Birthday in Seoul.

If you had asked me this time last year if I would be spending my 26th birthday in one of the largest cities on the planet I would have thought you were crazy. I was really lucky though that my birthday happened to fall the day after Buddha, so it was actually a holiday weekend. With three days to do as we wanted Joseph and I decided to really make a big trip of it because his birthday is unfortunantly on a tuesday so we will be working for that bithday, so it was a dual celebration and we each got to pick things to do.

We got up early on friday morning and got to the bus station to take our express bus to seoul about 8:30 ish and we didn't stop once we got there. We got dropped off at the bus station so we decided to head over to the Herb Hotel to get our hotel first...well it was under construction so we went to the California hotel next door which was a bit more expensive but very swanky! It was just as quiet as the Herb and they gave us coke in the mini-fridge. (Much better than the corn water drink we sometimes ended up with!)

behind the curtain was the widow which opened up directly to the Herb Hotel, but it was very quiet at night so if we get to go again we will def stay here again.

Very cool and mod computer, where I got to check all my cook facebook messages! (and write a few e-mails)
Nice bathroom, one of the nicest we have had, but the shower was even too low for me!

Complimentary slippers with the hotel name on it!

Our first mission after settling into the hotel was to find food, So since we had a really good experience last time and Joseph was craving some kebabs we headed back to Sunshine for a delicious lunch and some day planning with our guidebook.

The aftermath....

We found our way to a cool market place and we had to get a picture of the hallway of Fabric, I know Mrs. Kelly would have loved to see all the selection. We searched high and low for crystals for Irish dance dresses but found nothing...I wonder where they are hiding them.

food court with giant scary sausages .... we didn't eat here.

Then we found our way to the Seoul Folk Flea Market. It was actually really nice and totally indoors.
The whole place was PACKED with tons of artifacts and antiques, it was hard to see everything, but we tried our best.

"hey Joseph let's get a phone ok?"

Not sure why the pictures are blurry, but it was massive.

more stuff.

Big furniture too!

After the folk village we headed over to the Coex Mall and had dinner at on the Border, for both of us. We had a delicious meal and I totally forgot to take a picture. We also stopped by the bookstore and got a guide for China, as well as some cool magazines!

Because it was Buddha's birthday weekend as well there were these pretty lanterns all over the city.

Better picture of Joseph Admiring the lanterns.

May 22nd was the day we headed to Lotte World. I am sick that I forgot my camera. Here is a picture of the indoor part of the theme park. It was MASSIVE. It was also CROWDED. We probably rode about four rides but we had a blast just walking around... it was also attached to a mall so we had non-stop entertainment all day.

When we had enough of the rides and busy walkways we headed over to the Folk museum which was a great departure from the theme park and was very informative and not quite so crowded. This is the part I wish I had my camera for. There was a huge room filled with a million minature village people, houses, temples and lakes that must have taken at least four or five years to make. It was huge and really neat to look at.

We then went back to the theme park and unfortunately because of rain we missed our chance to go to the outside portion, but apparently the coolest roller coaster was closed anyway because of rain... but we went on a Jungle ride, an Egyptian ride and a ride about the adventures of Sinbad, and they were all AMAZING, and worth the hour waits we endured for them.

Sunday we were heading back to Geoje but we got a later bus so we could so some last minute stops before we left. We decided to go to Olympic park to see where the held the Olympics in 1988. It was amazing still.

You have to have a map to help guide you around the area.

Love those rings!

Our hair looks terrible because it was so windy, but I figured I had to include this one!

The flame is still burning.

A cool painted dragon on the wing of the big structure. the Korean word for Dragon is "Yong".

And really no place is complete without the Lotteria (see Lotte owns everything) it is basically like your typical MacDonalds, but with seafood on the menu.

Monument with all the flags of the countries that participated.

Another view so you can see all the buildings that have popped up around the park.

A race course for kids, I was wearing sandals so I didn't feel too bad that Joseph beat me.

We love museums so we went up to the Olympic museum... they had hands of people but because I am not korean I had no idea who they were.

Me and the tiger who was the Mascot of the 1988 Olympic games.

Shhhhhh, I was not supposed to take pictures inside.

They had a huge model of the park itself.

Different angle. It is very wooded, and very beautiful.

Mr. Slow had to read EVERYTHING.

But he did find where they spelled Korea with a C, so I give him his Museum credit.

They also had a ride, that went every hour, and we luckily hit it at just the right time, so we went on a loggin adventure is a very cool motion simulator ride.... not sure what it had to do with the olympics but we were just happy we didn't have to wait in line.

We then took a self guided walking tour of the grounds. Saw some art structures.

Park area.

One of the buildings in which they held the olympics.

More of the park and cool art structures.

Close up.

Swimming is the most popular event.

Close up.

The Complex also had a train going around the perimeter.

You could also rent these bicycle cars and jet around.

We went to Quiznos for lunch because we could not find another Subway like in the main section of Seoul. then we got back on the subway and made our way to the Bus station.

We got there early so we went for a walk around the area and found about 10 restaurants we would like to try next time and saw this cool over pass on the highway, you can actually walk through a waterfall!

We had a great time celebrating our birthdays, and had a great time in the capital city. With less that four months to go and lots of warm weather ahead of us we still have many adventures to go out and experience.

Seoul - Day 3

We started the day with the search for dos tacos. We were sure after finding directions on Google that we would be sure to find Mexican food in Seoul. We have not had true Mexican food since we got here, and considering that we wanted to have our going away dinner at “on the border” our favorite restaurant of all time, it seemed necessary that we find one such Mexican hot spot before our journey was over. Seoul is the most westernized of any place in Korea, so if there was Mexican food to be had, we would certainly find it here.

Is that an Aquarium or Lunch.... HAHA, it was the lunch special at the restaurant... King Crab, only 100,000 won...but at least it fed two people....

Streets of Seoul

Wavy Building

The Directions were to get off at a particular subway station, walk straight until you saw a Tour le Jous bakery, and turn left down the alleyway next to it and it would be just before you reached the end of the street on your right…. Sounded legit to me.

We found the correct subway exit (after many pictures, and many “ why did we walk, we should have taken the subway!” comments) and made our way straight…. We passed four bakeries… and not one of them was the correct name. So we walked down every alley way on the street (yes, desperation does come to mind) but alas, we were fruitless in our searches… So we decided to chalk it up to the fact that Koreans don’t label streets properly, so obviously they cannot give directions properly either. ( Seriously they give intersecting streets the same name, and don’t name other streets, and are in awe of the fact that foreigners new to the area get lost…. More Klogic coming at you! )
So we retreated back to the subway station, and decided to go to the Coex Mall. The Biggest mall in Korea! We got off the subway, and didn’t have to search far, the subway station opened up right at the mouth of the mall, we walked in maybe 20 feet and were surrounded by a Coldstone creamery, Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, and most importantly Sbarro… yeah we both dove into two huge pieces of cheese pizza. It tasted almost identical to the American version so we were still mexicanless, but at least not starving.

You can see my money purse and a 5,000 won note next to the pizza at the bottom.

The mall was pretty nice, but not as big as I had hoped. In fact, it was not that large, it made Crabtree look like the Mall of America…. But it did have a bookstore called Bandy and Luni’s which was where we spent the vast majority of our time.

Cliff's notes for Korean!

Yeah Literature!

Haha, store that sold really ugly clothes.... which is not what the name would suggest!

. Also, there was a Sanrio store, which I popped into because I wanted to buy our co-worker jenny something since she was so diligent to take a call for us at 6:55am on a Saturday! I picked out a nice set of pens (red, blue and black…all the right colors needed for grading tests!) and scrambled out of there, it was so crowded!

They also had an arcade where you could play, Roka roka Satan... fun times.

And play this nifty fireman game... Yes, you spray people with a virtual hose... hilarious.

We walked did a few more laps of the place and realized there was a hallway we had not traveled, we decided it might lead to the Casino, which we would most likely not go too, but it would be fun to see a Korean Casino. We walked and walked and realized this must be the way to the second food court, but unfortunately it was all Korean restaurants, and we didn’t want to break with our trend of only western food for our holiday! (since there are no western chains except Pizza hut on our island!) Finally we got back to part of the main mall, but it was a part we had not explored… we saw a Hagen Daz ice cream store, and decided that we would have dessert there after we found a suitable place to have dinner. Joseph wanted to see the flavors, so we ambled over and much to our surprise we saw the most lovely sight on the whole trip. I kid you not, right across the hallway at the end of the row was none other than an On the Border Restaurant!.... Can I get a Hallelujah!!! I think we literally stopped, dropped our jaws and started hugging each other. It was like getting to see our families or having a vision of the Virgin Mary! So exciting.

Our table buzzer! We only had to wait about 15 minutes.

Me and some of the decor.

Joseph, shoving his face with tortilla chips!

I was so excited... it looked the same, smelled the same, and tasted the same! Fantastic.

Omg, they had sour cream, and it was delicious.

We were so stuffed after dinner that we decided to forgo the Hagen Daz in lieu of walking around the bookstore more, which turned into a few more hours…. So by the time we walked out we decided it was necessary to stop in the Coldstone creamery for some cheesecake ice cream with blueberries! ( so delicious)

We hopped on the subway and headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our bus ride home the next day.

Overall Seoul was fantastic, and we saw so many other things we wanted to do so a return trip is going to be a must.