[Part 1] 103. Exploring Seoul with my relatives

My day started off really early with tea at 7am in the hotel with YK. Thanks for the treat and it was nice catching up with you!!! See you again soon :)

English Breakfast for me 

Look at the waterfall

View from my room on the 16th floor

 I met my relatives at 9am and brought them to Paris Baguette for breakfast.

1st tourist attraction for the day was Samcheongdong where I brought them to my favourite tea house. I didn’t know that there’s a minimum of one order per person at that tea house and the lady boss gave me a black face when I didn’t place enough orders initially…I mean you can’t expect a kid to finish a whole drink right? Nevertheless, the ambience was nice and the view was superb.

With my 2nd aunt, cousins, cousin-in-laws, nieces and nephews

Love the Japanese Plum Tea. I had it the last time too 

Pumpkin cake

From Samcheongdong, we walked to Insadong and I felt so bad for my relatives because of all days that they’ll be spending in Korea, today and tomorrow will be the coldest at −11~-13 deg C, excluding wind, and because they’re on F&E for these two days, they won’t be able to seek warmth in a tour bus.
It got too cold after awhile so we went for lunch first before further exploring Ssamziegil. Brought them to a Chinese eatery for Korea’s version of jajjangmyeon and jjangbong.

In my favourite shop in Ssamziegil. I always go there whenever I’m in Insadong just to look at the pretty musical boxes. I want one too! But it’s too expensive :’(

From Insadong, the nearest subway station is Jonggak but then we would have to transfer line to get back to the hotel so the fastest was to take a cab BUT it wasn’t easy flagging one down though. After successfully flagging down 2 cabs for my relatives, we decided to walk back to the hotel instead. I didn’t think it was possible but he kept insisting that it was within walking distance and indeed, it is! I’ve always taken the subway to places like Gyeongbokgung, Insadong and Euljiro-1-ga and all. And today, I finally realised how near these places are to each other and that I can actually walk from one place to another without having to take the subway. In fact, we reached the hotel at least 5 minutes before one of my cousins did because her cab was caught in a traffic jam. 

Walking past the Cheonggyecheon on our way back to the hotel

Back in the hotel, we had about 2 hours to shop at Lotte Department Store before heading for dinner so I brought my cousins there. If you’re considering whether to shop from the department store or DFS, you have to decide what you want: if you shop from DFS, prices are lower by an average of 15% but you don’t get (much) samples; if you shop from the department store, you can get a tax refund of about 7% and quite a lot of samples (especially if you ask for more, nicely). 

We had a BBQ dinner at an eatery that my cousin-in-law frequents whenever he’s here in Seoul and it’s really good. I did some research about the eatery online before going there and it apparently offers the best beef in Seoul. The restaurant’s in Cityhall area, which is about a 5-10 mins walk from the hotel.

After a wonderful meal with alcohol that made the adults feel nice and warm, we braved the cold and walked to Cheonggyecheon. This year’s Christmas light up isn’t much. 2010’s was great and then, it was sponsored by Citibank. I can still remember walking along the stream with Jeannie and gang on Boxing Day and then again for the final time 2 days before I left Korea with Ziggy oppa and Jaeyoung unni. Time really flies. Never expected to be back in such a setting! This year has been wonderful for me. Coming back to Korea again as a student is such a dream come true, despite the opportunity costs! 

After awhile, it got too cold for everyone to bear again so we headed back to the hotel.