Korean Folk Village

Today we had originally planned on going to the DMZ, but as I said in my last post, they were sold out.  At first I have to admit I was a little relieved by that because North Korea is such a scary thing.  I guess I should say that the DMZ in the Demilitarized Zone.  This is space between North Korea and South Korea that is the safe place.  So having heard of people being too close to North Korea and being taken into North Korean prison, I was a little worried.  However, as I thought of the number of tours that go there, I think it probably would have been a pretty cool experience.  Unfortunately it was not meant to be.

We instead decided to go to a Korean Folk Village, which is a series of historical buildings and houses, ages ranging all the way from 5,000 years ago to a few decades ago in the rural areas.  It was located just outside of Suwon. On the way to the bus station in Songtan we saw the store below.  It's very strange seeing what looks to be a swastika on the outside of a building, but it actually an important symbol in Hinduism.

We got to the bus stop about 2 hours early, so we walked into the Suwon mall.  We went to a place called Lotteria.  Mom and I ordered chicken nuggets and Stephen had a burger.  It was interesting because they had the trash can organized with trash, plastic and food waste.  Also you were supposed to dump out the remainder of your drink and put the cup in a pile.  Very smart.

 

 

This is Brittany, Stephen and mom waiting for the bus to the village.  Stephen said that about after 5 minutes his feet were totally asleep, but he let Brittany sit.  That's love for ya.

 

 

Above is a twine tied with hopes and dreams and every first full moon after the new year, they light the hopes and dreams on fire.  Brittany, mom and I all made one, but Stephen said that he has everything that he wished for in life.  Just kidding he didn't say that, but it would have been romantic if he did.  Ew not to me though... maybe for Brittany.

 

 

This is the cow that Brittany befriended.  Or well we couldn't decide if they were actually getting along.  It was moving closer to her, but also kind of head butting her. The village was set up to show you what the different houses you would have found in the village.  They had the homes of farmers, a fortune teller, potters, and even a manor house.  The day was excruciatingly hot, so I could not imagine living in the open quarters during these times, let alone in the dead of winter.  Props previous generations.

 



Above is a picture of a rice paddy.  It was pretty cool. There is water surrounding the plants and lots of little creatures live in the water.  We saw quite a bit rice paddies as we were traveling, but this is the first we saw up close.

 

 

This is from the government house.  Stephen very willingly laid himself in this torture devise, so of course I took hold of the paddle.  In this building we also saw the carriers for the rich.  I cannot imagine how people were able to fit inside.  It was so small.  We were also able to go to a Buddhist temple.  It was very serene as you could imagine. 



 

 

Upon making our way back to Songtan, mom decided to add a little spice to the trip by falling down the stairs.  She twisted or hurt her ankle pretty badly and it made traveling pretty difficult.  We were able to make our way slowly to the hotel after having to jump onto three different trains when it should have only been one.

 

So mom was down for the count for the evening.  Dad and I were able to go to a Korean restaurant.  It was delicious.  The curator decided that we didn't know what we were doing (which we didn't), so she said "Mama show you".  I loved her she was so cute.  Essentially we had to make lettuce wraps with the meat.  We added kimchi.  They had two different kinds.  We had cabbage kimchi and cucumber kimchi.  The cucumber version was SPICY, but very good.

 

Tomorrow will be pretty low key because mom is laid up, but that's ok.  I'd like to get some shopping done.  It's unfortunate because the only card I brought was AMEX and they don't take it.  Obviously I should have brought my MasterCard as a backup, but I didn't.

 

I am very ready to get home to my boys though.  I miss them.



Seoul Day 2

Today was a return to Seoul.  We were intending on purchasing tickets on base for the DMZ, but unfortunately they were completely booked.  We had breakfast on base in a place called Checkertails.  It was pretty good.  Huge pancakes.

After breakfast we devised a plan to go back into the city to CoEx mall and see the aquarium and the Kimchi Field Museum.  This time we made sure that we had the correct exits from the Korail before we left. 

Walking into the CoEx Mall we saw a Cold Stone Creamery.  Obviously I was pretty excited, but having just had breakfast, I was able to contain myself.  As I mentioned we were off to the CoEx Aquarium (see below).

 



 So anyone that really knows me, knows that I'm pretty much in love with animals.  I love seeing them and I probably could watch and enjoy just being around them all day.  Now maybe not cleaning up after them, but in this situation thankfully that was not asked of me.  I thought that this aquarium was really nice.  It was themed and it had a lot of different things for you to look at.  They had many MANY tanks with different kind of fish that were really cool.  They had a stop light, a phone booth, even a toilet as a tank.

 

 

In the above picture, my fingers are being nibbled by little fish that eat the dead skin off of you.  These are typically found in some spas, I think.  It felt crazy.  It didn't hurt.  Also if you know me, I do make things more dramatic than is necessary.  

 

This little guy was desperately trying to dig his way out of his cage to get to me, but the plexiglass was too thick.

 

 

This little guy was so adorable.  I loved his little nose.  He was just a happy little swimmer.

This friend was so happy just eating his lettuce.  Dad pointed out that it was really nice to see manatees that weren't completely scarred by propellers, as that is what we normally see in FL.

 



 This penguin was pretty cool.  He kept swimming over to me.  Brittany claimed he was attracted to my ring, but I mean c'mon who isn't?

 

So after the Aquarium, which I probably could have spent more hours in, we went to the Kimchi museum.  It sounds thrilling right?  Well it was about what you'd expect, but I did not know that there were so many different kinds of Kimchi.  Literally there are dozens of kinds of kimchi, some for each season of the year. 

 

Following that mom really wanted to go to the Trick Eye Museum, so we traveled during rush hour on the Korail and that took FOREVER.  While I'm on the topic of the Korail, I will make a few observations.  1, people rarely talk to one another.  They walk into the train, generally on their phones, and stand facing a wall, on their phones.  If they happen to not be on their phones (RARE) they are reading a book or sleeping.  One thing I love about the Korail system is that they have designated seats for the elderly.  I think this is marvelous.  The seats are red and the rule is followed by all.  Speaking of the phones... they are HUGE.  My phone is constantly getting me teased for being large (I maintain that it is the case that is large, not my phone), but these phones are ridiculous.  I want to laugh aloud every time a call is received and the phone is held to their heads.  Ok ok I digress.  Let's return to the Trick Eye Museum.  Dad wasn't feeling well so he decided to rest and earn some money:

 

 



 The Trick Eye Museum, like the name suggests, is all about trick photography.  It was a lot of fun fooling around and getting totally ridiculous pictures.  Some of them are not appropriate for the internet and we joked how they would not be allowed in the US because of censorship.  They're pretty funny pictures though.  I included one, but there are so many.

At the end of the night as all of us are sore and exhausted, this lovely truck was seen.  It is a bar car or something.  They were selling vodka, Malibu and more.  Also note the neon lights.  There are lights everywhere.  It's really beautiful in the cities at night.

 

 

 

Oh yes and I feel as if I should mention that we drove through Gangnam station on the train today.  There were quite a few very fancy dressed people.  Tomorrow is the Korean Folk Village.  Pretty pumped!

Seoul

Today we headed into Seoul with the idea of going to Itaewon and just doing some sightseeing around the city.  We got a little bit of a late start because we were exhausted from being up really late the night before.  Once Brittany and Stephen joined us we went to the train station in Songtan to catch the train to a station near Itaewon.  It was a little confusing at first because it was mostly in Korean and only the names of cities were in English.  At several times throughout this day I was grateful that the majority of my abroad trips have been organized by other people.

When we got off of the train, Stephen told us where he had wanted to eat lunch, Vatos Urban Tacos.  I know we are really reaching out and trying new things.  It was pretty good though, so I'm not going to complain.

 

 

As we were walking we saw this welcome sign for Itaewon.  This was a much more westernized shopping experience than in Songtan.  There were a lot of really cute clothing items.  I think all of their sizes are 0-3, but cute nonetheless.  Dad said the last time that he was here all of the shops were underground.  There were some that were underground, but not very many and nothing like he remembered.

 

 

After walking around Itaewon for a time, we decided to go to the Seoul tower.  We were asked by a very nice Austrailian woman if she could help us and she instructed us to go on the bus. She told us how to get there and even walked us all the way to the bus stop to catch the bus, however, we ended up deciding not to go to Seoul Tower. After deciding not to go on the bus, we chose to go to Gyeongbokgung Palace.  We must have looked like poor tourists because several people asked us if we needed help.  All of the Korean people who helped us (which was thankfully quite a few) were very concerned about us walking in the heat.  I mean it was probably mid 80s in temperature, but the humidity was about 80 percent.  Dad claims they kept him in the direction that he was going... I'm not so sure.  But once we arrived it was definitely worth it.  Below are pictures of the palace.  It's right in the middle city. The first is from the walk leading to the palace.  Very picturesque with the mountain in the background.  The second is just inside the Gwanghwamun gate and palace wall.  It's called Heungnyemun.  Your guesses at pronouncing those are as good as mine.

Below is a picture of Sajeongjeon where the King would conduct his state affairs.  This entire palace is a replication.  It was originally built in 1395, but was burnt down in the Japanese invasion in 1592.  It was rebuilt in 1867 in grand scale fashion with about 500 buildings in total.  But then again, during Japanese occupation it was demolished.  This final round of restoration began in 1990 and there are areas where they are still continuing to rebuild.  It's very sad to think about. 

There were a lot of rooms that you could peek in and they had them styled similarly to how they would have looked in the 1300s.  It was a lot of open air and the architecture was very similar to other Asian cultures.  Below Stephen is hiding in one of the Ondol systems which is a Korean floor heating system. 

 

 

Overall we saw quite a bit of the city.  Probably one of the most interesting parts was when we saw the line for the Dunkin Donuts.

 

 

 

I jest.  There was actually a peaceful protest (we think it had to do with the British Embassy), but the picture opportunity was too good to pass up.



Song Tan

I would first like to begin with stating that my body woke me up at 6:15 this morning.  That is something that NEVER happens.  Well that's not true sometimes I go through this fear on weekdays when I need to be at work that my alarm has been shut off and I over slept but it is actually only 6, but I go right back to sleep so for this purpose we are going to say that it doesn't count. 

Anyway... we told Brittany and Stephen to meet us at our hotel around 9 to walk around the city.  So mom and dad and I did some pre-touring of Song Tan before they got there.  We saw some amazing signs:

The clubs in Song Tan are upset that their establishments are being boycotted and have hung signs up.  As I sit in the hotel right now I can randomly hear some of the protest chants.

On our morning walk we did see a pet shop with adorable bunnies!  They were so small and cuddly.  I tried to take a picture, but mostly you can see my reflection, so fail.

Song Tan is very much like large cities, where there are a lot of buildings, strong smells and a lot of alleys.  Things do not open early around here, granted it is Sunday, so that is a possible reason, but on the stores we did see that Tuesday is a frequent closing day.  We walked over a bridge and it was pretty cool to see a large part of the city:

It was a bummer because we waited on the bridge for a train and as soon as we walked off of the bridge we heard it go past.  Just our luck.

After we had breakfast at the hotel with Brittany and Stephen we walked the main Song Tan market.  It was very nice.  They had a lot of shops.  Stephen took us into his favorite shops.  There was a blanket store that was really cool.  I did love seeing the Washington Redskins mascot on a blanket there. 

They also had a McDonald's that was open 24 hours.  Now this was not a surprise to me because I know McDonald's is everywhere.  The surprise with this particular establishment was on the street outside:

McDonald's delivers.  I just can't get over that concept.  Can you imagine what America would be like if this caught on?  I shutter to think. 

We didn't purchase anything, but there is so much to see.  This area is really Americanized, obviously with their main patrons being military, but there were some stunning pieces of furniture and jewelry.

 

 

Stephen was supposed to be on the base at 1, so we went to an early lunch at a sushi place that Brittany and Stephen recommended.  Yes, sushi is Japanese, but hey... it was good.  I loved the Pepsi bottles:

 

 

 

It was a little strange that the sushi was warm, but it was still good.  After lunch we have returned to the hotel, mom and dad are napping.  I was doing some reading for school and writing to you all.

 

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday (was it yesterday?  It feels like it took 3 days to get here):

This is Dallas before we made it to Korea... note how we are still somewhat chipper

Your guess is as good as mine...

This is one of the bridges with their really beautiful suspensions.





A day of travel

We have landed in Dallas.  Last night I did end up taking a nap.  I woke up ready to go, though.  Thank goodness because 4:00 is not usually a time that I like to see.  Ok let’s be honest, it’s never a time I like to see.  Anyway we got to the airport a little after 5 with about 500 other people.  Little did you all know today is an important traveling day.

The flight to Dallas was extremely uneventful for me because I slept the entire time.  It was pretty humorous though because the flight was exactly like those OC MD commercials make it seem.  The baby crying and the people talking loudly.  But it was ok because I slept through it all.  It was extremely unpleasant during the landing though.  My ears were unable to pop, I’m assuming due to the congestion I am experiencing.  YAY (BLAH).  As of yet, my ears have still not popped.  So I can barely hear anything.  I think I have said “what” more times than mom.  A little unnerving.

So we get off of the plane and have to take a skyrail to another terminal and guess which store I see as soon as we get off the plane… Dallas Cowboys.  I was seriously regretting not having my Redskins shirt on.  It had not occurred to me that I was in enemy territory.  I desperately wanted my Redskins gear, but I opted for layers… oh well.

So we landed at what was like 8:30 local time, but we were all hungry for lunch, so we went to Friday’s and had some lunch.  It was a little weird, but there were others near us who also were having lunch.  Right now we are on the airplane.  It’s so great because we are in the middle of the plane in a row of 5 and we take up the middle three of those.  The stranger whom I will be sitting next to has not arrived yet, but I can only imagine… 13 hours.  It ended up being a sort of surly military man.  He was a fine neighbor, I guess.

 

8 hours later...

I only have about 5 hours left on the plane at this point and I cannot tell you how exciting it is!  Going into this flight I thought it would be no big deal, I don’t mind sitting and I have a book to read for pleasure and a book to read for school.  Also I knew there would be movies available to watch.  They have a wide variety of selection.  Ok I have been on this flight for over 8 hours, watched 2 movies, nearly finished the book I just started and have slept for an hour.  Now what do I do?  Ack!!!!!!

They have this nice “track your flight” feature so I have watched our little airplane barely move as the hours drag on.  We have passed the International Date Line, which was pretty anticlimactic.  You do not feel any different as the day changes and you skip ahead a day (just in case you were wondering).

 

8 more hours...

 

We are at the hotel!!!!  I cannot tell you how much I want to curl up in the bed, but I'm trying to fight it since it is only 5:00 in the afternoon here (which is about 5AM at home).  I'm dying of exhaustion.  So far my thoughts of Korea is that it is very colorful.  All of the roads leading out of Incheon where we landed were so pretty.  They had beautifully painted jersey walls and painted fences.  They had lovely suspension bridges and all of their architecture seems to be really fancy.  In the beginning I was thinking that the driving wasn't so bad, but then we got into the city of Song-Tan... terrifying driving.  I'm pretty glad now that we did not rent a vehicle.  Those of you that have driven with my father will understand...

 

Well we are waiting to hear from Brittany.  I'm going to read the last 10 pages of the book that I started and probably take a little power nap.

Korea... Waiting Game

The first stage of my trip to Korea has been completed... the drop off.  My partner in crime drove me to dinner with mom and dad at EW Becks.  We all had delicious meals, one of us had two desserts. 

After dinner I was transferred into the loving care of my parents.  We are now  at the waiting stage.  Korea is about 12 hours ahead of us, so the decision is whether to wait and stay up until our 4:30 wake up call for our 7:00 flight or take a nap.  I'm electing at this point to stay up.  Mom and I are watching Ginger Rogers movies in honor of her recent passing.

I will try as in my last trip to keep you updated on all that is happening.  Hopefully we will not have a repeat of our Ireland trip (the airport debacle).

Day 7: Ever-Moher

Today was another early day.  We woke in time to get breakfast today though, something we rarely do.  I decided to get the buffet as it would be quicker to eat and get on the bus.  I've decided that I truly do not want to sit in the back of the bus near the children.  They are a little loud and rambunctious, so I like to get on the bus early.

Today we were headed to Rathbaun Farm to make scones and see the farm.  On our way to the kitchen we passed a 250 year old thatched roof cottage.  It was adorable.  We then were taught by Francis the proper way to make a scone.  I was the designated photographer, so I watched as some of the members of our tour and The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With mixed the ingredients.  He did quite a nice job if you were wondering.

While the scones were baking we were shown around the farm.  They had a Kerry cow who had just given birth to her calf that morning.  They had two ponies and a lot of sheep.  The junior adventurers got to feed some lambs, but unfortunately 26 is not considered a junior adventurer, so I didn't get a chance to feed them.  I consoled myself with remembering the baby goats that I had the opportunity to hold a few months ago.

We also had an opportunity to see a border collie, sheepdog do his thing.  He is about a year old and was never trained, so everything we saw was instinctual.

We were then invited to eat lunch and try our scones.  The scones were pretty good.  They were a little burned, but not bad. 

Next up, we headed to the Cliffs of Moher.  I was a little annoyed because we were told that we would have a limited time at the Cliffs of Moher because people had afternoon activities back at the hotel.  So walking around I felt a little rushed.  It was gorgeous!  I liked being able to see the Atlantic Ocean from the other side.  It looks prettier here than Ocean City, haha.  At the Cliffs of Moher, there was a tower that you could climb "to get a better view".  It was a Brian Boru tower.  Ooooh.  Aaaah.  There were two spiral staircases that you climbed to go both up and down.  When you got to the top there wasn't much of a difference between the view on the ground and the view from the tower.

We had our farewell dinner tonight as well.  I'm very sad to be leaving.  There was so much more that I would have liked to do.  I think overall Disney Adventures was a great trip.  They really make you feel special and give you all kinds of goodies.  So I would certainly recommend them.  The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With already wants to save up points to go on the China trip.

So sadly we will be back in the states tomorrow afternoon and back at home around 7.  See you all soon!