Surprising Seoul

Hello again all, I'm back for another post! it's amazing how time seem to fly here in the sandpit, I suppose the fact that I spend most of my time away and flying probably has something to do with it.

After a slow-ish month in August, this month so far has been a lot busier what with work and also some nice meetups with friends and outings on my days off.

Since my last post, the trips I've done were:

Seoul, South Korea
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (a there-and-back flight)
Sydney/Auckland (my favourite trip!)
London (which I just got back from this morning)

Now I have 2 days off and a standby before my last flight for September, which is another Sydney/Auckland 5 day trip. Lucky me, back to Australia twice in one month! Although Sydney is not my home town, it's nice to be back in my country just the same. All the stores and familiar and I can get in & out of the supermarket quickly as I don't have to spend ages searching for what I want. I always stock up on 'essentials' while there :)

On to the highlights of SEOUL!!!




View from my hotel room, isn't it pretty

I had big plans to sightsee and was really excited to go to Seoul. Sadly, none of the crew wanted to sightsee as they had all been before, and unless you speak Korean, it's quite difficult to get around to all the places of interest as they are quite far from the hotel. Also, it rained quite a bit which really curbed my desire to get out and about. I plan to do some research online & get one of the Korean crew to write me some notes in Korean which I can use to get to where I want to go on my next trip.

Instead, I went with 2 of the girls to the high street shopping area about 6 blocks from our hotel. We had a look around and then found a place to have dinner. At the time I didn't know that anything red-coloured in Korea is extremely spicy! I had some BBQ chicken which while great, just about burnt my eyes out, the look on my face was apparently priceless. However, there was this strange yellow pickle thing which I venture to try & it was actually quite good.

Next day I returned to the main street for a little bit of shopping with my

allowance money.



Cute French bakery- the food they have here is soooo good (and cheap too!)


I got some local foods like sweets & chocolate before stopping at Daiso, the "1000-won" type store. It's so good! Everything there is very cheap 1-3000 won (about USD$1-3) and there's such an abundance of cute stuff! I picked up lots of art stuff like origami paper and some makeup brushes, bathroom supplies etc along with some other 'cute' items like a photo holder and a coffee mug.

Face Shop was closed for renovations so Skinfood had to do. Didn't find much that I liked but the girl gave me some samples. I bought a really nice redcurrant hand cream from 'Banila', a cosmetic store which reminded me of Benefit. The packaging is so sweet! :)


Wall mural in a little back alley


Street view


Even the packaging on potato chips is cute!! So adorable I wanted to buy it just for the bag :P



Finally I rounded out my trip to Seoul with a visit to Q Boutique, a cute vintage store I discovered in a back street. Vintage stores seem to be uncommon in Asia (at least that I have seen) and although on the increase I was happy to find one, especially a shop that was quite large and with a good range. The owner was really helpful and although she didn't speak much English I was able to get her opinion on my choices by use of mining and gestures :P I ended up buying a late 70's/early 80's sleeveless summer dress in a tiny floral print. It's really cute with a thin black belt (photos to come at some point in the future when I wear it out) Following week I was mad to see that Topshop had a dress in nearly the same print. Why must they copy everything, argh!!!


View on the way to Seoul.

That's it for now as Blogger refuses to upload any more pics, coming up I have some outfit posts and what I did in London & Sydney.

Hope you're all doing great!

Update Post

It's come to my attention that I've been a bit slack in the posting department. Sure, photos are fun but I really should actually describe what's been happening in between the photos as well!

So. Since I got to Dubai it's been nearly 3 months. The first 7 weeks or so was full of training and not much else (as it should be). I think I'm starting to get into a bored phase as most of the time my friends are away when I'm at home; plus, most of them like to go out to party a lot and it's not really my thing. I need to find some hobbies aside from just sitting on the internet all afternoon. (Even though I am also doing useful stuff like emailing my friends and talking to my family on FB chat) It probably doesn't help that a) It's Ramadan here (so social activities tend to die off a bit) and b) It's been really hot so no one feels like doing much. Now the weather is starting to cool down that should take care of itself over the next month or two.

I'd really like to get into sewing, or start drawing again to have something different to do. Often, I'm quite tired so on my off days I just want to sleep/lounge but I should get out of that habit as I think it makes me more tired for my trips.

Ok, on to what I did on my layovers.

LONDON:

This was my "supy" flight, where I flew as an extra crew. I was quite tired so we didn't go into London itself, but a few of us girls took the bus to a nearby town which had a Primark (uh oh!) and got some food as well. In Primark there were so many cute dresses, but as always, far too short for me to wear here in Dubai. Sad. I did however pick up 2 sets of cute pyjamas, some shopping totes and a party dress. Later that night we went to a cute local pub which I neglected to take any photos of. The food servings were HUGE so next time I'll only order an entree. Also, I won't forget to take pictures so I can share the cuteness!

PARIS:

My first 'operational' flight. It was very busy and although I was tired we were determined to go into town and see the sights. I was with 2 girls who hadn't been before. We took a tourist bus in and decided to be brave and get the train home. Normally this would have been fine except for some unannounced trackworks which nearly stranded us 7 stations away from our hotel!

Firstly we took the Metro to the Arc d'Triomphe for photos, then down to the Eiffel Tower. We took lots of photos (some of which you've seen) before getting some food while waiting for it to become dark for the light show at 10pm. After the light show I was still hungry so I got a takeaway pizza. I only managed 2 slices before we had to take the train. French people don't really eat on the go, so I felt like I should wait to eat until I got back to the hotel. We have a crew lounge so I had a microwave to re-heat the pizza :)

BANGKOK:

Went out for dinner with the crew, had some local dishes including chicken rice inside a pineapple and fish cakes :)

Then went to the night market and looked around, bought a dress or two and had some street food. Fruit on sticks- sooo yummy! Back to hotel at 1am where I watched some local tv before bed.

Got up early with the intention to see the sights but it was so hot, and I felt tired so I just went to MBK mall with some of the other crew. I didn't buy much, just some Thai sweets and some crispy cashews, while the others bought DVDs. After we went back to the hotel (in a tuk-tuk) I took a walk to a local crafts village where I bought a wooden frog, and a cat statue. Stopped in at a fabric/craftshop and bought a card holder for all my work licenses. Also bought a cute toy cat from a market stall. He looks just like my real cat and is wearing a little vest :)

SYDNEY:

First stop- McDonald's for a bacon'n'egg McMuffin breakfast with the crew, followed by a power nap before I met up with my friend Sam. We walked to Circular Quay and the Opera House while we waited for sunset so we could eat (Sam is fasting for Ramadan) then we had a yummy dinner at Pancakes at the Rocks. After that I headed back to the hotel for a quick Woolies run to stock up on Aussie items (Cheezels, Mint Slice, stockings etc).

AUCKLAND:

Mainly spent time around the hotel. Dinner at a Nando's (chips aren't the same in Dubai) and took a few photos, while deciding what to look at the next day). Got up early for hotel buffet breakfast (disappointed in the bacon) then walked into town to $3 Japan where I stocked up on some stationery & origami paper. Photos around the harbour and bought some souvenirs before heading back to the hotel for a quick nap before the flight.

More to come in the next post!!!