Day 0 - Another departure from Frankfurt#
It was finally Saturday, the beginning of my Korea trip. This time I slept considerably well. I wasn’t as excited as last time, probably because I had worked normally and I haven‘t fully realized that my vocation had just begun. We started the day with a nice German breakfast. A bun with salmon and red onion is the best. I took a shower and made final preparations before me and my dad sat off to Frankfurt. We arrived about 3.5 hours early. I handed in the luggage and exchanged some Korean Won. We then strolled around and checkout out some of the stores before my dad brought me to the security gates. I said good bye to him and proceeded. I must have chosen the right time slot since I didn’t have to wait neither for the luggage nor the security check, so it just took me a few minutes to be inside the travelers area. I bought some souvenirs in the duty free shop and then waited at the gate. It didn’t take too long before I could board the airplane.
I was sitting at the right seat of the center row. Unfortunately for me the whole center row had issues with the entertainment system which was unusable for the whole duration of the flight. Luckily we were said to get compensation. It wasn’t a big issue for me since I had downloaded the TV show Silo beforehand which I watched for a while. The flight was mostly eventful, I fell a couple of times but I think I‘ve just dozed a few minutes to half an hour. For the dinner we were able to choose between a pasta dish and a beef dish. I took the beef dish which had kimchi stew and beef with rice. The dinner was big enough and tasted quite fine. For the breakfast we only had one option which was a German breakfast consisting of a bun with jam and a Joghurt. About half an hour later we started with the landing procedure.
Day 1 - Arrival in Hongdae#
TODO: train ride
Since I‘m a big fan of taking photos of my hotel rooms, I also took a 360 photo of my room just to give you an idea of how tiny my Mini Studio actually is.
At that point I was a bit hungry and needed to buy some necessities. Thus I walked around the area and bought some things in a GS store. I passed by a vintage looking hair dresser. Since I haven‘t had the chance to get a haircut before the trip I made an appointment at 4 PM. Since I had about 2 hours, I decided to have lunch in the meantime. I found a nice Chinese restaurant that served food from Hangzhou. The waiter was the daughter of the owners of the restaurant. I talked with her a bit in Chinese. She told me that they came here so she can study in Seoul. I had my favorite Mapo Tofu. The waiter suggested me to also take the Baozi since it was their signature dish. The food was tasty and not too spicy. I finished early so I decided to go back to the apartment before going to the hairdresser.
I brought back the stuff I bought and rested a bit. Then I went back to the hairdresser. The hairdresser was pretty nice and she understood what kind of haircut I wanted. The whole process took longer than my normal hairdresser appointment in Germany but I really enjoyed the whole process. I was still a bit exhausted from the flight and It felt so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. With a fresh haircut, I walked back to the apartment to relax and finally fell asleep around 1 AM.
I got up around 11 AM due to jet lag. I wanted to explore Hongdae as I haven‘t been here before. I walked through all small streets in my neighborhood in pursuit to find a nice restaurant where I can eat Garlic Chicken. I was very surprised by how many cafés there are, it felt like every third shop was a café here. The streets were full of people that were queueing in front of cafés, restaurants of photo shops, or simply were walking around. During my search I‘ve seen many Korean BBQ places but just saw a couple of shops that served fried chicken. One shop consisted of two floors but was pretty full, the other store was completely empty. I must have walked for over 2 hours before I had found a Japanese style restaurant that offered spicy chicken. It really reminded me of a tonkatsu restaurant that I‘ve been to the year prior during my Japan trip. The waitress helped me picking the sweet and spicy chicken together with some portion of rice and a beer. The food was pretty tasty and I really enjoyed the atmosphere there.
After my lunch I‘ve strolled some more around the area to reach 10.000 steps. I then bought some food and drinks before I walked back. I was still a bit tired from the jet lag therefore I relaxed the rest of the day.