South Korea Trip 2016 Part 2: Myeongdong Station Kpop Store, Namsan Tower, Everland
September 15, 2016
It's time for the continuation of our first full day in Korea and Day 2! For more South Korea travel stories, you can click here.
Day 1 Continuation (April 13, 2016) | Namsan Tower, Myeongdong Street Food Adventure
Myeongdong Subway Station
We passed by a Kpop album/merch store in Myeongdong subway station when we were on our way back to Namsan guest house. Since we are just your typical fangirls, we just HAD TO stop by and check the items. I was planning to buy GOT7's newest album (Flight Log: Departure) in Seoul anyway so we didn't exactly deviate from our plan. I bought both versions of the GOT7 album -- rose quartz and serenity! Buying in Korea is so much cheaper than joining country group orders because you don't have to pay for customs and shipping fees. 2 albums for PhP880/PhP440 per album? Definitely a steal since I'm used to paying at least PhP700 per album when I join group orders or buy in music stores in Manila.
Kwik and Jodie didn't intend to buy anything but they still bought Big Bang and EXO stuff (respectively) because... #fangirls. What other reason do we need, really?
Random story: I was so excited when I saw the piles of GOT7 albums and magazines in the store and I bet my excitement was written all over my face! While I was browsing through the GOT7 albums, the shopowner actually changed the music of the store to GOT7's Home Run, probably to suit my liking. So kind!! I even took a video to document the experience lol. Thank you shopowner 아저씨~
After spending 20 mins. in the Kpop store, we proceeded to the guest house to reenergize ourselves. We practically spent the day walking and our next schedule involved more walking so that lull period was a necessity!
Namsan Park + Namsan Tower
It was already 4:45PM when we felt well-rested enough to go to Namsan Tower. The cable car station to Namsan Tower is a 10-min. walk from the guest house so we walked to the station. When we got there, the waiting time for the cable car was 60mins! There was a long line already, which we honestly expected because it was peak hours. Since we didn't want to waste an hour by lining up and waiting, we decided to just hike the trail to Namsan Tower from Namsan Park.
It is a 1200m uphill battle to the tower and our goal was to reach the top in less than an hour so as not to regret choosing to walk instead of taking the cable car ride lol. It's also a good thing that the trail has stairs so you can opt to rest every once in a while. Although tiring, hiking to Namsan Tower was a idea I'd never regret! The beautiful landscape and sceneries that welcomed us on our way were absolutely breathtaking. The overview of Seoul, the cherry blossom trees, the cool air, the setting sun -- everything was perfect! It was also a blessing that we went there just before the sunset so we were able to witness the scenery at daylight, twilight-dusk and nighttime.
A "before going up" photo to showcase our not-so-haggard faces!
The sun is still up and the tower seems so close yet so far! We still have a long way to go~
The background is so pretty~ Spot Kwik taking a selca?? LOL
If you walk to the tower, you would get the chance to appreciate the beautiful landscape more. You would also be able to see the overview of the city from different angles. Oh, and you can stop and take some photos with the scenery as your background while you're at it! ;) People actually asked me how I got these photos taken because they didn't see these sceneries when they went to Namsan Tower via cable car/bus.
An unattractive photo of mine lol but see how far I still was from the peak when this photo was taken? I also had to take off my coat because even though the temperature was cool (probably around 12-15 degrees Celsius), I was starting to feel hot because of the effort I was exerting in going up the trail #sounfit LOL
Cherry blossom trees will accompany you if you hike during the spring season. Not something you witness every day, definitely!
The sun was about to set but it was still bright enough to take this photo!
Jodie appreciating the view while Kwik, Jj and I were resting by the plants~
We're getting neareeeer~ The tower is within my reach already!!! Smiling but deep inside, I was running out of breath lol
You'll know you're near the top when you spot this platform where you can see a view of the city. It's also a photograph station so that was exactly what we did -- take photos! Isn't our background L-O-V-E-L-Y?!
Further up the trail and the sky was getting dark already~ Look at all the building lights!
When we reached the top and after resting for a while at the food stalls area, we went to the sea of love locks. As a sucker for anything romantic, this place made my heart flutter. It reminded me of the cheesy movies and Asian dramas I love watching. Seeing the number of locks that are surrounding the area made me feel giddy because that means there are a lot of people who are happily in love~ 사랑해~
Colorful locks to signify an everlasting love *heart eyes emoji*
Obligatory photo with the love locks lol! Wore our coats again because the temperature decreased.
The sky was already dark when we headed to the observation deck of Namsan Tower. The admission fee is 10,000 won/person. If the hike to the tower gave us daytime and twilight-dusk views of the city, the observation deck would give us a nighttime bird's eye view since it was already around 6:30PM. Thankfully, there were no lines for the elevator!
A part of the view from the observation deck of Namsan Tower. All of the city lights were beaming by this time (~6:40PM) Still such a pretty sight!
Yes, we looked for this specific spot because #typicaltourists! Manila is so far from Seoul, fascinating yet saddening at the same time.
There's a gift shop at the first floor of the tower and I bought a Namsan Tower refrigerator magnet. How predictable! To be honest, it was never my intention to collect magnets from every foreign place I go to. I happen to always buy one though so now, I'm pursuing this collection lol. There were lots of cute souvenirs being sold at the gift shop such as keychains, stationery and bookmarks!
Here's Namsan Tower at night~ All lit up!
It was past 7PM when we left Namsan Tower. We surprisingly bumped into Raj outside the tower as well! For dinner, we planned to explore Myeongdong's street food offerings so we took the bus from the tower to Myeongdong because we really didn't want to walk lol.
Myeongdong Shopping Street
Entering Myeongdong Shopping Street, you would immediate spot seemingly endless rows of stalls selling food, clothes, eyeglasses, etc. Our objective was to try as many mouth-watering Korean street food as possible!
Hello Myeongdong Shopping Street!
One of the first stalls we saw... and smelled! I can still smell the egg bun's sweetness~
A closer look of the delicious egg bun! It's perfectly hot for the chill weather.
I also bought this sausage + rice cakes stick and it was so savory and filling!
We traversed the area more than twice, I guess? Further into the street, you would see more stalls basically selling the same kind of food -- strawberries, rice cakes, noodles, cheese balls, sausages, fresh fruit juices, etc. Unfortunately, the photos above were the only ones I captured. I was too busy munching on the food OR being amazed by my surroundings which resulted to this sorry excuse for a "Myeongdong Street Food Guide." I'll be editing this blog post and will be adding more photos of the food we ate, I just have to ask for my friends' photos first hehe.
It took us 2 hours to go around the area and try the street food. Past 9PM, we decided to walk back to the guest house since we had to wake up early the next day for some amusement park fun!
Normal going back to the guest house routine -- stop by the nearby convenience stores! This time, I bought this melon milk. It tasted sweet and yummy as well!
Everland
We woke up at 6 on a Thursday morning to prepare for our only plan for the day -- EVERLAND! Since Everland is one of the must go-to amusement parks in Asia, we included it in our itinerary. Riding the subway would be our main mode of transportation so we had to leave Myeongdong as early as possible.
Usual breakfast in Namsan guest house. The guest house has a free supply of noodles, bread and jam! No problem for me because I love spicy ramyun! We had breakfast at around 7:30AM this day.
Going to Everland from Myeongdong via subway would involve a couple of transfers. This is a good guide for the directions to Everland using the subway. The train ride from Myeongdong to Jeondae -Everland Station took us around 2 hours so we arrived in Everland at 11AM already. Waking up early for the day was a good decision! If you don't want to go through the hassle of subway transfers and long train rides, you may choose to ride the bus. There are designated buses around Seoul that will take you directly to the amusement park.
Transferring to Everline Station | Jj comfortably sleeping in the Everline train
In the Everline, a lot of the passengers were 할머니 (grandmother) and 할아버지 (grandfather) wearing colorful jackets and rubber shoes. They were so cute! They were probably having an outing or something. I was beside a kind 할머니 and she even talked to me^^ Cute!!
From the end of the Everline Station (Jeondae - Everland), we rode the Everland shuttle bus (free-of -charge!). The bus ride from the station to the amusement park is around 10mins. long. The entrance ticket for adults was at 47,000 won/person when we were there.
Already inside the amusement park and look at all these tulips that welcomed us! They are so pretty that they look so unreal! These are legit flowers, though!
Apparently, Everland holds a Tulip Festival every March-April to mark the start of spring. How lucky we are! I love pretty flowers! The weather was also perfect for visiting the park. It was cool and the sun was not that high so you'd be able to go around the park without breaking a sweat (literally!).
More flowers~ You can really feel the spring season in Everland!
See what I mean? Flowers of different types, sizes, and colors!
A bed of tulips! Again, not something you see every day... especially in the Philippines!
A bed of tulips! Again, not something you see every day... especially in the Philippines!
First plan of action after taking all these photos of the flowers was to... EAT! That long commute made our stomach grumble plus it was past 11AM already, anyway. We settled into this Italian-themed pizza and pasta restaurant near the entrance of the theme park.
Margherita and pepperoni pizza~
After satisfying our hunger, it was time to try some rides! While we were having lunch, we already read the map and took note of the rides we would prioritize lining up for. The T-Express was a must for us! We also wanted to try the Viking ride and the "haunted house." Most of the time, though, we would just explore the park freely and would stop and take photos when something catches our attention.
While looking for the location where most of the rides are, we saw a path full of sakura/cherry blossom trees~ Such a picturesque sight! Yes, we did see random cherry blossom trees the day before but seeing a line of sakura trees full of white/light pink cherry blossoms gave off a more ~magical~ feeling. We were also lucky (again!) that the wind was strong when we were admiring the cherry blossoms, thus, we saw the magic that was the actual falling of the sakura flowers from the trees. The flowers went inside our bags, on our hair, on our faces! It reminded us of the scenes in anime shows~ I can't even find the right words to describe how fascinating and dreamlike that experience was!!! Automatically one of my favorite moments when we were in Korea :)
The next ride we took was the ultimate reason why we went to Everland -- T EXPRESS! The T Express is one of the steepest, tallest, longest, and fastest wooden roller coasters in the world and it would be a shame not to try it when you're in South Korea. I am afraid of heights but I am able to ride roller coasters so I was pretty excited for this.
We waited in line for 45minutes, which honestly didn't seem that long. My experience? It was definitely a thrilling ride! The first drop was one of the highest drops and I honestly got scared seeing how high we were! Adrenaline rush please!! The roller coaster was loooong as well and I pretty much laughed the ride away to not think about things such as "Will we fall?? Will my seatbelt suddenly come off?? We are soooo hiiiigh!" and other thoughts screaming of paranoiaaaa! The roller coaster has no loops so I guess that's a comforting thought? Especially if you're afraid of heights/roller coasters as well? Well, I wouldn't mind riding this again! Just for the thrill of it! ;) No photos during the ride because it was not allowed.
While looking for the location where most of the rides are, we saw a path full of sakura/cherry blossom trees~ Such a picturesque sight! Yes, we did see random cherry blossom trees the day before but seeing a line of sakura trees full of white/light pink cherry blossoms gave off a more ~magical~ feeling. We were also lucky (again!) that the wind was strong when we were admiring the cherry blossoms, thus, we saw the magic that was the actual falling of the sakura flowers from the trees. The flowers went inside our bags, on our hair, on our faces! It reminded us of the scenes in anime shows~ I can't even find the right words to describe how fascinating and dreamlike that experience was!!! Automatically one of my favorite moments when we were in Korea :)
Me, Kwik, Jodie, Jj and the path of sakura trees behind us~
So this was supposed to be a normal shot of us but the cherry blossoms suddenly fell down from the trees! We were caught off-guard and got excited (except Kwik!) and Jj perfectly captured that moment! Yay!
The first attraction we tried was the Spooky Fun House. It wasn't really scary for us because it wasn't meant to be scary after all. Oh, and before we entered the Spooky Fun House, I bought ice cream because I was craving for dippin' dots!
We also saw this group of pre-teen boys and I was just amazed by how they had the same haircut. I actually noticed most of the teenage boys in Korea sporting this look and it suited them so well! Or maybe I'm just used to seeing this haircut in Korean dramas hehe. But Koreans can definitely pull off this look!
The next ride we took was the ultimate reason why we went to Everland -- T EXPRESS! The T Express is one of the steepest, tallest, longest, and fastest wooden roller coasters in the world and it would be a shame not to try it when you're in South Korea. I am afraid of heights but I am able to ride roller coasters so I was pretty excited for this.
We waited in line for 45minutes, which honestly didn't seem that long. My experience? It was definitely a thrilling ride! The first drop was one of the highest drops and I honestly got scared seeing how high we were! Adrenaline rush please!! The roller coaster was loooong as well and I pretty much laughed the ride away to not think about things such as "Will we fall?? Will my seatbelt suddenly come off?? We are soooo hiiiigh!" and other thoughts screaming of paranoiaaaa! The roller coaster has no loops so I guess that's a comforting thought? Especially if you're afraid of heights/roller coasters as well? Well, I wouldn't mind riding this again! Just for the thrill of it! ;) No photos during the ride because it was not allowed.
My friends and I survived the T Express! Yay!
The T Express is located in the European Adventure part of Everland so after the ride, we just roamed around that area and appreciated the architecture.
Establishments inspired by European villages
We also saw this beautiful landscape while exploring. From the photo you can see the colorful tulips, the beautiful architecture of the establishments, and the cherry blossom trees.
Annyeong Jj~
Also saw this cute kid playing around the tulips area!! He's so cute I just had to take this photo^^
The 26m tall Flower Magic Tower which is an ideal photo station for visitors. Although we didn't have a photo with this tower as the background, we did enjoy watching the other visitors making poses while taking selcas hehe
A performance of some sort
The fountain at the Aesop's Fable Garden located in Magic Land
Jodie, Kwik and I still wanted to ride some attractions so we all headed to American Adventure because that''s where the Viking is located! Jj didn't want to try the rides anymore so he just ate ice cream lol.
Columbus Adventure: Your typical Viking! What's fun about these kinds of rides is seeing the faces of the people in front of you lol. From faces that want to barf to poker faces -- you can also observe it here! Kwik, Jodie and I were just screaming happily and were raising our hands like the crazy kids that we are!
Double Rock Spin: This rotates 360 degrees and again, you can see your co-riders in front of you LOL 'twas a super fun ride though!
Oh, and we also rode the Championship Rodeo (which is a rotating bull ride), before riding those 2 aforementioned attractions LOL. After 3 dizzying rides, we felt lightheaded enough to NOT try any attractions anymore.
Since we pretty much explored the whole of Everland already, we decided to leave the place before 5PM. Going back to Seoul, we took Bus #5002. This bus would drop us off at Gangnam. There was a line for this specific bus already when we got to the bus stop and we had to wait for more than 30mins. before we were able to get on to the next available bus. The bus ride is indeed a more convenient mode of transportation going to and from Everland instead of the train. We just comfortably slept during that ~1hr ride back to Seoul!
From Gangnam, we took the subway to Myeongdong. Kwik's parents (she used their credit card! thank you hehe) treated us for dinner so we chose this Korean BBQ place in Myeongdong. The BBQ place is not exactly within the busy Myeongdong Shopping Street. It was located near the drinking tents a walking distance away from the food and clothes stalls in Myeongdong Shopping Street.
So excited to eat some legit samgyupsal!
맛있어요!!^^
The 아줌마 (ahjumma) in the restaurant gave us these free drinks. Jj went to the washroom that time and since she only gave us 3, there was no drink for Jj. We were planning to drink it quickly so Jj wouldn't see the drinks... but he still saw it LOL. I shared my drink with him HAHA!
After dinner, we went to the Mini Stop near our guest house for our usual nighttime convenience store run. I bought this ice cream sandwich despite the cold weather!
We went to the guest house afterwards to finally rest! It was a long day for us and we were tired. Then again, just 2 full days in South Korea and we went to a lot of places already~ We were really making the most of our time there!
I finally finished this blog post waaah so much longer than South Korea Part 1! I'm so happy I'm done with this already. Day 3 will be up as soon as possible. Korean pop culture immersion, anyone? ;)
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