More Everland Pics!

Here are some of the Everland pictures I couldn't get to load the other day.

Everland

On Saturday April 11 we went with Terri and Jini to Everland. It's an amusement park not to far from our house, or so we thought. We picked that day because there was a tulip festival. Matt and Amber also happened to be going too but were with other friends so we didn't meet up with them too much.
We had to take two buses to get there, as the direct bus only came once every 40 minutes. The bus that should have taken about 45 minutes, turned into about an hour and a half due to heavy traffic and because of all the starting and stopping I got very motion sick and had my head hanging out the window for part of the journey. Consider that the bad news first! hehehe... Other than that I had a fantastic day! The moment I saw the gate I knew Everland was a special place. It's pretty similar to Disneyland except it has it's own characters. The main grounds are all done up in a fantasy theme with turrets and cute little shops everywhere. There were flower beds chalk full of perfect red and yellow tulips. The first photo is of us trying on cute headbands. I chose one with flowers and I made Curtis wear the one with antlers. hehehe. We didn't purchase them, that would be too cheesy!

The first thing we all wanted to accomplish as finding food. We were all thinking burgers would be good so we ate at burger cafe. By coincidence we ran into Matt and Amber. Jini hadn't met them yet and actually had chosen the table they just stood up from... how weird is that?? We chatted with them and ate our weird spicy burgers. They were basically meat and a bun like normal, but then the toppings weren't the usual mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato ensemble. Instead it was like sauteed vegetables with a thick goopy sweet, sour and spicy sauce. I can't say it was my favorite, not was it terrible.

We spent most of our time walking around looking at things. Jini and Teri weren't fond of roller coasters and the lines were terrible so we avoided all the rides. They did look quite impressive though. They had a huge wooden roller coaster that I was tempted to try on several occasions. It was especially alluring because you could hear the "Whoosh!" of the wind as raced on the track. It was so loud we were looking for the thunder clouds at first. We looked at the tulip gardens and took photos of each other. There were all these pinwheels used to make the gardens more beautiful and dramatic. It was really beautiful. There was also a huge water fountain that spouted water vertically. It was choreographed a bit, not really to music, but there was a little program to which each of the spouts stopped or became taller.

The one thing Curtis and I were particularly interested in was seeing many of the animals they boasted to have there. I was quite impressed this most of the enclosures except the Safari Ride. In the map/ information guide, it said that it was the only enclosure in the world with lions and tigers cohabiting. The result of this has actually produced a mix between the two which is being called a "liger". I will completely admit that I was very grateful to be able to see such magnificent animals with the view I had, but at the same time, as I was enjoying, I looked around and noticed that there were about 14 large cats all in one enclosure that might be suitable for a pair. The ligers were in a very small pen as well. The most disappointing part was the next enclosure. They had grizzlies! I'm not even kidding! I was so surprised! It was quite sad though to see about 10 grizzlies lazily lying along the road lifting their head to catch a small biscuit that the driver threw their way. Those amazing animals were reduced to circus pets. Sigh, it made me feel ashamed that I was naive enough to think that it might actually have been a good example of a modern zoo. It was obvious though that their only concern was attracting visitors.

After that we went to see some monkeys and were on the epic search for the polar bear. We didn't find him, but we saw lots of different animals. My favorite were probably the monkeys because they're so amazingly agile and cute. Their facilities were also a bit more up to par.

When it got dark, we headed toward the area where we could see the parade. I love night parades! The more I see the more I love them. This one was ultra cheesy with robots and heroes fighting dragons. There was even an Alice in Wonderland float! I'm kind of amazed that there aren't any copyright infringements going on.

After the parade we were all thinking it was time to go home. The only things left open were the roller coasters, and while it was tempting for me, I didn't have anyone else brave enough to escort me, so I didn't make them stand in line waiting for me.

I do have many more photos, but the up loader isn't working for me. I'll have to add some more when I get a minute.

Thanks for tuning in!

Insadong

After viewing the palace we decided it was time to eat. Since the original plan was to wander around Insadong, we headed that direction. We took stock of out options and then settled on a place that said "Spagetti" in big red letters on the side of a building. It was delicious! We all enjoyed our meals and had a good time chatting with Shin-hok and Hokunani.

Matt met up with us as Amber had plans to meet with a separate group of friends. Since he didn't have a cell phone, it was a bit difficult to know exactly where we would meet up. We walked in the direction of the subway and saw Matt lumbering towards us. Huzzah! We did a 180 and headed back in the direction of Insadong. The first shop on the right hand side of the street was a guitar shop. It had beach guitars (3/4 size and more narrow) in the window. Matt stopped on a dime and asked if he could take a look. We went in and the vendor showed us the guitar. Matt started to enquire about other ones and in 15 minutes Matt chose, tested and bought a guitar. We love Matt for his spontaneity!

After that we continued looking around. We actually entered all of 3 stores and then headed to an artisan building. It was about 4 stories high and instead of stairs most of the floors had a small incline. It was similar to the rest, but a bit more condensed. Matt stopped in at a tie shop just browsing, but it was interesting to see all the shades of pink and purple. I was keeping my eye out for a new purse, but didn't find anything I liked.

At then end of the browsing we headed to Red Mango for delicious frozen yogurt. With our bellies full and our hearts content we took the subway back home.

The next day we were thinking about going to Yeouido to see the famous cherry blossoms. We weren't quite sure what time all the festivities took place and were skeptical about what we'd actually see because all of our cherry blossoms had already been replaced by leaves. With too many doubts and enough of a desire to chilax at home, we did just that. We heard later that Yeouido was completely disappointing this year as the cherry blossoms did indeed come early.

Changdeokgung Palace

The next weekend we were invited to Insadong by Hokunani. She is a foreign teacher that Amber met randomly on the subway and connected the rest of her cronies to. Thank goodness for Amber and her approachable style! If you ask her, she feels like it's a curse. Not because she meets wonderful, warm hearted people like Hokunani, but because religious nuts and charity groups seem to target her like bees and flowers. :)







The palace had a throne room, sleeping quarters for political guests and dignitaries and separate sleeping quaters for the King and the Queen. It also had extensive gardens which is why most of my pictures are of plants.


Absolutely stunning. It was a fabulous walk and we found out at the end we only saw about 20% of the gardens but the other portion is only avaiable with an tour you have to book in advance. We're thinking about booking as soon as the leaves change colours.

Suwon Fortress

It seems like we've been keeping a good sight seeing schedule. We have been getting to one new event or attraction (historic or otherwise) each week. Jini and Sup took us to Suwon Fortress. We had planned it the weekend before, but then decided against tromping around in the rain so the following weekend we went. On the way there, I was so surprised to see my first spring flowers! At first I thought it was just light green shoots and buds starting to form on bushes, but when I asked about them, Jini said it was very popular and you see it everywhere. It's called forsynth - I looked it up. Here's the first look at the wall and a lookout tower.







The first thing we did when we got there was practice Korean archery. It was really fun and it wasn't as embarrasing as I had expected it would be. Curtis turned out to be a born natural and hit the target once or twice. It looks like all those years at summer camp paid off mom and dad!











There are two main parts to see at Suwon Fortress, the wall that is 5.7 km in circumfrance and in the middle is the fortress itself. We didn't have time to do both so we had to pick. We decided to do the walk around the wall. At some points there are lookout towers or other building to look at too. Here was one of the first buildings that we saw.























Even though we had a map, I still didn't understand what we were getting ourselves into. It's a bit deceptive too that part of the city is still inside the wall. We couldn't really see where the path was leading around us. One sights that caught our eye was a gorgeous mountain thick with pine trees. Little did we know, but our trip would carry us up one side of that mountain and down the other. In fact, while we were admiring it at the start, I began thinking I'd love to come back to hike on it someday! Here's the first part of the wall. Along the way there were tonnes of gorgous flowers and the starting buds.






























This was Curtis' and my first excursion with our new camera so we took liberties to see how well our zoom worked. There is a bit of haze, but this golden statue was so far away it looked like a leaf on the hilside. Needless to say we were pretty impressed.

This was the view from on top of the hill. It was an overcast day so you can barely make out the mountains in the distance. It was so refreshing for us to get up high and make sure Korea wasn't one big city.

This one is my new most favorite picture. It was the first time in my life I've ever seen magnolias. They're really stunning because they are such a big flower on such a bare tree. I'm not sure if they like Canadian winters, but if they do, I'm going to have one in my yard.

Promised Pics

So here are some pictures of the wedding.

This is a hanbok. It's very flowy and worn loose from the body not like a kimono. She looked so elegant!

The next picutures are from a shopping trip with Matt and Amber.

The top picture is of a market stall specializing in doggie duds. There was a bee costume and a hanbok for puppies.

We went to out first foodcourt in Korea, which is quite a bit different because you order food from one counter and then take your ticket to the kitchen window when it's done. There are separate kitchen windows for separate kinds of food. I ordered bibimbap which is basically like stir fried rice. Occationally it comes with crazy side dishes. This time I had baby octopus with mine. I wasn't going to try it and then Matt did so I did. It wasn't toooo slimy, hehehe, but it was a bit chewy. Always the daring one, Matt decideds he's going to eat some baby octoups off my plate.

The last picture is an example of the crazy t-shirts here. This one has text on the back that makes no sense, but feels like a political / anti-religious rant. It even says something to the effect of Clinton being the first black president. I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, but this is comming from people who think I'm blonde, so it doesn't surprise me. ;)

These are pictures from when we saw the Van Gogh Exhibit. On the way to the museum there is a gorgeous walk. Comming the other way there was a colour party for one of the palaces that was close. It was a mini parade!