Trip to Seoul: Day 7 - My personal favorites and tips

The owner of the Ttrek of Bloo Kpop store

[If you want to read my travelogue from the start, it is here.]
The thursday all goes to travelling home via Helsinki to Arlanda, Stockholm (and then train to Sala). This time the time difference means that the 10 hour flight home is reduced to seemingly only 3, and the shorter one takes no time at all (1 hour flight - 1 hour time difference = 0), making it possible to leave Seoul just before lunch and arrive on Arlanda just at dinner-time. Jetlag is something else, but to be honest I didn't adjust so well during the six nights, not being able to go to sleep until after 01.00 in the evenings (and therefore being quite tired on and off since my schedule meant I had to get up at 7.30 in the morning). Nuff said about that.

What was the best then? Well, lets divide it into places and stuff, and remenber this is a personal list, and one made for winter conditions. A summer list would have been different on some accounts.

A) Places

• Dongdaemun and specifically the Doota store. It was just right for me personally in feeling, taste and price level. Probably the most expensive for this area, so there are other price levels too. Doota give you lots of nice Korean fashion to prices still lower than in Sweden. (If you want more expensive, go to Shinsaegae between Myengdong and Namdaemun markets)
• Insadong-gil. This street in the area with the same name is a nice place to go for buying souvenirs, in a good way, its somewhat cosy and relaxed, and it beats the cheap feeling of other tourist traps I have seen in many other places.
• Myengdong market. A relatively international and fresh place where you can shop or just stroll and take a coffeebreak. Here you find my favorite kpop-music-store, Ttrak of Bloo, which is a dearly recommended visit. 
• Coex underground mall. Don't go to the nearby Gangnam just because you heard of it, go here instead. This superlarge undergound mall is still quite a quality place, and has its own movie theatre even.

B) Things

• Clothes in general - take the chance to buy clothes with styles, patterns and looks that are a little different than at home, or same-looking but cheaper. Remember one thing: sizes! Asians usually don't have the same stature as us, and this means that the bigger ones of us have to think of that.  If you are a very long, muscular or curvy person, be prepared to try some stuff on.
• Head-, hand- and footwear. They really have quite a different range of cool and funny headwear, nice gloves and mittens, and funny socks. Agreed, it helps if you like things that are a little more funny or colorful, but thats whats makes it different too. And that is mainly a problem for some men, I'd say. I quite envy the other sex here, "it's a womans world".
• Phone covers. They have a lot of them, you find stores or stalls in every other street corner.
• Kpop collectibles and CD's. I mean, I'm not even sure I can place the CD's I've bought, but the albums and photbooks that go with some of them makes it worth it, at least for when you don't have some already. And then comes posters, calendars, postcards,keyholders, etc

There are of course lots more that are worth visiting or buying when in Seoul on a one week visit, but this was the things that stuck with me this time.

Thanks everyone who have been reading these small accounts from Seoul. Hopefully I will be back with other travel tales next year. Visiting San Diego, South Africa/Namibia and Seoul have been a cool experience, but each time what is the nicest (truly) is hugging ones family back at home and sleeping in my own bed. Yawn.

Then after a while, the will to travel comes back...