Heart full of Seoul

I made friends with my Korean pen pal via pen pal website and we started writing e-mails and letters around 2004-2005. In 2006 she finally visited me for two weeks at my parents’ house in Finland. In December 2013, after seven years we met again in Seoul, Korea, when I had the opportunity to visit her with my Finnish friend.

The idea of visiting my Korean friend came to me when my Finnish friend told me she might have the chance to visit her Finnish friend, who was studying in Korea at that time.

After my first overnight flight I felt tired but excited when arriving to Incheon international airport. My pen pal and her dad were there waiting for us. I was excited to meet my friend, still recalling the moment I met her for the first time in Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

One of Gyeongbokgung palaces

Arriving my friend’s apartment and meeting my friend’s brother and two small dogs we started eating breakfast. In the first afternoon my Korean friend and I went to explore her city. I remember my silly question: “is this Seoul?” and she replied “no”. We were only in the “small” city that is located close to Seoul. To get to Seoul’s tourist places we needed to change buses usually once or twice and also go by subway. Also the system when getting off from a bus is different to what I have accustomed to – you need to click the meter with your bus card when stepping out, and that was sometimes hard to remember.

My Finnish friend and I chose beforehand five must-see places we wanted to visit. A week is just fine for those places. I did not even feel any jet lag, even though the time difference is six hours, or maybe we were so busy that I just didn’t have time for feeling any jet lag.

The first place we visited was Gyeongbokgung palace area, which was built already in 1395 and where the kings of Joseon dynasty lived. The palace area was nice and big, I think we had free admission to get in.

One of Gyeongbokgung palaces

Seoul tower is also a nice landmark to visit. You can start from Namsan park where people go running or walking, and continue to the Seoul tower. Remember, there is a cable car if you don't want to walk so many steps. We didn't even notice it until we had walked all the way up with our souvenir bags...

Seoul tower

If you are interested in shopping I definitely recommend you Insa-dong, where you can buy unique souvenirs made of traditional Korean paper, and other handmade souvenirs as well. My friend and I bought beautiful handmade flower lamps, which looked awesome!

There are also Namdaemun market place, Myeongdong shopping district with design stores & Dongdaemun shopping district. There is also a big attraction park called Lotte World where my Finnish friend visited but I skipped it, so I don't have any comments on that place. Seems nice, though. :)

Seoul is surrounded by eight gates built during Joseon dynasty for entering the city and to protect the city from Korean tigers, which no longer exist. The gates are still standing, for example one is located in Namdaemun.

One more nice place to visit is Bukchon village, which is built traditional old Korean way (hanok). Local people actually live there, so when visiting the place, please speak at a low voice.

Hanok architecture

As for other travelling tips in Korea, people are friendly, but busy in Seoul - get out of their way in subway stations. It's better you learn some basic Korean phrases since not everybody speaks English. I mean that especially young people have studied and know English but speaking it is more difficult. Food is good, the city is clean and safe. Public transport works without problems.

As for food I have a special diet so I avoided spicy food, and of course I also tried some kimchi, but I really liked “Japanese style” meat. It is a Korean style to order big plates and share the food. I need to try some traditional food more if I ever visit there again.

A nice restaurant near one of Seoul's universities (sorry, don't remember the name)

My Korean friend’s good friend had a café where she organized a New Year’s party for us which was so kind of her. It was nice to meet local young people, however, at times we had some language barriers and my Korean skills were quite limited, since I had learnt only “annyeong haseyo” and “gamsahamnida” by watching Korean learning videos on Youtube. Anyhow, the evening was great – meeting with new people and eating snacks, the atmosphere was really cozy.

During the New Year’s party I uploaded a picture on Facebook “Happy New Year from Seoul” then my other Korean pen pal contacted me after many years that we should meet up since I’m in Seoul and so we agreed a meeting in a Korean BBQ restaurant where you can cook meat by yourself. It was very nice to meet her and the food was good! I was writing letters and e-mails with her when I was in high school but later we lost contact, but after many years she found me on Facebook and we were re-connected. :)

Happy New Year from Seoul!

Anyway, I need to share one funny moment. We scheduled to meet with the other Korean girl at a big subway station and before the meeting time we both ended up in the same bookstore! There she approached me "excuse me, are you Sini?". Of course our meeting place and time was close and there were not many Scandinavian looking girls in the bookstore, but still for me it was so unbelievable, as knowing there are about 10 million people in Seoul that we just randomly met there.

I’m thankful to my Korean friend for the chance to stay at her place. This was a great chance to see some local life. Of course a week is a very short time but I feel my friend and I had some nice deep conversations and I learnt about cultural differences and hopefully taught something about Finnish culture as well.

This was my first trip in Asia. Stay tuned for my next travelling posts about Malaysia and Singapore.