Sophistivacation

I must have slept for about 12 hours but felt much better for it.....thank you Ibis! Iain woke up really early, around 5am so when I awoke, he had already planned where we were going for breakfast; it was a 10 minute walk and apparently had the best “escargot aux pralines” in the city. We showered and checked out of our hotel before wandering along the canal to find the Boulangerie. We ordered 2 lattes and the pastries and sat outside on the benches. The clientele were a mixture of foreigners and locals but the pastries were delicious. After breakfast, we walked to the Gare du Nord. On the way, we passed what looked like a baguette vending machine. I had a spare Euro so we thought why not. We had to choose if we wanted it ‘well done’ and also if we wanted a bag. It then counted down 90 seconds, produced a bag then a baguette appeared which was crispy and reasonably tasty. We ate it as we walked. We arrived at the train station, bought a ticket then found the platform, all reasonably ea...

I’m not a big fan of Paris but thought I would give it another go..... It took us until 5pm to even get to the Gare du Nord; our luggage took about an hour, then we had to find the storage lockers and buy tickets to the city centre. Maybe it’s just me, but compared to Seoul, it seems chaotic here! We decided to book a really cheap hotel as we would only be in Paris around 20 hours, if that. BIG MISTAKE! We checked in and couldn’t believe how unclean and unsafe it felt. We contemplated booking somewhere else, but decided to take our things and go watch the first World Cup game (Russia v Saudi Arabia)in the nearest pub and contemplate it. It took about 20 minutes for us to book an Ibis hotel just around the corner; we would go after football. On the way to the hotel, we picked up some wine and beer and some food. I haven’t been to Paris for a while but it feels different, even just walking about; I also forgot how dirty the city is. We got to the hotel, it felt like 5 star luxury! We set...

We got up at 4.45am in order to take the subway to the Seoul Station where we would catch the express train to the airport almost 31km away. Our flight was due to depart at 9.05am but given the subway didn’t start until 5.30am, we would get to the airport at 7am. Everything went without a hitch and due to our sky priority ticket, we got to take the fast luggage drop queue. We were through security and immigration within 15 minutes, think that’s a record! I also have a lounge card, thank you AMEX, so we thought we might as well as we still had around 90 minutes before boarding. Iain had two beers and a couple of red wines with coke (I have forgotten the name of it) as well as some food; might as well take advantage especially in the land of noodles! Our flight was delayed 20 minutes but we still boarded on time; the best part about sky priority is being able to board a your leisure and not having to queue! We are only premium economy but Air France seems to be a lot better than KLM; fir...

It’s our last day in Korea so we thought we would go out in style, Gangnam Style! We didn’t bother getting up until 9am and decided to get brunch in Gangnam but only after checking in for our flight the next day. We took the subway from our hotel, beside Myeongdong to Gangnam; we had to change lines as Gangnam is on the other side of the Hangang river. We arrived around 11am and exited at the Gangnam Style stage; apparently people gather here and do the dance but the stage was empty and we didn’t fancy going it alone! The first stop was The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Company; it seems like Starbucks is a replica of it! We had a very large coffee and chicken sandwich whilst trying to decide what to do. Gangnam really is a high-end shopping district with expensive residential properties, lots of restaurants and businesses. We decided to visit the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, then head back to Itaewon for a final few drinks followed by Myeongdong for so...

Today is the historic summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in Singapore. Completely by coincidence, we booked the DMZ tour for the same day. The DMZ describes the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, established because of the Korean War Armistice Agreement of 27 July 1953. The Korean War began in June 1950 when North Korea (supported by China and Russia) invaded South Korea (Support by the United States). The UN dispatched forces to repel the invasion and after the agreement was created, each side moved their troops back 2000m from the front line creating a buffer zone which is still here to this day. Seoul changed hands numerous times and it certainly wasn’t as simple as I have described, but you get the gist! We decided to suffer breakfast one more time, even though it was awful, as our pickup was 7.45am; It was again terrible apart from the coffee. Our driver was a bit early so we set off around 7.35am to meet up with the rest of our group and transfer to a coac...

You would think after last nights food and drink tour, there would be nothing left to try....this time we were going to a market with Janet, our guide for the day! We didn’t bother with breakfast as it says on the email confirmation to come hungry! We walked to the meeting point, a coffee shop called Twosome Place at exit 13 of Jonson 5-ga stop. It was 10am when we met so we were looking forward to some food. We crossed the road to Gwangjang market, a traditional streeet market in Seoul with more than 5000 shops, 20000 employees and almost 65000 visitors each day. It is a market where you can buy to take home or sit and eat at various stalls. Janet walked us around some of the market first, explaining different foods as we went. She also explained that Koreans do not grow up eating sugar or drinking milk; many are lactose intolerant and cannot eat chocolate like we do. They eat many things that we wouldn’t dare to eat though..... Our first stop was a little restaurant where we had bind...