10 Fotos de Jeju-si (Corea del Sur) que no me creo que haya hecho yo.

1 de junio de 2017 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

MIR GUESTHOUSE-7

El pasado mes de Marzo 2017 tuve la oportunidad de pasar 3 noches en la isla de Jeju en Corea del Sur. La «capital» por llamarlo de alguna manera es Jeju-si.

The last month of March 2017 I had the amazing oportunity to spend 3 nights in the island of Jeju in South Korea. The «capital» to call it somehow is Jeju-si.

MIR GUESTHOUSE-2

Llegamos a media mañana desde Busan, en un vuelo que duró bastante poco, unos 80 minutos aproximados. Al llegar al aeropuert cogimos un taxi que nos llevó hasta el hostel donde nos íbamos a quedar esa noche MIR Guesthouse. ¿Adivináis quién lo escogió? Jeje 🙂

El sitio es una obra arquitectónica contemporánea que atrae a muchos turistas. A mi me recordaba a una fortaleza dentro de un volcán. Y eso es precisamente lo que significa (o por lo menos lo que quiere simbolizar) con los colores negro y rojo, la lava del volcán y el basalto.

We got there during the afternoon from Busan, in a flight that was pretty fast, about 80 minutes approximately. Once we got to the airport we took a cab that brought us to the hostel we would be staying in, the MIR Guesthouse. Any guesses about who chose the place? Hehe 🙂

The place is a very contemporaneous architectonic built that attracts many tourists. It reminded me of a fortress inside of a volcano. And this is exactly what it is (or at least, what it tries to symbolize) with the colors black and red, the lava from the volcano and the basalt.

MIR GUESTHOUSE-3

Esa misma noche nos fuimos a investigar (e intentar no morir en el intento) un sitio donde mi amigo Jae nos había recomendado cenar. Bueno, el taxista que nos llevó no entendía letras latinas, nosotros no teníamos escrita la dirección en Coreano, hacía mucho frío y acabamos perdidos.

Oh, y lo mejor de todo es que Jae me dijo al final (cuando ya encontramos el sitio y todo) que él nunca había estado, pero que había oído que estaba bien.

Os dejo juzgarlo a vosotros mismos en el vídeo de aquí abajo.

That same night we went to investigate (and tried not to die trying) and find a place that my friend Jae recommended us. Well, the taxi driver that brought us didn’t understand latin characters, we didn’t have the address written in Korean, it was very cold and we ended up getting lost.

Oh, and the best thing is that Jae told me at the end (once we have found the place and had dinner) that he had never been there before, but he heard it was good.

Well, I’ll let you judge it by yourselves, on this video down below

MEDTROTTERS

Todos los Europeos sois iguales.

28 de abril de 2017 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

Antes de empezar a saco y directamente, déjame que te cuente un poco. Quizá (si has llegado hace no mucho o has llegado por alguna entrada de mi vida MIR) te descolocará un poco el ver una entrada sobre viajes. Bueno, pues permíteme que te diga que a partir de ahora (quizá una vez por semana y cada vez que el tiempo me lo permita) te voy a ir contando diferentes aventuras y anécdotas que me han sucedido en mis viajes por el mundo.

…

Como te conté aquí, el día 11/03/2017 cogí un vuelo (el más largo hasta hoy en día) a Seúl. Bueno, realmente hice escala en Londres pero vaya, que si quieres informarte más del día 0 de mi aventura, lee ésto.

Before getting started and going straight to the point, let me tell you a bit about this. Perhaps (if you got here not long ago or you landed here reading about my MIR life) it will disorient you a bit reading a travel post. Well, let me tell you that from now on (maybe once a week and as long as I have time) I’ll be telling you my different adventures and anecdotes that happened to me in my travels around the globe.

…

As I told you here, the 11th of March 2017 I took a flight (the longest one I’ve taken so far) to Seoul. Well, actually I had a layover in London but, if you’d like to know more about the day 0 of my adventures, read this.

Una vez que Jae nos recogió en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Incheon, nos llevó hasta su casa (en un viaje que duró una hora y cuarto más o menos). Allá, dejamos las maletas y nos dimos una ducha. No los tres a la vez, uno por uno. 🙂

La verdad que ésta es la segunda vez que voy a visitar a Jaehyun a Corea y cada vez es mejor anfitrión. Nos cocinaron una súper comida Coreana y una de las cosas más graciosas que pasaron fue cuando su tía llegó (yo ya la conocía) y nos dijo que Gi y yo éramos súper parecidos! Qué curioso eh? Cómo cambian los conceptos de parecido o no. Para nosotros ellos son muy similares y para ellos lo somos nosotros! 😀

Once that Jae picked us up at the Incheon International Airport, he took us to his place (a trip that took more or less one hour and fifteen minutes). There we left our bags and had a shower. Not the three of us at the same time, one by one. 🙂

This is the second time that I go to visit Jaehyun to Korea and every time he is a better host. His parents cooked for us a super Korean food and one of the funniest things that happened was when his aunt arrived (I knew her already) and said that Gi and I looked super similar! Funny huh? How the concept of similarity changes from some people to other. For us, they look similar and for them, we are the ones that look the same! 😀

Después de comer vino la siesta de rigor. Lo que pasa es que nos quedamos dormidos unas 3 horas. Ya sabes, el jet lag y esas cosas. Una vez que nos desperezamos del todo, subimos al coche de mi amigo ya que tenía que ir a hacer unos recados.

Lo que tenía que hacer era envolver los regalos para su futura mujer (ahora ya felizmente casados) de una forma tradicional Coreana. No tengo fotos de ello pero sí vídeo. Puedes verlo al final del post.

After lunch, we had to take a nap (I mean, I’m Spanish). The only issue was that we fell asleep for 3 hours. You know, jet lag and that sort of stuff. Once we got a bit more activated, we got into Jae’s car since he had to do some stuff in the center of the city.

What he had to do was wrapping some presents for his future wife (nowadays happily married) in a Korean traditional way. I don’t have pictures of it but I do have a video. You can check it and the end of the post.

Pero sin lugar a duda, lo mejor fue lo que vino después. Barbacoa Coreana. Y unos cuantos chupitos. Teníamos que celebrar que acabábamos de llegar finalmente. Y también que era la primera vez de Gi en Corea del Sur y en Asia.

Pero no te lo cuento, échale un vistazo al vídeo tu mismo 🙂

But without any single doubt, the best was what came after. Korean Barbecue. And few shots. We had to celebrate that we finally got there. And that also was Gi’s first time in South Korea and in Asia.

But I won’t tell no more, check the video and discover it yourself 🙂

Blog

¿A la cárcel por llevar Jamón Ibérico?

12 de marzo de 2017 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

It’s 05:45 in the morning. I could barely sleep. Not just because it was very warm at my friend’s place, but because always, whenever I travel I get nervous and stressed about the awful possibility of missing my flights.

Showered, finished packing, taxi (30€, fixed price from Madrid’s center to the airport) and we do the check-in. Yes! We will be flying together! Those are very good news!

Son las 05:45 de la mañana y no he dormido prácticamente nada. No sólo porque hacía mucho calor en casa de mi amigo sino, porque siempre que viajo me pongo nervioso y me estreso con la horrible posibilidad de perder mis vuelos.

Ducha, acabamos de hacer las maletas, taxi (30€, tarifa fija desde el centro de Madrid hasta el aeropuerto) y hacemos el check-in. Sí! Vamos a ir sentados juntos! Increíbles noticias!

After having a very chill and easy flight to London Heathrow, we have a couple of hours to spend in the airport. Well, technically 1:40 hours. We wander a bit around and head to the gates, where we wait for 30 more mins before we can board the plane to Seoul.

The British Airways plane, well, could’ve been better. There was not so much space as some that I had before (Turkish airlines or Emirates airlines) but yet again, we took a very great deal. 380€ for each ticket, forth and back, so can’t complain that much.

Después de volar en un vuelo súper relajado a Londres Heathrow, tenemos un par de horas que matar en el aeropuerto. Bueno, técnicamente son 1:40 horas. Damos unas vueltillas por la zona y vamos hacia la puerta de embarque, donde tenemos que esperar 30 minutos antes de poder embarcar en el avión hacia Seúl.

El avión de British Airways, bueno, podría haber sido algo mejor. No había demasiado espacio como en otros vuelos que he hecho (Turkish airlines o Emirates airlines) pero bueno, el tema es que nos salió muy barato. 380€ cada billete, ida y vuelta, así que no puedo quejarme demasiado.

Plane Airplane GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Our total flight time was 10:15 hours, from London Heathrow to Incheon Intl. Airport. Couldn’t sleep at all. I took melatonin (to try to have as less Jet Lag as possible) but nothing really helped. I guess I was too nervous or the space was so little or who-the-heck-knows-what.

After we landed we were worried because we had to declare the Iberico ham and the grana Padano cheese that we brought for my friend. If you don’t declare it you could really get into trouble. That type of food might be subject to quarantine or so they said in the declaration form. So we went on the legal way. I wrote down that I had to declare stuff but they didn’t make me declare anything. So yep, no problem after all. Everyone’s happy. Mostly Jae, who is the one getting the food! 🙂

Jae was outside waiting for us, but this is already a new day of our adventures so, it will be told tomorrow!

Until then, have fun!

Nuestro tiempo total de vuelo fueron 10:15 horas, desde Londres Heathrow hasta el Aeropuerto Internacional de Incheon. No dormí nada. Me tomé una pastilla de melatonina (para intentar no tener nada de Jet Lag) pero ni con esas. Quizá estaba nervioso o el espacio era muy pequeño o no-se-que.

Después de aterrizar estábamos preocupados porque teníamos que declarar que traíamos jamón ibérico y queso grana padano. Si no lo declaras y te pillan puedes buscarte un gran problema. Ese tipo de comida (carne y queso) puede necesitar cuarentena o eso decían en el formulario de aduanas. Así que fuimos por la vía legal. Escribí que tenía cosas que declarar pero no me hicieron declarar nada. Así que al final ningún problema. Todos contentos. Especialmente Jae, que es quien se queda la comida! 🙂

Jae estaba fuera esperándonos, pero esto es ya un día nuevo en nuestras aventuras, así que, os lo contaré mañana!

Hasta entonces, divertíos!

MEDTROTTERS

South Korean Diaries

9 de marzo de 2017 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

SOUTH KOREAN

Ahora mismo estoy en el autobús yendo hacia Madrid. Había escrito una entrada muy chula combatiendo los movimientos bruscos que el conductor decide que tenemos que «disfrutar» y al intentar subirla se ha borrado. Entera.

Un momento. Déjame echarle un vistazo a una cosa. (Va a archivos recientes… busca la entrada que acababa de escribir… y no encuentra nada). Vale, ya estoy de vuelta. No ha habido suerte.

Voy a intentar ser rápido y preciso, ya que escribir o leer en el autobús me marea bastante.

Tired Sleepy GIF by K.I.D - Find & Share on GIPHY

Lo que os quería decir, a toda la gente que seáis nuevos por aquí, es: fateuser.com, además de ser mi blog personal (que llevo escribiendo más de 6 años) es también un blog en el que escribo de medicina, viajes y fotografía. Sí que es verdad que últimamente ha sido monotemático con el tema de medicina (y mucho más específicamente con el tema MIR) pero es que mi vida en éstos últimos meses ha estado totamente volcada y rodeada a la medicina. Bueno, suffer no more! (no zufrah mah!) porque mañana empiezo una nueva aventura en Corea del Sur. Estaremos viajando 12 días por el país al que ya fui en 2014 y además de ir a la boda de mi amigo, estaremos descubriendo nuevas ciudades, comidas, tradiciones… vamos, que va a molar un montón.

Si no te interesan los viajes y estás aquí únicamente por las entradas de Medicina, vuelve en un par de semanas, porque de ahora en adelante escribiré y compartiré fundamentalmente fotos, vivencias y anécdotas de nuestro viaje.

Si eres un/a apasionado/a de los viaje/s (jeje, que graciosete me he levantado hoy) éste es tu sitio! De hecho, voy a compartir contigo una miniserie de viajes que hice sobre Corea del Sur hace 3 años. Los vídeos son en inglés y tengo una conjuntivitis megaresistente en el ojo derecho. ¿Ves? Ni aún queriendo puedo alejarme de mi querida Medicina.

Si te han molado los vídeos, o si no los has visto pero quieres curiosear dónde más he estado, échale un vistazo a mi sección de viajes!

Voy cerrando ya la conexión porque empiezo a notar mi estómago diciéndome algo así como «Chaval, chaval… no tientes a la suerte que vas con rompa bien limpita hoy y el vómito no te sentaría nada bien».

Nos leemos desde Corea (del Sur)! 🙂

MEDTROTTERS

Korean Adventures in 2017!

20 de febrero de 2017 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

On the 10th of March 2017, Gi and I will be traveling to South Korea. It’s not my first time (I was there on the summer of 2014) but it is Gi’s first time, both in South Korea and Asia. In a way it’s a really cool thing that we both visited Africa for the first time together and that she’s going to be visiting Asia for the first time with me in the same country that I started my asian exploration.

We will be spending more or less 10 days in the country but will be exploring different cities. We didn’t decide exactly how many days we are going to spend in each city yet, but we want to visit Seoul, Busan and Jeju. Also, we will be going to my friend Jaehyun’s wedding. In fact, that’s actually why we are going all the way there. But since we are going to be traveling so far away from home, we want to make it count.

As we have done in our previous adventures, we will be making short videos about the whole experience. But this time, we would like to make it even more interactive: if you have any idea or you are curious about something, you can let us know in any social network you can find us on or by using the hashtag #KoreaHellYeah and we will try to show you everything that you ask for (or almost everything, I mean, we are not rich and definitely we are careful with our choices hehe).

MEDTROTTERS

THE KOREAN YEOHANG

7 de noviembre de 2015 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

Yeohang means Journey in Korean.

In the summer of 2014 I was lucky enough to be able to go and visit one of my best friends, Jae, who happens to be a Korean dude who lives in Seoul. That was my very first time in Asia (another thing I did cross off my ‘bucket list‘).

It was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life. South Korea is a magic country. Unique and vibrant. I spent 18 days there that totally changed my life.

I was filming during the whole journey and put together a mini-documentary that I called The Korean Yeohang (Yeohang means journey in Korean) and in total is around 25 minutes on how my adventures went over there. It’s divided in 5 parts and if you’ve got some time to spare, here’s the link :).

I hope you will like it!

[powr-video-slider label=»2432008″]

MEDTROTTERS

How Korea changed my life.

22 de septiembre de 2014 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

If you didn’t know that, on July 2014 I traveled to South Korea, to meet my friend Jae (who I hadn’t seen in 2 years). It was probably one of the best experiences (if not the best) that I’ve ever had so far. Are you wondering why? Well, just let me tell you:

1. I took my first solo intercontinental flight.

Downtown

For many of you probably this is something super normal and nothing very extraordinary. For me it was. I have flown many times alone and well, probably the first 3 times I was very nervous (and sweaty too) but after that I sort of got used to that. But always they were flights within Europe. So no problems with borders checkups, passports, customs… That’s why I was a bit nervous. Passport. What if they didn’t let me into the country? What if there was a problem and I had to stay 18 days in the airport without being even able to get into the country? Sometimes, when I’m stress I tend to get a bit paranoid. Just for you to know, it all went smoothly-amazing.

2. I got to discover a whole different and new culture.

Myeongdong

One of the things that I enjoy the most about living in Lithuania and studying in an International Students Program (basically, foreigners program, the word international makes everything seem cooler) is that I get to know a lot about other cultures and traditions from first hand. I just need to ask and get interested in what my friends or university mates have to tell me. But having the chance to live in such a different country of my native one, woah. Totally woah. Amazing experience. And also, if you didn’t notice by now, I am a very curious person. What means that I make about 123,349 questions on average per conversation. Just kidding. I only make approximately 1,000 questions.

3. I had mouthgasms on a daily basis.

Yukhoe

I totally fell in love with the Korean food. I love trying different stuff whenever I have the chance, and since I was 10,000km away from home I tried not to have anything similar that I could have in my culture’s cuisine. Well, one day we went to a Spanish restaurant, but well, that’s another story to tell.

The food was spicy and hot. And full of new tastes I’ve never experienced before. I totally miss it. If you like my blog, please, consider sending me some Korean food. I will love you forever.

4. I was on a baseball match. And enjoyed it.

Baseball game!

I am not so much into sports. I do love practicing them. But when the watching time comes, well, I don’t really enjoy them. But when I had the chance to go watch one match of LG Twins (by the way, now I’m a real fan of that team. Just know few names of the players, and don’t really understand the rules of baseball, but still, I like how they play) man, that was a real spectacle. The songs, the beers, the fried chicken wings. If you happen to be in Korea you should definitely go and watch some baseball match. You won’t regret it. And please, consider supporting LG Twins.

5. I was astonished by the architecture.

Gyeongbok palace

I was so impressed to discover such different buildings to the ones that I’m used to see. It’s true that Lithuania and Spain have different types of constructions. Well, almost all the countries in Europe are quite different from each other when Architecturally-talking-about. But Seoul was amazing. Lots and lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of skyscrapers, and many palaces too. Like the one you see on the picture above. Isn’t that so magical and authentic?

6. I understood what overcrowding means.

City Seoul Area

If I had to use one word to describe Seoul it would probably be massive. Lots and lots of people everywhere you go. It seems that the city never sleeps. 24/7 stores, people on the streets and sound of cars and motorbikes. Well, that’s what you have when you live in a 10.5 million inhabitants city. The biggest city I had been before that it was London (during my Eurotrip in 2013) but I only spent there like 20 hours so I didn’t really get the chance to get overwhelmed by the amount of people.

7. I mastered my chop-stick technique.

Traditional Korean Restaurant

Well, I had to. I was given the possibility to use a fork. But I said, no way. I had been practicing with chopsticks on a weekly basis for the last 15 months (yeah, I really enjoy asian food, and if it’s with chopsticks better) so there was no way that I wasn’t going to use a stupid fork. Forks aren’t stupid, but I really didn’t want to use them. A funny thing happened. I got a small contracture on my forearm because I was using those sticks 3 times a day. My Korean friends couldn’t stop laughing.

8. I realized that in Spain we are loosing the respect for elder people.

Prayers

And that’s something very sad. Korean people are very respectful. Especially with older people than you. Even if you are only one year younger that the person you are talking to, you can’t call that person by its own name. You should use the respectful ways. And the reverence to say hello. And how to pour the drink. And how to sip from your drink. I’m sure I only learnt about 50% of all the rules but still, I quite like it. We could learn respect from Koreans. We really should.

9. I understood that I’m a born traveler.

Bukchon Village

Someone this summer told me something very interesting about me (or that was her point of view). She said that I am a wanderer and an adventure seeker. Well, I have to agree that she was totally right.

MEDTROTTERS

First thoughts about Korea

22 de julio de 2014 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

So I’ve been almost two weeks in this lovely country and I think I start to get few ideas on how things work here. (If I am completely wrong, please forgive me, I’m just a newbie here).

1. Korea is a country of contrasts.

The high skyscrapers surround the old and millenary palaces found all over the city in Seoul. It’s like the new and glassy buildings protect (or in a way, keep in the shadow) the old and classy constructions from the different dynasties that ruled the country. Also you get to see super cars and lots of technology and around the corner you find people looking for food in the trash. It’s like if there wasn’t a medium class. You are either wealthy of really poor.

2. Baseball is the religion here.

As in Lithuania the basketball is the religion, here in Korea the master sport is the baseball. They have a major league with 9 teams (soon to be 10) and almost always all the tickets are sold out. The great thing about the Korean peeps, is that they don’t get angry nor aggressive when their team looses, they just accept it. Well, they might get angry too but they don’t fight each other in a hooliganish way.

I even became a fan of LG TWINS (even though the first time I saw them playing they lost).

3. Food is very tasty and spicy.

I can consider myself as a spicy food lover. Even once I tried the spiciest pepper in Mexico. But here almost all the food is spicy. Even the Kimchi, that they eat every single day.

4. Ancient & New. All together.

As I mentioned before about the contrasts. One of the most beautiful things is to see palaces (like in this picture) surrounded by amazingly high and new buildings. So spectacular.

5. Protection and security are very important.

I think I have never seen that many policemen together anywhere.

So, until here the first main opinions that I got from my first few days in this amazing Asian and powerful country. Will update you if something changes.

Peace!

MEDTROTTERS

South Korea here I come

23 de junio de 2014 by fateuser.com Leave a comment

prueba

I am very excited to tell you guys that from today, June the 23rd, I am officially on summer vacation mode. Yey! It’s been a quite tough year, many changes (relationships and academic) but now everything is quite good and IT’S SUMMER HELL YEAH.

So, moving on, the 6th of July I will be flying from Madrid (Spain’s capital, if you didn’t know that) to Istambul, where I will be getting another plane to fly to Seoul (South Korea). I am a bit nervous about this trip because it will be the first time that I’ll be taking an Intercontinental flight 100% solo. I guess it’s just a bit of stress and excitement. Everything will go smooth and perfect (or that’s what I tell to myself). And I can kind of say that I’m mastering this go-to-an-airport-and-take-a-flight-thing. Well, it’s been 4 years now in Lithuania and since then I’ve taken about 40+ flights.

I won’t be traveling solo in South Korea. I’m going to visit a friend of mine, Jae. If you were following my blog 2 years ago, that name will sound familiar to you. It’s the guy that I went to Liverpool with. It’s been two years since we don’t see each other and I can’t wait to meet him again. Don’t worry guys, you will get to meet him in some of my veelogs.

I won’t be vlogging nor blogging daily (during the journey), because I really want to relax over there and kind of disconnect from my daily world. But, one thing that I will be doing daily will be posting photos on my Instagram. If you don’t have Instagram, no problem. You can check this link (daily.fateuser.com) where all the pictures from Instagram will be automatically shown over there.

The hashtag that I will be using for this journey will be #FateuserInKorea.

That’s all for now, I wish you a happy and productive day and read you in the comments!

southkorea

1. I took my first solo intercontinental flight.

2. I got to discover a whole different and new culture.

3. I had mouthgasms on a daily basis.

4. I was on a baseball match. And enjoyed it.

5. I was astonished by the architecture.

6. I understood what overcrowding means.

7. I mastered my chop-stick technique.

8. I realized that in Spain we are loosing the respect for elder people.

9. I understood that I’m a born traveler.

1. Korea is a country of contrasts.

2. Baseball is the religion here.

3. Food is very tasty and spicy.

4. Ancient & New. All together.

5. Protection and security are very important.