Seoulsisters: Common Ground, Line Friends Flagship Store at Itaewon

Day 6 (20 October 2016): Common Ground and Line Friends Flagship Store at Itaewon

good morning! all ready to start our day! i stand by that sunlight is the best natural filter. and today, we're off to seoul's most instagram-worthy place, common ground!

to get here, take the subway to Konkuk University (line 2 or 7), exit 6. as you can see, this place is actually made of shipping containers, which gives the artsy-fartsy kind of feel. in my opinion, there's nothing much to shop here, we're here just for the feel and for the pictures. you'll also be able to spot fashion models/couples strutting down the bridges and posing against the container walls here. so watch, and learn!

but first, we got to settle our tum tums. there's a few restaurants to choose from on the third level, and we decided to settle our lunch at Analogue Kitchen, which sells western food.

we got the vongole pasta,

truffle mushroom cream pasta, 

jalapeno risotto and tiramisu to share. also ordered some honey lemon beer to share. i think the beer tastes good, especially when you're having a sore throat haha.

and well, let our photoshoot begin!

i think our candid shots are nicer though.

potential album cover for our KPOP debut? LOL!

yes, there are red containers too!

another candid shot, which i thought looked better than a posed one. 

after looking at our portfolios, anyone wants to hire us to be their models? we're all at least 164cm tall :D HAHA! and wow, it can be quite tiring trying to take all these artsy shots, but that's what we were here for. so, moving on!

line friends flagship store at itaewon (take the subway to itaewon station, exit 3)! not a fan of line friends but i like themed cafes :D

with the iconic mega Brown that's at the entrance of all the Line Friends store.

and the cafe's on the third level. yes, there are 3 storeys. 

and yes, you can choose to sit with your favourite line friends characters, if the seats are not already taken up that is. 

tea party! love love love how the presentation of the food is just so on point! but of course, when it comes to themed cafes, prices are not cheap. the drinks are not bad but the cakes are a little too sweet for me. 

attempting a candid shot but i guess we failed. 

one last shot before we leave for our BBQ dinner at sinchon.

oh man, i'm so hungry looking at this!

good thing about having korean BBQ in the cold weather is that we don't sweat. but we still stink after, very, very badly :/ really love the food in korea, they just won't go wrong. like they always say, there's no bad food in korea, it's just a matter of how good they are. well, except for maybe the kimchi pancake at myeongdong. 

taken with the stall's name behind us if you guys are interested in coming here. it reads "go gi chang go" if my limited reading of korean words doesn't fail me. click here for the korean website, the address and i think menu are available on the site as well. you can always get a friendly korean to translate for you or direct you to the place :)

strolled along the streets of sinchon after to soak up the university and kpop atmosphere. there were so many groups/solo performers around. again, i'll end off with a video of my snapchat. and yes, there was another kind korean man who showed us the way to itaewon. i like korea <3

day trip to seoraksan in the hope to catch some autumn leaves next!

Seoulsisters: Tosokchon Samgyetang, Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon Hanok Village

Day 5 (19 October 2016): Tosokchon Samgyetang, Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon Hanok Village

YAY!! i made it back here to continue updating on the trip. basically today's like an outdoor photoshoot for us haha! so it's important for us to have a good meal to last through the day. guess where we're going for brunch!

TADA!! ginseng chicken soup at the famous Tosokchon restaurant (alight at Gyeongbokgung Station)! one whole chicken for each of us, of course none of us could finish. you could choose between white or black chicken. white chicken cost i think 15, 000 KRW, and black chicken cost a little more. there's a whole ginseng and glutinous rice packed inside one chicken, and it comes with a cup of ginseng essence/wine that you can add to the soup. we ordered pancake as well to make up for the bad kimchi pancake we had the other day at myeongdong, and man it tastes so much better! and i must say, i think they have the best kimchi here :D 

i also like that it has this traditional korean feel to it because of the architecture and because you have to remove your shoes and sit on the floor to eat. but it got quite uncomfortable after that because our legs went numb haha!

YUMMY!! though i remember that it tasted better when i was there 3 years ago. anyway, i would recommend to avoid the lunch crowd and come for brunch instead because the queue can get really long during lunch hour.

this was the queue during lunch hour when we were done eating. then again, it moves fast. 

very very full and all ready for our photoshoot in pretty hanboks!

transformed! how do we look? i like the dresses available at this rental shop because it's more korean. saw some dresses when we went to the palace that were too modernised that they lost the traditional korean feel, they had laces, gathers and what not, and the underskirt was too flare, i don't know but they look more victorian/westernised instead.

think we paid 15, 000 KRW each for our dresses for 4 hours. our hair and head piece were free-of charge. passed by other shops and most of them charge another 5000 KRW for the hair. then again, our head pieces were rather simple and it's identical. purses were also available for rent at this shop, going for 2000 to 5000 KRW depending on the size. we decided to rent the purses because bagpacks and hanboks just don't match. this shop also provided us space to store our clothes and bags while we go around in our hanboks for the 4 hours. 

oh yes, when you are wearing the underskirt, the hooks should be facing the front instead. ALL of us wore it at the back, well because the hooks on bras are usually at the back what. the shopkeeper must be laughing at us :/ would also recommend to not wear the hanbok over your clothes, because i did and it was so hot! plus there were a lot of stairs to climb later on. empty your bladder first also, because man it was hard to go to the toilet in the hanbok! so bulky having to bring everything up and to the front and you can barely see what's below. too much information? hehehe!

Gyeongbokgung

there's an entrance fee actually but we got in free because we were wearing hanboks! i'm serious! click here for the admission fees.

was so bent on getting a red and white hanbok and this was the only nicer one. hope i didn't look like a palace maid next to my friends :( got some embroidery okay :/

there was going to be a drill in the palace and we didn't want to be stuck in there so we headed over to the traditional village after a while. 

and we look super out of place because it was all modern cafes and shops along the way from the palace to the village. 

yeah, this was what i meant by out of place. it looks like we time travelled from the palace era to the modern era haha!

and guess what, we need to climb stairs to get to the traditional village again because it's on like a hill :( all of us should have toned legs and sexy butts after this trip. and it was so hard to climb with the hanbok, i kept stepping on yiling's dress, i'm so sorry!! :(

Bukchon Hanok Village

do we look like we just came out of our house and ready to go for our match-making session?

spied quite a few tourists snapping shots at us, and also a few that approached us and asked if they could have a photo with us. some of the poses in our photos were taught by them too! guess we were too cute in hanboks (omg so thick skin hahaha)! does korea's tourism board want to hire us to promote tourism in seoul? 

and this has got to be my favourite picture of the day, no no, favourite picture of the trip! <3 <3 <3

came across this graffiti wall and decided to take a picture with it. guess we got tired of taking pictures with the traditional backgrounds. 

had so much fun spamming pictures today and kept laughing at what we took when we were back in the hotel. yiling decided to make a comic strip while she was putting on her mask before bed.

for those who are interested in where we rented the hanboks, the shop's called Iride Hanbok, and it's located on the street opposite gyeongbokgung, on the third storey.

try to look for this signboard, hope this helps!

next up, the instagram-worthy place in seoul - common ground and line friends cafe! do check back! :D