Lunar New Year

 

The Chinese Lunar New Year fell on February 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th this year so we were fortunate enough to have a 5 day weekend.  One of my girlfriends and I decided it would be a great chance to head up to Seoul and explore around. The city itself is enormous... it has around 11 million people in it. We did so many things and were still only able to scratch the surface on all the things there are to do there.

Day one



We took the KTX there so it only took about 2.5 hours. I’m told the train goes about 300mph so it was nothing at all to get up there. Once we arrived I remember taking a deep breath as we squeezed our way to the nearest entrance of a subway. It was absolutely nuts. A few co-workers told me that it wouldn’t be very busy because most people go out of town to visit family so I guess we had it easy. I couldn’t imagine coming off the plane from Canada and being welcomed by literally millions of people. Busan was definitely the best choice for me. Anywho, we managed to figure out the subway tickets and were off to our first hostel.



Father and Son getting delicious Mandu



We decided to stay in a 6 bed room so we were bunking with strangers. That was a first for both me and my friend. The rest of the nights we were booked to stay at another hostel but had our own private room. We figured this would be a good experience for us. Everyone that was staying there was so nice, and after seeing our second hostel,  I almost wish we had of stayed bunked with strangers there.

We put our stuff  away and headed to one of the markets to check out the trinkets. After about an hour or so we decided to grab something to eat so we ventured to a Sushi bar. I’ve been craving sushi since I got here!  She’s never had it before but was open. Everything was on a rotating belt that surrounded 4 people creating the delicious mouthfuls of joy. I was in love – yet again – with my food.  Every bite was better than the bite before. The sushi was so melt in your mouth fresh and delectable that not even the pickiest of eaters would turn it away.

Hanok Village

When we got back to the hostel we ended up hanging out with the rest of the people that were staying there and played cards.  An older man from Japan was staying there and he must have thought my cards were dirty cause after we were done playing he took a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom (they use toilet paper for everything here) and started wiping each individual card one by one. I kept quiet though and just gave my friend a look. Too funny.

Day two

Hanok Village Entrance

We started the day early enough. We wanted to get our bags at our new hostel and go exploring. We started off by visiting Bukchon Hanok Village which showcased traditional Korean houses. Just down the street from that was Changdeokgung Palace. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. We were also lucky enough to creep on a Korean photo shoot. I was literally a few feet away from the photographer at once point. My girlfriend couldn’t stop laughing at me – especially when the photographer turned around and gave me a “what the hell are you doing” smirk lol

Changdeokgung Palace



Changdeokgung Palace

 Day three

We started off slow and eased our way into the day with some more shopping. This time we decided to shop in a more savvy part of town. There were still plenty of vendors in between the shops, but there were also mainstream stores like Forever 21, H&M, and an Apple store. We managed to find an ice cream vendor in the mist of our frenzy that wasn’t going to disappoint. I spotted a sign that said “long Ice cream” and it was definitely not false advertisement as you can see from the pic. The funniest part was that I turned into a walking advertisement after I bought it. Everyone seemed to be staring and trying to ask me where I got it. Too much fun!

 

After wondering around, and spending way too much money, we purchased tickets for NANTA. It was under the top things to do in Seoul so we figured why not see what all the fuss was about. NANTA is a world famous non-verbal performance that’s been going on since 1997 and in 2004 it was even performed on Broadway. It all took place in a kitchen (which was kind of close to home for me) and they used knifes and other kitchen tools to create a beat and built a story line behind it. Even without the use of words there were still laugh in your gut moments that couldn’t be helped. They even involved the audience and pulled random people from the crowed, which was fun. I enjoyed every beat. I’m not so sure my friend did though. She seemed really into it, until I looked over at one point to share in a funny moment and she was dead asleep. I couldn’t help but laugh at her until she woke up. I guess it was something about hearing knifes on a chop board that was transient and put her to right to sleep.





Day four



We started off today the same as every other morning and enjoyed a breakfast sub at subway. We were both ecstatic when we found out on the first day that our hostel was a 5 minute walk from one. It didn’t taste exactly like it does in Canada but it is well worth the 5,000won! We did a little more poking around our hostel-hood before taking the subway to Namsan tower. It’s basically a giant tower that you take a cable car up to and take in all the sights of the city. The one unusual thing about it is that there’s a giant teddy bear museum in the base of it. I mean, what else should you put at the base of a giant tower, right? I couldn’t help but take a few priceless pictures with the famous bears. After we had our fill of the tower we spent our last night on the town and went to a few martini/mojito bars and enjoyed our last night in the big city of Seoul. Even though the KTX station was packed with people when we first arrived I think we got off easy. Usually the streets and subways are overwhelmingly full of traffic and Seoul-sters but we came to see that it was almost like a ghost town. There was one point that we were on the other side of 9 lanes and were able to cross without a vehicle in sight... eerie or what!



Day five

We packed up our bags and checked out of our hostel before noon. We had one last meal at subway before heading on our way home. We still had about 5 hours before it was time to catch our train back so we decided to try and find a locker at the Station to hold our stuff then go to the horse track to see if we could win our weight in money. Luck wasn’t on our side as all the lockers at the Station were full and we were stuck with our extremely heavy backpacks. Neither of us were happy about it. But lo and behold a Korean onlooker came to our rescue, once again, to help us out. Him and his wife asked us if we were looking for a place to put our bags for a few hours and as soon as we said yes they gestured for us to follow them... and so we did! There was a giant department store about 2 minutes from the Station. A woman behind the counter took our bags and gave us a number. It didn’t cost a thing! We figured it must be a service they have for people shopping in their store – I guess we abused that system, but at that point we didn’t care. We were just happy to have Korean insider info on how to be bagless in the big city for free. The nicest thing about them helping us is that they didn’t even need to put their bags aside. They helped us just because we looked lost and helpless in a town that obviously wasn’t our own. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

We then took our bag free bodies to the subway and travelled down the line to the horse track. It ended up being closed but a stop further was Seoul land. I had this in mind for plan B but never really looked too much into it so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It ended up being a zoo and amusement park. We opted out of the amusement park and went for the zoo. It was still pretty cold outside so most of the animals were housed inside. The zoo itself was gigantic and we weren’t able to do all of it before we had to head back to the train station. We were able to see a lot of animals up close and personal though.... and I was also able to get a few photo opt pictures in too. You may laugh at this picture of me, but if you could only see the bewildered look on the kids/parents faces around me you’d laugh even harder.  Some note worthy parts of the zoo was the reptile arena because it reminded me of the Jurassic Park movie. There were giant plants all around and sections sectioned off for each animal. It was almost like an indoors safari. The air was even ridiculously humid and hot for the animals that lived in this domain. Another favourite of mine was the primate section. We were able to go into caves (to block disruptive light) to see apes up close through a giant window. It was quite the sight. We were also just in time to see two baby monkeys’ have their play time with one of the zoologist.  One was an orangutan and the other was a chimpanzee. I swear I could have watched them for hours. They orangutan was in his own element hanging upside down from a rope and the chimpanzee was laughing hysterically from the zookeeper tickling him. It was adorable to watch but we had a train to catch.

The trip back seemed to last forever. I have to say it was nice to get back to my home away from home.