I didn't post this in my previous post as my photos were pretty much messed up ;; Well these were most of the freebies from the tour package, minus the lightstick which I got scammed by SM heol
why I actually am taking so long to come up with the posts for this korea trip would be because of how messed up my photos are in my vsco - like I'm so confused which is which day and like photos are like thrown all over the place - So I had basically deleted everything and organised them nicely and re editing every single photo
ok
back to day three
this day was planned to be visiting all the apgujeong idol stuffs, moving into the airbnb and going dongdaemun shopping
but guess what
exo screwed all my plans once again :-)
apgujeong is basically like an idol town - you have all or most major korean entertainment companies there and many idol owned cafes and restaurants as well as the newly opened k star road
the plan was to visit kona beans (teuk,kyu,sung min moms cafe) then head over to sm building which has k star road on the way and then other entertainment buildings as well which will lead to cube cafe (owned by cube entertainment) then after head to grill5 (donghae's taco restaurant) then go grab a bubble tea at cofioca maybe
so we took a shorter route which min and cherie had found while I was away at the concert and took the train over to apgujeong rodeo
and we were greeted by 2pm at the apgujeong rodeo train station and along with it there were hand prints as well
There was a pretty massive kpop exhibit thing but not really the idols I am super interested in so we just moved on
I realised korea's uniqlo always look super aesthetic ?? since it is always a store on its own and is always super white and super great as a background
and min wanted to take a photo with the super pretty mint thing (i have no idea what it is) so here are her photos
and yup we have reached kona beans after a pretty long walk
the food were pretty pricey considering the portion and how it wasn't exactly super good. The sweet potato latte was super unique though ; was kind of weird but nice at the same time
and this was where my stressing started
it was basically like 12 ? rebecca (the singaporean friend I made during day one of exoluxion) texted me asking if I was interested in going for the concert today, saying her friend she made from today's global package is selling it away as her brother does not want to attend and wished to sell it at original price
NOTE : ORIGINAL PRICE - WHICH IS ONLY SGD$137 FOR A ROW 5 TICKET
like you will never ever get that kind of price in singapore ??? A row 5 ticket for lost planet in singapore would have costed me almost $300
Problem was : my cousins didn't exactly want to let me go because we were moving into our airbnb and it would be inconvenient for them to bring around 3 luggages with one less person
But then Kona Beans started playing EXO songs and I was legit having super bad withdrawals from the previous day
after much whinings - they agreed ((YAY))
next thing got me panicking
the concert starts at 4 and I will need almost an hour to take the train there since seoul olympic park is so far off in the corner
then I also finally bought my face mask saving my mouth from the cold
I also wanted to go see the SM building super badly and i knew that i most probably won't have the chance to go see it if I had left so we still headed over to the currently renovating one which has the super big photos of idols on it
just right outside another train station exit would be k star road and it was along the way to the old SM building
and of course we took photos with the bears
surprise surprise
I didn't copy suho ok
he copied me
Suho actually took this photo a few days after I took mine and I am just in utter awe how this is possible
The old SM building was along the K star road stretch and you couldn't exactly fully see the whole red velvet poster because it was super big so we decided to cross over
Just at the side was TTS's one so we took photos while waiting for the traffic light
and back to the train station where I had rushed off was seohyun's musical advertisement ! would have totally wanted to catch it but the seoul one had ended
guess what : I actually took the wrong train - which I totally thought would not happen to me
When you take the purple line which is line 5, you will have two ends - Sangil-dong and macheon.
So basically to go olympic park you need to take towards macheon but guess what I took the train towards Sangil - dong as I didn't take notice of the words and only realised when I was at myeongil that I was going in the wrong direction (myeongil is basically viva polo's location wtf ok I wanted to go visit chan umma already)
Then I had to get off and take a u turn and go back to change trains wasting super a lot of time and I was already running late as the girl I was going to buy the ticket from wanted to go in already
at that point on the train I was actually doubting everything - like if it was legit or I was going to get scammed after going all the way down but it was a little too late ; also I was so afraid of not being able to find the girl selling me the ticket as I only had her kakaotalk contact and she was sometimes slightly slow and replying
also rebecca who went for mosh again was already in the venue so i couldn't exactly get her help
but nevertheless I have reached olympic park station and was greeted by minseok birthday adverts !
as well as the super duper long queue for the toilet
Tried my best to take a few photos while running over to the stadium because it was super far from where I was ;w;
Passed by the ed sheeran concert venue which had fans queueing for mosh
And curse those sandy and rocky ground - it was so difficult to fast walk through that
and bless me , I met the seller and we had gone in together. I had such a hard time trying to find my seat and was just looking like a lost sheep because I had not seen the seat map and don't exactly know how the seat numbers work
Basically they give you a zone number and they don't tell you the row unless you check the detailed seat map and I just couldn't find my seat number and there were no guards to help and I didn;t exactly know how to ask any of the korean fans cause they all seem so intimidating
Finally found my seat and I was surrounded by all the japanese global package fans - the lady who sat next to me looks 90% like megan's mom I am not kidding and sitting next to her was this fan with her husband ok
Again - I hate seating for concerts because I always feel that it doesn't give me the 'I am at a concert' feel.
Especially so when the mature japanese fans don't exactly scream and all which makes it hella awkward for me ok
selca which I had sent to my friends as this was totally unexpected of me to attend
didn't get the previous day's banner which was super disappointing but at least I got day 2's which means always protect you
the playing of the usual concert videos start !
the view was pretty good and I was honestly only really able to take videos when I stood up which was hardly orz and especially so when it was time for the banner
and can I say how near the stage is to the seating area ?? Like if they walk in the middle of extended and fans stick out their hands you can touch them , and indeed the members would sometime shake hands but most of the time they will be walking nearer to the mosh as to avoid the unnecessary touching
and having this seating area gave me a superb view of sekai during playboy and kim jongin all wet in his white top
oh and baek cried during promise right in front of my area but ... (no comments)
just look at the amount of people in mosh when we were going to exit . . .
my phone was running super low on battery and this was the day I forgot my portable
great job natale
met up with rebecca after the concert and she had accompanied me cross the bridge before we parted ;w;
horrified by the crowd at the train station
this was the state it was in - like the station is so full that you can't even get down to the platform level because the platform level was as full and only cleared when the next train arrived (bless the shitty iPod camera quality because I could not open up my phone's camera due to the low battery it was running on)
Rode on the train all the way to Dongdaemun History and Culture Park station while listening to music and peeking at other people's twitter because I didn;t want to risk not being able to contact my cousins once I have reached
Finally met up with them and my darling portable charger
DDP is such a beauty - would have wished to visit it during the day because how aesthetic it is
dont mention to me how I have missed Seoul Fashion Week A/W'15 by a few weeks at DDP
Main aim here would be to visit the SM X Stardium store at the design lab
It is most probably the most empty SM store next to the airport one
and it was here where I realised you can actually redeem an exo photo exclusive for concert ticket holders as I saw a few koreans redeeming it ;w; and there was a sign at the counter in korean regarding but I was far too lazy to read it
but guess what - I could not find my ticket ((great job ok i only found it in my winter jacket pocket when i was at hkia))
some of the merchandise sold at this outlet can't be found in the others ! especially many of the stardium tops
can I just show off the item I had splurged on while I was there
actually I just felt I needed to purchase something there as I was spending such a long time there and taking photos and if I didn't purchase anything won't it be real awkward to leave
so guess who spent 59,000 won to purchase this basketball top
again this top isn't that obvious that it is an exo related top because it had sehun's overdose number thingy and just a S which looked like a 5 behind
honestly couldn't decide whose to get ! wanted to get luhan's one since he is extreme limited considering the fact he isn't in exo anymore / but it was in navy so I wasn't exactly keen so I decided to buy sehun's one (where he was my undetermined bias) then but I regret so much not buying nini merch now
Another major regret is that I should have bought most my stuff from here because they throw in a bunch of freebies unlike coex which I spent the most there :> the staff had thrown in a luhan stardium card and the chanyeol photo which was for concert ticket redemption
settled for some authentic korean fried chicken we came across at the area !
was pretty good and pretty cheap !!
we then ventured on to the open market but there wasn't much so we went to lotte fitin which opens till super late (or early like at 5am???)
only visited this mall because we were pretty tired and didn't know what was the timing for the last train back so we didn't take the risk of staying out too late
dongdaemun clothes certainly aren't like dirt cheap like you might expect them to be as they are still situated in malls the pricing remains relatively medium range like 30,000-40,000
but some shops sell pretty cheap ones like at 7,000 and the quality is not bad as well !
lotte fitin had many floors and the most bottom level if I don't recall wrongly would be the sports level - cherie bought her new balance there for like 70,000 won which is dirt cheap ok and there were so many designs as well
yes , not forgetting my airbnb photos. we had booked a loft near sookmyung women's univ and it was super convenient cause there were 2 train stations nearby and near many of the seoul attractions i guess. although travelling to gangnam area was a pain in the ass
it was pretty comfy although we didn't exactly know how to use the heater system resulting in ice cold showers sometimes but all was well.
there was wifi and the tv had cable channels - everyday morning consisted of watching mini clips of the return of superman or music programmes
south korea day one | everysing at incheon intl airport , gangnam yoogane
south korea day two | smtown global package : exolu'xion , smtown@coexartium , children's grand park
south korea day four | miss lee's cafe, ssamziegil, gyeongbokgong, gwanghwamun, ehwa women's university, hongdae stylenanda flagship store, noryangjin fish market
south korea day five | teacher kim dumplings , lotte world, lotte mart
south korea day six | siloam sauna, namdaemun, myeongdong : spao, jholic, nature republic, kang hodong's baekjeong bbq, music korea
south korea day 7 | kamong, viva polo, smtown@coexartium, myeongdong
X
Natale