Blogtober #14

Blogtober #14: Favourite Memory From Childhood

I have so many wonderful memories, having a big family does have its wonderful moments and I still experience them now. 

Having been raised partly by my grandma when my parents were busy working, we were always with our cousins, so despite my two youngest siblings having not really shared these memories with us, my cousins and my brother made up for this. We used to do everything together, from the ages of 3 till 15 we pretty much did everything together. We went to the same primary schools, same chinese schools, lived about 10 minute walk apart and we also mingled in the same group of friends. 

We became rebels together, going to London weekly without our parents knowing, going shopping without our parents consent and pretty much guiding ourselves through our education together.

My most favourite memory to date is probably us being around the age of 8 and doing a "fashion show", this meant my brother and my younger cousin being the photographers and my two female cousins, the other photographers brother being the "models". 

We would dress up and prance down the stairs to music that we were all singing, and pretend we were on a runway, at the time we really loved the limelight, and to this day we still don't see why we thought this was a good idea.

Us attending ballet at a really young age. You can tell how much I thoroughly enjoyed these long Wednesday afternoons. 

Korea Day 4

Day 4 of Korea meant it was time for Jasmine to leave us for her exchange room. That left me, Livia and Odilia to explore by ourselves, heading to several different locations. And this is our "matching shoes" photo, which took several takes believe it or not.

If you look close enough at the photo, you can tell most peoples heads are bent downwards, this is because they were using their phone, I would say a good 80% of people would be on their phones at any given time in any location, that is Asia for you!

This is incheon, which is more developed area of Seoul with a wider range of different cuisines from different parts of the world. This area is known as the areas where most expats live/eat/hang out. 

Comedian Hong Suk-Chun restaurant, on this street alone he had two restaurants and apparently several more in multiple locations across Seoul. 

Cereal Bar, a supposedly very famous cafe

Us being very indecisive we just decided to slip into one of Hong Suk-Chuns restaurants, and what we did not expect was to see him come in. Hong is the only openly gay comedian in South Korea, so he is a pretty big deal, but his personality and his english was just perfect. (Contrary to what I believed before, most koreans have pretty bad english, so it was a nice surprise when he came bounding in with perfect english)

The little free sides they give

I believe this was the wheatbuck noodles, and YUM. It is probably more of an asian thing, but I love anything weird like this, although saying that I normally do not like cold things but over the past year or so my picky eating has gone away, (thank god).

Sorry not sorry, sweet and sour chicken. Wherever whenever.

A young artist using tape to make a frog, the hipster life in Seoul is REAL. 

And then we moved on to the famous GANGNAM. We kept to the underground shopping rather than exploring what would possibly be a massive part of Seoul, and even the underground shopping was massive. We did not even get to finish shopping, and dude did we spend more than we had expected to.

The underground shopping mall was so big it has this type of seating area! And here is Odilia and Livia pretending to act all normal.

Stumbling across a traditional Korean restaurant for dinner. Sitting without shoes, (I had holes in my socks, which probably wasn't the most pleasant thing for other customers, but hey ho)

POSER ALERT

Traditional Korean, cold meat, and so many different sides to choose from. And again the cold buckwheat noodles, to die for.

Korea Day 3

My first day going out to explore, and the first time on the Korean Subway. Beautifully clean as I expected, but once you have experienced the fast paced and extremely frequent subways in Hong Kong this just does not compare. But the subways in Seoul are so much larger, and during the rush hour you can understand why, to accommodate the sheer amount of people that travel at those times!

Having been in Hongdae for the last two days, this area was vastly different. Admittedly we ended up here by accident and did not actually leave the station, but just looking at it from this difference you can see. Reminds me a little of the korean melo-dramas that show the people in poverty, interesting as this was my only exposure to what "real koreans" might live like.

This day we set off on a little adventure to Myeong-dong, this is a shot of one of the many underground shopping malls. This one was listed on the internet but actually it was more catered for the older crowd and was quite small. So unless you are actually looking for a present for your nan, I would probably say avoid this underground shopping location.... 

HOWEVER, Once you get outside you are in a dream girls world. Cosmetic shops everywhere, shoe stalls everywhere. Just a dreamy shopping heaven. Myeong-dong is quite a popular place, always listed on the internet travel websites and just about every tourist knows about this location. So if you look like you are chinese, do not be surprised that you will be heckled at in mandarin! And also do not be surprised if the rest of the people surrounding you are chinese and not korean, because the amount of tourists here is immense!

Apparently this is quite a famous bimbimbap restaurant, I was not one to question because I was damn right hungry, edging on hangry.

Being asian means taking lots of pictures of food. It is part of the memory okay? And if you are hungry in Myeong-dong come to this bimbimbap PLEASE. It is filling, delicious and so darn cheap! And the greatest thing about ALL korean restaurants? ITS THE FREE SIDES THAT ARE UNLIMITED. 

A clothes shop that consisted of several different floors, all with a different layout and design. It reminded me of Urban Outfitters, although most of Korea does because half the people are hipster!

CUPCAKES. CUPCAKES. CUPCAKES. CUPCAKES. CUPCAKES

For dinner we opted for something a little "lighter", well when I mean lighter I mean street food. Several rice cakes, my absolute favourite, and these twisty fish rolls!

And a little ice cream to help it all down! This ice cream was not anything special, I think it is just another fun and crazy shape to draw people in, and it sure does! There are so many of these ice cream stalls around the touristy areas in Korea. The outside twisty cone actually tastes quite stale so if you want to buy the ice cream for the taste, probably avoid. Otherwise go right ahead, an expensive ice cream gimic for you!

I read about this little gem on the tourist forums before I visited, it is located in Dongdaemun and is apparently known for attracting lots of couples. They said avoid walking down here if you are afraid of couples haha, I did not quite get the romantic experience but it was still pretty to look at from above. 

We just missed this, having come on a Monday which seems to be a rest type of day for Korea this concert exhibition was shut. I believe it is a 3D Concert experience of some famous K Pop stars but unfortunately as I did not get to see it I do not know, queue sad music.

At the end of the day we just went for another little walk. Rainy and calm.