Busan-Seoul Day 11-12: Seongsu, Dongdaemun & Flight Home

DAY 11

It was our last breakfast at Cafe Stanford as we wouldn't have time to eat it the next day.

Final breakfast at Cafe Stanford for this trip

After breakfast, the Hubby suggested that we visit Seongsu, also known as the 'Brooklyn of Seoul'. We took Line 2 (green) to Seongsu Station.

Seongsu street

While we were exploring the neighbourhood, we randomly discovered Cafe Be Art and decided to check it out.

Climbing the stairs to Cafe Be Art

Cozy dining environment

We needed two tables for our big family

Food at the counter

The Eldest and I were the ones who love cafe food!
The drinks were good!

Super yummy waffles and cake

Balcony area

We really love the food but it was not substantial enough for the rest of the family. The Hubby spotted Mealbon Korean Restaurant for lunch.

Mealbon Korean Restaurant

They were known for their noodle soup sets;
Soup was full of flavour though slightly spicy due to the pepper.

Pork rice set

The Eldest and I ended up being too full to walk! 🤣 Before we left, we popped by Artbox Seongsu as it was so interestingly decorated!

Google Translate the Korean words:
"Caution. When an alien invasion occurs, cute people are taken first!" 😂

We decided to visit Dongdaemun next, as the last time we had visited was 12 years ago! We took Line 2 (green) to Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station (Exit 1). 

Discovered an interesting 'heart' installation at the stairs

Beautiful architecture

Dongdaemun was also full of shops but much less crowded than Myeongdong. Some malls we passed by/visited include Dongdaemun Design Plaza, HelloAPM and Doota Mall. Perhaps it was an ordinary Friday afternoon, hence it was super quiet.

Clothes here looked nice but was pricey compared to Myeongdong

Doota Mall

Doota Knight Garden

With nothing much to buy except for some clothes the Hubby managed to get from Northface at Doota Mall, we headed to Cheonggyecheon Stream to take some photos.

Dongdaemun's famous urban canal

Locals love to take walks along the scenic canal

Having fun on the stepping stones
(While being constantly warned by this mama not to fall into the water or else!)

An oasis in the middle of the city

Enjoying the sound of water flowing

The kids had fun crossing the stream again and again!

We spotted the actual Dongdaemun (Great East Gate), officially known as Heunginjimun, and walked over to take photos! It looked very similar to Sungnyemun aka Namdaemun (Great South Gate) that we had visited two years ago!

Heunginjimun

Heunginjimun Park

Starting point for the hike up to Seoul City Wall

Part of Seoul City Wall

You can even see N Seoul Tower from the top!
(We were there 5 days ago)

Peaking through the wall

It was a fun and easy climb and worth it for the view of the city!

Love the beautiful trees in the park!
We also found a good spot to take pictures with Heunginjimun! 😁

We walked to Dongdaemun Station (located very close by) and took Line 4 (light blue) back to Myeongdong for dinner. Since it was our last dinner in Seoul before we flew back, we decided to splurge on Korean BBQ at Woo Bros restaurant (we really enjoyed the food here during our previous trip)!

Gotta have all of our favourite Korean dishes!

The beef was expensive but so very good! 👍

Pork belly was good too!

Last dinner of this trip! How fast time flies!

After a very satisfying dinner, the kids wanted desserts at SulBing Cafe again. We indulged them since it was our last chance to eat them before we returned to Singapore!

Chocolate waffles and bingsu!

We had to sleep early so that we could get up at 4am the next morning. Can't believe that our trip was coming to an end! 😭

DAY 12

We had to give our usual hotel buffet breakfast a miss as we had to leave the hotel at 5am. I guess it was just as well since we had already eaten it for 6 days in a row! 😅

We had booked a Jumbo taxi via our hotel the day before and met our driver at the lobby at our agreed time. The journey to Incheon International Airport was about 45 minutes and we arrived at Terminal 1 at 5.45am.

After checking in our luggage and clearing customs, I collected our tax refunds and my purchase from the Duty Free stores.

Don't forget to get your receipts verified before clearing customs so that you can get your tax refunds easily at the Tax Refund counters

Collecting my purchase from the Duty Free counters

The Littlest finally had some time to play at Pororo playground, which she didn't have time to do so in the last trip.

Pororo Playground

Super excited to play!

Our Singapore Airlines plane departed on time at 8.50am.

Boarding our plane

Goodbye Seoul!

Kid's meal

Rice and beef for the adults

Our flight was 6 hours 35 minutes and we arrived in Singapore at 2.25pm.

The familiar control tower at Changi Airport 😁

It's good to be home! 🥰

My Reflections

As a first time visitor to Busan, we enjoyed the food and affordable prices as compared to Seoul. There's also a variety of different sightseeing attractions; whatever Seoul has, it seems that Busan also has, maybe a bit smaller. A Busan taxi driver shared that Busan has the best weather in all of South Korea and he's not wrong 😃

Pins and other souvenirs to add to my collection! 😁

We may not return to Seoul (we've already visited 3 times!) but we'll definitely visit Busan again! Until then... annyeong! 

~~~~~~~~

P.S: Attractions we have previous visited in Seoul:

• Banpo Bridge
• COEX Aquarium
• Everland Theme Park
• Rail Bike, Nami Island & Garden of Morning Calm Day Tour

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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
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 9: National Museum of Korea, Noryangjin Market & Namdaemun

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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!