24 March 2016 

Isaac Toast (Myeongdong Station)


Hot Chicken MVP I always make it a point to have their toast for breakfast. It's time they expand the Myeongdong takeaway branch - it's difficult to eat while walking. 

Chanced upon the first Starbucks outlet in Korea! This outlet is very near the subway station and you'd definitely walk past it if you are going towards the university.


Cherry Blossom Latte Decided to get it because we were mesmerised by the pink cups.

Ewha Womans University (Ewha Womans University Station)

If only my school looked this grand.

This street outside the university must be really pretty when the trees are full of spring blooms or autumn leaves.

Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu (Sinchon Station)

Cheese Dakgalbi It was a painful wait to see them stir fry the spicy grilled chicken in front of us. We were so hungry!

Chuncheon is well known for its dakgalbi, so no surprise at how good this tasted.


I was hoping it comes with ramyun instead of noodles. Then again, the noodles were very nice and it was served onto our plate once it's cooked so that it won't dry up in the pan.

And topping it off with mozzarella cheese!

Thanks Nature Cafe (Hongik University Station) - website

My 2nd visit here and I finally saw the sheep outside of their sleeping pen.

So cute!

My cough turned worse because of the super cold day up in the mountains yesterday, so I ordered honey lemon tea for a change. How I wished the caramel macchiato was mine.

Spotted some pretty early blooms on the streets.

Kiss The Tiramisu (Hongik University Station) - website

Original Tiramisu Ice Cream This was very good and well worth the queuing. It also doesn't melt easily since we were eating in the cold.

Florte Flower Cafe (Hongik University Station)

Damn pretty flower cafe!

Yes, the drinks are served on wooden trays together with little vases of flowers. The servers will also come by to pass you flower crowns, which we both didn't take cuz it's too girly for us.

It was a pity that the buttercream flower cupcakes were sold out for the day. We came specially for it.

I though this corner felt a little spooky.

Two Two Chicken (Myeongdong Station)

Half-half Fried Chicken Dinner was a mix of original and spicy fried chicken that was really disappointing. The chicken wasn't juicy and the seasoning was very mediocre.

- End of day 3 -

23 March 2016

Seoraksan National Park (Sokcho) - website

Sokcho is another city outside Seoul so the journey was quite tedious. We used about 3 hours to get there with a combination of subway, intercity bus and shuttle bus.

We knew we were going in the right direction but couldn't help feeling doubtful because it looked like a dead town. I think we only saw a handful of human beings.

Alighted from the bus to this picturesque view.


The sign assured us that we finally reached the UNESCO site. It was spring time but the coloured leaves gave off an autumn vibe.


Seoraksan is famous for its misty cliffs. So glad we could see the mist from below.


The eateries at the foot of the mountain looked abandoned.

Luckily we spotted the cable cars that will bring us up to the peak, because there wasn't anyone around that we could ask for directions.

Waiting for the cable car to send us up the mighty mountain in 5 mins. No one in queue. :)


ULU

It started drizzling when we were on the way up.


But when we got to the peak, it was actually snowing! Overhead the staffs saying we were lucky to catch this first snow.

A video posted by Jandy Jean (@jandyjean) on Dec 2, 2016 at 10:09pm PST

Look at the snow!


Very difficult to walk down the rocky slopes that were covered with slippery snow.


But that didn't stop us from taking a photo to commemorate the first time we both saw snow.


Seriously, what are the odds of experiencing Korea's winter in March?!

The stairs make the place look so pretty.


This was the highest point that we ventured to. Too misty to see the mountains beyond.

A video posted by Jandy Jean (@jandyjean) on May 27, 2016 at 9:46pm PDT

Thank god we left earlier because it started snowing heavily when we were on the cable car down.

And the mountains around were all covered with snow by the time we were on the bus back to Seoul.

Nolboo Budae Jjigae (Express Bus Terminal) - website

Dinner was army stew because we need to fight off the winter cold.

A strawberry mochi treat and warm cappuccino to end the tiring day.

- End of day 2 -

Yeap, it's my 3rd visit to Korea in 2 years.

22 March 2016

Singapore Airlines


By far the prettiest sky I've ever seen!

After touching down at Incheon around 8am, we took the airport limousine bus to our Myeongdong hotel to drop off our luggage and headed straight to Itaewon.

Itaewon? Really? You'll know why later.

LINE Friends Cafe & Store (Itaewon) - website


The flagship store is huge - almost a building on its own!

I honestly don't know why I'm here, but the visit taught me that this is Brown.


Not really interested in the merchandises so we decided to spend our money at the cafe.


We seemed to be the only ones who were not interested to sit beside the LINE friends at the bus stop.



Moon occupies a seat in the cafe permanently.
 
The cafe serves food but we thought the desserts look more promising.

Bought the cold brew because of the cute bottle.

Iced latte in yet another pretty bottle.

FRANK's (Itaewon) - website

This was by far one of the toughest cafe to go. We combed nearly the whole Itaewon to find this because as you can see, it's located within a residential area.

Pretty shopfront that's easy to spot once you are near the area.

Dried bouquets hanging from the top. I just love flower cafes!

So here's the legendary rainbow swiss roll that we came to Itaewon for! It's not normal cream that you see. It's earl grey flavoured and tastes really refreshing.
 
Even the cup sleeves are adorned with rainbow!

Headed back to Myeongdong in the afternoon for hotel check-in. Refreshed a little and left the hotel in the evening for some late night shopping.

Cheonggyecheon Stream (Dongdaemun) - website

We were expecting to see a vibrant stream but was told that only happens during festival periods. Embracing the 'been there, done that' mentality, we braved the cruel wind and walk along the 'dead' stream.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza (Dongdaemun) - website


Aren't they pretty?

There are a total of 25,550 LED roses in this LED Rose Garden.

Wanted to have dinner at some local restaurant across the street but we were very hungry so we grabbed a fast one at a street food stall.

This fish cake soup lured us to the stall because it was a single digit temperature out there. The soup was so good and hot that we kept refilling.

The grilled chicken skewer was a bit of a disappointment though. The meat didn't seem to be grilled well enough.

We then wandered off to the malls for late night shopping.

- End of day 1 -