The Garden Party! #NicGoesToSeoul Day 2

by - March 27, 2023

 


Please excuse my lack of imagination for the title of this post 🤣 I'm just fixated with the fact that we went to a pretty garden first thing during this day's trip 🫰 Yun lang talaga, sorry na.

It's a good thing that we stayed in after checking in our hotel during our first night, because our second day was jam-packed! Although it wasn't a stressful kind of jam-packed, but we ticked a lot of boxes in our go-to list, and that made us happy troopers!

Smiley faces because we had at least 8 hours of sleep 🙌

Our view on our way to the train station to Myeongdong station

For our 2nd day we decided to go on a tour to several places outside of Seoul, and to save us from stressing about transportation and admission fees we decided to book this trip via Klook and call it a day 👍 we paid around Php 3,500+ each and this includes all admission fees going to 3 places and the comfy Starex van that drove us to these places... Oh and free water 🤣

Not this one, I got this massive 2L water bottle from CU for 1,200 won.

Supposedly the first place in our itinerary was the Petit France, but according to our driver/tour guide it's best we go to the Garden of Morning calm first- oh he made a great decision with that 👍

THE GARDEN OF MORNING CALM


When we arrived in The Garden of Morning calm after an hour's drive from Myeongdong there were no other visitors aside from us in our tour group, which means we have the whole place to ourselves! 


See, it feels as if we have the garden to ourselves!

There's something about Korea's air that made me look this ~fresh~ 🍃


I used my Strathberry backpack which in theory should have been the best travel bag, but nope the straps kept on unravelling 🫣

A mini pond that froze

A little 'buwis buhay' shot hahaha. It doesn't look like it but going to this spot is a little dangerous because of all the rocks you'll land on once you fall 🫣





The whole garden is massive that our allotted tour time here of 1 hour and a half is not enough to take loads of photos and appreciate nature and all it's wonders. Aside from taking photos there are things visitors can do inside The Garden of Morning calm such as have a meal in a restaurant, chill inside a coffee shop/bakery, and waste away your wons at their souvenir, however these establishments weren't open when we went there. I'm not sure why the establishments were not open that time since we arrived at around 8-9 in the morning because at that time I badly need a cup of piping hot coffee to function as a normal human being.

Come to think of it, it really was a good call for our tour guide to make this the first stop when there were still no other visitors aside from us. Just imagine if the place is brimming with tourists, all the more our 1 hour won't be enough for us to snap photos at magdrama pak pak!



This photo area is really stunning 🥹 



The bakery/café


The wobbly bridge that end up making me dizzy crossing it.

Going back to the parking lot

After visiting The Garden of Morning calm, our tour guide/driver, Brian, drove us to this quaint restaurant for our lunch-take note this lunch is not part of what we paid for the tour, we paid it separately. Come to think of it Brian didn’t even ask us if we want to have Korean food for lunch, he just assumed hahahah! Though he did ask us if we have any allergies, which luckily we don’t. 





In all fairness, the Dak-Galbi is gooooood especially the tok, or the rice cake mochi-like component 🥹🥹🥹 That massive skillet full of Dak-Galbi can feed up to 5 people or 15 ducks but all of it were shared only between the 3 of us! Overall, 17,000 won per person was well spent.

Wala ng mga topak, busog na kasi 🤣

Moving on to…


NAMI ISLAND



I didn't anticipate that Nami Island is a legit island that you need to ride a boat to reach it! I thought you just have to ride a car then there's a bridge, and poof! You are transported to the magical paradise of Naminara Republic! But obviously that's not how you go to this half-moon shaped islet! Aside from riding a cruise, you can also reach the island via Zipline! I mean I would love to try this but my health insurance isn't international, so... 🥹🤣



A couple of weeks ago this was snow.







Any fans of Winter Sonata here?




Photo card yarn?

Nami island is pretty much a nature park perfect for taking photos, and doing fun activities like riding a bike, eating ice cream, and even swimming during the summer season. When we visited Nami island 2 weeks ago there were still traces of winter, with the small part of the park with snow (or sludge, because it's pretty much ice and mud at that time), and there were still bald trees, particularly the rows of Gingko trees. To be honest I was kind of expecting to see a Cherry blossom tree blooming in the island, unfortunately not a single tree decided to bloom early.

But hey, at least we saw peacocks 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

PETIT FRANCE

Last on our agenda is Petit France, a quaint little tourist attraction village filled with 1700 French aesthetic. Unlike the other two, there's not a lot of activities to do here aside from gawk at the huge add Little Prince statue, an take a lot of photos.


Yes, kuya?

Ummm wtf

Inside one of the houses showing what a French lady's room looks like in the 1700's- apparently it's full of porcelain plates 🤷🏻‍♀️



I don't even know at this point.




Balloooooooons 🎈



 
Would I suggest going to Petit France? Hmm not really to be honest hahaha! I suggest you take the trip with the Alpacca farm instead 🥹


Catching the Golden hour while stuck in traffic.




Originally we were supposed to be dropped off in Myeongdong, but due to the traffic our guide dropped all of us in Hongdae- and from there we decided to visit a magical place which I'll just share in another post because this is just too damn long already.

To whoever reads this who want to try out the nature excursion we had, you can check it out in Klook HERE

Anywhooo, Love always,
Nicole



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