We had Friday off work, so a bunch of us headed to Yeouido Park to have a picnic and spend the day in the sun. Something unique to Korea is that when the weather is nice, everyone heads out to parks BUT everyone brings a tent. Parks are always full of people in tents (to be shaded - despite pitching their tents in the little shade you can find from trees). There was a bunch of us there, but apparently I only took pictures with a few people.
Scott, myself, Tatiana, Maynah and Mel photo bombing
Ben and Chris in the background as Michael sleeps
Serious pose. I love these Canadians.
We enjoyed the day and then grabbed tickets for the "Han River Cruise" later in the evening. It sounds fancier than it is. It was basically a small little ferry type boat, everyone stood on the deck as it cruised along. It went to Banpo Bridge, which is known for having the 'moonlight rainbow fountain'. This is another thing I was able to check off my bucket list. Nightly, during the summer, there is a water show off the side of the bridge. So the cruise took us there, we watched, but before it was over, we started to head back which meant going underneath the bridge directly under the water show = people getting wet! Some of us had an inkling that we were going to be going under the water and headed for the undercover area, others did not.
Sunset on the Han River in Seoul
A good portion of the group
The tallest gold plated building in the world (so I hear)
The water show!
Everyone running to take cover as we go under the fountain
Scott and I safe from the water
The aftermath: Ben was one of the many who were drenched
Han River at night
The next day Alison had gathered some people to go to Chuncheon which is northeast of Seoul (it's actually in the next province, but you can still get there by subway!). Chuncheon is known for its dak galbi, which is grilled chicken with cabbage, sweet potato and other veggies that you make lettuce wraps with. We decided to take the ITX since it is a faster train than the normal subway, so we arrrived in about an hour. From here, things became a bit of an adventure as nothing was planned.
Since there was six of us, we got two taxis and requested that they take us to the themed pension we had booked. A pension is a room in a building you can book for cheap. They provide pillows, sleeping mats and blankets and you sleep on the floor. It's really a great option. There are a bunch of themed ones though, and Alison really wanted to stay in one, so we found a Wizard of Oz themed one to stay in for the night. We got into the taxi, gave them the address and off we went - only to realize we were about 50km away!! So after being in the taxi for however long, we decided to get them to turn around and take us back as we wanted to eat dak galbi before going somewhere 50kms away. Plus we saw swan boats that we wanted to ride. The drivers probably thought we were a bit odd, but that's okay.
They dropped us off by the swan boats and we rented two for a half hour. So much fun! I have always seen these on the Han River and had thought about renting one before.
Reid, Leslie and Alison in their boat
Chris, myself and Mel
After this, we headed to the famous Dak Galbi street and found a park along the way that was full of statues.
Mel with the children
Dak Galbi Street!!
Leslie, Alison, myself, Mel and Chris
After deciding where to eat, there are tons of dak galbi places to choose from, and eating, we walked around for a bit and I found this guy. Not sure what his deal was.
Finally we decided to do a little more research about where our pension was and discovered it was actually a few subway stops away. So we got back on the subway and headed to Gapyeong. Taking a taxi from there, still took a very long time. The place was really in the middle of nowhere, nothing else around, no stores, nothing but trees and mountains. We spent the night playing games and chatting. I was a little underwhelmed by the Wizard of Oz theme, I thought they would have went all out with the theme, but it was still cool.
Normally, pensions do not have beds, or two floors, so that was exciting.
Our pension from the outside - it was a pumpkin!!
There was also a mushroom ...
... and apple!
On our last day we decided to go see The Garden of the Morning Calm. Fun facts: It's the oldest among private Korean gardens, has 20 themes and about 4,500 kinds of plants. It was gorgeous to say the least.
These ladies wanted a picture with us
At one point it started to rain, so Chris, Reid and I tried to stay dry under this tree.
It was a fantastic weekend and looking at the pictures again, I still can't believe how beautiful it is there!
Since then, my weekends have been pretty relaxed. I went to a the play "Giselle" with my friend Myan. The only other notable thing was going out in Gangnam last weekend as we got caught in a crazy downpour while walking to Pandora (a $10 all you can drink venue). My shoes had puddles in them and my dress was sopping by the time we got there, but was still a fun night! Chris and I also checked out the French village in Seoul - which wasn't really very French at all. Some signs at French on them but that was it.
A cool mural
French pastries
AND I found a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!! The prices were okay, $10 for an apple, the rocky pop was expensive, $12 for a 173g bag! I definitely enjoyed a few goodies :)
In other news - I just booked tickets to Hong Kong!! Mel and I are going for a weekend in August to go to the Disneyland there. If you know me well, you know I am beyond stoked for this! Next weekend is Korea Burn, the following weekend I am going kayaking, the following weekend is Mud Fest, then the next two weekends I will be in Malaysia. So much adventure ahead so wish for good health as there is something really bad going around at school right now!! I will leave you with pictures from Giselle.
And a few pictures of my classroom wall because I love how it's coming together!!
<3
