Michy's Travel

As a British National I had always felt a little ashamed that I had never been to Paris before, it is so easy to get to and has so much to offer. Even if you do not go with family and friends, there use to be school trips or in my case a 'near-trip', this was in secondary school but sadly it got cancelled at the last minute as there was not enough interest. 9 years later I finally got to visit Paris in January 2015.

Visit Pont des Arts (bridge). Even though the ‘love-locks’ do not exist now, the views from here are beautiful.

Last but in no sense the least is the Eiffel Tower. I actually did not have high expectations for this monument because it is so popular but getting up close to it I could see why people would be in awe. Originally I had wanted to visit at sunset but at night with all the lights on, it showed another side of its beauty. Also the view from the Eiffel Tower is now one of my favourite night-scape views.

You cannot visit Paris without trying escargot or snails. In Chinese cuisine we also eat snails but they are usually chopped to smaller pieces and cooked in a curry sauce so even for me pulling out the whole snail from its shell was new and a tad scary. The meat was so much bigger than I thought, I could not look at it in too much detail otherwise I would not have put it into my mouth. The sauce was quite buttery and as usual the snail is chewy but at least I can tick that off my list now.

I was researching for places for dinner and found Big Fernand which has amazing reviews for its burgers and it was only 5 minutes away from our hotel! We did have to walk through a dodgy alleyway which is full of Indian restaurants and had waiters cat-calling us because apparently that is a sure-fire way to entice customers but we got there in the end. The restaurant is very small so there was a queue but a staff-member stands outside to greet you in whatever language you speak. We were not sure of which burger to choose so he recommended the Le Bartholomé burger (beef and bacon) which is what we got plus chips and a drink. We were not disappointed! The burger was packed with flavour, was not overly-greasy and that bun! The service too was absolutely amazing, so friendly and fast. They also have a branch in London now, which I have yet to visit.

I have heard many times that the best macarons are by Pierre Hermé so when I saw the store in Galleries Lafayette, I had to try it for myself. Verdict is, I disagree, I actually prefer Ladurée but each to their own.

On my research on Paris I had found Sadaharu Aoki, a patisserie selling matcha desserts so of course I had to make a stop there. I got the earl grey macaron and the matcha maracon, the matcha macaron was strong in flavour which I absolutely loved. I also pigged out and got the caramel matcha tart and the sesame slice. The tart had too much caramel for my liking which made it much too sweet for me but scrape that out and it was perfect. The sesame slice was delicious, I think it was made up of vanilla mousse, matcha mousse, sesame mousse and then a sesame seed cracker on the bottom.

That is all from my Paris trip, au revoir for now ₍₍ ( ๑॔˃̶◡ ˂̶๑॓)◞♡

On my second trip to Seoul I also flew to Jeju island for 3 days, for my birthday with my cousin and brother. On the first day I had originally wanted to visit Hallim Park, however by the time we got there they had already closed for the last entry sadly, but we did not let that dampen our moods! On the way to the park we had spotted a beautiful beach instead. You can book a taxi service for the day but as we were pretty much winging it by this point, we decided not to keep the taxi driver waiting and would instead ask the restaurant we ate at, to help us book another taxi.

Flight: I flew with Jeju Air and booked it back in the UK, I got my Korean friend to double-check prices when booking in Seoul and they were the same. The flight cost was roughly £100 but the earlier you book, the better as they have a limited number of 'saver' and 'special' fares too. Also instead of flying from Incheon airport we flew from Gimpo airport, which is much closer to Seoul. From Seoul to Jeju the flight duration is just over an hour however Jeju Air still serves you a free drink. 

Stay: Amber Central Hotel/Ibiza Hotel, from Jeju airport you can catch a bus to the hotel but be careful as they have a sister hotel which is the main one and is just called 'Amber Hotel'. We got off the wrong stop to the wrong hotel so we had to call a taxi to drive us to the right one which was only 5 minutes away. The hotel looks a little dated but the staff are friendly and helpful and our room was spacious, my bed was also really comfy. Opposite the hotel is a 7-Eleven mart and 5 minutes walk away is a massive supermarket called E-mart.

Do: Hyeopjae Beach is beautiful. We were lucky enough to get there in time for the sunset too. The water is clear and the beach was not overly crowded. There is also a convenience store there, which we did visit to purchase some slippers (we were clearly not beach-ready). To my utter disappointment and late realization I headed straight for the pink slippers even though I was wearing a black dress and they had black slippers available, but I guess the heart wants what it wants, in this case pink and a mismatched outfit.

How did I want to spend my actual birthday? To hike Hallasan. Unfortunately it was absolutely pouring down that day but since we only had a limited amount of time in Jeju, we still agreed to go. The taxi driver also warned us that it will be raining even heavier later and if we will be okay, I replied in my broken Korean that "we'll be fine" and I actually believed it; I was just so giddy and excited at the time. There are a number of trails on Hallasan with varying difficulties, after researching I decided we would go up from 'Yeongsil' and then down 'Eorimok', taking into account I was still a beginner at hiking and it will have been the first time for my cousin and brother. The poor souls did not know what they had agreed to. There is a small shop at the starting point of Yeongsil for last-minute hiking goods and we thought it would be a good idea to get raincoats. I have to admit that the hike was tiring and it was foggy so we could not even see much of the views but I am so proud that we got through it! I always get to a point in hiking where I think 'okay this is it, I can't go on any further' but then after a little rest you pick yourself up again and keep going. I think I enjoy the challenge but also the quiet and solitude of nature.

Eat: This place that we ate at was the only Korean BBQ restaurant we could see from Hyeopjae Beach so it is easy to find. Jeju is known for their black pork so we were all excited to try it and also the fact that we were on an island means fresh seafood! The restaurant did not disappoint, the pork was very juicy and the seafood stews was delicious. You get an ample amount of side dishes and the rice they serve is 'Kongbap', mixed rice with beans in it. It tasted like plain white rice but it certainly looked healthy. Also as I mentioned before the waiter was kind enough to help us call a taxi back to the hotel which was about an hour's drive away.

The next place, you can find across the road from the hotel. It is a local seafood restaurant. Again you get a generous amount of side-dishes including a grilled fish! The lady was very friendly and showed us how to make a fish wrap with raw cabbage which was something new to all of us. However the menu is all in Korean so we just pointed to 3 different stews and hoped for the best. The stews were nice but I ended up ordering the fish egg stew and fish eggs are not the most appealing thing ever.

That ends my trip to Jeju (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ

One of the places I make sure I go back to in Seoul and one reason why I stay so close to the centre of Myeongdong, is because of Myeongdong's night street-food market! One of my favourite foods is the 'Tornado Potato', which is a potato that has been spiralled onto a long stick, fried and then dipped in either onion powder or cheese powder; I am onion-powder all the way. Another favourite is 'Gyerangbbang' or egg bread which is bread and egg that have been baked together. I also like to get a fresh juice, some stalls you can actually see them making it fresh for you. There is so much on offer you will be spoilt for choice. On my 2nd visit to Seoul I discovered Kwangjang Market which was only 10 minutes walk from my hotel, it was there that I tried 'Bindaetteok' or mung-bean pancake. I never thought much of it before but since I was there and a lot of the stalls were selling it I decided to go for it and now I understand, this pancake is packed full of flavour. If the weather was not so hot, I would have eaten much more.

Eat: If you know me, you will know that I am mad for matcha so when I was researching for places to visit in Seoul, I found O'Sulloc. Their selling point is that their tea is all grown and cultivated in Jeju. This place is matcha-heaven; the ice-cream is smooth, the matcha flavour strong but sweet. If you are thinking of buying the teas and matcha powder gifts to take home, some of them can be quite pricey but I tried the 'Tangerine Flower Blending Tea' last time and really liked it; I was mentally kicking myself for not buying more to take home. O'Sulloc has many branches across South Korea.

Woori Garden is a Korean BBQ restaurant in Myeongdong who offer a 10% discount coupon on their website, which you will need to print it out. The staff were very friendly, you get a lot of side dishes and our waiter was nice enough to tell us which side dishes goes well with which meat. You also get a free bottle of water with your coupon! We ordered the mixed option which had different cuts of pork and beef (there was more to come besides the meat shown below).
Gimgane in Myeongdong offers many different 'gimbap' or seaweed rice rolls. I actually went to get a takeaway but I liked the gimbap so much that I went back another day and dined in, to try their bibimbap too.

The next place I can not see an English name or remember what area it was from, I'm sorry, but I tried the spicy cold noodles there and I do not think I have eaten anything so spicy in my life, I had to add water to the noodles but I soldiered through it! They also have Korean BBQ too.

Sapporo Ramen is located on the 6th floor of the I'Park Mall in Yongsan, there are a lot of other restaurants in the mall and also Yongsan Electronics Market. The ramen was okay but it was not the best that I have ever had.
Meet Fresh Myeongdong, is another dessert cafe which does bingsu. I ordered the mango bingsu and again it is a big portion. I also tried the taro milk tea which tasted more of just milk than taro but the shaved ice itself was smooth and the mango was fresh.