i'm back~

The semester break started last month,

many things happened,

went to Seoul and it was my first ever solo trip oversea too!

Ahh, it's freezing cold and I should've went with my sister,Kila..

So what did I do there?

Let the pictures speak..

Hongdae's Edition

I'll forever be sharing the pictures from my Korea trip. xD
Here's Hongdae Edition!
Love this part of the Seoul's metropolitan <3
It's so quiet and calm during the days and so much fun when night comes.
Surrounded by young,fresh,artistic and cool vibes,
one could really feels the young Seoulites life here.
Cafes here and there to cater the kafein-lovers,
come winter night or warm spring night, 
street performers could be easily spotted.
I love Hongdae and would probably want to stay there again,
during my next-next-next trip *hopefully*

Birdsnest Hostel in Hongdae

DISCLAIMER: BIRDSNEST HOSTEL HAS MOVED TO A NEW PLACE UNDER THE NAME OF 'THIS IS.. GUESTHOUSE'. THE NEW LOCATION IS JUST CLOSE BY. DROP BY ANY QUESTION.

It's May already. Been couple of months since my trip to Korea, 

and I've been missing that country ever since. 

Ahh,I need to go there again and stay longer and explore more! ^_^

So this post is gonna be about the Birdsnest Hostel,

 that I stayed while I'm in Seoul.

 It's my second hostel after Namu GH.

Owned and run by Mr DongUk Lee.

It's a hostel that he just set up after coming back from his RTW trip.

We first arrived at the hostel without any reservation,on one cold day..

Luckily, DongUk  attended us.

We asked whether any rooms available and he said yes.
Later he lead us to our dorm room.

We opted for the mixed dorm, 18000 won per person/night after 10% winter-discount.

However, he told us to stay in the female dorm,with the same price.

Thanks! Usually female only dorm a bit pricy,but he's so nice to let us.

For a budget traveller like me,

this hostel is great for my money already :D

Free breakfast & wifi are included.

Hot shower, soap & shampoo are provided too.As well as towels.

Hair dryer, ironing board & iron to ease the travellers.
Ah,ondol/ heated floor also made available when it's cold ;)

Usually on less busy day, we could chat with the owner.

Since he's a traveller himself, he has lots of story to share too.

He's very kind & always wanted to help us in any ways he could.

How to go there.It'

1. From subway line 2,off at Hongik Univ station,search for exit 2.

2.Came out from the subway,u'll see gas station in front of u, just turn left,and follow till end of road.

3.There's traffic light there,cross the road and turn right and walk straight until u see Hana Bank.

4. Then turn left again, then just walk straight.

5.Walk until u see a shop named 'Cass Tok's' then,turn right.

6. Follow the road,u'll see Birdsnest Hostel on ur left side.

Or just show the address to taxi driver:

561-34 Yeonnam-Dong Mapo-Gu, Seoul, South Korea

DAY 9 - 13th Feb: TRICK EYE MUSEUM HONGDAE

It's Monday, so we figured it's gonna be best for us to go check out

the Trick Eye Museum.

Well,it just around the corner anyway,in Hongdae.

Trick Eye Museum is in Hongdae..located in among the alleys there.

How to get there? here's:

From subway line 2(green line),

get off at Hongik Univ station, and look out for exit 9.

From exit 9, just go straight, pass Paris Baguette, Citibank

and then turn left and u'll see Starbucks,walk towards it.

Cross over the street at Starbucks and walk up that alley

until u see a large orange sign that says 'Trick Eye Museum'.

It's located underground so don't miss it!

Keep ur eyes peeled!

The entrance fee is 13 000 Won for adult & 11 000 for youth under 18.

We went in and had so much fun.Wow, amazing arts.

There's 3D's and various kind of arts on display.

We're allowed to wander around the museum & take pictures,

well, they even provide few staff to help with the picture taking process :P

Enjoy some of the pictures!

After spending couple hours at the museum, we decided to check out Gangnam.

Anyway,it's during the day, so nothing much there. kekeke

but we saw another branch of Yeolbong though.

Then next stop is the COEX, the largest underground shopping mall in Korea.

It's at the Samseong Station.

We're such a happy VIPs there when we're greeted by huuuuuuuuge ads of BIGBANG.

it's G-market's ads for upcoming BIGSHOW.

Saw a Paris Baguette nearby,so well, what else? eat lah!

We wandered around the COEX mall for a while,

saw many shops that endorse by BIGBANG/ 2NE1..

Bean Pole (GD's/2ne1) is side by side with Fubu (TOP's)

and because Fubu is still having promotion with TOP,

we got to watch the videos of TOP, played at the shop (^o^)v

after some time we get lost in the food court section,

hahaha end up eating seafood there, haish,eat again!

It's getting dark and it's getting cold,

we're back to Hongdae, well, head to Mr Donut and had some donuts.

Walked around for a while then we head to our hostel.

Short note though :

this gonna be the last post for our first trip to Seoul.

we got message from our family asking us to come back home asap.
some personal matters arise, so we decided to go back home on the 15th.
Ah,the plan to stay for a month will not come true for this time.

Around Hongdae

Through out our stay in Seoul, we only stayed at one place, Hongdae!

It's very nice there,since the hostels & GHs are located in the neighbourhood.

We get to see & experience the Korean lifestyle better here.

The line 2,Green line,connecting us to many great places.

So we didn't have to transfer too many time.

Hongdae is a lively place,rather very calm during the day,

and so much fun when the dark take over!

The clubs,the small food stall, the cafes,

the young people adds so much more color to Hongdae.

Well,I'm not too good with words,so let the pictures do the talking :D

*Morning walk *

*calm morning Hongdae*

*busy intersection outside exit 2,line 2,Hongik Univ Station*

*of many interesting art (?)*

*live performance on the street by indie band despite the coldness*

*playing games*

*aah,so tempted to buy those* xDD

*of so many cafes*

*2nd shop of Coffee Prince,runs by MBC*

*the 1st Coffee Prince cafe*

*hello Kitty themed cafe*

Day 5 - 9th Feb : out of luck!

Actually we tried to check out this morning. We left our bag at the hostel first and head out to Incheon Airport. Why? We wanna send BIGBANG off to NYC. However,there's some issues arises, which airport, Gimpo or Incheon?? Some said Gimpo,some said Incheon :( We're so unsured but still boldly went to the Incheon airport. We arrived just about on time, but we never met anyone. We searched the info from internet, words coming saying that Bigbang departed from Gimpo Airport. WHUUUUT???!! Which one is true???? Ahh,so we wondered around the airport anyway. And send some postcards to friends back home.

On our back home, we stopped at Hapjeong station, to buy some winter jacket,since it's getting too cold. We bought 2 jackets for 30 000 won. After that we came back to pick up our backpack. We're heading to Yeouido later on thinking that we could catch the last filming of 1n2d. So,before we move out we asked Mr Lee to check whether or not they'll do their opening from the famous KBS stairs. Arrgh,Mr Lee said 'Nope! They're filming by the sea. And will end up at Daejeon,also by the sea. He warned us not to go anyway,since it's gonna be colder there. ㅠㅠ

OUT OF LUCK!!!!!!!! ㅠㅠ

However,we did made our way to see the KBS Building. It's indeed colder there too,bcuz it's by the river. Our plan was to stay around there, but there's no budget hotels or hostels nor GH there. After strolling around the Yeouido Park, we went inside of KBS lobby and use their internet cafe,for free. I think,we stayed inside for good two hours. ㅋㅋㅋ By the way,when we arrived,we saw Danny Ahn of GOD hosting his radio show.

Since we yet to figure out where to stay for the night,we searched for nearby jimjilbang. It's clearly stated in the site that we shall take bus #823, unluckily,the bus with that number never come our way :( So last resort,we retrieved back to the 'Birdnest Hostel'.

Upon arriving at the hostel,AGAIN, Mr Lee greeted us with a big laugh,hearing our story. We told him we'll be staying there for the next three days. He said of course,and told us that we could pay when we ready,and before checking out of course. Thanks Mr Lee Donguk!

Later on that night,we decided to go see the oh-so-famous-Hongdae nightlife.

Wow! Hongdae is indeed the place where youth hang out.

Dressed to impress, they all either queing to enter clubs or just meeting friends at the so many cafes to choose from.

*kids are lining up to enter clubs*

It's so lively. We went to the 'Club Street' and indeed 'nb club' is very famous. The queue is sooooo long!

One of many cafe

We make our way to nearest G25 to get us some hot coffee.

We saw few youth looking inside a cafe, Coffee Smith Cafe

so we just went with the crowd,and it's Davichi!!

They're singing for a live show shooting. We stayed.

Later that night, there's also Bobby Kim!!

OMG, from out of luck,we actually got so lucky!

However no pics of them.