Heart and Seoul (Part One) 

WOW! What an incredible adventure I have been on in the past about 40 hours. One of my greatest dreams has always been to backpack a country. Over the course of yesterday and today, I felt a little bit of that when I backpacked my way through Seoul, South Korea!

(Before you get worried, don't. There will be a Part Two and probably Part Three to this post. I just feel as though my adventure in Seoul would make for too long of a blog post.) 

We start our journey off at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning! We had a brief meeting and then we went to load buses to Seoul in hopes of arriving at Myeong-dong by 11 a.m. The best part about this? A long bus ride for me means a long nap. I get car sick so easily. I was pretty excited to take some Dramamine for the long ride there. What I got when I woke up was hilarious. It was definitely a wonderful start to an incredible weekend. 

Imagine this: I am asleep on this giant bus with 100 of my closest friends. All of the sudden, I wake up in the bus, while it is going through the main tunnel to get to Seoul. It's dark and then all of the sudden, the lights in the bus start turning neon orange and green and then flatscreen in the front of the bus starts playing loud KPOP. Almost as if planned, we pull out of the tunnel at the exact same time with a view on top of the city. It was a complete movie buildup moment and I loved every second of it. Definitely a hilarious, and memorable moment for sure. 

We arrived at Myeong-dong and quickly unloaded the bus to experience all it had to offer. Seoul is made up of about 255 neighborhoods, and Myeong-dong is considered one of it's premiere shopping districts. We are free until 2ish which means we have so much time to explore this part of the city. We started by just walking around and taking in the views. 

After seeing this nice outdoor escalator and following many signs, we found a BEAUTIFUL rooftop garden! I love rooftop gardens so much I knew it would be worth the trek. 

It was such a neat place! There were so many shops to go into. SO many things to do and see! Luckily, there was also many things to eat. Which after walking for a few hours, I knew we would need some food. Luckily, the street vendors were there to help us out. 

Here I am with my chicken. Delicious! 

Some of my friends also had sausage and rice cake on a stick. 

YUM! 

After lunch, we went ahead and headed back to our meeting site where our group leaders were there to take us to Gyeongbuk Palace! 

Here's a better photo taken by a friend:

The Palace was beautiful! We didn't go inside, but that is definitely on my to-do list while I am here. 

We then continued on the afternoon with a Seoul Scavenger Hunt! We went around a few places in Seoul and took photos! It was such a fun experience and such a nice way to tour the city without a big group. Here is my group at a few of our locations:

King Sejong Statue

Admiral Lee Soon Shin Staute 

"Spring" Twisted Monument

Chunggyechon Stream 

Starbucks in Insadong! 

We had a wonderful time on the Scavenger Hunt. However, we didn't want to return to the Palace early so instead, we hung around Insadong! Insandong is a very popular tourist attraction area in Seoul. With tons of street food, shops, and plenty of people, we began our walk around Insadong! 

Here we are with our fearless Group Leader, Neil! 

We also got to experience our first dose of what I like to call "Way-Gueg" Syndrome. In Korean, way-gueg means foreigner. 

From all of the wonderful stories we hear, many of the small children we will be teaching have never seen a westerner before. Some stories I have heard have been as small as just a child staring. On the other hand, we have heard stories that some children will lick you, just to see if you taste like them. Other symptoms of "way-gueg" include: the petting of hair (especially blonde), staring, licking, petting of arms, and also closeness but a fear to actually come near. Being in Seoul, I thought it was much too early to experience this. These people see westerners all the time, right? Well, I thought so too. Then, we ran into the free hugs....

The free hugs were a few people (mostly teens) who were standing on a random corner in Insadong. They literally had signs that said "FREE HUGS". When they found out we were interested in their hugs, we quickly drew all of the attention of that corner. Definitely got hugged, told we were loved, and then posed for about 15 quick shots with our new friends. I don't think I have ever felt so cool in my entire life. 

It was such a fun experience and something you can bet I will re-enact 1,000 times when I get home. 

We then moved on to something very similar to an outdoor mall! It was incredible! Here are some of the views! 

This place (below) was wonderful. It was basically a "Lover's Bridge". What you do, is walk along the bridge with your loved one. People then write messages to their loved ones and hang them on the wall so your love remains there forever. Perfect, right? This place was on the very top floor of the outdoor mall area. 

Remember how I almost always talk about how great Koreans are? Example #37830. Even their graffiti rocks. As you can see in this image of Micheal Jackson.  The walls of the stairwells were covered in graffiti! I loved it! 

After the mall, we headed down the street to some more great finds! This is Crown Bakery. It is a well-known spot in Insadong and has a pretty mean reason to be...

That mean reason to be famous? DR. PEPPER! I am personally not a fan but Kyla and Emilee have been searching since we landed in Korea two weeks ago. Luckily, we spotted some and Emilee bought four. Haha! 

We then headed back to the Palace for the end of our Scavenger Hunt and a new adventure. Getting around Seoul alone! (Yeah, it made me nervous too!) 

Sadly, though it's bedtime for this girl. No worries, I am not still lost in Seoul. I just can't write about the next few hours without some wonderful, well-needed sleep. 

I am thankful to all who have been reading, and sorry to leave you hanging! Tune in tomorrow for our next episode of Heart and Seoul: Kiyana's Big Bar Hopping Extravanganza! (Also referred to as Hongdae, Seoul. HAHA) 

Good Morning to all, Happy Sunday, America! 

Kiyana In Korea