May 2020 Travel

May was a wild month. I went to Seoul, Paju, and Suwon on a four day weekend, had to quarantine for another week (for literally no reason), had trips cancelled, and overall have not really had a great month aside for that first week! Hopefully June is going to look a lot better 🙂

Seoul

This trip to Seoul was all about re-creating memories – this weird art mirror thing in Sinchon was where my class took a photo together once

I love Seoul. I recently rewrote my Seoul Travel Guide to give a more organized overview of the city. I’ve been here many a time now and every time I find myself pulled into my memories of my previous trips. It’s an incredibly nostalgic city for me. I was only in Seoul for two days (notably missing the COVID-19 re-outbreak altogether, not that my school cared) and honestly? Worth the pain afterwards. I wandered around my favorite areas of the city, the Cheonggyecheong stream, revisited my old school Sogang, and hung out in Hongdae.

Total: 128,000

Hostel Room for 3 nights: 30,000

RT Train Tickets: 75,000 (youch!)

Food: 20,000

Postcard: 3,000

Paju

The Book Village is the only place in Paju worth visting – maybe

Paju is more of an area to the north of Seoul than an actual city. It has many tourist villages spread out over the area and…honestly you can totally skip it. I went to the Haeri Art Village and didn’t really see much art (mainly cafes with small galleries attached which is…fine). I went to the Provence Village and found it very inauthentic and almost tacky (they were blasting American country music for god’s sake). But I did find some nice mugs and lavender tea so…fair? And I went to the Book Village. Now, this was actually fun. But it’s very niche. If you don’t get a small high off the smell of books and you can’t read Korean there is no point in going here. I just found it relaxing because I like libraries 😛

Total: 42,000

Bus Transport: 8,000

Food: 13,000

Postcard: 1,000

Souvenirs (more like housewares I actually needed): 20,000

Suwon

The best daytrip from Seoul – by far!

I‘ve been wanting to go to Suwon for a very long time. I had originally intended to visit before my contract in Changwon started. But I wound up going to Nami Island instead. While Nami Island is great, if you can only go to one, go to Suwon. Suwon is probably one of the best cities I’ve been to in Korea. I just loved it. It’s absolutely perfect for a weekend away. An amazing French restaurant ( 리불럽), the most interesting skyline I’ve seen in Korea, and tons of history. Make sure to include it in your next Korea trip!

Total Cost: 56,000

Hostel 1 Night: 20,000

RT Train from Seoul: 6,000

Food: 25,000

Entrance Fee: 3,000

Postcard: 2,000

Conclusion

And that was May! A very exciting beginning and a depressing rest of the month doing nothing. My trip to Ulleungdo and Dokdo was sadly cancelled due to the re-outbreak but things are just about under control again it seems. Hopefully things continue on this good trajectory and we can give travel a try again!

Check out my other posts! 

Gyeongju Travel Guide: Korea’s Pyramids

How Much it Costs to Live in Korea

How Much You Can Make Teaching in Korea