One time a couple of years ago, I met Matt Scannell from the band Vertical Horizon. Vertical Horizon is one of my FAVORITE bands of all time, and I told him so - I said, "VH is one of my top 3 favorite bands!" He asked, "Who are the other two?" And I said, "R.E.M." And he nodded, respectfully. And then I said, "BTS!" And he said, "Why????"
Because BTS is AWESOME!!!
We had another early day and headed out super early (long before 7am) to the metro to head up to Myeongdong. I guess I never thought about the fact that hey... South Korea is still in a war with North Korea - until you see the little "how to use the gas masks" videos in the metro stations.
The day started out not-so-great for this kid. She gets pretty car sick, so even though we sat in the first row, it still hit her pretty hard. Our guide had kind of a lead foot, but as we approached our first stop of the day, Dae Jang Geum Park, we were met with what felt like a hundred speed bumps. She would gun it and then slam on the brakes to go over the speed bum. Repeat 100 times. To say the least, whenever we now see Augst D's "Daechwita" video from now, we can point out where Natalie emptied her stomach! (You know the scene where Jungkook punches Jin? Yep, right behind that building to the right!)
But eventually we made it to Dae Jang Guem Park, mostly in one piece! It turns out, this is a movie set lot for MBC where they film a lot of historical dramas!
MBC is the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, which has been around since 1961. We tried to look in this stage area and they were just building set pieces out of wood.
You wouldn't even know this was just a set and not a real town from some other era!
Let the gong play to begin Daechwita... THIS is one of the "streets" on the set that Min Yoongi (aka: Suga; aka: Agust D) filmed the video for his song Daechwita. Daechwita is Korean traditional music for the royal military played when the King walks.
I stole this from Cosmo (thanks Cosmo) but you can see behind Yoongi (who is in the foreground), Jungkook is rearing back to punch Jin in the face. JK and Jin had cameos in this scene that was filmed right here!
So of course, we all took a group picture here!
We continued around the very cool film lot past all of the little structures they built for historic movies and videos. Many of them aren't from the same time period, which is kind of funny.
The actual first lines of Daechwita are filmed right here! (He starts the video off in the palace parts - see below for that, but the lyrical part starts here!)
Many scenes in the music video are filmed here in this open area in front of the "palace." Dae Jang Geum Park calls this building Injeongjeon Hall.
In various spot in Dae Jang Geum Park, there are these signs which tell you what scenes were filmed in that location.
I'm a King! I'm a boss! (Right? RIGHT???)
Yoongi started the Daechwita video right here!
Daechwita daechwita ja ullyeora daechwita!
I was very distracted by the beauty of this place!
Our final stop of THIS stop (the very first of the day) was an arena where part of the video was filmed.
This is known as the Military Drill Hall at the park where Yoongi did donuts in a 1990 Hyundai Grandeur - Oh Yoongi, you're so funny, that car pre-dates you! But this lady was in high school, HA!
That feels like something I would have seen in the parking lot of Largo High School.
Same spot! We didn't have a cool car though, or any flags hanging around.
Yoongi up on this balcony doing his thumbs down. So of course I had to do the same thing from the same spot.
We're like twins. Come on. Just admit it.
A big part of the video was also filmed here in this "arena/jail" known as Jeonokseo, or the Central Prison.
Yoongi all tied up in the music video!
Again. Minus the fire. And minus being tied up. And of course, there's the fact that he's a Korean man and I'm an American woman. But for real, we are TWINS.
Natalie and I spent a little time in the Jeonokseo Central Prison on the film set. I don't remember Yoongi going to jail in the video but it's pretty funny that we did!
The ride back was infinitely easier than the ride there, and Natalie sat up front the whole time. We went back to Gangnam for lunch at the VERY famous (in the BTS world) Yoojung Sikdang restaurant!
Me trying to contain my excitement that BTS used to eat here. A. LOT. Like all of the time.
BTS advertising Kloud beer. They could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a lady in white gloves!
BTS is alllll over the place inside of the restaurant. Including the ceiling.
This photo was from the show Rookie King BTS (a long time ago!) that was filmed during their trainee days when BTS used to eat here a lot since their old dorm and the old Bit Hit building were very close by. Nowadays, they have regular tables and you don't get to sit on the floor on pillows like you did back then!
Our guide ordered for us - one of BTS's favorite meals - the stone pot Bibimbap!
Natalie and I devoured this!
Everywhere you look in Yoojung Sikdang there are pictures and memorabilia of BTS. There's a picture of Jin with his purple hair from the Love Yourself: Speak Yourself tour waaaay in that back corner near the ceiling. It's my favorite Jin hair!
It's so fun!
I SEE YOU SHOOKY! He has hair!!??
There were even pictures of the guys on the napkin holders!
So. Much. Memorabilia.
The owner of Yoojung Sikdang, Kang Sun-Ja is the cutest little halmeoni ever! She came over and took pictures with all of us!
We did finger hearts with her! She knows BTS personally and always said they were so polite and hard working. I mean... duh!
I'm literally in heaven. I didn't want to leave!
We took a cute group photo outside with Mrs. Kang! And if you're wondering - yes, there was ONE man in our tour group! He was the husband of a woman who was ARMY and they were from Germany!
We didn't even have to drive to the next stop - we walked to the old Big Hit building, which has been quite graffitied over.
That's a lot of graffiti! Big Hit Entertainment moved out in 2017/2018, and the building was recently purchased by actor Kim Woo Bin.
Many ARMY are scared that Kim Woo Bin will change the building in some way, like remove the graffiti, which are special messages from ARMY to BTS.
My two biases are Jungkook and Jin so I liked this graffiti!
You'll Never Walk Alone was a repackaging of the BTS Wings album. ARMY will always have BTS and BTS will always have ARMY, so we will truly never walk alone.
BTS CERTAINLY DID PAVE THE WAY!
My special message for BTS!
Sorry Natalie's message is sideways. When you take a picture sideways, you can usually rotate it, but for some reason, Blogspot always puts it here in the original positioning. Anyway, it's a very important message for BTS!
Me and Natalie outside of the original Big Hit Entertainment Building in Gangnam.
Natalie writing one more message to BTS... Bavaria loves BTS!
One last picture of Natalie in front of the old Big Hit building. Lots of memories for OT7 here, for sure!
Next, we walked over to Hakdong Park that BTS used to come to a lot in their trainee and early days. Recently, in an episode of Run! BTS, Jimin and Namjoon came back and sat on these swings and reminisced about the old days.
Natalie sat in the same swing as Jimin!
There is actually a sign on top of the swings now that says these swings are not for adults and that they are only for kids. But of course, Natalie isn't an adult yet so we felt she was justified! I'm just sad I didn't get to share the same butt space as Namjoon ha ha.
This park is also an earthquake assembly area. I forgot they have earthquakes here!
Our next stop was to the old BTS dorm which is now a coffee shop called HyuGa Cafe & Bakery.
This dorm was actually BTS's third dorm where they lived up until 2018. This room was used as their karaoke room.
The first room we saw was Jungkook's room - eeek! They put the baby in the basement!
Each of the rooms has little memorabilia to whomever lived in that room. JK bias for liiiiife!
We grabbed some drinks and pastries upstairs and went into the main dining room where there is a huge wall of post it notes from ARMY. Many of them have drawings of flags from the countries they are from, and as you can see people come from ALL over the world to visit South Korea because of BTS!
SEOKJINAHHHHH! You're a Super Tuna!
One of my favorite Agust-D (Yoongi/Suga) songs is D-Day. Future's gonna be okay! Many people had the most beautiful post it notes on this wall!
After our pastries and drinks, which were EXCELLENT, we walked around and explored the dorm. This was J-Hope and Jimin's room!
Jimin and J-Hope used this room as a dressing/changing room. The actual door in the back used to be in the living room when BTS lived here, but they moved it here after BTS left.
People can leave messages on post it notes in the rooms - there were a lot here for Jimin and J-Hope! Unfortunately some people wrote on the walls even though it says you shouldn't.
This was Taehyung's room - you can't see Namjoon's room because it was behind that door on the left that is now just a staff room.
Oh my goodness this little Taehyung truck is SO adorable!
This was Jin and Yoongi's room!
SHOOKY! People are seriously so talented.
Me in Jin and Yoongi's room! Jin actually slept in this side of the room. Yoongi was on the other side, but there were some people sitting over there so I didn't get any pictures.
Natalie and I at the top of the stairway in the old BTS dorm. That light was here when BTS lived here!
One more picture of Natalie and I in Jungkook's room before we left!
Our last stop - for real, or so we thought was Nodeul Island where BTS filmed several music videos, including this one for Run.
Here is Natalie, under that same bridge!
And here I am under that bridge! This is the Hangang Bridge, which itself has a crazy history. In June of 1950, the North Koreans were marching on Seoul and were fast approaching. In an attempt to flee the city, approximately 4,000 refugees and soldiers left on foot, crossing the Han River at the Hangang Bridge in the middle of the night. Despite a delay to allow the bridge to clear, the decision was made to blow up the bridge, killing approximately 800 people. Unfortunately, it didn't make much difference. The North Korean Army was hardly slowed and went on to capture Seoul the next day.
I never ever thought in a million years that this would be a thing! 다시 run, run, run!
The team is RUN RUN RUN-NING!
On our way back to Myeongdong after a fun filled day seeing all of the important BTS sites in Seoul, our tour guide drove us past the Hybe building! We didn't think we were going to be able to see it but not only did we drive by it, she stopped so we could all hop out and take pictures!
Our boys walk through these doors everyday (well, um... you know... when they aren't in the military!)
Me and Natalie in front of the Hybe sign! We were so excited we got to stop and take some pictures!
We also passed Sungnyemun Gate on our way back to Myeongdong. Many people call this Namdaemun which means "Great South Gate" however, Sungnyemun Gate actually translates to "Gate of Honoring Propriety." It was originally built in 1398, but has been renovated a few times over the centuries. In 2008, an arsonist destroyed the wooden top part but that was also restored in 2013. Back in the day, the king would sometimes visit this gate in times of flood or drought.
The Myeongdong night market was one of my favorite things about Seoul. You can get so many things - including a "grilled scallop cheese and butter."
Natalie really wanted to try an Oreo churro so we finally did!
It was a LONG and exhausting day, so we finished up our evening snacks at the Myeongdong night market and went back to Gangnam. When we were nearly at our hotel, we spotted this chair convention happening outside of an office building. What is this all about? What are they meeting about? Who put these here? Are they free for the taking? I have so many questions!
Cheers to another amazing day in Seoul!
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