SOLO IN SEOUL | Ep 5 💅 Korean glass nails, Gwangjang Market + Myeongdong street food, museum vlog

After 2 weeks so far in South Korea, I’m traveling back to Seoul from Busan in the vlog. ✌️🇰🇷 In total, I spent 3 weeks traveling alone in South Korea.

Returning back to Seoul felt great after spending 4 days in Busan along the coast. Earlier in my trip I had stayed in the Myeongdong neighborhood of Seoul and when I returned from Busan, I had booked an AirBnb in Gangnam. Unfortuately, it turned out to benothing like the listing and ultimately unsafe. The men in the builing were predetory, watching me constantly and trying to force their way into my apartment. Even demanding I give them my passport and social security number under the guise of being ‘building security’. It was a rough night trying to find somewhere else to move to – I stayed up most of the night. The reality of solo travel is that it isn’t always Romantic and cute – sometimes these things happen, but listening to your gut and being confident in protecting yourself is key.

The next day, I had an appointment at TokyoNail in Gangnam where I had my gel-x removed and had Korean glass nail art put on. I have never loved my nails more! It was such a wonderful experience – it total 3 hours but very worth it. My nail artist, Ji-na (ㅈㅣㄴㅏ) was very kind to me and extremely considerate of the language barrier (my Korean is very limited). She made sure I was happy and comfortable throughout the service. These nails lasted me THREE MONTHS with no chipping or breaking. BEST nail set ever.

💅SALON IG: https://instagram.com/tokyo.nail_1st?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
I made my appointment through DM. 🙂

After my appointment, I moved my belongings into my new AirBnb back in Myeongdong where I had found a new place to stay. I took som time to relax and lay low after so much travel and emotional exhaustion. I had street food for dinner and a chill night in. I’d still been working in PST (midnight-9am KST) so rest really was key. The next day I did a lot of working, visited a local cafe and went shopping at ArtBox. You can see my haul in this vlog! So many cute things!! for dinner, I met up with my new friend, Kristin (who I met at HYBE on my first day in Korea) and we went to Gwangjang Market and had scallion pancakes and hodugwja (Korean walnut pastry). We loved it so much, we went back for more… which you’ll see in my next vlog! The next day I worked all night until 9am, napped, then started my day later in the afternoon. I visited the grounds of the National Museum of Korea again but this time walked through the garden and visited the Hangeul Museum – Hangul is the Korean alphabet, which unlike the English alphabet, is rich with history, symbolism, meaning and purpose. I encourage anyone visiting Seoul to stop by this FREE museum and learn about Hangeul. After the museum, I met Kristin at Banpo Bridge for Korean fried chicken and banana milk while we watched the sunset. Sadly the wild was too insane for the water and light show on the bridge to happen, but we loved exploring and spending time together.

NEXT UP…. My last few days in South Korea!! 🥲

Seoul 🇰🇷 Ep. 1 | https://youtu.be/byb3lh0uGRs
Seoul 🇰🇷 Ep. 2 | https://youtu.be/M1uBrk1NLp0
Seoul 🇰🇷 Ep. 3 | https://youtu.be/0TH3zdQ2MxA
Seoul 🇰🇷 Ep. 4 | https://youtu.be/IyyrclDITkw
+ more to come!

2 Comments

Jenna Martin 3 years ago
Thanks for following along with me on my solo journey in Korea! What else would you like to see me vlog about in the future? I have more exciting travel plans coming up soon. 😉
tiannatru 3 years ago
The nails, the star hair clips, the street food all look so gooooood!

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