This was my two-day itinerary for Seoul and Anyang, South Korea.

In the summer of 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to be fully funded to attend an intensive Korean language program at Pusan National University in Busan. Because I was on a strict government program, we weren’t really allowed to leave the city outside of two different designated travel weekends.

The first weekend, I flew out from Busan to Jeju-do, the island that many call the Hawaii of Korea. I agree with that nickname now that I’ve actually seen the city with my own two eyes.

The second travel weekend, I decided to meet up with my host family from when I studied abroad the first time in South Korea.

They were gracious enough to let me stay in their apartment in Anyang, and I booked my KTX tickets early on. I boarded a three hour train to Busan, and then was happily reunited with my host mother at the train station.

Here’s what I did when I was in Seoul and Anyang! I call this little trip healing, as it was really catching up with people that I had not seen in a long time.

Beomgye Station has a lot of great places to eat and have fun at.

Located near Anyang, and about twenty minutes from my host family’s apartment, Beomgye Station is where I used to take the train to school if I didn’t want to take the bus. From Anyang to Ewha Womans University, it was about an hour and a half to two hours each way.

When my host family picked me up and let me drop my stuff off at the apartment, we then headed on the bus to Beomgye instead of walking. From there, we picked out a great Korean BBQ restaurant, ate lots of pork neck and belly, and drank some beer and soju with that.

We then spent some time wandering around the Beomgye area. First we stopped at a photobooth to take pictures and commemorate our time together after six long years apart, then we headed out into the main area again. My host sisters wanted to stop at a snack store, where I bought a coffee snack I had in Malaysia.

Little did I know I would be at the area again the next morning, as I needed to take the train from there.

Amguk Station and Ikseondong are two trending areas right by Insadong.

The day after I arrived in Gyeonggi-do, I headed from Beomggye Station to Insadong Station. I was to meet my local friend, who previously was an intern at the theater I worked at in New York City. She’s been raised in both the States and Korea, but currently lives here and attends college in Korea at Yonsei.

I had wanted to go to the Insadong area, and she suggested we go to Ikseondong. So we met at Exit 5 of Jongo 3, then headed over to Ikseondong. This is the more trendy area for Koreans, and it’s close quarters as the alleyways are really tight.

There are some really cute cafes in the area, and a lot of little shops with trinkets to buy. There were more Koreans than foreigners I noticed, which is the exact opposite of Insadong. We picked a little French restaurant to eat at, ordered a risotto and a pizza, then continued walking through the area.

We then headed to Amguk Station, which she told me is also more popular with the locals. There, it was pretty much only Koreans. It was like Insadong and Ikseondong, but much more spaced out in a way that it felt like I could breathe. I was shocked though at how many tourists I kept seeing in Seoul—the last time I was here Korea was way less trendy.

After walking around in the heat, we munched on some red bean bingsoo at a traditional cafe and chatted some more. She then walked me to Gyeongbokgung, and we said our goodbyes. We had spent hours together just chatting about life, theater, and what to do next, so it was such a lovely time meeting her again.

Gyeongbokgung is always a treat—even when it’s really hot.

After I left my friend behind at Gyeongbokgung, I purchased my 3,000 won ticket. It was already 4:45 PM, so the grounds were going to close in an hour, but I was determined to make the most of it. I only ended up spending about 30 minutes here, as it was so hot that I felt like I was beginning to melt.

I walked around the grounds pretty much and enjoyed the pretty sights. Because I went later in the day, there were a lot less tourists, but there were still a ton of people around. My mission in coming to the palace was pretty much to take a ton of pictures, and I succeeded in that.

I find the back gardens and the back section of the palace just to be as beautiful as the front, so I’m happy I explored a little bit more than I did the last time I was here six years ago. I wore hanbok then and we kind of just stopped at the first garden, but I think next time I’m in Korea I really would come back again.

Lotte World Tower and Mall offer quite a bit inside their walls.

On my final day in Seoul, my host family decided to purchase tickets to the Lotte World Tower. I was not expecting them to do that at all, especially as they refused to let me pay for anything while I was in their care.

So we all got in their car and drove to Gangnam at 10 AM, which is about an hour drive from Anyang. We dropped the car off in the garage below the shopping mall, then headed up the escalators to where the Lotte World Tower is.

It’s about 120 floors, so we took the elevator, which takes exactly a minute to get to the top, to the observation deck. There’s a little demo of what Seoul used to be and what it is now, and then the windows open and the doors let you into the main area.

There are a ton of people just trying to take pictures, and it’s vaguely overwhelming. I say Korean society has become advanced at forming lines, and we ended up in one of the photo lines pretty quickly.

The view is pretty nice from the tower, though. You can see the Han River, Namsan, and a bunch of other landmarks if you have your eyes wide open and keen to picking out some of the more minor details.

We spent about an hour just admiring the view, then headed down into the mall for my remaining time in Korea. I bought stuff from the Studio Ghibli store at the bottom section of the mall, as well as a pin from the Sanrio x Korean League pop-up. I loved that Sanrio was doing a collab with the soccer teams.

We also ate at Brooklyn Burgers inside the mall, which was surprisingly better than a lot of the burgers I’ve had in the US. It was hilarious as an American to me that everyone around me was using a knife and fork to eat it though—that’s culture shock!

My host family then dropped me off at Gwangmyeong Station for my KTX back to Busan. It was such a lovely experience, and reminded me that I need to come back to Seoul soon.

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