Seoul, Gwangju, Gurye, Busan, and Daegu
I’ve wanted to go to Korea for about 6 years, more or less. It all started when I watched the first Korean drama, “Romance is a Bonus Book”. After that, I went through a Korean rabbit hole (music, movies, food, and of course, more Kdramas).
My mom traveled to Korea last year, on a semi-entrepreneurial, but also fun trip (she has a small company and sells Korean products). Her trip was long (2 weeks), but she only stayed in Seoul. I told her that we should go again together, but travel to other cities as well. I have been particularly interested in going to Gwangju ever since I read Human Acts by Han Kang a few years ago. You can’t take the political scientist out of me, so of course, the city’s background related to pro-democracy protests and activism caught my attention.
So going to Korea together was something that had been in our minds for a year, but never materialized until January this year, when I got a Google Flights alert of some cheap flights for May this year. Every time I want to travel somewhere, I put on a Google Flight alert so it’d send me an email if the flights get cheaper (but also more expensive) for specific date combinations. This time, we knew we wanted to go around May (because of the weather), and for around 10 days. So when I got an alert for Madrid-Seoul flights for 600 Euros per person, I knew I had to buy them.
The Flight
As we knew that we probably would want to buy quite a few things in Korea, we evaluated China Eastern as a good option for flights, as they allow two checked-in 23 kg suitcases per passenger. I read some reviews beforehand on Reddit, and everyone talked ill about the airline (bad food, uncomfortable seats, rude staff, etc.), so I was a little bit hesitant about our flight experience. But the good thing was that none of that turned out to be true! Maybe the flight attendants were a bit more “rough” than in other airlines, but I think that that’s how Chinese people are — they were very strict about accomodating carry-ons, about not wearing headphones during the security instructions, and so on, but I didn’t find them rude or unpolite or anything. The food was very decent, honestly, and they even gave a proper meal on the Shanghai-Incheon flight, which was a little over one hour. For flights like these in Europe, they’d give you some crackers at most. The seats were normal seats in Economy class, and even a little bit more spacious, I’d say. As for entertainment, it is true that they don’t have a huge catalog of movies, but they did have Dune 2 and Tenet, and some other Chinese movies. No dubbed options, though (I heard some Spanish passengers complain about this a lot during the flight haha).
We had a short layover in PVG (same on our way back). I had sort of high expectations about the airport, but it was not very impressive, to be honest. Few stores — a Miniso where I bought a Shin Chan keyring he he — and not too many options to eat. We arrived around 9am and had Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant that was open. The airport had Wifi, but none of the apps worked for me (Whatsapp, Instagram, and so on), so I guessed that they were blocked. I ended up buying a 10-day internet package through Airalo because on our way back, the layover was going to be around 7 hours, and it’d be too boring without having proper internet.
First days in Seoul
We finally arrived in Incheon on May 8 around 11am. Getting out of the airport was very straightforward — nothing like these Tiktokers said haha. We filled out the electronic arrival card beforehand, and we went through these passport-scanning machines; everything was very fast. We didn’t explore the airport at all because as soon as we got outside of the luggage pick-up place, you were able to buy tickets for the airport bus, and the bus stops were right outside. We waited less than 10 minutes for the bus that worked for us. The machine was super simple to use: you just write your stop, and it will tell you which bus you need, along with the specific numbered space this bus will arrive at the pick-up place. The bus ride was about 1 hour and 30 minutes from the airport to where we were staying in Myeong-dong.
At this point, I was pretty tired. It was my first time being in a timezone with more hours on the way there, and I didn’t get much sleep on our flight. But we had a packed schedule for Thursday, as we wanted to do many things before traveling outside of Seoul on Sunday.
Thursday, May 8
We arrived at our hotel around 14.15, which was a little earlier than the time for check-in (15.00), but we were able to check-in regardless. The hotel was pretty shitty, not going to lie, but at least it was close to the subway (Sookmyung Women’s University Station), and multiple convenience stores.
For that day, we managed to:
- Go to 108 Stairs,
- Visit Coffee Hanyakbang
- Visit Bukchon Hanok Village
We also visited one of True Beauty’s filming locations while in Bukchon Hanok Village haha:
I think it was very nice visiting that Hanok Village a little bit late (it was around 19.30) because it was not crowded at all.
After that, we walked all the way to Myeong-dong to be closer to the hotel. We had our first celebratory Korean barbecue, which was delicious and really cheap. We then had some hotteok for dessert at one of those food stands in that area.
We then went back to the hotel by bus to get some rest, as we also had a packed itinerary for next day.
I also posted some photos on IG of this day here:
Friday, May 9
The next day, we went outside between 8-9am, so there were not so many things open. I wanted to go to the War Memorial of Korea, even only for a short visit to the outside. For this trip, we didn’t plan a long list of museum visits basically because it takes a lot of time, and makes you tired. But all of these visits will be saved for a future visit, I hope.
It was raining quite a bit, but we still managed to see some interesting monuments, many of which showcased a longing for reunification.
We walked around a bit more to wait until 10am, which was the time the coffee place we wanted to visit (Fjord) opened. My mom ordered a latte and I ordered a smores latte which was a little bit too sweet. The pastries were very good and the inside of the caffee was nice as well.
After that, we took the subway to Mangwon station. I wanted to see some vintage shops but in the end I didn’t find anything too extraordinary. To find some refuge from the rain, we went to have a coffee at a place called House of Vinyl which was soooo pretty. We stayed there for an hour or so just waiting for the pouring rain to end while having an iced americano.
Once the rain stopped a bit, we went to another destination: Yonsei University. I wanted to go there because I’d seen too many Korean dramas filmed there, but even for non-fans, I think it’s a really nice visit. The campus is huge, with nice buildings but also very modern inside.
We had to seek refuge from the rain again while there, so we went inside a building that had a cafeteria and some chairs and tables where people were studying or doing other things. I took the opportunity to go to the toilet and get my trousers a bit dry with the hand dryer machine because they were dripping due to the heavy rain.
We then took the bus and went to Daeo Bookstore, a small cafe-bookstore made famous because some idols and actors have been there in the last few years. It is located in a traditional house and only an old lady works there.
We ordered some coffee and looked around.
It was starting to get late, and we hadn’t had anything substantive to eat yet besides (ungodly amounts of) coffee and a couple of sweets. Given that we’re “in the area” (or at least according to my standards, anything less than 15 minutes apart is close in my head), we went to Manjok Ohyang Jokbal, a restaurant that was part of the Michelin Guide. I honestly had no idea what type of food they sold, and maybe that was a good thing because if I had known beforehand that it was pig’s feet, we would’ve probably ended up not going haha. We ordered the smallest serving that was for 2-3 people and couldn’t finish the whole thing. It was simply sooo much food. And only 32 Euros for both
of us — I was still impressed with how cheap food is in Korea at this point.
After this, we went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for the next day
Saturday, May 10
This was our last full day in Soul before going to other cities, and we had the privilege of being walked around by a local! My friend Jeongyeon, whom I met a few years ago in London, lives in Incheon and we agreed to meet on this day to go to a palace and eat like a local. Jeongyeon managed to get us a hanbok rental for both my mom and me, and with that, you can enter the palace for free. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stop for the entire morning and our visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace involved us getting drenched in the rain. We still managed to get some cute pictures.
After the palace, we needed something warm and good thing that Jeongyeon already had a place for us to eat traditional chicken soup (samgyetang). Honestly, not sure if it was because of the cold, or because we were super hungry, but this was probably the best meal of the entire trip. So tasty, full of flavor, satisfying in a way that you don’t feel that heaviness when you’re too full. A totally 10 out of 10.
After that, we were separated as my mom had go to meet another friend, and Jeongyeon took me to a traditional tea place. We ate some pumpkin pastries, and I ordered some tea, which I don’t remember the name but it was sooo delicious.
After that, we met with my mom again and went to Gwangjang Market and had hotteok (again). I can’t get enough of them. We walked all the way from the market to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). I wasn’t expecting much from DDP, but it was very worth it. I had no idea that Zaha Hadid was one of the architects.
The last thing on today’s itinerary was the Seoul Tower. As you can see below, not the best day as the fog was very intense and we couldn’t see basically anything haha. The sad thing is that when we came back to Seoul a few days later, it was the same, so we couldn’t revisit to get the amazing view. I guess is something we’ll have to leave for a future trip.
To end the day, we had some beer+soju with my mom, and some fried chicken with teokbokki (not pictured, we ate those in 10 seconds). We ate at a restaurant in Myeongdong called Goobnechicken, which was next to the place where we dropped our suitcases; the next day, we had to take the train first thing in the morning to Gwangju, and we wanted to take only our backpacks, so we left the suitcases in a random shop that was affiliated with this Bounce app that allows you to search for shops that store things for travelers.
You can read part 2 here about Gwangju, Gurye, Busan, and Daegu!
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