PLACES TO VISIT

I thought that instead of doing a separate post on every sightseeing/tourist place I visited here in Seoul, I'd combine some of them together in one post.

GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE / 경복궁

On the last day of Chuseok holiday, me, my roommate and some Korean friends visited the Gyeongbokgung palace. It's the biggest palace of the five located in Seoul, and the most beautiful, or so I've heard. I think it is a place worth visiting, but I personally, for example, liked the buddhist temple in Korean Folk village more. The palace, however, also has a Korean National Folk museum in the same area. The entrance fee to the whole palace area is 3,000W. Since it was Chuseok when we visited the palace, there were also some additional activities and booths. We, for example, got to make our own dreamcatchers, which I really liked. Now they are in our dorm room to make bad dreams go away :)

BANPO BRIDGE / 반포

This week we visited Banpo bridge during the evening with a group of friends. The bridge has a water fountain/rainbow light show with music every day at different times. It was pretty but I was actually more impressed about the walk there from Dongjak station, so many people having a picnic, "camping" with tents, fishing, jogging and just having a good time that the atmosphere there was great! :)

COEX MALL & AQUARIUM / 코엑스

Me, my roommate and some other friends here don't have school on Mondays, so we often do some city exploring on those days. One Monday after running some errands like visiting the Immigration office, we decided to meet and go to Coex Mall (click). It is really easy to get there, since the mall is big enough to include three different subway stations. I was trying to find good black jeans, which is not an easy task here because of the small Korean sizes, but I ended up buying them from familiar Zara at the mall. That was one of the few Western chain brands there, since there were more Korean stores and some more upscale international ones. I was also really surprised to find a Finnish Marimekko store there! The food court at the mall is also incredibly good, especially the different cafes and bakeries. We tried the red velvet cake at Magnolia Bakery.
At the mall there's also a big aquarium with different big and smaller fish, seals, manatees, jellyfish and even penguins! Me and my roommate were like acting like little kids there, we were so excited and taking soo many pictures and videos :D Definitely worth visiting!