ADVENTURES IN KOREA

Why hello there, long time no speak! I am back from my holiday in Korea and have finally stopped feeling like a zombie, so thought I’d get my act together and do a little post with some photos from my trip! I probably took about a million photos while I was there, but don't worry, I'm only posting a few! :) 

My sister is currently living in South Korea, so I decided to go visit her and see what Korea was all about. I spent the first week on Geoje Island where my sister lives, which is Korea’s second biggest island and is located at the south of South Korea. It was pretty relaxing, and I ate tons of good food, spent a lot of time walking around and exploring and managed to get in a day of biking and exploring the mountains too. We also took a day where my sister and I went further south on the island and took a ferry to see Haegumgang ("Korean National Scenic Site no.2") and Oedo Botanical island. I did however manage to leave the battery for my camera in the charger that day though (facepalm!), which was such a shame as both were such cool and beautiful islands.

Seoul was pretty awesome. My sister and I went up for the weekend with a couple of people from her work. We stayed at a hotel in Itaewon, and spent the first day on the DMZ tour and went up to Panmunjom and the North Korean border. It was a bit bizarre, but very interesting. I decided I wasn’t quite ready to leave once the weekend was finished though, so while the rest went back south I checked into a hostel in Hongdae and stayed a few more days. I did a bit more sightseeing and visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsangong Hanok Village and went up Namsan to N Seoul Tower. I also managed to meet up with an old friend from when I lived in Doha, as well as a friend from Glasgow University who now teaches English at a school just outside of Seoul. Was great seeing them both! The latter was celebrating her one year anniversary in Korea, and we celebrated with good food and some noraebang (karaoke). When in Korea, right?

I then went down to Busan on the coast and spent a couple of nights there in a hostel on Haeundae beach. I explored Dongbaek and went to the Jagalchi fish market and Shinsegae, the world’s biggest department store. Unfortunately, I also had grand plans of visiting Haedong Yonggungsa temple, but had to cancel due to bad weather. I had also been toying with the idea of doing a temple stay, so will have to save that for another time!

I ate so much good food on the trip, too. I had lots of kimchi, bungeoppang, dak galbi, and bibimbap, as well as Korean soju andmakgeolli. Korean BBQ became an absolute favorite, and the day before I left I went to the supermarket and bought tons of ssamjang, garaetteok and kim nori to take home. I definitely plan on trying out some Korean recipes at home (though I totally regret not getting a Korean cookbook while I was there)!