[leisure] Seoul viewed from 63 Building (≧▽≦)

After 3 years of residency in this fine city, I realize that except for the numerous restaurants I have been to, I have pretty much avoided popular places in Seoul like a plague. I always have a tendency to avoid tourist traps, or generally places with too many people… you get my point.
Thank God(?) I now have 2 friends fresh from Europe who are eager to soak in the atmosphere of this city. As much as I hate to travel outside of the Sinchon-Edae vicinity these days, courting these two curious folks to popular places in town is a perfect excuse/motivation for me to actually look at Seoul from a non-foodie POV.
Ugh I speak too much. Let’s cut to the chase. Yesterday was the biggg day for Seoulites because it was the time for the annual firework festival. I hate fireworks, I think that it is a waste of money, but due to various reasons I listed above, I decided to go out and have fun (lol). Determined to avoid the insane crowd of firework-lovers by the river bank, the friend and I aimed to a higher ground.

[travel] The cats of Anafiotika, Athens… and other things…

If there is only one place to go in Athens, I’d head straight to Anfiotika.
Don’t get me wrong. Athens is quite an amazing city. The Acropolis is mindblowing. The food amazing and the coffee incredible. Athens, in a way, reminds me a lot of Hanoi–that bustling, chaotic city with too much heat and too much traffic. Just like how I cannot quite identify my feeling for Hanoi, be it love, fear, hatred, confusion–I am not sure how I felt about Athens. Athens is so different from the Western European cities I have been to; it possesses a totally different vibes from Mediterranean destinations I have visited. I tell everyone I know to visit Athens because, heck, it’s cheap, and I usually stop there.

But if there is one place that makes me want to go back to Athens, again and again and again, it must be Anafiotika.

[travel] Snapshots from Lisbon: a guide to Miradouro

Finally, finally I got around to write about Lisbon–the last city I visited during my winter break. I booked roundtrip tickets to Lisbon on a whim, simply because the prices on easyJet were tempting and because I wanted to fill my free days with as much traveling as possible (come to think of it, during my 5 week winter break, I only spent 3 days at home!). I did not expect much, to be honest. All that I had known of Lisbon and Portugal were 1) my favorite pastry in the world aka pastel de nata aka egg tart came from Lisbon so I was sure in for a treat and 2) Portugal is not Spain. Confident with my immeasurable knowledge of the world, I hopped on a late flight and arrived in Lisbon at 11pm on a fine winter night.

[travel/leisure] Tulips galore: a day in Keukenhof Garden, Lisse, the Netherlands

Warning: heavy flow of photos ahead.

I’m sure we all have heard about the fabled Keukenhof of the Netherlands, otherwise known as ‘the garden of Europe’, where, every Spring, around 7 million bulbs of flowers vie with each other demanding we miserable ugly human beings’ attention and admiration. The legend is true. But, oh, the legend you hear is nothing compared to what you can actually see in Keukenhof in real life.

As an expat living in the Netherlands (or anywhere in Europe for that matter), not making a pilgrimage to Keukenhof from mid-March to mid-May every year is a crime. Simple as that. I am all for a clean record, so, yesterday, amid a shitstorm of papers, assignments and other unnamed tasks, a friend and I still braced ourselves for an adventure into the real heart of this windmill-tulip-clog-cheese-dike country.

[LEISURE] SPRING DESTINATIONS IN SEOUL: Kyunghee University Campus

Prepare yourselves for the best of cherry blossoms at Kyunghee University because boy do they bloom and beam right to the depth of your soul.

[LEISURE] SPRING DESTINATIONS IN SEOUL: Deoksugung palace & Changgyunggung Palace

Continuing with my own edition of spring destinations in Seoul, this time I’ve chosen two places that I think are what make this flower admiring season a bit different from your experiences (if you’re not from Korea of course). Introduce to you Deoksugung palace & Changgyeonggung palace.

[leisure] Spring destinations in Seoul: Seokchon Lake cherry blossoms @ Jamsil, Seoul

I LOVE SPRING. But then after a long cold winter who doesn’t? The weather is getting positively warmer. People are slowly discarding boring black items and instead warming up to a more uplifting fashion. Most importantly, spring is the season of blossom which is pretty much what photography lovers like me practically live for. As I’d done quite a lot of Seoul/Korea traveling before joining this blog, I figure these photos taken back in the days must not go to waste, which is probably the only reason why I’m starting this spring destinations in Seoul thingy until spring officially comes. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos and visit these places in spring because oh god are they beautiful.

UPDATE (and it’s important so READ IT FIRST): So after I wrote this post I kinda got excited and decided to go see Seokchon lake this year. And guess what? The whole place now is a MESS. Don’t even bother going there this year. JUST DON’T.  They’re building a lot of stuff right now and everything is covered with dust and concrete. The trees looked just sad and ill and yea. If you still stay in Seoul until next spring or visit Seoul spring 2k15, maybe Seokchon lake will be better then.

[eat] Great udon and even greater pastry in Ichon, Seoul

After a super duper long hibernation, I’m finally back. Sadly, school is back as well which means I won’t be able to update the blog as much as I want to. To make up for my more-than-unforgivable absence, this post is going to be super long (with pictures) and filled with nothing but flowers, awesome playgrounds and delicious food!

[travel] Wonderful winter scenery at Chuncheon, Korea

It’s 5 hours to the 3rd of January 2014 and I still think it’s 2012. Time is strange. To anyone who’s reading this post I hope you’ve had a great NYE.

Remember the time when I wrote an ~article worth~ post about spending a marvelous autumn day at Nami Island and asked you to check out Chuncheon’s signature dishes for we couldn’t afford a proper meal due to our state of forever living on a tight budget? Well this time I’ve finally had my dream come true trying them myself at the very heart of where the dishes come from: Chuncheon. Of course we didn’t spend an entire day traveling to only eat a pan of marinated chicken, but what Chuncheon had in store for me was absolutely beyond my imagination.

[travel] Chinatown @ Incheon, Korea

I like Seoul and all its diverse ranges of food and cultural venues, but soon enough new places start running out and sadly so does my creativity when it comes to choosing a good one to hang out. In addition to my pent-up frustration, the weather is at its worst these days (raining mornings, wet snow and blowing winds etc.) which makes every Friday aka the only time of the week I have a full day off a problem. This weekend, in order to celebrate non-existent Thanksgiving in Korea aka a reasonable excuse to get out of Seoul, I headed to Incheon and spent the day walking around Korea’s only official Chinatown.

This post is pretty personal what with my face plastered all over on photos, trivial complaints and cat-centered stories so…you have been warned.