Seoul in 2 Days

New year, new changes!

Now that my blog has celebrated its 2^nd birthday (they grow up so fast), I think it’s a great time to make some improvements. My friends have told me that they love using this blog for tips on travel and ideas on what to do, see and eat in the places that I’ve visited. As such, I will be changing the format slightly to be less descriptive and more factual. Lets give it a go and see what the feedback is!

Seoul in 2 days

I went to Korea in June for a week for work, but got to spend a couple of days exploring Seoul. This is my account of what to do and not to do there when you only have a couple of days :D

First and foremost, Seoul is the 2^nd largest urban centre in the world, which makes it absolutely massive. Its  subway system consists of hundreds of stops, and although fairly straightforward to use (I did it just for fun), I would not recommend it as it takes very long, it’s quite crowded, and cabs are dirt cheap and plentiful.

Second and second-most, Seoul is fantastic for food. You will have no idea what you are eating and chances are that not even Korean people fluent in English will be able to translate, but it’s a gastronomic playground for the adventurous. The food stalls are everywhere and are dirt cheap. I tested eating streetfood on myself and survived. Although I did break out in uncontrollable hiccups from eating food more spicy than I could handle a couple of times. The key is to not go to restaurants in the hotels or off the main roads as they will be touristy and overpriced. The trick is to turn into the smaller streets (not sketchy and just as lively as the main road) to grab food. I was staying in the business area and made my co-workers take me to their favourite local places, and found that English is not spoken in most of them. Also, a lot of places require that you take off your shoes and sit on the floor to eat in a traditional Korean style. If you like coffee, you will be in luck, as there are quite good coffee places all over Seoul, since it’s the recent trend brought over from the West from what I heard. Finally, if someone offers you a soju bomb, don’t be scared. It’s merely soju and beer. Be careful, it only hit you once you stand up :D

Third of all, Seoul is a great place to shop, especially if you are around 5’5 and 115 lbs with a shoe size under 8. The brands tend to be split 70:30 between Korean brands and Western brands. I found the Korean brands absolutely fantastic: good quality, very trendy and reasonably priced (under $100 for a dress and under $50 for tops, skirts or pants), but the problem is that most of the pieces are ‘one size’ i.e. made for a 5’5 115 lbs Korean girl. They also don’t make shoes past US size 8. I’m a size 9 so that was a problem. What’s absolutely purchasable for everyone is the accessories, which are trendy, fun, cheap and plentiful! Gangnam neighbourhood is fantastic for shopping, home not only to Gangnam style but to miles and miles and miles of underground store networks in the COEX and Huyndai Mall complexes, that are also conveniently located side by side. Bongeun Temple, located right behind COEX provides a beautiful space to rest in-between or after your shopping. Not just a single temple, but a whole park littered with dozens of temples and a 50 ft statue of Buddha that crowns the park, it’s a beautiful green oasis in the middle of Gangnam. Grab an ice cream and go there is what I say.

Seoul is primarily a modern city, but there are pockets within it that preserved the ancient architecture. There are 5 main palaces and I have visited Gyeongbok-gung, the grandest of all palaces. I have also walked past a couple of others and studied their maps and pictures as I contemplated whether I should go in. I decided against it as they looked more or less the same in terms of the layout and style. The palaces are not the traditional western palaces that are closed off buildings (usually a single building); they are more like palace grounds and you get to walk around admiring the many building, courtyards and parks within them. The Korean Folk Museum is also right next to it and is a fun one to stroll through and learn a little about the Korean history (and it’s free). Seeing this palace is also very easily combinable with strolling and shopping the Insa Dong – an impressive pedestrian only street littered with shops and stalls and shops selling anything you may want to buy and eat/drink. Yes it’s considered touristy but I found the merchandise to be quite unique and affordable. Don’t forget to try the traditional Korean sweet that they make on pretty much every corner....and to bargain!

Another great thing to do in Seoul is to go up the Namsam mountain. It’s a mountain located in the centre of the city right next to the Namdaemun market (where I would not recommend to go as it’s more of a flea market selling $1 stuff from China and is VERY local) and an upscale Shinsegae department store. The mountain is either climbable using a stairwell or you can go up in a cable car. Those who know me would know that taking the cable car is not an option for me, but I’ve got to say that the climb is very-very picturesque, with several observation platform and stopping points where one can sit, rest and grab an ice cream/beer. Once at the top, you are at the floor of  the N Seoul Tower, which takes you even further up for even better views. I contemplated going, but didn’t, deciding that the views from the top of the mountain were great enough. Plus, there are plenty of activities to do, like making a wish and locking it up along with hundreds of thousands of other couples who have done it (transitioning a whole are into a sea of colourful locks), or watching a cultural show from the open air amphitheatre (free for all!), or grabbing a dessert and enjoying the view.

What’s easily skip-able is any of the Olympic sites and the Tapgol (pagoda) park, which are for some reason named as attractions but are really non-memorable (one is just a block of concrete and another one is a small parkette filled with old folks playing cards). The Namdaemun and the Dongdaemun gates are also not worth seeing, as they are just simple archways.

I brought my DSLR on the trip to practise photography. These are obviously not Mark-level pictures, but they do justice to recapping my experiences! J

Around the Gyeongbok-gung palace

Around Insa Dong street

That yummy street food!

And the subway

Namdaemun market

Namsam mountain

Yummy red bean frap

From Rioja to San Sebastian

Thank you Queen Elizabeth for having your Jubilee and thank you Wifey Yvonne Chan for coming to visit me in London so we can do this awesome trip! Wine, sunshine, beautiful Spanish countryside, tapas, great friends (Kevin, Diana, Min, and Andrew)and my Wifey and hubby, what else can a girl ask for!

This trip was particularly adventurous as we had an extra long weekend to explore. We arrived in Bilboa, drove to the Rioja region basing ourselves in a tiny village of Abalos and from there touring the region north, south, east, and west, visiting Laguardia, Labastida, Samaniego, Elciego, Labraza, Haro, Brinas and everything in between, including many-many wineries J I was the DD, so I had to hold back on the wine tasting, which is probably a good thing as it’s too easy to get carried away when you are surrounded by so much great and cheap wine!

Kevin and Diana got an early start, arriving in Bilbao the night before us. This gave a great excuse to drive through the city and check it out (getting lost 10 times really helped check it out hehe), and lunch on some delicious cookies they managed to find. From there on, we hit the road to Rioja with Haro wineries being our stop number one! The driving to and through Rioja was very enjoyable, with rolling hills littered with vinyards, mountains, cathedrals and cute villages as the backdrop. We hit up Bodegas Roda where the service was fantastic, and we found our fave olive oil and one of our fave reds, the Sela. Later in the day we also hit up CVNE, a much larger and commercial winery with ok wines but with a very cool tasting room containing a bar from the 1800’s as its centrepiece. In between we took some time to explore Haro and grab lunch at a local resto specializing in lamb roast. I pretty much had a plate of jamon and lamb for lunch – it was meatlover’s paradise that became our lunch and dinner. It was then time to go to the hotel for a night of more wine sampling and some very competitive rounds of Uno and Connect Four. The hotel called Villas de Abalos deserves a special mention. Located in a tiny village of Abalos, not too big or too small and family run, it was a perfect base. The rooms were quaint and had great views, and hotel itself was very pretty. The best feature was definitely the home made breakfast served by the sweetest lady called Emma. We were absolutely dotted on by her with freshly squeezed juices and all the tasty food we can eat. Poor Min was sick and Emma made her home made soup to make sure she eats well and feels better. We wanted to kidnap her on our way back, but couldn’t decide who she should come with hehe. The owner of the hotel actually also ran his own winery (and was alittle unhappy that we brough outsider wines...but how can you not when you are surrounded by hundreds of wineries!)

The following day was Sunday and we were a little worried since it’s Spain and of course everything is closed on Sundays. Everything is closed anyhow everyday for siestas, which are mandatory from noon to 4 pm. Our plan was to visit Remelluri winery that is one of the few ones open on Sunday and then spend the rest of the day throwing a BBQ and enjoying the wine and the local goodies: chorizo, cheese, bread and olive oil. Unfortunately poor Min was in bed with a cold so she missed out on the day L Remelluri is a stunning winery, but they only make one kind of wine. What they also do in the back (as we have sneakily discovered) is that they smoke their own bacon! It’s a huge property so you can actually hike for hours around it as it goes all the way from the valley up the mountain (naturally, we were too  lazy to do that hehe). After the winery, we made our way to the town of San Vincente de la Sonsierra village, famous for its grand monastery on top of the hill. We really wanted to check out the monastery, but never made it there as we drove by a very lively looking street with people standing  outside the tavernas and drinking on the street, women in traditional costumes and horses (for whatever reason), so we decided to check out the festivities. So instead, we ended up going to a bar and forgetting all about the monastery hehe. On the way back we stopped by a bunch of wineries, taking the trial and error approach to see if they opened. Everything was closed until this last winery right in our village. We ended up having the best time there! The owner didn’t speak any English and was a jolly middle aged Spanish man. He actually took us to his organic vinyard to try the white wine he makes – only the second white wine in Rioja as it’s not the region that typically make white BUT it ended up being everybody’s fave wine of the whole trip! And each bottle was only 4 euros/pop. There ya go, amazing organic white wine for 4 euros a bottle = find of the century! We then proceeded into the wine cellar where the guy actually opened up his barrels to let us try the wine – we’ve never seen that anywhere. It was great because he actually matched us glass for glass every wine we tried. Maybe that’s why he was so jolly! Power to him!

We were now well stocked with wine and meats to do our BBQ. We ended up going to one of the parks set up with barbeques to have it. Kevin had the great idea to take the back road, which was pretty much up the mountain through tight and winding Labastida streets and then down the mountain on a dirty road. The route was scenic, but not very fun for the driver (i.e. me lol). We had a blast barbequing! Watching the boys work the barbeque, drinking our delicious white, and then feasting on chorizo, Iberian ham, stuffed peppers, cheese and bread while basking in the sun was wonderful. Watching Andrew trying to climb his tipsy way out of a ditch was equally priceless lol. The theme pretty much continued into the evening and we came home to find Min in a much better shape, so overall the day was a great success!

On our last full day there, we felt like we’ve done enough drinking and wanted to do more exploring. That sensible idea was totally overturned later in the afternoon where the boys decided to buy MORE wine. We ended up with 7 bottles of wine that we didn’t drink as a result lol. Like I said, it’s easy to overdo it in Rioja! We’ve visited the crooked hotel in the nearby village (which wasn’t really crooked), spent some time in Laguardia, visited the medieval town of Labraza (that was COMPLETELY dead; it was eerie! We were greeted by a single old man who went back to his house, got a giant key with which he opened up the town’s cathedral, and proceeded to give us a full cathedral and town tour in Spanish. That was both a cool and an uncomfortable experience lol...it’s also how harrow movies start haha), had lunch in Viana, stopped at one last winery and made it home to have home-cooked dinner at our hotel. Whew!

Tuesday was the last day of our extra long Queen’s Jubilee weekend, and it was unfortunately time for our group to part ways as Yvonne and I proceeded to San Sebastian for 3 more days of sunshine and Spanish food, while everyone else had to return back to work.

San Sebastian is a beach town 40 km from the border with France, and is a beautiful town with an even more beautiful La Concha beach, which is regarded as one of the nicest beaches in Europe. We got a kick-butt apartment 5 min walk from the beach which served as our base for the next 3 days. Unfortunately the weather was a mix of sun and clouds, so we didn’t spend as much time on the beach as we would’ve hoped. What we did instead though is that we ran along the beach and back, a good 5 km run, which you have to understand is impressive after 1 solid week of drinking wine and stuffing our faces! We spent the rest of our time there exploring the town, its cute winding streets and cathedrals, shopping (damn you Zara that’s so much cheaper in Europe), and sampling various bakeries and tapas places. I was in heaven as everything had cheese and seafood. Poor Yvonne wasn’t as it’s the 2 things she can’t eat :S But the many delicious bakeries kept her happy! We took half the day to hike around the town’s main hill stat houses a giant statue of Jesus (a la Rio) for more sweet views.

San Sebastian was not nice to us on the last day as it started to rain, so we took off to Bilbao to explore the city for the day before it was time to go back. It was our least fave place in the Basque country, but we glad we got to experience that. The Guggenheim museum area was really nice, and so was the main shopping street (and the shopping was nice too! I love Spanish fashion!). What wasn’t nice is the rest of the city. At one point we found ourselves on the wrong side of the tracks (literally) where on just one street we saw a woman doing her business on the street, a whole bunch of shady individuals and a creepy guy taking pictures of us). Now we can say we’ve experienced (and survived) the shady side of Bilbao hehe.

Sigh, I miss our trip! Here’s a visualization of our adventures J

The Crew minus Min for that day on the organic wine farm

Poser ladies

The wine cellar

And our antics after some wine tasting :D

The lovely picnic

...and the lovely Rioja countryside views

Our matching wheels :D

 Yvonne with the Labraza mayor

Our other friend, the organic winemaker

And our lovely Emma who adopted us all for the weekend

Lamb by the bowlfull!

 Meeting sunset in San Sebastian!

 Followed by sightseeing, bakeries, more sightseeing and more food

Bilbao Highlights--the Guggenheim and the flower puppy

100 m to Corfu

Our Corfu getaway idea started as ‘where can we get away for the long weekend that’s the warmest and the cheapest’, and ended up a delightful holiday filled with great food and exploring the virtually deserted island with Min and Andrew...it also was their first Euro trip since they moved to London...one of MANY most certainly!

Corfu is an a Greek island, northwest of the mainland and visible from Albania. As anything in Greece, it’s ancient, has been ruled by many different nations, and has a ton of history as an outcome. Normally the tourist season starts in May, and coming there in May turned out to be perfect as we got the beautiful 25 degree summer weather and sunshine, yet there were absolutely no tourists! All the beaches were literally ours, and in all the restos for which you have to fight to get a spot days in advance, we were the only customers getting the most personal treatment. This makes for a perfect vacation in my books!

At the risk of sounding terrible, as a combination of coming in an off-peak season and Greece’s financial troubles, we were able to afford a lot more than we would normally shell out money for. A convertible and a stunning private 2 bedroom villa on top of a mountain cost us less than 100 euros a person for the whole weekend. Now, I probably shouldn’t advertise my little secret hehe or else everybody would flood Greece, which is not the point here J

As soon as we arrived we jumped into our convertible and headed straight to the beach! Driving in Corfu is absolutely amazing, as it’s a mountainous island, and one constantly has to go up and down, so the views are stunning: the ocean, the beach, the cliffs, the forests, the villages...you can even see Albania! Hehe. What’s not great about driving in Corfu is the act of driving. Poor Mark and Andrew had to navigate the narrowest of streets and the windiest of roads and deal with oncoming traffic (because a one way street in Greece is actually a two way street). Having driven in these scenarios myself for the first time in Rioja, my props go to them. It’s stressful! Min and I had a lot of fun amusing ourselves with watching the guys navigate around tight corners sitting in the back hehe. The beaches vary in the look and feel, but our fave was the pebble beach surrounded by the clearest and bluest water. The beach was also separated by a cool cliff that is a cool place to climb around and explore (and took some awesome pix while you are at it, of course!)

Besides the scenery, another favourite was the food! We were actually quite surprised that we were able to get very tasty stuff everywhere we ate, even at seemingly touristy places, such as a resto on the beach and a beachside bar. Our fave dining experience was on Saturday night when we chose to have dinner in a family-run tavern right in our village. Our villa was located in Sokraki, a small village with population of about a hundred people and located at the very top of the mountain. Talk about being in the middle of nowhere, but talk about stunning views of the rest of the island and the water up there. Having arrived there on Saturday night, there was no way we were to drive anywhere else to dinner, so we opted for a local option (the only one), which ended up the best (as it usually is). We were the only people in the restaurant, serviced by the mom, who is the owner and the chef. She suggested all her best dishes for us, and when we commented on how much we liked our dessert consisting of Greek yoghurt and home made jam and asked if we could buy the jam, she came back from the kitchen with a whole jar for Min to take home! I hope Min is reading this as she’s yet to have us over for brunch to finish that jam (hint hint hint! Haha).On Sunday night, we dined at the top resto in Corfu, once again having the best seat in the house as we were the only ones there. We ended up sharing the catch of the day and going home about a pound heavier.

Staying in that village was great, and the more I travel, the more I learn that staying in smaller, more local places is always better. This time around we got the most personal service from our host. He greeted us with bottles of wine, gave us a tour around the village, and a tonne of tip on top that. The villa was right next to a hiking trail that explored on Sunday morning, finding some observation spots (Andrew found better ones), and an abandoned olive grove where I temporarily got lost (cue temporary panic), but good thing I watch a lot of Amazing race hehe.

We got to check out Corfu Town, the main town in Corfu that is quite developed (i.e. it has a McDOnald’s hehe) on our last day. It looked cute, but was way too packed with tourists and actually didn’t look anything like the rest of the island. My recommendation to anybody who goes to Corfu is to skip Corfu Town and head far far into the island to get a representative experience, the beaches, and the views.

Now, the picture slide! Starting with Min’s amazing fuscia pants (aka best pants I’ve ever seen hehe).

P.S. You may wonder why I call this entry 100 m to Corfu. This is because 100 m seems to be the universal measure of distance there. In every case of us asking for directions, the answer always was ‘it’s a 100 m’ lol. Makes things really simple, I guess!

Corfu Town

First lunch on the beach

Our sweet villa

...and the view by night

The yummy dinner 

 ...and the amazing pre-dinner views

The couples

 The girls

and the boys