This DivaNun Guide is a one pager of everything to do, see, and eat in Seoul.

Historical

The Royal Palaces
- Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, Gyeongbokgung, Gyeonghuigung
  - I've highlighted the ones I've seen
  - The palaces have a fee to enter but buying the bulk pass for all 5 palaces is the cheapest option even if you don't see every palace.
  - Bulk Pass Price: 10,000 won
Bukchon Hanok Village
- A preserved version of a village during the Jonseon Dynasty.
- You can wander around the village for free but I highly suggest you pay to get into the observation deck.
- Observaiton Deck Price: 3,000 won

Cultural

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art
- An amazing art gallery that combines both ancient and contemporary art. One of the best interior designing I've ever seen in an art museum.
Hongdae Neighborhood
- This is where the university is and where my hostel was located. A great place for partying and night life. Lots of good restaurants to explore.
Itaewon Neighborhood
- This is a very foreigner heavy district. There are some good restaurants but overall not a place I prefered to hang out out.
Gangnam Neighborhood
- The bright and shiny neighborhood south of the river. I found this place to be very expensive and didn't hang out there very much.
Ihwa Mural Village
- Murals and cute cafe's line the hills of this cute little village.

Miscellaneous

Facebook Pages
Night Life
- Gay/Trans (Homo Hill)
  - Tucked away in Itaewon is Homo Hill where a number of different bars catering to gay and trans people are placed.
- Thursday Party (124-6 Itaewon 1(il)-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea)
  - A fun bar with a mix of both tourists and local college students. Though it does lean more heavily tourist. The drinks are strong and it will be popping on a weekday
- NB1/ NB2 (362-4 Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea )
  - Large loud club on weekends. Open very late. Always packed
  - They play hip hop and pop music.
  - Free before 10pm the cover starts off at 10,000 won before 11 and it rises at midnight.
Accomodation
- Time Travelers Party Hostel in Hongdae
  - 11 Yeonhui-ro 2-gil, Sinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
  - Very cheap and amazing hostel. DJ the owner is really chill and they go on group BBQ dinners on Friday.
  - Youthful staff and a bar in the game lounge made this a very social and amazing place to hang out.
Souveniers
- Skin care products are a must when you go to Seoul. It's so much cheaper then the United States. My favorite store was Skin Food but also Nature's Republic is forever bae.

Food

After a month of Japanese food I was looking for something spicy and different.

Cafe Blanc (173-14 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea)
- This was a cafe near my hostel. They served freshly baked bread and other dishes that took their inspiration from France but use Korean foundations.
- The fried pork sandwich and the pastries above were my favorite things.
Piggy Bank (331-1 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea )
- I was told that unlike in the states Korean Barbque has meat specific restaurants. The first shop I went to was chicken only but piggy bank gave me the juicy pork and beef korean barbque that I love. The meat here is cooked over hot stones and it was so good.
Korean Fried Chicken
- I don't have a favorite place for fried chicken in Seoul because everywhere I ate was delicious and the portions were huge.
Vegetables
- Korea is a place that eats a lot of meat so aside from the Banchan, the small plates of fermented veggies and other good stuff, that comes with your bowl of rice and meat you won't eat very much green stuff. I even resorted to eating a salad because I was so desperate for a vegetable

Transportation/ Navigation

In Seoul
- While there aren't as many sings in english as there where in Tokyo I had no problem navigating the urban transportation infastructure. I took buses and trains and always managed to get where I intended
- Google Maps does not give walking directions so it's terrible for that but I was able to plot all my bus and train travel using it
To Seoul
- There are non stop flights from Tokyo to Seoul but I decided that I wanted to add some extra cities for my trip. So Instead I flew to Fukuoka and took the Ferry from Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, South Korea,
- Ferry Travel
  - The Ferry is very cheap and if you have tome to squeeze in two extra cities its one of the best ways to travel. A one way ticket only cost me $65 and takes around 3 hours over the sea of Japan.
  - Important Reminder you have to pay port taxes in cash before you can get on the boat. It's about 600 yen on the Japanese side and 3,000 won on the Korean side. I thought I could pay in card in Busan and I almost missed my ferry home.

Next Visit

Boseong Green Tea Fields
- Can you imagine the photoshoots I would pull in these luscious ass fields
Sunny Books
- LGBT Book store in Itaewon
Jjimjilbang
- 24 hour beauty spa's, where you can get massages and soaks in all kinds of different rooms.
- Siloam is the one I heard was the best

Subscribe below so you never miss an addition to the Archive!

Close your eyes and imagine with me: you step off the bus in Seoul. Your downtown and you can tell because the sky greets you with metal clouds that glitter in the night and reflect the world during the day. You walk 3 blocks north and duck east into an alleyway and suddenly you're transported back to the Joseon Dynasty. The rush and hecticness of the city fall away as you explore the narrow alleys and intricate details of the traditional Korean houses called "hanok". People wander around you dressed in high-waisted, A-line dresses called Hanbok's- they are bright and colorful. You are lost in another time, but fantasies don't last forever and the woman wearing the hanbok pulls out a selfie stick and you're transported back to the present.

For my first full day in Seoul I wanted to do as much exploration as possible. Thankfully the Bukchon Hanok village is situated in between the two main palaces. Word of advice Google maps does not work for street by street directions. It was able to tell me where the bus would pick me up and drop me off, however, I had to navigate the winding streets around my hostel to get there.

I walked over 9 miles in total my first day, but it was worth it because the village was originally created to house nobility and high-ranking government officials. And you can really see the majesty in these houses through the intense attention to detail. Despite years of wear and tear the attention paid was so clear.

As I wandered around the village I stumbled across this street art that took up the bottom portion of a large wall. I wasn't sure if it was history lesson from the Joseon Dynasty or some kind of protest art.

Besides taking photos and exploring the maze that makes up this village I highly suggest everyone find the Bukchon Hanok Observatory. From there you can see the roofs of all the houses and the beautiful patterns they made. Looking south you can see the roofs of these hundred year old houses and how the blend into modern city, looking north and the hanok's fade off into the base of the mountain.

Exploring the history of Seoul through this village was the perfect introduction to Seoul, a city that blends so seamlessly the past, present, and future. Make sure you subscribe below so you never miss an addition to the Archive!