A little recap on what we did the day before: Cycled around an island. Climbed a mountain. Walked a ton and covered most of Jeju. Expanded all of our energy.
Which explains why we slept in until 10am the following day. Since travelling around Jeju is relatively time consuming, we didn't bother with any last minute exploration and headed straight for the airport instead.
Checking out at 11am + staying 15 minutes away from the airport meant that we were quite dreading the waiting time for our 3pm flight. Luckily, there were available seats on an earlier flight to Seoul so we managed skip out on that! Lucky us.
Bye Jeju! And...
...Hello Seoul!
We stayed 15 minutes away from Hongdae Station, which on most dry and breezy nights, provided us with a nice little stroll back to our guesthouse. But switch that out with a thunderstorm + luggage dragging + strong winds and umbrellas that threaten to turn on us and you have two very grumpy girls.
Since the weather didn't exactly prompt us to explore Hongdae immediately, we decided to stay in and do laundry instead. Oh, and catch more episodes of Dad, Where Are You Going. Lolol.
By the time the rain had subsided, it was already dinner time. Headed over to the bustling side of Hongdae (aka the area beside Hongik University) when it started pouring again out of nowhere. We were reluctant to walk any further because of the shitty weather, so we went into the nearest restaurant to seek shelter and settled our dinner there.
It was a bit on the pricier side, but the beef was so freaking juicy I decided that it was money well spent. Just look at the marbling! Definitely one of the more fancy meals we've had in Korea.
So yes, our first night in Seoul was pretty meh and as you can tell by now, I am definitely not a fan of wet weather. Hui suggested that since the weather in Seoul seems pretty gloomy, we should head over to Everland whenever the day looks sunny enough.
It seemed sunny enough the next day, so off to Everland we went! But first, breakfast. Hongdae is pretty much dead in the morning, so it took us quite awhile to find a restaurant that isn't closed.
Finished our meal and headed over to Gangnam to take a bus to Everland. Gangnam has a similar vibe to Orchard Road, very busy, very happening, all that jazz.
Side story. We have been mistaken for being locals quite a bit during our trip. While awaiting our train to Busan, two businessmen who stood behind us decided to start a conversation with us in Korean. In Jeju, a granny and a family had approached us for directions in Korean. I was about to doze off on the bus when a guy approached me.
Guy: Ah...this bus (gesturing wildly)...Everland?
Me: *Nodding* Yup!
Guy: Ah...Kamsahamnida.
Turns out, him and his friends were tourists like us! I overheard them conversing in Cantonese after our interaction.
Hui: 你因该吓一吓他们. Go there and start a conversation in Cantonese!
Me: LOL. That would be funny.
But I didn't la, despite them looking cute and all. I wanted to nap.
Arrived at Everland!
I didn't realise the group of people taking cover under the shade of the tree when I was taking this photo, but as you can tell, it was a very sunny day. So the first thing we did was enter The Face Shop, bought the cheapest sunblock available, and lather ourselves in it before going anywhere else. Hahaha, we couldn't help it. The sunburn we have gotten from Dong-baek island in Busan didn't exactly benefit from the cycling and hiking in Jeju so...gotta keep out the UV rays!
I am not the biggest fan of heights, so I was feeling quite apprehensive about going on the thrilling rides at Everland. Decided to start off with something mild under Huihui's recommendation.
The Rolling X-Train. By the way, this photo was taken late in the afternoon when we took the cable car, which explains the darkness.
(While awaiting for the ride to start)
Me: 我有一点怕 leh.
Hui: 不用怕啦。This is very mild, trust me. I've sat on other more thrilling rides before!
(After the ride)
Me: Holy fuck.
Hui: Hahaha, 我错了。
A more accurate photo of the ride.
There are a few other loops that my camera didn't capture, but you get the gist. Not quite the mild I expected, but a really fun ride nonetheless!
Decided to head over to the rose festival garden to calm our nerves after.
Pretty, isn't it? Most of the roses were already showing signs of wilting, but there were enough fully bloomed ones around for us to feast our eyes on. My favourite would probably be the last one. Also, the above pictures are testament enough as to why Samsung phones are the bomb, lol.
Sat on a few more less exciting rides. There was one where we got a little drenched, a carousel, bumper cars, another wet one where we had to sit with 2 other couples - that was awkward, a really lame one, and a ton of animal/safari themed rides.
1) White tigers.
2) A lone liger. I wonder how it feels amongst other lions. Do they discriminate?
3) White porcupine.
4) Giraffe.
Clockwise,
1) Ducks. I wonder who decided that the sound a duck makes is quack. It sounds more like a nasally "whaaaaeeeeh" instead.
2) King Julian.
3) Meerkat.
4) Rufus, who in real life, looks nothing like the awesome sidekick Ron Stoppable has.
Also, there was this.
⊙▂⊙?
Finished our day at Everland with another thrilling ride.
ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ
There was also a mega roller coaster that we wanted to take, but unfortunately for us it was closed for maintenance. Real bummer.
Took a bus back to Gangnam and settled our dinner at a street food stall. We were too tired by then to do anymore sightseeing so we headed back to our guesthouse to rest.
Ending the post with a pretty picture of flowers. We didn't do much for the first 2 days in Seoul, but we sure made up for it in the following days.
6 days down, 4 more to go!
xx
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