Last Seoul Trip

Our last trip to Seoul was filled with all the things in and around the city that we hadn't yet been able to do beginning with Suwon Fortress on Sunday. The fortress in Suwon, called Hwaseong Fortress, is a small, walled area within Suwon City, located about an hour outside Seoul. It's really easy to get to Suwon via Seoul metro. We took a very short bus ride from outside Suwon Station to get to the North Gate of Hwaseong Fortress. We thought we had to pay but found out that entrance was free that day. Good luck for us! There are 4 gates to the Fortress that are all fairly similar in appearance. The Fortress was built in the late 1700's and is about 5.5km long all the way around. We walked around the wall a bit, checking out the views of Suwon. The wall is elevated, but not as much as the city wall was in Xian in China. It was really similar in construction though with gates and towers for defense located at various positions along it. After walking for about 10 minutes, we got to the end of a small stream that runs from one end of the fortress to the other. We got a map from the tourist information booth there and planned a course of action. We decided we didn't want to walk all the way around, but we did want to hit the highlights within the Fortress itself, including the Palace enclosed within it. We walked along the stream and found a restaurant serving whole fried chickens for lunch. After that, we went in to the palace in the south-west part of the Fortress. It was smaller than, but very similar architecturally to, the other main palaces in Seoul. By that point, we were getting really hot in the sun, and Korean palaces really lack shade. As we were leaving the palace, a guard ceremony was taking place, so we stopped to watch for a bit. In the ceremony, the Empress Dowager and Emperor came out to watch as the general conducted exercises of his troops. There was an archery demonstration and some old guns were shot off. There were also people playing instruments rather tunelessly either because they didn't really know how to play or the instruments were old and out of tune. Still, it was a really fun little ceremony. We took a break at a coffee shop and began walking back to the bus stop where we came in to the Fortress. Along the way, we stopped briefly at a small museum about the Fortress. By that time, I had completely had it. I was hot and sweaty and my feet were tired, so we walked back to the entrance and along the wall for a few minutes, taking a few more pictures, and caught the bus back to Suwon Station. I fell asleep on the way back to the hostel in Hongdae. After a long rest back at the hostel, we ventured out into the main part of Hongdae for dinner, searching for a very special mandu place in the area. Unfortunately, the one that we were looking for was no longer there (shops and restaurants in Korea move or close all the time). Instead, we got some jeon (Korean pancake) from a specialty restaurant that sold not much more than jeon. It was pretty expensive for jeon and, even though it looked really different than others that we've had, I didn't think it was all that special. I looked up some more information about the mandu shop though and found out that only the location we had tried to find had closed. There were two other locations in the area, so, after eating the jeon, we walked down to the next subway station to find the mandu restaurant. We eventually found it and got some shrimp and fried mandu for takeout. This place is special because they only serve mandu, and they have a big selection of different kinds. Because we didn't get to fully enjoy it that night, we ended up going back on Wednesday for lunch before our flight to Taiwan.

We were both really excited for our second day in Seoul because we planned to go to Lotte World! Lotte World is in indoor and outdoor amusement park in one of the massive Lotte department stores in Seoul. Like most amusement parks in Korea, they have little mascots; just one of the many ways this and other parks steal ideas from Disney. At Everland, they have a boy and girl lion, and at Lotte World, they have a boy and girl red pandas named Lotty and Lorry. We got lucky in several ways with our trip to Lotte World. 1. Our hostel had 30% discount coupons for foreigners for the amusement park and 2. Schools are back in session in Korea, so kids are in school and adults are working, so there were way less people that there would have been on a holiday or weekend there. The longest line we waited in all day was about 40 minutes. We arrived at Lotte World a half hour after it opened, and we stayed until 7pm. When you enter Lotte World, you are on the basement level. Lotte World has 5 indoor levels, plus another level below all of those for an indoor ice rink. Throughout the day, we saw kids taking speed skating and figure skating classes at the rink. We made our way to the outside area first, thinking we'd get that done before the crowds showed up because that area has the most big rides. The outside portion is called Magic Island, and as soon as you walk outside, more Disney copyright infringement smacks you in the face. Magic Island's most prominent feature is the blue and white castle at its center. Gianni and I made a b-line for the "magic pass" booth at the most popular roller coaster on Magic Island, Atlantis. Magic passes are another idea stolen from Disney, but I happen to think more parks should have this system, so I was happy to see they had stolen a good idea. You can get a magic pass for certain popular rides, and the pass tells you between what times you can come back to skip the line and go on the ride right away. You have to wait two hours between getting different magic passes. Even though we were there only 45 minutes after the park opening, the magic pass times already told us that we would need to come back after 12:20pm. We had two hours to wait, so we went on all the other rides outside. One of the big ones was closed, which was disappointing, but we were able to ride 3 rides, all with "gyro" in the names, with barely any wait time at all. The first was the Gyro Swing. It was kind of designed like the pirate ship rides at most fairs, but instead of the ship in the middle, there was a giant wheel with seats all along the outside of it. The Gyro Swing spins and swings really high. It was awesome! Next we went on the Gyro Drop. This was another circular platform with seats along the edge, but this time you spin slowly while the wheel moves up a really freaking tall column. The spinning stops and you get dropped really far, really fast. That was probably the most terrifying ride all day. I'm still amazed I got Gianni on it. Gianni did a great job keeping up with me on all the rides all day without me having to push him too much. The last "gyro" ride was the Gyro Spin. This time, we say with our stomachs against a cushion and another safety bar came up against our backs. The disc-shaped platform spins quickly and the entire platform also moves back and forth in a swing motion similar to the pirate ship rides. I have no problem with any other ride, but those quick back and forth motions of the pirate ship rides and this Gyro Spin were too much for me. I didn't get sick, but I didn't feel great afterwards. No more swinging on rides for me. It was weird because I didn't really have a problem with the Gyro Swing first ride. Before going inside, Gianni and I did the bumper cars, which are not as good in Korea. They don't get up as much speed, and there was a platform in the middle, making the bumper area look more like a race track. Also, no one was really bumping into anyone except for the people they came with. Totally lame! It was still early for us to use our first magic pass on the Atlantis roller coaster, so we headed inside to try a few rides there. The inside portion of Lotte World is called Adventure. We rode one ride called the Adventures of Sinbad, which was a boat that goes around to different scenes in the Adventures of Sinbad. Some of the parts were in the dark. The time was up for us to be able to get another magic pass, so we went upstairs to get ones for Pharoh's Fury, a distinct rip-off of the Indiana Jones ride where you get in a Jeep-like car and drive through different Egyptian and Mummy scenes. Once we got our passes for Pharoh's Fury, we headed back outside to get on Atlantis. This was one of our two favorite rides of the day. You get strapped in in such a way that it feels like you're on a motorcycle. You are told not to bend your head too much because the force on the ride pushes you down a lot naturally. It shoots you forward at the beginning and was overall just really fast and fun. After that, we went back inside to go on Pharoh's Fury as well as a similar Jungle Adventure. In Jungle Adventure, you are in a water raft, and I got a bit wet. That one seemed to have a problem identifying its theme. At one point it was jungly, but another part had dinosaurs. It was a little weird. Before lunch, we got in line to ride French Revolution. The magic passes were already finished for French Revolution by the time we got there, but the line was only 30 minutes long. French Revolution was an amazing indoor roller coaster that goes throughout the entire area of Lotte World. It flips you upside down and goes super fast. It was a really fun roller coaster. We got some lunch and then got our next magic passes for the Flume Ride, a water ride where you sit in a thing that looks like a log and go down a big drop. Before we got the magic pass for that ride, we got stopped by the Lotte World Parade going past. I think the theme of this year at Lotte World is "samba," so there were all kinds of samba dancers, both Korean and, surprisingly, foreign, dancing in crazy costumes. We had a few hours before we got to come back for the Flume Ride, so we took some time to do some of the other attractions in the Adventure part of Lotte World. They have 3 different shooting games, and we tried all of them. The first one was a wild west game where you shoot outlaws while sitting on horses that move as you shoot. I did really crappy the first time, but I actually came in 5th in the room the second time we tried it later on. This one wasn't my favorite because it seemed a bit older than the others. I couldn't see the screen as well, and you have to kind of remember where the bigger value targets are. The next shooting game was a rip-off of the Toy Story Mania shooting game at Disney. I love that game, so I had no problem getting to play it in Korea. This one was dragon-themed, so you go around to various 3D screens shooting dragons for points. You play on a car of up to 4 people. Gianni and I played that game 3 times before we left the amusement park. The last time we even bought our picture from the ride with our scores on it. We bought it because I was winning up until the very last screen, and the picture is of me as I realized I lost in the end! The last shooting game was in a very new theater of about 30 people. You sit on big yellow chairs. There seemed to be 2 different scenarios you could play through, but we played the same one both times we played this game. There is an evil scientist in the wild west making robots, so you have to stop the evil scientist and kill the robots. It was really fun and much easier to see where you were shooting than in the first shooting game we tried. I beat Gianni both times we played, and I came in 3rd in the room the second time we played! Gianni came in 7th the second time. We had time to go on the 3D Wild Wing ride that simulates flying before going back to the Flume Ride. After the Flume Ride, we redid the shooting games a few more times, went on the monorail that goes around the outer edge of the building. It usually goes outside as well, but I think that was part was closed for the day for some reason. We also waiting in line to go on the Aeronaut's Balloons ride. You get in a basket of a "hot air balloon" and a cable brings you up to the ceiling of the building. The balloon goes all along the outer edge of the building near the ceiling. It's the highest you can get, and the views of the indoor part of Lotte World are pretty cool from up there. After getting some dinner, we were ready to head back to the hostel after a long day of amusements.

For our last full day in Korea, I organized for Gianni and I to go to Goguan Photo Studio in a major shopping area of Seoul, Myeongdong. Goguan Photo Studio is a place where foreigners can try on traditional Korean clothing, Hanbok, and take pictures in an assortment of traditional backgrounds. I figured since I had done something like this in Japan (dressing as a Geisha), I should do it in Korea as well. I even convinced Gianni to dress up and go for he couple package with me. We woke up to have breakfast at the hostel and do our laundry then we headed to Myeongdong. We were given a menu to choose our clothing. We went with the "blue" package, which comes with a few professional photos. I had a coupon for a good discount from the place, but they do charge extra for any more than basic hanbok and basic hair, so they get you there a bit. Gianni went with a general/soldier outfit for $5 extra, and I went with the royal hanbok for $5 extra as well. I also had my hair done, but I went with the basic hair accessories for no additional cost. They also have big wigs that do cost extra. They did my makeup, which was included in the package we bought. Gianni waited in the front room while I had my hair and makeup done in the back. First, they had me put on a Korean-style petty coat on over my shorts. Then the staff member brought me to a mirror and did my makeup. She applied fake eyelashes to me, which was a first experience for me. I hated them, but I dealt with it for the pictures. Fake eyelashes made me feel like I couldn't open my eyes all the way or something. Then she put a Korean traditional hair accessory for royalty on the top of my head. It looked like a pin cushion, but it was kind of cute. There was also a thick, metal stick accessory that went in the back of my head. I picked out which of the royal hanbok colors I wanted, and they helped me get into it. It seemed much easier a process in general than the kimonos in Japan, but it was still hard to walk in the hanbok. After that, I met up with Gianni who just had a few items to get into. The photographer took us to a small back room so he could take some pictures of us. We took some together on a cherry blossom background and some individually on other backgrounds. Mine were posed with a traditional Korean instrument called a gayageum, and Gianni got to hold a sword. After that, customers are given unlimited time to take selfies in the staged areas upstairs. There are various traditional settings on the second floor for you to take pictures in yourself. Gianni and I had fun with that for a little while until we both started getting hot in our hanbok. When we were ready to go, the staff gave us our photos. They actually gave us more than we thought we should get with our package, but we weren't sure if they did that on purpose or not. Either way, we ended up with small and large pictures of ourselves together as well as one of each of us separately. They were really nice. We left the studio and sat down in a coffee shop to strategize for the rest of the day. Gianni really wanted to see Starcraft one more time, so we went to the Nexon Arena (the same place we saw it before) to watch a couple matches. This time it was much shorter than the last time because it was only a few team matches, not a whole cup match. It was a really fair day. Gianni got to do something he really wanted to do, and I got to do something I really wanted to do. I think the photos were a great way to end our time in Korea. It was really the only way we were going to get to experience that part of traditional Korean culture. Hanbok is really pretty!

The weather on our last day in Korea wasn't all that great. We started out the day at Bukchon Hanok Village. Hanoks are the traditional Korean style homes, and a lot of cities in Korea have clusters of these buildings that they call a village. We've been to other hanok villages, but I had been meaning to go to this one for a while. Bukchon Hanok Village is located on a hill, offering nice view of Seoul and Namsan Tower. We didn't spend that long there, but we did take a few pictures and look in a few of the shops selling cute, handmade items. We then got on the subway to head down to the Han River to rent bikes. We were hungry for lunch, so we got Korean Chinese food for the last time. We will miss the jjangmyeon (noodles covered in a black bean sauce) and tang su yuk (fried pork with a sweet and sour sauce). As we were finishing our lunch, we noticed that it had begun to down pour, so we scrapped our Han River biking plan. Oh well! We headed back to the hostel, and we used the internet for an hour in the lobby before taking our bags to the airport to hop on our flight in Taipei. At check in, our carry on bags didn't get weight (thankfully because they were definitely overweight), and the check-in woman understood our situation about leaving Korea after 2 years and let the extra 4kg in our bags go without making us pay a fee. It was really sweet of her, and I hope we get lucky again when we head home. We were quite early for our flight, so we had enough time to eat dinner at the airport and relax a bit. Unfortunately, we were stupid and went through the short security line and immigration and got to our gate area before going to an ATM. Gianni doesn't have online banking capabilities for one of his bank accounts in Korea, so he had to go to the ATM to transfer money to one that he will be able to access more easily in the US. I figured there'd be an ATM near our gate because WHY NOT!? But there wasn't, and we were told that there was no way for us to go back through the airport even though we had time. So I was worried about that the entire time, which made it feel like time flew by. We will have to send his ATM card in the mail and have my coteacher transfer the money for him. Maybe. Whatever, the money is there, we just need to find a way to access it. It's not going anywhere. Anyway, we boarded our 2 hour flight to Taipei. The pilot was really good because he was quite frank about the reason we had a delay. I guess Korean airspace was really busy at that time or something. Most pilots just tell you "it'll be another 10 minutes" or whatever, but this guy was pretty up-front about it.

I will be writing a more extensive "goodbye Korea" post later on. But for now let me just say, it was a tearful goodbye sitting on that plane knowing that I would not be heading back to Korea for the foreseeable future. I'm very happy to be going home, but Korea was a great home for 2 years. Goodbye Korea. See you later. I love you.