The Lost Amusement Park.

The story goes that there used to be an amazing Amusment park at the very top of the mountain in Okpo, but unfortunately, one day, a child somehow fell off the rollercoaster or one of those dangerous rides and died. The family in their greif sued the crap out of the Amusement park and due to the fact they had no insurance, lost their fortune and their park. The Great thing about this park is that they never bothered to dismantle it. Many if not all the English teachers on the island find their way to the park at least once in their year here, and Joseph and I are no different.

Joseph at the Grand Entrance... you can sort of see the makeshift Mickey Mouse in the left part of the arch...yeah but this tiny park is no Disney!

The random duck head in the bumper car, I wanted to sit with him, but it had just rained the day before so there was a foot of water in the bottom and on the seat... bummer.

The bumpercar ride was further down the hill, not sure why all the cars were up here.


Joseph found a K for Kelly, and then he put it down because it had bugs on it!

We were really in awe of how nature was taking it back! Everything was covered in vines, I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones Movie.

You can't even see the tracks on the bottom because of all the plant life, It was kind of eerie being there knowing at one point it was bustling with people, screams and movement, and now nothing but stillness.

Tickets Anyone?

The carousel of DOOM!!!!! We didn't ride this one. After viewing the rusted out bottom we scheduled tetnus shots!

And this used to be some prize basketball game called "The High Top" and for some reason it was all plastic except for the laces.

There was a whole other section of the park, but my lithium batteries failed me when I needed them most... we will however probably go back, because the rest of the park is way more exciting.

Seoul Day 1

Wow… where to begin…. It has taken me so long to get this post together I hope you enjoy it… and I still have two more days after this… sorry it is test week so hopefully days 2 and 3 will come about much quicker..

We had a fantastic time and I am so glad we went, it was a perfect valentines day gift/vacation that we really needed after so few breaks up until this point. But the trip almost did not happen.

We got help from our co-teacher Jenny to order bus tickets online, and unfortunately a week in advance there were many tickets left, but they were all for ridiculously early buses… Oh well, apparently to leave at 9 in the morning you have to go a month in advance… so we signed up for the latest bus available, 7am…. This feat of waking up early was very difficult for us since our schedule tends towards the later side, but if you got a four day vacation you want to spend in Seoul, that is when you get on the bus.

So the hateful alarm went off at 5:50am on Saturday, and with all our major bags packed the night before, we somehow managed to dress warmly ( because even our Island is freezing on these February mornings. ) and were out the door by 6:30 ( and it is only a 20 minute walk to the bus station)

Jenny told us to just go to the ticket window to pick up our tickets, unfortunately they wanted to verify the credit card ( which belonged to teacher Jenny) she had written her phone number on it in case we had an emergency or problem with the tickets, but she didn’t think we would have to use it… wrong on her part. The woman was very adamant that I provide her with a card that didn’t belong to me… Of course I would be suspicious of a big whitey trying to pass off at Park – Jung He too…. Haha… well we almost have the same last name. I was very concerned because she picked up the phone to call jenny… Now Jenny is very responsible, but I mean, who has their cell on at 6:55 in the morning, just in case your crazy white co-workers are in need….. it rang, and rang and rang, and I felt my heart sink because I was worried our trip to Seoul would be over before we even left the Island… Thankfully though, Koreans are never far from their phones, and apparently not too sleepy at 6:55 in the morning, and she answered and picked up the phone and confirmed she bought the tickets and that the card belonged to her, and before we knew it we had our bus tickets in hand and had 3 minutes to get on our bus.

I wanted to scream “thanks Jenny” though the tiny ticket window, but time was fleeting, and they already think we are crazy so it is best not to encourage that!

We found our bus immediately, and had no problems with our seats (10 and 11) and since we paid 6,000 won extra to be on the special bus we had nice warm roomy seats. I promptly fell asleep ( 7 is far too early for this gal) and Joseph watched out the window as the watery Island landscape changed drastically to a mountainous snowy wonderland. Yep, as we traveled farther north towards Seoul, it was snowing.

Two hours into the bus ride we stopped at a rest stop off the highway. They had bathrooms, a small convenience store, gas station and about 5 restaurants as well as truck vendors… it was a really great. I woke from my slumber on the great little neck pillow Joseph gave me for Christmas, and we went in for drinks and a bit of breakfast. We took a picture with the snow, but I forgot to get it off Joseph’s camera… so it may be lost… if I find it later I will post it. Back on the bus and two more hours later we were dropped off in the bus station with our luggage and no plan at all!

We scanned the nearby area and much to our joy, there were so many English places to be seen, so we headed to the KFC (since it was almost lunch time) and began to plan our day.

We decided the best option was to grab a hotel first and then drop our stuff and see what all we could see before it got too dark out.

Walking around behind the restaurant, we found a seemingly nice hotel called Hotel Herb…. Sounded fun enough so we went inside to do some pricing.

Love the sign!

The little man behind the counter told us it was only 60,000 a night (which is like 55) and it actually ended up being really nice and super quiet. Plus it had a computer in the room, which was really good as Joseph and I are developing a really bad Internet habit!

The room was really great, unless you wanted to open the window and watch television...then there was a slight problem...

With our stuff tucked away in the hotel we headed for the subway station ( which was right next to the bus terminal so we really didn’t have to travel too far) and we headed right to the heart of Downtown Seoul. The subway was not crowded at all, and was really cheap.

We exited the subway and stumbled across an amazingly empty and beautiful park.. It was so weird to be standing next to this ancient pagoda and see all these modern buildings surrounding you.

Me

Turtle that I was standing next too!

Really old Pagoda. It was fantastic to read about all the events that occurred around it, and it is still standing.

Joseph

People and bird tracks in the snow.

This cool building helped us navigate the city since it was one of like three buildings on the English tourist map that we could pronounce!

We ended up finding our way to Unhyeongung Palace… it is one of the smaller of the five palaces you can tour in Seoul, but we noticed a sign saying there were Solar New year festivities and that the normal admission fee had been reduced to free for the festivities. We hopped on that free bus as soon as it pulled up!

We toured the grounds and saw into the amazingly large palace. It was super cold and there was snow all over the ground so you had to watch your step, but we were able to successfully give ourselves the tour and had fun looking at the representations in each building. We also stuck around for the Traditional Music performance and were actually Interviewed by a Korean news crew for the military about our opinion of the traditional music. (We were pretty sure they only asked us because we were the only white people there) So somewhere I am sure military people are laughing at us stumbling over our words… Ummmm yeah I like the drums…


Joseph and a Guard

Inside the royal chamber

We found Kimchi pots!

The palace wall holding out all the modern buildings of Seoul. The old vs. new is so weird to be a part of.

Chamber Maid outfit.

Me with my pimped out ride!



They even had a table set with the items for the solar new year.

The Royal Wedding outfits on display... I think they are recreations.

Here is that traditional music and dance we got to see. I got a video, which I will post later. Blogspot is being weird right now.

Joseph and "the dancers"

Next we headed towards another palace named “ Changdeokgung” and were able to buy a ticket for the very last English tour of the day. This is the largest of the five palaces, and we even got to go see the “secret garden” portion of the palace. It was truly beautiful covered in snow. We want to go back in the spring and see it when it is warm and sunny.

The Entrance

Buildings with Snow, still the entrance....

Main hall, this place was HUGE.

I loved the interior... so mystical feeling. I want to live there... too bad people are not allowed in.

Joseph and the Great Hall

Me with the guidebook!

I felt so bad for this girl, because I was wearing sneakers and was slipping on ice in some parts of the palace.... we also had to climb about 60 stairs and a few muddy hills... her poor shoes took a beating. She must have been freezing too... it was about 31 degrees out.

The men's side interior.

When we finished our hike, we got to the secret garden... The pond was frozen over.

I am pretty sure it is no secret anymore, there was a food stand behind me and a bunch of shops. Still breathtaking.

Someone made a snow angel, so I had to take a picture.

We then walked around the city trying to find a place that was open so we could get dinner… Unfortunately because of the holiday many shops were closed, but thank goodness for Western chains that never sleep or take a holiday. We found an Outback Steakhouse and treated ourselves to a spectacular dinner.

STEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The service was excellent even if the food was a bit koreanized (aka more spicy) and for some reason the waitress brought us raspberry jam and chocolate sauce to go with our bread…. The same Brown bread they give you in American Outback’s… it was really odd but we pretended to be really happy and thankful… she seemed really pleased to bring it to us

Our chocolate, jam and pickles..... goes so well with steak.

Joseph Mid-bite.

Afterwards we hopped back on the subway and headed back to hotel Herb to plan for the next day which would be the National Museum of Korea….. next post!!!!!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday Joseph and I decided to hit up a few crucial stores in Geoje, and then go to dinner in Okpo. Not a wild and crazy fun adventure, but we needed some things from the foreign mart that you cannot buy in Home Plus, and since it was relatively nice out, we wanted to get away from the apartment! Our first stop was a small stop and shop on the other side of town (near the bus station). We had left early in the morning, so we needed some sustenance to keep us going. We stopped in a Brown and White Bakery (there are two apparently) and picked up what we thought was a vanilla creme pastry thing. Next we stopped at the family mart and picked up drinks! Then we took our spoils to a nearby park we had never been to before and we sat ourselves on a pretty patch of rocks under a tree and watched a group of kids playing basketball.


This was about 15 seconds before Joseph discovered the pastry we bought that said "vanilla" was definitely "banana"... it was still fabulous though. He really didn't want to share.


And My fantastic discovery. Mochacinno Milk tastes exactly like the Starbucks Frappachinos you can get in the glass bottles, but this is 1,000 won as opposed to 3,500.... Yeah!

"Ummm, this is banana flavored"


He also bought this little gem, because everything is so cutely packaged in Korea, and he needed a smidgen of chocolate to complete this pastry tasting.

We always love to try new drinks, this one was a "fiber and beauty" drink... Koreans are all about the vitamin/power/caffeine drinks, and most of them are terrible, but this one can only be described as "like flat orange Fanta mixed with Sunkist with a bitter aftertaste..." Well they can't all be winners.
After Joseph took the first bite this was me being way happy about accidentally buying the banana version!

And then I shoved it in my face! Yes!!!!

Uh oh Someone needs a napkin. He was really mad I took this picture, and is going to be even more mad I put it on the blog! Oops!

Here is the little Korean park we sat near. You can go sit in the Pagoda things, but they were both occupied by kids playing Pokemon cards. Very cute.

This was the tree we sat under, it looked like it had a bunch of pea pods hanging from it's branches.

We also did some shopping after our snack... The Awesome thing about Korea is they constantly give you free stuff when you buy something, we always try to buy drinks at the family mart and they remind us that it comes with a packet of cookies for free... Sometimes though the combos are very interesting... like this one.... for those students who like to write but end up with chapped lips...

One time I saw buy a bottle of mustard you get free paper towels (I know how easy it is to get crazy with mustard), and even napkins with free socks....(? no idea on that one) we have decided to keep a list of all the interesting combos and try to take pictures, and we will see which is the most odd or weird combo.

We ended up going to the bus station and heading to Okpo. We first went to dinner at Quiznos ( country chicken soup in a bread bowl was calling my name....) and then we stopped at the foreign mart to pick up some amazing Indian food and fiber bars ( because Joseph went through the ones Lindsey and Amanda sent already...which by the way the apple ones were awesome!)

With our tummies full as well as our backpack, we headed home... since it was only 8 when we got back to Gohyeon we stopped by the D cube and went to Starbucks to sit and chat for a while. We really like the Starbucks near our house, it has a very cool vibe to it and we can always talk, or sit and read, a nice way to get out of the house in the winter. I went down to the home plus for a minute to grab a few items I needed for dinner one night this week.

When I came back I found Joseph has ordered us a lovely dessert, a chocolate crunch cheese cake, which was very different from cheesecake you get in the us, but it was still really tasty. ( we usually don't eat this bad everyday, but we do splurge on weekends.)

Well with Saturday over, on Sunday we decided to go see the Movie Nine... which I kinda liked ( simply for the fact it was a musical, and had lots of theatre aspects, as well as a long list of famous stars in it) but Joseph didn't really like it... so instead of just going out to dinner, we wanted to save a bit of money ( and we could not decide where to go) so we came home and I ended up making my best attempt at chili. I had bought some salsa at the Home Plus the night before, so I added some of that to the chili so it would have a Mexican feel, and it turned out surprisingly well.

And I ended up making much more "Mexican chili" than I intended, so we will probably be having it for lunch tomorrow too!

All I did was throw together Some cooked ground beef and onions ( I should have added green pepper but I forgot to buy one), a can of sliced tomatoes, a can of Kidney beans, 1 cup of Pace medium salsa, some water and a bit of flour to thicken it, some salt and pepper and let it simmer for thirty minutes. Way easy to make and filling (yet still kinda healthy)

I still have a few pictures and a cute story about our trip to Masan, but I forgot to upload the pictures to the computer, but you can look for that post sometime this week.