Hi again all.

I can safely say, I have moved to Korea. I am currently sat in my apartment in Hoengseong in Gangwon province and this is my home for the forseeable future :D

So, let's go back to the end of my last blog post. I was sat in an airport in Malaysia when I wrote that one. A lot has happened since then.

I arrived in Incheon airport at ~6:50am Korean time. I spent around an hour waiting in immigration to get my passport and visa checked and then meandered out to get my luggage. I had spent so long in immigration that my luggage (and everyone else's who had been in the 'non-Korean passport' line) had been unloaded from the conveyer and stacked in the middle of the hall.

After dragging my luggage out I wandered out to where the free airport shuttle bus left from. I was told that I needed to get off at the 2nd stop to get to my hotel. I got slapped in the face by the cold when I stepped outside. It wasn't super cold, (maybe 5 degrees Celcius) but it was autumn in Australia when I left so it hit me, even though I had dressed for the cold.

It took me ages to find the bus and a lot of struggling to get my suitcases on there. It had stairs and no one on the bus (mainly airport personnel) tried to help me, which . My cases were super heavy. But I made it and got off at my stop.

My hotel was nice and I was lucky that I could check in immediately (it's usually 2pm but the room had been empty the night before). So, I dumped my bags, took a shower and grabbed some stuff to take a day trip to Seoul.

I took the express train (8,000 won one way) to Seoul and it took 40 minutes. It was super comfortable but, because I was still tiredfrom my flights, I almost fell asleep more than once :P

Got to Seoul, spent ages working out the subway system. It's really similar to London's or Paris', I realised. But Seoul Station is really confusing because all the airport trains (express and non-express), the intercity trains and the metro all stop there and it was confusing, haha. 

Here's a metro map for you. I'll list the stations I went to so you can replicate my trip mentally :P

So, my journey started at Seoul Station (Line 1, north of the river) and I headed up to Gyeongbokgung via Jongmo 3(sam)-ga. This is the location of the biggest palace in Seoul and my intention was to go see that. But, coming out of the station I went the wrong way somehow which I'm super glad I did. I saw some really cool stuff in that area. 

I ended up in Samcheong-dong which was chock full of artsy folk shops, traditional markey type places and run-down street stalls. It was really interesting to look around. I also saw some super weird mixtures of buildings. There would be a super tradition Joseon type building next to a 60s square apartment block and a new glass building. It was cool. Also mountains, there was a massive mountain looming over the area.

Have some pictures. 

See what I mean about the weird mix of buildings.

Sideways, whoops. Mountain was pretty :D

Nice view of Seoul from part way up a mountain (I was wearing the wrong shoes to climb any further).

So that area covered, I actually went to the palace. Gyeongbokgung palace is freaking huge and really impressive. It's a complete square and just insanely huge. I didn't pay to go in, because it was expensive and I didn't want to spend too much time there, since I only had a day. But the outside was really impressive.

Picture dump:

The other side

Another side again, with bonus mountains.

It was really intricate up close. There's clearly been a lot of work on it recently to ensure it doesn't go into disrepair as it was all freshly painted and the walls were regrouted etc.

I really like how you get the old and the new next to each other. It's really cool looking. At least to me. 

Then I moved on. I went back to Anguk station and saw another smaller palace there. It was super cute and I think I recognised it from a Korean TV show. Maybe it was an episode of Running Man or something. That or all smaller palaces are a similar style. Unfortunately, I can't remember what It was called. I tried looking it up but my Korean isn't good enough to work it out.

See how cute that is. Fun fact, I had to duck to get through the foors. I'm only 5'2". Those were some really low doors :P

So that done, I headed back to Anguk station and made my way to Itaewon (line 6), via Yaksu.

There isn't much to photograph in Itaewon. It's the foreigners district and, honestly wasn't that interesting. I can see a Taco Bell and a Baskin Robbins in America, I don't need them in Korea. There were also exponentially more foreigners in the area than anywhere else i went. I even got asked for coffee by a French guy (he thought I was French). 

Then, I was basically dead. So I headed back to my hotel, via the metro this time, which took a good hour and a half. It was exhausting. So I got back and crashed, hard. I had to get up the next morning for important job related things which will be covered in my next blog post, which I'm writing after this, haha