Winter in Korea Day 1: Digital Media City with KPoP Idols, KBS, Noryangjin Market and Hongdae

Eight months after our first trip together in South Korea, my sister and I braved the weather and tried to experience winter there. We are from the topical country, Philippines, so we are not immune to extreme or harsh or very cold weather in South Korea. See how we made sure to enjoy our five day trip despite the chilling season!

On the eve of January 25, 2017, we went to NAIA 1 just on time to wait for two hours before our 12am flight to Incheon. We dressed with three layers of clothing; plain shirt, fleece jacket and denim jacket. We prayed that we will survive the weather in South Korea.

Unfortunately, our pieces of clothing were not enough. We touched down Incheon at around 5am and we went outside the airport by 6am. It was -3 degrees Celsius. It was so cold that we needed to bury our hands on our jackets while waiting for the bus going to Sangil-dong. Thank God and the bus was warm enough to have a little rest before our whole day trip.

And at 10 am, we were prepped up with our scarves, padded jackets, Heattech thermal wear, shirts, boots and three-layer leggings. We were ready to go and it was a blessing that our friends gave us ear muffs that kept us warm for five days.

We were amazed that the surroundings were almost white due to snow.

Our first place that day was Digital Media City.

It is a seven minute walking distance from Gyeongui Railroad and Airport Railroad, Digital Media City station, exit 9. You can easily spot this place once you see this statue from the street.

Digital Media City is a cutting-edge digital media entertainment cluster. Here we saw up close the buildings of CJ E&M, MBC, SBS and YTN.

The DMC statue is still known to be the filming site of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

We were at the MBC Building and we saw a crowd of photographers waiting. It was known to me that if there are lots of people, there will be KPop idols. And I was not wrong. We stood there for more than 5 minutes and we saw the guests of MBC FM4U: VIXX's Ken or Jaehwan, BtoB's Changsub and Super Junior's Sungmin. We used GoPro so we were not able to film them close enough so we give credits to the Korean and international fans who captured them.

This is when Jaehwan went out of the MBC building.

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And for first timers, we bought tickets worth 18,000 won for MBC World Theme Park. This is Korea's very first Broadcasting theme park where you can experience singing with K-POP stars or becoming a main character of K-Dramas with high technology.

Our favorite part was when we sang along with GD in his song Crooked.

As Korean drama fanatics, we did not waste time in taking lots of photos.

We were like paper dolls being dressed with this virtual hanbok.

We also went inside the News Desk also and we kept on laughing yet finished it completely.

Since we saw GD's hologram concert in Everland, we though it would be the same in MBC but no. It's Bigbang's hologram concert and we really enjoyed it.

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We were extra happy since the MBC World tour guides were so adorable that they filmed us while we were choosing MBC artist's signature for our greetings.

One of them took a photo with us. Others kept on conversing with us in English and ended up saying that they wanted to visit Philippines since their friends loved it especially Cebu.

My sister and I were so in love with Kim Bok Joo or Lee Sung-kyung so we're delighted to get her virtual signature and message for us.

We also dance Mr. Chu with APINK.

And then, we strolled along the STAR PARK and somehow HI TOUCHED our favorite stars...like...

Kim Woo Bin

Scarlet Heart Ryeo's Lee Joon Gi

Reply 1997's Seo In Guk

FT Island's Lee Hongki

One More Happy Ending's Jang Nara

Miss A's Suzy

Cheese in the Trap, Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo's Nam Joo Hyuk

Descendants of the Sun's Song Joong Ki

Luckily, we saw AOA on our way out of DMC. They were having a small fan event.

We were so close to them. I easily recognized them since I watched Channel AOA. They are so cute and petite in real life. There were many fan boys who were thrilled to see them.

I guess they were also guests in MBC Radio FM4U that day.

Right after DMC, we went to KBS since it aired Descendants of the Sun and now Hwarang. It is a common filming site of Running Man as well. KBS is near Exit 4 of National Assembly Station.

We passed by KBS Cool and Happy FM also.

Here is the view of National Assembly on our way to the station.

Next stop is for our dinner at Noryangjin Market. It's our mission to buy and eat baby live octopus/sannakji and gaebul or live spoon worms (penis fish).

Mission accomplished! We bought 3 baby octopuses for 10,000 won and 2 penis fish for 4,000 won.

We were accompanied by a guy going to the restaurant where we will have it served as sashimi.

We walked outside the market and went downstairs to the restaurant.

See how our faces lightened up by the sight of our food.

Surprisingly, the octopus and penis fish tasted so fresh along with the leaves and cider.

Proof to this was the photo of the empty dishes.

We felt energized again and we decided to go to Hongdae. And like what many people say, the place is perfect for busking. It was a week before we went to South Korea that Dara held a Talking Street here. We were quite saddened by that.

After walking for a while, we chanced upon the Hongdae Tourist Information Center and asked how to go to Hongdae Playground, NB2 and Twosome Studio. Through the guide's help, we were able to find the place.

At the Hongdae Playground

We also came across with the plushie cranes with the Goblin stuffed toys in it.

After the playground, we went back to the main road to search for the most controversial street of DARAGON. The dating scandal news broke the media when fans saw GD protecting Dara from the crowd when they went out from this YG restaurant in Hongdae. He walked with his arms around Dara's head on their way to NB2 where Bigbang held their 0 to 10 concert's after party.

My sister was shy that we did not reenact the whole scene but just casually walked from the restaurant to NB2.

And here's our evidence of the holy place, NB2 in Hongdae for Daragon fans like us.

And when we went back, we saw posters of Zico. At that time, he's preparing for his comeback under YG. And now, my favorite Zico song is Complex featuring GD.

When we saw the Hongik University's gate, we passed by Twosome Studio owned by YG Producer Teddy. We did not enter since we had a samgyeopsal appointment with our friends.