Korea Part 2

MONDAY

There are some activities that scream vacation to me - Zip lining being one of them. This last week I've been reading this one girls blog who is from Oklahoma, but teaching English in Korea and she has so many details of each location and fun things she has done. This island being one of them.

We were taking an open air subway and met three danish girls studying business here that speak no Korean. I don't know how they are surviving here! Brian is a great traveling buddy and we've been having so much fun!

Every resteraunt in the town of Gapyeong served dalk kalbi (chicken bbq) and I told Brian I got to pick the place...This is when he said his quote for the trip, "You have no say in this trip. All you can say is, "That was good. That was fun."" You had to be there, but it was funny! And in the end you can probably guess who picked the resteraunt. That's right...ME. We were across the street scanning a bunch of restaurants until we saw this lady run out of one and gesture us in. It was smoky amazing chicken that they cooked right in front of us. Everywhere we go people tell Brian his Korean is very good. Then they are disappointed that I can't say anything. Oh well...what cha gonna do.

 

We had to wait an hour and a half for our turn to ride the zipline so we took a gorgeous hike along the river. There were rice and corn crops which is a great change from the big city.

NAMI island was magical for me. Brian felt a little bit of it. We did everything you can do there and more. Ziplined to the island - always a thrill, explored by foot, took the sky bikes, rented a tandem bike, took a lot of pictures. We love panoramic photos and like to compete to see who can take the best photo. We did the skybike not as thrilling as one would imagine, but something like this would never pass in the states, so we of course had to do it. Then we rode tandem bikes, I screamed because it was just as thrilling as the zipline and Koreans we passed laughed at me. A group of Koreans stopped us to take pictures with us and then one cupped my bum. Koreans are a friendly people. :) Brian gave me pepero candy which in Korea there is a pepero day where you give it to someone you like, so today was our pepero day. We took our first taxi while here to get back to the train station. Brian is so excited for a meat buffet tonight. (which we never ended finding :)

We just saw 4 missionaries in the transfer station. Two sisters and two elders, but they were going up the escalators and we were going down so we didn't get to talk to them. We waved and looked excited though which I'm sure they don't get that too often.

TUESDAY

The big palace we were planning on going to was closed on Tuesdays, "to rest" so we went to a smaller palace called - Changdeokgung which I thought was very artistic and laid out more creatively.

We did the Secret garden tour that was located behind the palace with the Korean tour guide, Kelly who was wearing her hambok even with it being a roasted 80+degrees. She had an ornate parisol and the Idaho wind must have followed us so we had a nice breeze every so often. Of course I got my picture with her and she was excited we shared the same name. Brian is a very artistic taking a lot of very nice pictures.

Shopping/ textiles lunch - Gwangjang market very fried. I never want to eat another fried thing in my life!! Brian was asking the food vendor what things were and she misunderstood and just cooked everything up. Way too much friedness going on.

We are going on a night city bus tour on a double decker tiger bus leaving at 730pm. We ate bingsu (ice, fruit, icecream) at an Angel Among Us Cafe and at Korean/chinese restaraunt. They gave us herble jasmine tea that tasted like wax and also pumpkin juice for a dessert. Double yuck or should i say unique.

City tour bus or should I call it drive over every bridge in Seoul multiple times and hardly tell us anything about them and the city. One of my pet peeves is aimless driving and that is what we did tonight for an hour and a half. Brian made me laugh really hard the entire time though and I'm sure people thought we were drunk, so a night very well spent.

WEDNESDAY

We went to Seoul temple this morning and ran into two sister missionaries on our way to the temple. One from Utah and one from Korea. We got there early enough to take pictures around the grounds and once we were inside a Korean woman in charge of the dressing room whisked me in to do some initiatories before the session started. Of course Brian and I got to be the witness couple since we were the youngest there.

That night we met with President Ming and Sister Kim Brian's mission president and wife who I have always heard the most amazing things about, they are maybe not even human.The took us out to eat and we had the most delicious food! They hardly speak English so Brian got to do all of the talking and I just got to eat course after yummy course!

THURSDAY

We went to Yongin area where Brian served for 4 months of his mission and where he said he had a lot of time to study and learn Korean. His companion only spoke Korean and liked to take naps on p-days so Brian said it was the perfect studying environment.

We finally found a glorious meat buffet and ate there for lunch - they do exist!

Minsokchon Traditional Korean Village

 This is a  Korean  version of the Polynesian Cultural Center. Brian remembered the tightrope show from way back in the day and we made it there just in time to see it. They have a tightrope set up close to the ground that we tried and it makes you really appreciate even more this guy's talent. We saw a fun horse show and then a not soo cool group of breakdancers. Last but not least, we watched a traditional wedding. By far Brian's favorite part of the day. NOT! Then we had time to explore the grounds. We hiked a hill to a Buddhist temple where people had brought nutter butters and oreos to give to Buddha.It was so serene and it was close to closing so we were the only ones there.

We came back to Yongin and Brian bought some korean spoons. Once we were back in Seoul we had a late dinner.

FRIDAY

Bukhansan National Forest

This is one of the top three hikes I have ever been on! It was just so different than anything you'd find in the US. It took almost four hours round trip and had the craziest 360 view of Seoul. We did some rockclimbing to get to the top of the peak.

 We met this really cool couple and ended up talking quite a bit about religion with them. It was neat to share our differing and similar beliefs. Once we got back into town we found the won mandoo I had been craving since we had it earlier the week before. We were both SOOOO worn out!

SATURDAY

Gyeongbokgun Palace

 It was our last day and we were part spent from hiking, but we found some nice shady spots to relax around the palace and Brian got a  fun monkey souvenir. We also went to the folklore museum and saw some beautiful hamboks.It was so tempting to buy them for the girls but boy were they pricey!

 We took pictures of all of the girls Chinese Zodiak animals. I've always thought it is lame that I am the year of the pig. Sadie is also mad she is the year of the Rat! I can't remember if Emmy and Bree are the year of the Dragon or the Tiger...but those are both obviously cool!

SOUVENEIRS!

It was so fun to be back together as a family and give the girls their souvenirs. Sadie and Emmy both said we did a much better job this time as opposed to what we brought them from Cabo. We may have raised their expectations a little high!