Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Detoxicating Sidetrips to Myeongdong and Yeouido

19 April 2011


We were dismissed a bit earlier from class today! And I've set my afternoon to meet up with my "lost sister", Tin!!! We're going on a sidetrip! YeaaaaahhhH!


1300h
I met up with Tin at Myeongdong station. It took less than 30 minutes by subway to reach Myeongdong station from Anam. I was too excited that I didn't even feel hungry. I just had some crackers with me for a light snack. ^^


We took Exit 2 and reached the Myeongdong main street. I needed a smart casual / formal dress for the symposium I have to attend on Friday. And what a perfect place to shop indeed and a lot of stuff are sold at quite cheap prices! You just have to be really good in scouting for the good quality clothes! Dresses, blouses, tees for under 10,000 won! After going through several shops, I finally found two dresses that I couldn't decide which one to pick, so I bought both! ^^


Then we went around and about the alleys where there are lots of beauty stores. Salesladies were in costumes and greeted passersby happily and handed out free samples and requested people to go in even just for window shopping! Because of that, my jacket pocket immediately got filled up with the free samples as we passed by 4 to 5 different shops! ^^


In the middle of the streets, we'd often meet some mascots from the various stores and restaurants. We even saw Snoopy and the weird distorted-looking Garfield! Hahah! But the best one was the street artist. We were inside Faceshop when suddenly, as I looked out, I saw a very tall man walking and was in full "clown"-look and the long red trousers. Tin dropped what she was about to buy and decided to go out with me to run after the tall man to take photos! Oh yes, we were in the place to take photos primarily, canvassing and shopping only came second. LOL.


It was quite an interesting view of Myeondong having a street artist in the middle of the road showing off his balloon art skills and even made a lollipop-shaped balloon for a little girl who was all eyes on him as she waited for her balloon (like she was waiting forever in vain...LOL).


Before we headed to the subway, we passed by a stall and saw stockings being sold for 3 for 10,000 won (it sounded like 3 for P100 -- no.1 rule though, never convert currencies!).


1400h
We went back to the subway to go to Yeouido. After around 30 minutes, we were already in Yeouido. We took Exit 4 and walked straight to Yeouido Park hoping that the cherry blossoms, our main goal for the day's sidetrip, are still in full bloom. Just before we crossed the street, we passed by a cozy coffee booth that had a very warm and inviting ambiance.^^


The Cherry Blossom Festival at Yeouido ended last Sunday unfortunately. We were not able to see the festivities and the many people that filled the park. As we reached the par, we were a bit disappointed since there is not that much cherry blossoms anymore. As we stolled along, we took photos of the stikingly pink flowers that adorned the sides of the pathwalks. We walked on until we reached the center of the park where we saw two full blooming cherry blossoms! That's were we did our photoshoot! LOL.


While filling up our cameras with photos of people, passersby, flowers, the view and the cherry blossoms especially, we saw a Chinese-Korean family with a very cute bouncing baby girl who was lying with her belly flat on the ground as her dad was enjoying the moment and took photos of his daughter. I couldn't resist the baby so I asked permission from the family if I can take photos of the baby as well. And where the baby was sitting, it was such a perfect pose and the background were the cherry blossoms as well! ^^ The baby kept smiling and laughing as Tin and I playfully took photos of her! ^^


1600h
Time's up and I had to go back to Jochiwon already. Sidetrip is over and Tin and I had to part ways as we reached the Seoul station. As I reached the ticket office, I made it just in time to ride the train which was about to leave in a few minutes! LOL. The train departed at 1643h and I reached Jochiwon by 1812h. And to save time, I rode the free campus bus that passed by the train station at 1827h.


Tune in for my next sidetrip! c",)

No comments:

Post a Comment