July 7 (Wed) - Gwanghwamun and Gangnam

We met up with another one of Aimee's friends today. Her name was Jongyeon and we went all around the National Palace + Museum in Gwanghwamun (Seoul).

Although my time here is nearing the end - we still managed to have a leisurely start. Didn't leave the house until about noon.

Ate breakfast - toast, PB + Nutella, and a new brand of plain yogurt. This one was a little better - it wasn't as thick though.

I also tried one of our snacks we bought last night. It's just a cookie/biscuit thing packaged in twos. Pretty good though.

Once it was time - we left for the outer city bus. We met her friend- already on board.

We took it to a stop (forgot the name).. and then got on the Seoul subway. It was only slightly different than Incheon's.

See? The barrier isn't as pronounced.

We rode, got off, transferred, and then got off at our destination: Gwanghwamun. It was pretty fancy :)

Pretty normal sight - the old elegant pagoda (memorial) and then the snazzy modern buildings. :D

We also passed by the famous square with the two statues in it, but I seem to have neglected to get a good full shot of them both :(... not sure why? Oh well.

Before we went to the palace, we got some version of lunch. (Since we actually ate "breakfast").
Though - no place new. We kept it simple with A Twosome Place and their amazing iced mocha ;)

And I also got a warm raisin/cinnamon bagel (twice the price of an American bagel :P).. but the combo was even better.. the mocha didn't freeze my mouth this time. I actually orded this myself... in English :) xD But it didn't go so well - they gave me the warm mocha at first.. but Aimee resolved it for me ;p

As we walked, we also passed by this fascinating bakery...

;) Which I stopped in and got some awesome tomato/cheese bread :D HUGE tomato/cheese bread. It was my "dinner". There's a pic later.

Now, we were off to the palace.
There was a mild admission fee - but that got us into this spacious maze of ancient buildings.

One of the coolest shots - right when I walked in :) The pillars...
The docents and other workers were also in their traditional clothing. :)

Another cool shot... imagine living there. Don't be fooled though - there were plenty of people. I mean, it wasn't like the waterfall in Jeju Island, but there were lots of other tourists :) I even saw a party of Austrians!! xD I really wanted to speak to them.. but of course, that's just weird. Foreigners don't talk to other foreigners?

Anyway - it was a long expanse of mostly walls, and sides of buildings - but we found the museum nestled right next to an exit from the palace. Free admission - great stuff.

Here's the entrance - again: no pics of the exhibits will be posted here. Sorry :) But I can say that I really enjoyed seeing their Korean War section. Even on the sidewalk coming here - there was a cool ..um.. display with pictures commemorating the 60th Anniversery of the Korean War. But the artifacts and interactive media they had in this exhibit at the museum was so cool! Very fancy - well funded and appreciated.

We didn't actually get to see the whole entire place because it closed at 6. Yet, we were there quite a while as it was. Still - after that, we decided we wanted to go to Kyobo to look for some things.

We had intended to go to the biggest bookstore around - the Kyobo in Gwanghwamun.. but it was actually under construction still ;(... so we had to go to the one we usually hit up in Gangnam. That meant we took another outer city bus... through a lot of traffic!

Once we were there though, it was easy enough to find what we were all looking for. So, all in all it was satisfying.

When we finished, Jongyeon bought these. So I tried one.. pringles! xD

By this point, it was getting quite late - but we wanted food...? Actually, I was hoping to try my first shaved ice today.. so we decided to just go back to our town and stop at the Wooden Giraffe (that cool cafe with the flowers?)... but by the time we got there.. there was only about 30 min before they closed.
I guess we wanted more time, so we went somewhere else.

Aimee and I's first time here. Seemed alright.

I pulled out my bread finally. A long day - glad it wasn't too squished.

Tomato, cream cheese, and olives.. :)

And this was our shaved ice! Lots of toppings - but everyone's is different. This was apparently the regular. Whipped cream, chocolate, fruit (all normal).. then you have the corn flakes, tomatos (fruit), rice cake, and red beans :)

After that, we ran to the bus and went home? It was almost a free transfer.. but no. :P

Tomorrow - we're meeting someone else.

But that's all I know.

:)

July 6 (Tues) - Grandmother's Birthday

Well, today was another day that didn't go as planned.
I guess it's just because we never have the whole picture.
A bit before we were going to head out, we got a phone call to stay home - it was grandma's birthday!.. and she was coming over soon xD
So, cleaning ensued.

Still- even though Aimee and I didn't go out exploring together, there's still a lot to learn from today's food adventures. My most exotic so far, I'd say.

Morning was simple. We were really hungry from last night.. so, we had a sufficient breakfast. Peanut Butter fills one up.
Granola cereal ;)... white white bread.

From here... well, somehow we passed our time? I really don't know. I guess we watched a bit of TV and then played BnB.

Kind of napped while Aimee unpacked.

Still - once 6:00 hit, it was time for dinner. Everyone was home and we headed out for a huge celebratory feast.

Place of choice - the sashimi (sliced raw fish) restaurant. I think the Koreans call it he - pronounced kinda like "hay".
Now - as I ate, there was little to no explination offered. I had to pry it out since Aimee didn't know fish names or anything. The blanks I researched later... so, here goes.

Here we have on the left - some sort of grilled fish ( a mackrel maybe?), [1] salad, [2] wasabi paste, [3 bowl] carrots+peas in the pod, hard boiled quail(?) eggs, bundigie(?) [silk worm larva], [4] red paste with garlic on top, the black dish on the wood is corn with butter and crab (good!!), the stacked bowls have jalepeno and garlic, the white bowl in the back between the black ones is some sort of raddish slices with white raw fish on top. The black bowl on the right has seaweed soup and the right one has rice with veggies (mixed). xD.. everything has an explination, true... so if you want more details lemmie know. I didn't try the brown bugs though... because Aimee doesn't like them :P Apparently they're squishy. Most Koreans like them though.

Second huge plate had (from left-ish going in a circle), a huge shell with a carrot, raddish, and white fish.. oysters? (mildly chewy), he-sam? (chewy orange stuff), squid (Yummmm), and chewy tuna colored fish.. no idea what it was though :). The middle drinks were amazing: rawspberry flavored wine? Dunno - but that stuff was awesome. :)

With these, I don't know the name, but they were made of rice wrapped in... maybe a sesame seed leaf + seaweed... carrot, raddish... Lots of white fish! Raw, white fish...! ;P On top of radish slices. One of those might mayyybe have tasted like salmon. Otherwise - they were all rather tasteless. So, instead of just eating it plain - Koreans put them in lettuce or sesame seed leaves and dip them in spicy sauces/soy. xD

Here, I tried some sort of muscle handed to me. It was chewy...

After that - we were given the big finale...

Spicy fish soup (kinda like a gumbo?). It was served with rice. Basically, if you couldn't tell - the rest of the odd fish parts are boiled in the soup on the hot plate.

I got a bowl with half the head/fin.
:x
And since we have chopsticks, we can pick out the meat.

Anyway.
To wash it all down - we got some free coffee as we left (customary in the restaurants I've been in here). It was the sugary kind, but still got the spicy fish taste out of my mouth.

After that - Aimee and I went to the little mart next to our house to grab some much needed groceries. We didn't get much, but one of the drinks I decided to try was the peanut/walnut milk. Apparently it's made of a mix of their juices? Not sure, it was marketed with the soy, black soy, and sesame seed milks. :x I still have to try those xD

Here's the package.
I was hoping to have like.. liquid peanut butter... but instead it was kind of... well, different. At first, the taste was distinctly some other nut (maybe that was the walnut) but then the aftertaste was pleasantly like peanuts... :o Then, imagine it was milk? Milky nuts.
Interesting. Flavorful. Not bad :o

Soy's fine with me though :)

Anyyyway. Now... I guess we'll watch the Lion King XD... and hope things work out tomorrow.

;)

July 5 (Mon) - [Delayed] Return home.

Well, our travels yesterday went off our master plan.
I guess it was the lack of funding that we decided to change things up, but either way - part of it was because we were unprepared and part of it was just bad luck.

I'll explain through pictures, I suppose. However - it should be noted that we weren't home until about 1:30AM South Korea time yesterday. :P.. so I waited until the morning to post.

The start of the day seemed fine and dandy.

We ate a nice neverending supply of mandu - or "water dumplings"... boiled and filled with pork for breakfast. The side is soy sauce to dip them. So, that was sufficiently filling. Though, it made my stomach feel weird + have dumpling breath all day xD

After breakfast (served at 8:30 AM) we had about another hour to finish packing/gather our stuff, etc... so, we left the house at 9:40 AM. As the new plan went - Jon had family engagements in the afternoon, so we were just going to be dropped off at the airport.

So, luggage in hand, we went inside and met up with one of Aimee's friends that actually worked at a Chinese restaurant here. We didn't converse long, but after she denied us free luggage storage (xD), we had to go downstairs and put it in storage... Cost an unfortunate $3... (lunch), but we were check in luggage free for the rest of the day (I still had 2 heavy bags of carry on?)...

Previously, the plan laid out for today was that we would visit the botanical gardens... but after asking about buses, we discovered that it would be a little over $7 in transportation costs... then another $7 to get in the door. Plus, it was outside... and hot. :p So, being poor, we opted to find something else to do. It's not that I didn't exactly have the money - it's just that if I went, I wouldn't have enough money left on my bus card to get home from the Gimpo Airport in Seoul... The minimum charge is about $10... :(

So, instead - we looked through a jillion pamphlets to find something cheaper to do.

We decided upon a nearby history museum (as if we hadn't seen enough of that?) - but entrance was free... bus fare was in-city.

All worked out... until we got on and rode a bit -- bus driver told us the museum was closed today. :( .... and we had at least 8 more hours to kill - so, we rode the bus to the last stop: the Samyang Blacksand Beach. :)

And you know - for being on an island as long as we'd been... we hadn't seen the beach. :o So, I guess in many ways - it was way more fortunate that we just went straight there. Still free admission... xD

A note about the bathrooms we'd used in Jeju: they only have toilet paper dispensers on the outside of the stalls... so, before going to the toilet - we made sure to grab a wad. :P

The beach was amazing.

I mean, I'm sure there are nicer beaches elsewhere around the island... but really - this was the best part of my trip to Jeju. It was cool, refreshing (unlike any other day), and fairly vacant :) We passed time drawing things in the sand until it started to get a little hot.

So, we walked to the covered boardwalk to cool off and watched the tide come in.

We finally came to our senses and took off our shoes to wade in the ocean.

That's when things got good!
I didn't bring my camera with me then, so I don't have close up shots.. but you can imagine wading.

I was wearing shorts :D.. perfect.

The water was cool... and the day was warm.

That passed some more time. After that, we went to sit again, dry off, and nom on some of our leftover snacks from last night... + watched an ant take our crumb and try to walk with it.

Very chill.

After that... we went under the better veranda and just talked and planned the rest of our time together. One more week and lots to do! This spot was higher up, so there was an amazing sea breeze as well. Natural AC :)

So, about 4 + hours after we'd arrived, we decided to head back to the airport for lunch/dinner. xD

We took the same bus back - but this time it took over an hour. It's not that we were any farther, it's just that it was peak time to pick up shoppers and kids. The bus driver warned us we might want to switch buses to get there faster, but we had plenty of time to loose... so.. we rode the bus all for an hour and 20 min. xD The driver asked us if we were going to be late... but of course, we quelled his fears when we said our flight was at 9:15PM.

Once we were back at HQ, we walked around every corner to figure out the best spot. It really wasn't that big, so it didn't take long.

We settled on this average cafe.

Ordered a hamburger and a tuna sandwich. All just average. No flavor, really. Warm toast though.

Since we'd also saved a lot of money today -we wanted to spend some on our favorite venue - drinks... cafe style.

Same price, but not the quality.

Iced Green Tea Latte. It was expected to be poor. I'd say it was milk with some green tea powder mixed in. No crazy flavor either. But, it was different. My one and only in this country.

About mid-way, we took our drinks downstairs to the Dunkin Donuts / Paris Baguette to look for sweets...
Decided against Dunkin (still have a grudge against their donuts).. so, went with PB.

Split the cheese rolls on the left... and I got a "mocha bouchee". Both not particularly flavorful either.. the mocha was better.. but still not a donut, I guess. :P Too bad they didn't have Krispy Kreme xD

Oh well. That wasted some more time.. but still had a good hour or two..

So, we talked. That always eats away our time.

Before we knew it, it was time to grab our bags from storage, get tickets, check them, go through security...

And then wait some more xD.

We had an hour before take-off, so we walked (several times) through the duty free store with all of the expensive mostly American/foreign designer brands. Still had prices in USD...

Anyway - we boarded.. saw some more foreigners (one, an old British man).

Headed home.. quick flight.

Easy easy..

Got to the Gimpo Airport......

And found we missed the bus.

...

:(

So, we were stuck at the airport for another hour and a half... but this time sitting outside in the dark with our luggage + bugs xD. Luckily her parents picked us up.. or else that taxi ride would've eaten our dinner...?

So, in retrospect, I really didn't need to save that money for bus fares :P

But I would've preferred getting home feeling less like a zombie.

I mean, earlier this trip - 1:30AM was chump change.

But after getting up before 8:00AM all week... well, you know how it goes.

Even today, I woke up before 10. Bleh.

But that gave me time to blog.

Now, we're planning to head out and check out the library/shaved ice/more gifts/ etc.

Hope it all goes well.

At this rate, I'll have to convert more money xD

;)

I'll post more later.

July 4 (Sun) - Independence xD... Natural and Museum

Well, today was another tiring day - though, we got to sleep in about an hour longer.
We were out of the house at 10:30AM and off on our own adventure.

Breakfast at 9:30 - ramen and rice cake disks. Pretty good. Also had some kimchi (I think it was garlic stem?) It was more sour than the ones I'd tried before.

We took a direct bus to the other side of the island... not too hard. I slept :) Aimee paid attention for the both of us. It's all Korean to me, haha.

Oh - but before we left the city, I did see my first drive throuh McDonald's :D... kinda cool.. guess Jeju Island can cater to foreigners (Americans) that had drive throughs?

Once we got off - we walked a bit... luckily, it wasn't too far. Though, it was quite hot/humid. We stopped at a tourist information center right by the stop. Quite easy to navigate this area of Jeju - much more organized and urban.

We walked to see the Cheonjeyeon Falls. A legendary spot with tons of stairs involved. The bridge was steep too. Though, it was gorgeous and breezy- so I guess it's all worth it.

This was the first fall we walked to -- referred to as the 3rd one... not the main one, but the stairs killed us xD We took our time.

A sample of the neverending walk :) Guess it's healthy...

Due to our lame struggles up-mountain, we decided to skip the 2nd fall and go straight to the main one...

Despite the looks of the picture - this was quite crowded. The fall is actually to the left of me in this shot (along with all of the other tourists).. but I realize now - I didn't even bother taking a shot xD. I did enjoy listening to all of the languages. I mean, it was mostly just Mandarin Chinese and maybe one Japanese... but there were a few non-Asian foreigners. (Like this cute German couple with a baby - I'm pretty sure it was German, at least.. We saw them again later.)

After that.. we walked to the Teddy Bear Museum. It wasn't much farther.

We took the loop around to get it.. scenic route? Still hot and humid at this point.

We spent most of our day there, taking pictures of practically everything... but I can't post the exhibits here....

...but these are a few shots from the misc. though :)

This was the gift shop for example. :0 Quite pretty, but $ :) Tempting, but luckily (or maybe not?) we were both way too poor at this point.

Thankfully, the museum cafe was actually the popular fast food place - Lotteria :)

Meaning -we could eat! I actually ran out of money, so Aimee got most of the extras for me to try... All interesting - I will miss it. The round balls were sweet potato with cheese - fried XD Quite sweet (asthe sweet potato ught to be)... but.. I liked it a lot with cheese :).. mm... we also had squid rings (look just like onion rings.. but filled with squid) - but they're not out of the bag in this pic :(.. sorry. Anyway- in the bag were your regular french fries, but we orded a packet of chili powder and mixed it all together... and made a tastier -chili fries.. (minus the meat?)... the burgers were a mix of what I've tried - one side bulgogi, the other shrimp burger xD

Yum!

I also had a chocolate in my bag...

..but as you can see - it got owned. Tasted fine though! xD

Right next to the cafe was the garden with some statues ;)

Cute bear statues of course! Lots of photo opps :)

I really liked the museum. It was fun...

After we finished there - cooling off in the cafe xD.. we walked back to the tourist center and were able to use the computers there for free... plus refill our water bottles. I loved it :)

Then we went to the terminal via bus again.... and took a taxi. He was confused at where to go.. as were we - but we made it. (Maybe cost some more money)

To make sure everyone was home to let us in, we also went to the convenience store to grab some snacks... new things I hadn't tried.

Top is a cracker sandwich with sweet cheese filling... the middle is a wheat cracker sandwich with vanilla flavoring.. the bottom is a wheat cracker with chocolate topping. I still haven't gotten to try them yet - but they're prolly all good.

Tomorrow we're heading back home.

But first - we're going to stop and check out these botanical gardens. The flowers here are lovely anyway... there's admission - but it should be nice.

Hopefully we can check in our luggage at the airport before we go :(.. dunno how early they'll let us do that! It's a small airline after all...

Oh well.

It's been nice.

And humid.

Hot.

But nice!

xD
I know I've got more muscles now xD

;)

July 3 (Sat) - Jeju Folk Village Musuem

Well, today started out pretty lamely xD
Believe it or not, we all overslept ;)... and we weren't even in the same rooms! xD

I guess I ddin't hear the alarm :) Anyway - because of that, we got to sleep an extra hour and leave at 11:30 instead of 9:30 xD

I guess it worked out. We just changed our schedule to visiting a museum...

We had bagels! :) They even had a new jar of peanut butter... it was itty bitty.. but it was PB.

We took a bus at the station which was to take us right there...

But when we got off - we realized it wasn't the place we thought it was. It was the stop we'd planned out and everything, but instead of being a Volk Village Museum - it actually was a folk village... one where every house was styled in the old thatch hut ways.

And I dressed really flashy today.... :P [yellow + rainbow colored shirt../shoes]

Oh well.

I even asked for a bathroom - but decided against using it xD

So - we got on the bus again (came every 20 min)... so we waited a bit... but since it was now inner city fare, it was cheaper... plus, the bus was really air conditioned (always a plus)

Even though it was a much windier day today. (Still humid humid humidddd ... sweaty ) xD

This was the outside of the museum :)

A very very large museum... basically a working one too. (animals, houses, tools.. food?) xD

We saw many versions of this old school house. Three variations on the style, too - the mountain ppl, the land ppl, and the below sea level ppl...

I took so many pictures... and walked around a ton. My feet are even more sore than the first day xD...

About 3 hours later, I finally sampled our flat rice cakes we bought from the market yesterday. xD Very light and addictive.

We saw a lot of cool plants (which I took pictures of again) + pagodas.

Even some of these more fancy roofs (mainly for government buildings and the like)

Although I wasn't there long, this was one of my favorite parts to see: the stuff about the women divers. There were pics of the olden days and examples of their tools and prey - and then current day. Not too much has changed! :)

This was also pretty fun - the Korean drumline XD.. their hats had little ribbons on them that they swirled while they walked. Must have been pretty dizzy. They played, hopped/marched, and rotated their heads! @_@

Near the end where we were just about zombies again (early morning we were as well) - we found this awesome pagoda (larger than before) with a great view.. and rested there. I bet I could have comforatably napped as well.. just a flat wooden surface at the top ;) Overlooked bamboo and mountains/hills of Jeju.

Finally - after all that hot...

We got to refresh ourselves with some ice cream. This was mango flavored xD... pretty good.

Once we got that (and made a huge mess as it melted everywhere) - we found our bus back... hopped on, rode straight to the station.. and caught a taxi from there.

Dinner was ready right as we walked in - rice, bulgogi, seaweed, and kimchi stew :) All very good. Plus - watermelon after.

Woot.

Even though we started late today - I think we got home 2 hours earlier than yesterday. XD
And I'm still extra tired!!

Woah.

Tomorrow Aimee and I are on our own - and will probably head out to do the stuff we thought we'd try today.

Hope it all goes well !

Transportation here.. is pretty crazy.

;)