I was in Netherlands last weekend! We wanted to visit the world’s famous tulip garden Keukenhof as well as Amsterdam. Since we both also have gotten to be in Amsterdam before, we decided to shorten our stay there and have a look in The Hague. So after 4 hrs of early train ride we arrived Amsterdam Zuid, which is not the central station but the train which connects Germany (“Duitsland”) to Oranjeland ;-) As we were in a little hurry, I didn’t take many pics here but then just rushed to the Keukenhof festival :) We got our tickets beforehand at the Keukenhof website (www.keukenhof.nl) Being around Schiphol (say ‘Schriphol’) Airport, just grab the line 58 for which a lot of dudes were standing in line. Luckily we only waited 30 mins in the queue to be served by a bus. Well, we arrived after a 45min bus ride near the Keukenhof grounds, but as there was the flower parade it was super crowded! See here: Haha.Yes people were climbing on signs to get a better look … Though we could see some groups running in the lane doing their marches, it was really annoying me to stand around, so we just got into Keukenhof. So we just got to the main entrance. And guess what. It was - of course - also full inside. The fields were pretty nice, with a lot of flowers… just have a look here. We didn’t go out into th fields, but you could spot them here easily. If the weather would haven’t been so cloudy, I guess it must have been wonderful! The days after the Keukenhof visit were way better. I think my parents would have loved it, each year we the “Bundesgartenschau” is held in Germany for a similar cause. The outside parks were made with a lot of effort. Did that lady just wanted to show off with her new iPad 2? ;) You can’t see this on the picture but she was running around with that massive thing to actualy makes photos! Oh and don’t feel bored when you depart. The band played for about 2-3 hrs…. ;)

So we started our next day with a nice Korean breakfast in our minbak. I didn’t know so many minbaks existend outside of Korea, but it seems you only know them when you are Korean. I never heard of this kind of stay for e.g. Vietnamese people. But good idea and cheaper than Hotel our hostel. Plus you get Korean breakfast, hehehe.

If you decide to stay in a minbak, you probably share the living space with your houselord. We were located in a row house, therefore there’s no separated facility such as in a hotel or hostel. This explains the sign: It roughly reads you should use the toilet downstairs. The bathroom was used powdering, only good for brushing teeth and showering as the family lives with you in a Minbak. That Minbak also had dorm rooms. This was more like a hostel then. For a small price premium we decided to get our private room which was not only convenient in sleeping comfort but also because other people didn’t wake you up in the morning. Time to complain about NS Rail System. RFID tags are nice and convenient, but when you have to check in and out to pass through the gate and do it WRONG, you can’t enter! I therefore prefer the paper tickets. Idiot safe. It was already full in Amsterdam! Did a boat tour later. For about 14 EUR you can get a one hour trip in the famous Grachten that showed us roughly 50 buildings explained in several languages. Guess for what Netherlands is famous for. More cheese on a market. And vegetables. Yes, flowers too. Hehe, you can take a ferris wheel ride at the city hall. Amsterdam is full of Grachten (canals), but easy to get around French fries and mayo and onions…yummy.

We went to the sex museum, but this might not be fun for everybody. Bonnie didn’t like some exhibits, too vulgar. Hello sailor! Some Castle in the background My Heineken! Heineken is probably the most famous export beer, remember when my school friends used to drink that a lot. Bigger ferry boats. Couples don’t want to get disturbed ;) Got a coffee and bread before rushing to the train station. We almost missed our return train because we were waiting so long in the queue to get food, BUT had to get back to our lockers AND take a train to Amsterdam Zuid to get back to Germany…I’ll never plan so tight again!

First time in Seoul or a regular visitor? Getting around within Seoul can be the same as convenient and annoying at the same time.

(Source: Kanchi1979 from Wikimedia) Arriving from the airport the most convenient way to travel to Seoul has been shifting from taking an airport express bus to the Airport Railway Station Express (AREX), which has opened in late 2010. The AREX connects you from the airport to some major subway stations within Seoul. Ranging from about 4800 KRW to 9800 KRW you can choose between a regular train or the express train. Both trains are convenient enough to travel and with being only about 10 minutes faster on the express line, we recommend to take the normal train. It gets you to Seoul station in about 45 minutes. Arriving in Seoul, you can get a T-Money Card (http://www.t-money.co.kr/) to go on. That’s actually nothing different from a RFID-chip card, which you charge with some credit. The card also works in Busan and some cities for the curious. You save around 10% of the regular fare. There are actually no other discounts (day pass, monthly pass, student pass) and every commute is charged separately. Transfers with a bus within 30 minutes are free. After about 12 stops they charge you an additional fare (about 300 W). You can get the card at any magazine shop or a vending machine. It costs you about 2,000-3,000 KRW without any credit. There are also keychains or special chips (e.g. on an employee ID, student ID or coupled with Korean credit cards).

![Seoul Subway map 2010 englisch](https://ngo-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/transportation-in-seoul/Subwaymap_Eng.jpg

The subway network is Seoul is very well developed and some stations host large underground complexes. Millions of daily commuters use the subway, which is in general very safe to use and efficient. There are automatic doors that prevent people from being pushed on to the rails (from congestions or fights) or suicide jumpers. There are 9 lines at the moment, line 2 is a circle line.

Trains start at around 5.30 am and end at 1pm on weekdays, at some stations at around 12pm. Unlike in Europe, the trains stops at about 12pm on the weekends, so this is not always an option for the late party lion. Happy hours are from 7.30 until 10.00 am and from 4pm to 7pm. You should try to avoid these times. And please don’t take seats on the most outer 3-seater bank, this is a seat from the disabled, elder and pregnant fellow travelers. Sometimes you meet people who sell sweets, umbrellas, handkerchiefs etc. This is actually forbidden to do but nobody can actually stop that. Some get really annoying and talk minutes about their product and some even try to do some missionary work.

On the tracks you see the an animation of the approaching train and travel time between two stops is about 90 seconds while waiting takes about 2 minutes. Announcements are made in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English. You never have to push buttons to open doors. But be sure which direction you are travelling.

There are three kinds of buses, the green ones (4 digit), blue ones (3 digits) and red one (2 digits). While the green one stops at all bus stops, blue and red buses get you around faster between districts. The red buses only stop at the major points and reach out of Seoul, too. The first digits on the green bus show you where the bus started and the second ones where it ends, the last two digits are the line number. Same goes for the blue line, which has only one number for the direction. Be careful about the red one and the subway, just ask the driver in case you are not sure.

When entering the bus, do as follows: You always enter in front and either put 1000 W in the transparent box or touch the RFID terminal with the card. When you want to stop, just press the red button and swipe your T-Money Card at the exit once again! If you do so, the terminal registers your exit and does not double charge you at a transit or lets you pay the maximum fee. Most of the announcements are completely in Korean so try to follow the bus plan that is taped on the ceilings. It is definitely not so easy to take a bus if you are not understanding Korean, but you can get around. With some buses, you get around faster than with the subway, especially when getting out of Seoul. And taking the interconnection buses. For example, you get to Ilsan from Seodaemun-gu within 30 minutes.

With the T-Money Card, you can also use the taxi, though cash and credit card are still very common used payment methods (unless you have lots of cash on your T Card). Fares start at 2800 KRW and it is also common that drivers reject your itinerary if it is too short. This is illegal, so just get into a taxi and then tell them to go somewhere you want. The black taxis are luxury taxis that are more comfortable but also more expensive.

Taxi drivers are often very nice and ask foreigners what you do and where you are from. You get scammed very seldom, as their name and license number is attached at the front passenger seat console. Prices are regulated in Korea, it does not matter which one you take. They also don’t do meter manipulation. If you are scared by their driving skill - try no to be. They often speed and cross red lights. Renting a car is possible in Korea, as the big renters all have stations in Korea. Remember to bring your international driver’s license. Since it is complicated to navigate - places are not so well plated like in Germany and districts often have several blocks - and driving by Korean traffic rules, we would not necessarily recommend this within Seoul or Busan.

Kimchi Jjigae (김치찌개) is a Korean stew dish which consist mainly of pickled Korean cabbage known as kimchi. In former times people used to prepare Jjigae as there were leftovers of non well-fermented or tasteless Kimchi.

That kind of Kimchi was not eaten as side dish You can prepare Jjigae in various ways.

The most renowned variant uses pork meat, but instead you can try to cook it with tuna, ham oder sausage, too. There are also other Jjigaes that don’t use Kimchi as base but Soy bean paste. Serve it with either rice or noodles (ramyeon). Tried the dish to do it by myself recently and was astonished how to boost up bad kimchi ;)

You will need to get these ingredients:

• 100g Kimchi
• 150g pork belly (or tuna)
• 100g tofu
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 piece, medium-sized onion
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1-2 tbsp red pepper powder

Let’s start

1. Quarter onions.
2. Mince the garlic. Either use a knife and cut it as small as possible or use some masher.
3. Cut pork belly into small pieces. I used porl cutlet because it consists less fat, but pork belly meat might be more tender.
4. Cut tofu into dices.
5. Take a small pot (or a stone pot if you have one), add 1 tbsp sesame oil and garlic. Don’t let it become overfried!
6. Sauté onions until skin becomes lucent.
7. Add meat, fry until pink color’s gone. Also add 1 tbsp pepper and mix well with meat.
8. Add tofu and Kimchi.
9. Add the Kimchi brine. If it’s still not spicy enough, add pepper and salt.
10. cook for 45-60 minutes, serve with rice or ramyeon.

Guten Appetit!

Was in the Berggarten park today. Looks like spring is coming soon! The weather was really nice and scenic, I hope the next weeks will become warmer, too.

Clothing

Young folks usually head to Myeongdong for getting the newest westernized fashion, as there are many shops in that area. Getting your clothing in department stores is also possible but international brands have opened shops here. Dongdaemun is rather for the cheaper, but indivual style. There are four major shopping malls (doota, migliore, Hello apm, Good Morning City), which house sellers inside.

You have to bargain everywhere they don‘t put a price tag on it, but you can also get discounts if you ask. Some places give you an tax free purchase, when you present them your passport. As multifunctional complex COEX mall is know for its countless shopping venues. It‘s accessible by Samseong Station (green line 2). You can find books, a cinema, restaurants, KTV, an aquarium, a Kimchi museum, record stores, electronic stores, bags, beauty shops, cosmetics stores, opticians, and convenience stores (visit http://www.coex.co.kr/eng).

Around Sinchon, Idae and Hongik you will find student clothing, i.e. cheap as well as flea markets (Hongdae, march to october, see below). Itaewon is known for its expats, not least beacuse of the nearby US army base and its customers. So you will easily find oversize clothing, sports clothing, hip hop style, leather goods but also suits. Many foreign restaurants open here and even the waiters usualy start talking in English to you.

This place has a lot of well-made international cuisine. Northern American food, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian and Italian food restaurants are located on the main streets as well as near “the hill”.

Luxury goods are around the southern Han river area, namely Apgujeong and Gangnam. The most expensive luxury goods can be found here, many chic fashion designer boutiques and exclusive wear. Also many department stores have floors with expensive goods like Myeongdong‘s Lotte Department Store.

Arts and Handicrafts

Objet d‘arts are found in Insadong, Samcheong-dong and Hongdae. Insadong is famous at foreigners. You can find Hanboks [Korean clothing], calligraphy goods like scrolls and brushes, crockery, wall paintings, figurines, fans, sacs and whatever your tourist heart wants. The official tourist shop offers handmade seals with your Korean name encarved. Prices vary between cheap to overpriced, if you buy a lot get yourself an overview what you need before you empty your wallet.

Independent Art

The Open Market in Hongdae opens saturday and sundays, whenever young Hongik art students offer their work near the playgrounds. Wallets, paintings, figures, bookmarks, bags, clothing - everything is offered, quite individually and suitable as gifts. Many designers offer their goods just solely to get enough money for studying and living costs, so it’s a good thing to help them too.

Electronics

Best to be found in Yongsan, Gangbyeon (Tecno Mart): Anyone in need of electronics should head to Yongsan, the largest electronics quarter in Korea and Asia. Dealers sell pc parts such as displays, casing, CPUs, peripherials at competetive prices, repairing is also available. Brown goods (household electronics) is available too. But attention to anyone who wants to buy a camera. It’s not really cheaper, because the warranty is Korean and not worldwide sometimes. It means you buy a grey import when you return. Also, you should research your choice of camera first because many vendor talk nonsense and just try to sell. The vendors have their stands really close to each other, so it pays off to to get around and ask several vendors for prices. You can also get your prepaid mobile phone here for very nice conditions. If it should be contract, you should better head to the stores in city, because they have a service for foreigners. Gangbyeon Station has the Tecno Mart, which is smaller than Yongsan, but offers the same goods - everything electrical.

Fish

** Noryangjin and Garakdong Market**: Bot something to take homoe with you usually, but you can get most fresh seafood here. Many vendors offer you live fish - „only what lives is fresh“. The fish will then be butchered and prepared almost instantly, at the surrounding restaurants you can get it delivered and enjoy. Just walking around the fish market is an attraction itself, which might be strange to some because of the naval habitants, which wait until they are…eaten.

(음식, 잡채)
Delicious ;) We did some japchae. View the recipe after the break.We didn’t use sliced omelette and spinach, but you can add them of course.

Ingredients:

• Korean style glass noodles (400g)
• minced pork (250g)
• garlic
• brown sugar
• some vegetable oil
• soy sauce
• 1tsp apple vinegar
• sesame oil
• red and green peppers
• 1 large carrot
• 1 onion

1. chop carrtos into strips, quarter onion, slice peppers
2. marinate meat with 1 tbsp soy sauce, minced garlic and one tsp sesame oil for 15 minutes
3. boil noodles, remove water, stir with oil and then fry pan them. add brown sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil
4. fry pan marinated meat seprately. add onions
5. mix everything together

If you are interested in getting to know more about the Korean war and look at some authentic objects form the war, the best method is not to grab a textbook but to go to the War Museum of Korea. It is conveniently located in Yongsan-gu at the Samgakji station (line 6) from where you need a 10 minute walk to reach the entrance. There is not much around the Samgakji area so you just see some streets and a military building opposite to the museum entrance. I didn’t photograph it as there were soldiers and police standing around. It is not a good idea to take photos then, unless you know what it is and ask them before. It looks like somebody has moved the letters from the wall ?! As a full time resident for about 5 months in Korea, it was unbelievable this place was in war just around 60 years ago. Today’s city does not have any notable landmarks that remind you on the Korean-Korean conflict. Just when you hear about some attacks or threats in the media you just remember that SK is still in a state of war officially. Just as you enter the Memorial ground, you will see some big statues portraying the heroic deeds of the soldiers. There is a big monuments also, which idea I didn’t get fully but it looks like a statue that represents sword, a missile head and has ornaments in between.








Dropping leaflets



World Cup reminiscence

Korea as export nation

Helicopter

War ratio

The kids again

Differences in speech and physique

Inside DMZ walk

View at Punmunjeom
The ground in front of the Memorial Hall is quite big. Also a lot of young children are taken by their school teachers into the museum. But I wonder if they understand anything. The ground outside has a lot of war vehicles, aircrafts and ships. You cannot enter them but this gear has once been used. Group picture! ^^ The writing on the jet fighter reads Dae-han-min-guk-kong-gun 대힌민국 공군 and means South Korean Air Force. Of course bombers were also used. Some tanks from North Korea. Since I am rather tall, school children looked at me all the time and referred to me as 오빠 or 형 (luckily not 의국인 again ;)
Some artillery
Autumn leaves

Today, I want to present you Nami Island. It’s a very famous place to go especially for tourists. As I went there in December, it has already been pretty cold. While we had no snow in Seoul, it was pretty white on Namiseom (남이섬). It’s because this small island is located in Gangwon-do, which is about a 2 hour ride away to the northeast of Seoul. Have a look at it on the Naver map:

2010.12.3 | 지도 크게 보기

© NHN Corp.

It is very famous amongst couples and drama lovers. The drama called Winter Sonata has been filmed here. For reaching that island, you need to use a ferry, which operates every 30 minutes (I remember?). It takes about 15 minutes to settle over. The administration of Nami Island has also come up with a nice idea to create a virtual republic, enabling you to exchange yoiur Korean Won into the ír own currency and use their own stamps etc. ^^ The high trees together with the snow make it very appealing to go there in winter. Not only I went with my school but hundreds of Chinese and Japanese tourists as well. If you go straight and then to the left, there is a musical instruments museum. Apparently it showed a lot of instruments from chinese heritage. Outside people placed some comments on some wooden plates - very common in Korea whenever there is some kind of art going on. Recycable art.

These are some of my links I had in my bookmark folder. online courses: Cyber U Korean Sogang U, Korean Talk To Me In Korean Study in Korea Grammar: Korean count word - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Vocab: Korean Flashcards - Learn Korean Online the 6000 most common korean vocabulary words – – korean vocabulary, verb endings, forum, study links, grammar explanations, dictionary Anki - Anki is a great tool to organise yout vocab data. It’s free (donate!) and gives you plenty of possibilites to sort your vocab. You can use it on practically any device as it can also sync your decks online (including learning progress and statistics). There are also shared decks from other people for which can also download. I highly recommend this program. Since I use it, I don’t use paper flashcards anymore. Dictionaries: Koreanisch Deutsch Wörterbuch 한국어 독일어 사전 Naver Books: Sprachlehrwerke : Korean Book Services, - Bücher aus Korea - Libros coreanos - Livres en Coreen - Filme - Wörterbücher Korean Essential Vocabulary 6000 [8955184891] : Korean Book Services, - Bücher aus Korea - Libros coreanos - Livres en Coreen - Filme - Wörterbücher Korean Language Textbooks Hanbooks (US-Distributor) Review of Yonsei book TOPIK review, preparation material TOPIK alte Unterlagen online forums: Learn Korean Now Forum blogs: eMag Asia last updated: January 2011