Day 4: Hanbok photos

We started this day with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (we were actually on time for breakfast but skipped it because of the queue).  In a lot of restaurants in Korea you get a little device while waiting, it starts vibrating when your order is ready, so you can come to pick it up. The device at Dunkin Donuts even has advertisement being played on a small screen.

After breakfast we went on our way to the Goguan photo studio, where I had an appointment for a photo shoot in hanbok.

At this studio they have a large amount of Hanboks that can be used for taking photos. They have 4 different categories to choose from (normal, dancer, princess or wedding hanbok). I chose the wedding category because I love the big sleeved hanboks and as I already have a hanbok at home it wouldn't feel as special with a normal one. After choosing what kind of hanbok you want to wear (and if applicable what kind of wig) you are escorted to the changing room. You start with choosing which hanbok you want to wear. They have 2 huge walls full of hanbok, but luckily for me they only had 4 wedding hanboks (I'm really bad at making choices). After choosing your hanbok you put on the under hanbok and petticoat. Then they do your makup and hair (you can also choose not to have your makeup and hair done, everything is optional). After this they help you get dressed and put on the finishing touches. I had reserved a course with photo studio photos, so this was the moment a professional photographer took photos of me in their studio.

Afterwards you are allowed to use the sceneries they have available in their building to take your own photos.

I would definitely recommend going here, it might seem a bit expensive (though you can make it as expensive or inexpensive as you like), but it is well worth the price seeing as how much I enjoyed it and how much time I spend here.
We then decided to go to the Gwanghwamun flea market, a small flea market in front of the Gyeongbokgung palace. It is a fun little market, though I would only recommend going here if you really have enough time in Seoul. I unexpectedly bought a hanbok over here, beforehand I had decided I would not buy a hanbok in Korea as I already have a beautiful vintage one at home, but I gave in to my inner shopaholic.

We tried going to the Princess diary cafe, but we were urged back to the exit once we entered. I guess they were closing up, we'll try going again some other day. We decided to end our day (with a not so successful dinner, though dessert was wonderful) in Hongdae.

All photos can be found at my flickr page

Day 3: The Alive museum

Today we woke up on time for breakfast, however when we got downstairs we found out that there was a queue for it (we later found out that Koreans are used to queuing for their food). As we did not feel like waiting for our breakfast we decided to eat somewhere else.

Yesterday evening we had decided to visit the Alive museum, an interactive museum where you can take pictures with trick art. We decided to visit the museum in Ssamziegil (there are 2 museums in Insa-Dong) as we had a coupon for that one. We really enjoyed taking photos with the trick art, though it could be a bit difficult to shoot a picture from just the right angle. The final result does however pay of and we left the museum with a great amount of funny photos. I would recommend visiting the museum, you should be with at least 2 people, as you will need someone to take your photo.

After the museum we went to Changdeokgung palace. They offer a special tour to see the "secret garden", but we didn't feel like walking through a garden at 95% humidity. There were 2 girls standing behind a table with books dressed in hanbok. They were promoting the Korean culture to foreigners and the books were given away free of charge.

Being the extremely palace loving types *cough* we finished our visit within 1 hour, where we spent most of our time having a drink in the restaurant.

We moved on to Gwanjang market, a huge market with a big variety of goods being sold, ranging from food to hanboks. My main mission here was to find some nice accessories to match my hanbok back home. I found the sokchima (underskirt), the sokbaji (bloomers) and matching shoes.

After getting a bit overheated in the hot marketplace we went back to the hotel to cool down. Later on we went to Dongdaemun market, which is a collection of warehouses which host a variety of small shops. We did not spend much time there, as we all were pretty tired. After some strolling around we decided to go back to Hongdae for dinner. We had a lovely kind of fish pot and a sweet ice waffle as dessert.

All photos can be found at my flickr page

Photoshoots

If there is one thing I love it is having photoshoots. Ever since deciding on spending my vacation in Korea and Japan I have been collecting information about possible photoshoot opportunities.
Currently on my to do photo list are:

• Go Guan, photos in Hanbok

• Princess Diary Cafe, taking photos in wedding dresses

• Trick Art museum, taking photos with 3D images

• Maison de Julietta, taking photos in lolita

• Studio AYA, taking photos as Maiko