The last time I visited South Korea was when I was 3. And I only have one memory from that trip – a relative opening her house door after we knocked, her exclaiming in Korean, then giving me a big hug 🙂 #family

I haven’t seen my mom’s side of the family (other than my grandparents who live in the States) for a number of years – some of them visited when I was in high school. And South Korea was a place I’ve wanted to go to for a while, but its a place I wished to journey to with my mom.

We were able to connect with Kyeonja, my mom’s cousin. She made a lot of exciting plans with us. Our itinerary:

Arrived in Seoul then went to another cousin of my mom’s where they cooked us a delicious Korean meal.

The next day, Kyeonja, my mom and I went to Andong where we visited the Hahoe Folk Village. Experienced a traditional tea tasting and saw all the houses. We then drove to the Gurye region in the Korean countryside which was a long drive – definitely felt like a local!

The next day was super busy and it was great spending time with family 🙂

We saw a bunch of temples:

Ssanggyesa Temple in Hadong

Hwaeomsa Temple in Gurye

and Seoamjeongsa Temple in Jirisan

In Seoul, we shopped (my gawd – things fit here 😂 – being petite haha) and ate! We had some amazing meals too.

One of the best visits was seeing all my mom’s cousins one afternoon for lunch. They cooked the most delicious food! And did you know pretty much all Koreans have kimchi fridges in their homes? My family gets together twice a year to cook kimchi on their farm. I couldn’t speak Korean to them but we used the Google Translate app which worked well!

Back in Seoul, we also saw the Bukchon Hanok Village (bit touristy but worth it if you haven’t been).

And a cool library.

Ultimately, we want to come back. I would love to see Busan (fun fact: that city is in the movie Black Panther) as well as Jeju Island.