it and then stand in another queue waiting to be called. Once our number was called then you could go up to the counter and speak to the worker. Anyway within seconds they had my sim card changed and updated so we can't fault their effectiveness even if it involves multiple queues.

We headed to the airport train and bought our T-cards, which is sort of like South Korea's Leap Card, from a vending machine. I couldn't figure out why mine was 1,000 wan (50c) more expensive than Ciara's until I opened the card and found stickers included. Worth every extra penny!!

The express train was fully booked so we got the All-Stop train into the city. We used Naver Maps instead of Google maps to figure out how to get around and it was very handy. Eventually we got to our hostel at 14:40. It felt like a long day of non-stop moving since departing Dublin airport so we were looking forward to lying down for a while. However when we arrived at the hostel check in wasn't until 3pm and they wouldn't let us check in until exactly 3pm.

We were wrecked tired and disappointed not to be able to relax just yet but we decided to wander around the area we were staying in. We found a huge Olive Young which is like Boots and is a famous pharmacy for Korean skincare. We wandered in but the shop was that big Ciara and myself lost each other as we wandered around the four levels of skincare products. Eventually we found each other and we're relieved to see it was after 3pm to be able to check in. We stayed in a private room in OYO Hostel, Myeongdong area and we're delighted to have a power nap and shower.
Once feeling slightly refreshed we went for dinner Not knowing what type of food we'd be eating we thought that it would be easiest to have Korean BBQ in a restaurant close-by.

The restaurant had single tables all facing the wall with a gas fire in front of us you. I chose the pork and beef combination and Ciara chose the chicken option. We ordered using individual ipads at each table and within minutes the food arrived On the tray of food there was raw meat that you placed on the fire to cook along with kimchi, cabbage, soya sauce and some broth. It was an interesting experience as you got to cook your meat to the level that you wanted but the fire got quite hot and smoky at times. Ciara ordered soju drink as she saw lots of people drinking it online. She thought it was a beer but the waiter arrived with two shot glasses. Instantly I knew it was a spirit. We had a sip and it instantly reminded us of college days drinking vodka. It was worth trying but the drink was well wasted on us.

After dinner we walked in a random direction exploring the city. We came across three small temples that we explored. After a bit of exploring our energy dropped so we stopped in a Starbucks to drink a hot chocolate to refuel us enough to be able to get back to our hostel. It was lovely sitting down looking out at the pedestrian crossing before heading back for a well needed deep sleep.Read more