Busan-Seoul Day 10: Starfield COEX & Lotte Mart Jamsil

After having breakfast at Cafe Stanford, we set out to take Line 2 (green) to Samsung Station to visit Starfield COEX Mall. The last time we were here, we had a good shopping haul during the Black Friday sales so the Hubby wanted to visit again. 

It's a colder day today at Starfield COEX Mall

Taking photos with the beautiful Christmas decorations!

Starfield Library

More photos!

However, we didn't find any deals this time except for a heavily discounted thick pants for the Eldest (it was better than those she had seen in Myeongdong)!

The Littlest found many Kpop Demon Hunters to take photos with!

Disappointed with shopping, we looked for a restaurant for lunch. We decided to split up because the Hubby, Eldest and I wanted to eat spicy Korean food while the Mum-in-law, Boy and Littlest wanted Japanese ramen.

Queueing at Menshoku

Ordering ramen from the screens

The Boy said the ramen was very good! 😃

According to Google Translate, the Korean words on the signboard say "Seoul Kkakdugi", a type of radish dish

The food we ordered!

We decided to leave after lunch as there was nothing much that we wanted to buy. We remembered how much we enjoyed shopping at Lotte Mart in Busan and decided to visit Lotte Mart Zettaplex for our final supermarket shopping spree! We took Line 2 (green) to Jamsil Station, where we passed through just 2 days prior!

Lotte Mart Zettaplex at Lotte World

Christmas/winter decorations at Lotte Mart

My colleague highly recommended these Korean potato chips (left), so I bought many boxes home as gifts;
Of course we had the Littlest's favourite fruit (right)!
They were super fresh and inexpensive here! 🍓

She kept snatching the brother's Avocado toy so we had to get one for her

I grabbed as many snacks as I could feasibly carry back to the hotel!! Filled a whole cart! *laughs* 🤭

With our foldable shopping bags full, we headed back to our hotel to drop off our shopping.

View from the train on our way back

We rested in the hotel before heading out for dinner. The Eldest and I wanted to dine at the famous Myeongdong Kyoja but the rest of the family did not so we decided to split up again.

Myeongdong Kyoja

The spicy noodles were really good! Better than I expected!

The Eldest and I really enjoyed our kyoja! Will I queue for it? No.
But if I don't have to queue then I don't mind eating it again!

The Hubby brought the rest of the family to the chicken BBQ restaurant that we had eaten for dinner 4 days ago when the Mum-in-law was feeling unwell and did not join us.

Yummy BBQ and cheesy bread

After our dinner, the Eldest and I continued with shopping in the streets of Myeongdong. Suddenly, strong cold winds blew through the streets onto the bodies of all of us unsuspecting shoppers and we shivered! I wasn't wearing my puffer jacket as I wasn't expecting a sudden dip in temperature to 4°C! I felt cold for the first time this trip (I don't feel cold easily)! 🥶😅 

We tried to take shelter in the warmth of the shops and that really helped us to keep warm. Once we were done with shopping, we headed back to the hotel.

Along the way, we spotted a food cart selling egg bread and the Eldest wanted one

Happy to be back in the comfort of our hotel!

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 11-12: Seongsu, Dongdaemun & Flight Home
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Busan-Seoul Day 9: National Museum of Korea, Noryangjin Market & Namdaemun

Started our day at 8am with our usual laundry run and breakfast at Cafe Stanford.

Was a bit tired of the food and decided to get creative with my own DIY mini croissant 😉

When we were ready to set out, we took Line 2 (green) to City Hall Station, transferred to Line 1 (dark blue) to Yongsan Station.

Yongsan Station

At Yongsan Station, we transferred to Gyeongui-Joungang Line (turquoise) to Ichon Station. We walked from Exit 2 to our destination, the National Museum of Korea! Entry was FREE for all visitors! 😀

It can be quite a long walk from the station so the Moving Walkway was very helpful! 😊 

Found a bench at the surrounding park for the older kids to have their breakfast

The National Museum was surrounded by a beautiful park!

National Museum of Korea

Beautiful weather for a day out!

Spot the N Seoul Tower in the background!
(We were just there 3 days ago)

We locked our belongings in the complimentary lockers, which were large enough for luggage!

I had contemplated between the War Memorial of Korea and National Museum of Korea and eventually decided on the latter because it has a Children's Museum! Entry is FREE but registration online is required.

The Korean words mean "Children's Museum" (according to Google)

Super cute areas for kids to play

The theme for the Children's Museum was Heritage Quest, where kids learn about Korean history through play

Big area for kids to run around and interact with various screens and things 

These fun puzzles and "toys" are replicas of actual artefacts found in the galleries! Super cool!

Interactive screen for learning about artefacts in the museum

More puzzles to stimulate the mind

Such a captivating place for kids!

Playing games

I love that the kids were not just playing, they were also learning about Korean history at the same time! They had a great time! I'd rank it among the top children's museums we have visited, which includes Melbourne Museum and National Gallery Singapore.

While the Mum-in-law watched the kids at the Children's Museum, the Hubby, Eldest and I explored the main galleries at the opposite end of the building. It was a relatively large building with lots to see! 

The main building

Very artistic and architectural!

This is the Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda, which has been designated a National Treasure of Korea.
The kids stack up blocks to form a kids version of this pagoda in the Children's Museum! Super cool!

There's something exquisite about ewers/jugs that I'm really drawn to!

Duck-shaped ewers, among other interesting exhibits at the museum

Exhibition on ancient Greece

Exhibition on Japan, one of their closest neighbours

After hitting 10k steps, we felt it was time to go meet up with the rest of the family. We stopped by the museum's store in search of souvenirs and found a very cute clutch whose design was inspired by actual artefacts known as melon-shaped ewers (aka jugs) that are very distinctive of the Korean Goryeo dynasty.

I had to bring this cute souvenir home and add to my collection of purses! 🤭

After we had reconvened with the rest of the family, we left the museum. We had a great time and highly recommend it!

Beautiful weather for exploring the museum

We took the Gyeongui-Joungang Line (turquoise) from Ichon to Yongsan stations and transferred to Line 1 (blue) to Noryangjin Station.

Crossing the sea

Noryangjin Station Exit 9

Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market

This was our 3rd visit to Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market (1st visit in 2014 and 2nd in 2023) as our family loves seafood! We promised to bring the Mum-in-law to try their live abalone! The selection of seafood was not as vast nor as affordable as Jagalchi Market in Busan so we didn't order as much.

We ordered fresh prawns for the Littlest because they are her favourite!

We bought 2 regular crabs for ₩35,000 

We also ordered salmon and yellowfin tuna sashimi for ₩70,000

We only spent ₩88,000 for seafood this time (excluding cooking fees). Much more controlled than in Jagalchi Market *laughs*.

We ate at the restaurant next to the one we had dined at 2 years ago

This restaurant had private rooms for large groups!

Super fresh sashimi (left) and seafood hotpot (right)

Live abalone (left) and grilled prawns (right)

The Boy ate most of the crabs because he didn't get to eat much of the king crab in Jagalchi Market because he wasn't feeling well (left);

After a very satisfying late lunch / early dinner, we took Line 1 (dark blue) to Seoul Station and transferred to Line 4 (light blue) train to Hoehyeon Station. We were here to shop at Namdaemun! We enjoyed shopping here during our last time visit.

Newly built shelter for the Namdaemun Market!

Eating tteokbokki (left) and buying beautiful hanbok for the kids' cousins (right)

When it started to get late, we decided to walk back to our hotel since it was located nearby (about 10-15 minutes walk). Since we'd pass by Myeongdong, we shopped at the shops along the way.

We discovered NYUNYU House, which sold all kinds of cute stuff! Such a gem!

Love the walls of super cute keychains! Had to buy a dozen! Couldn't resist!

Accessories store with reasonable prices (left);
Northface flagship store (right).
[Tip: don't bother joining the queue; just take the stairs down to the basement store (which has no queue), shop there for a while then take the lift up]

Yummy street food!

We munched on food that we bought from the street carts as we were still full from our late seafood lunch. Instead, we saved our stomachs for Korea's famous bingsu! 😋 SulBing Cafe was located just behind our hotel and was very popular so we decided to give it a try!

Excited for our desserts at SulBing Cafe!

We ordered waffles for the Littlest (left);
Churros and mango bingsu (right).

The place was packed with people hence it was a rather long wait for our food but it was worth the wait! So yummy! 🤩

It was a super sweet end to another great day in Seoul! 🩷

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 10: Starfield COEX & Lotte Mart Jamsil
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 8: Lotte World Adventure After 4

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 

Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!