Hi your gurl Sarah here to talk to y’all about GTL Korea Day 1:) After almost missing my connecting flight to Korean in Toronto, I safely make it to Korea! (woo!) I met up with Lexi who was on the same flight as me and we took the airport limousine to Myeongdong. We struggled as we make our way up the horrible hill to our airbnb, trudging our heavy luggages. In front of me, I see Lexi and Lulu trading off the giant duffle bag like hot potatoes up the hill. 10 minutes later we finally make it up to our airbnb, all sweaty and exhausted. After unpacking and resting for a bit, we decided to go out and explore the surrounding area. We went to the busy parts of Myeongdong and got ourselves some delicious street food! We had an egg bun (would 100% recommend). We walked around and saw countless makeup stores, food stands, clothing outlets and so much more. It felt like a mini Time Square, with bright lights everywhere. We also had dinner nearby and ate some nice warm soup.
There was a light displaying going on @ Cheongecheon river(twas nearby). It was very elaborate, varying from Christmas themed lights to adorable cartoon characters. There was also a light display dedicated to BTS’s V because it was recently his birthday. The display was unexpectedly long and at the end there was a booth selling lanterns that float on the river. Unfortunately, right when we were going to buy a lantern they ran out of lanterns :(. At the end of the display, there was an amazing Christmas tree set up with music and a stage. So we decided to go up the stage and dance to get some footage for our video we plan to release at the of this program. 😉
After the light display, we walked around for awhile and ended up somewhere random… We found a convenience store during our adventure and Lexi was able to buy her transportation card for around 2500 won. We then decided to go see the bell ring to celebrate the New Year. We were about to take the subway, but we soon realized the location was just a 10 min walk from where we were. We were kinda of lost but we soon found a crowd of people and followed them to the location where the bell was. When we finally arrived there was a huge crowd. There were people dressed up in traditional clothing playing traditional Korean instruments, and surrounding them was a long line of policemen that was controlling the crowds and traffic. There were so many people that a lot of my friends back in the states thought I was in New York celebrating the New Years at Time Square when they saw my story on insta :D. As Jan 1st neared, we started to count down and when New Years finally hit nothing really happened :0. We were kinda far so the sound of the bell was not very loud and when we counted down to 0 the crowd kinda of just died. This was sorta shocking because I expected some screaming, couples kissing and people randomly saying “새해 복 많이 받으세요” which means Happy New Years in Korean. Though the countdown was anti-climatic, it was overall a new experience and I enjoyed seeing the the performers perform and sing.
After the bell ring, we tried to take the subway back but because there were so many people in the area it probably would have taken forever to get back. So we decided to walk back with Lulu leading the way. We finally arrived back to our airbnb, and we knocked out zzz. Well Lulu did, ur gurl was jet-lagged so ye cry 🙂
GTL Korea 2020 