The second week overseas was kicked off with Christmas. As Christmas is a very couple orientated day, we didn't have much planned for the day but decided to head over to Myeongdong for some shopping. Oh what a bad decision that was. It was just super crowded with no room for you to think or breathe really. It was like Boxing Day sales in Sydney but like 100 times worse. Not my cup of tea.
We also visited 'Bukchon Village' in Insadong. It was great to go into the older style homes and see the structures that Korean families lived in not so long ago with some families still living in them. The top of 'N Seoul Tower' was also reached after some steep stairs were conquered illustrating how unfit I am and how I should be working out to become more fit ... Oh well. My biggest disappointment upon reaching 'N Seoul Tower' was that the 'Teddy Bear Museum' was officially closed down D: All those 'Princess Hours' memories ... My drama heart was crushed.
Ewha Women's University was visited showing us how unpleasing our universities looked in some aspects. The area around the university is really good for girls looking for some cheap but somewhat good quality clothes and shoes, and a change in their hairstyle. I got my hair cut there and had like the funniest stylist. We had one of the most hilarious conversations, even with the language barrier, with him bringing in other stylists into the conversations. That haircut experience is probably one of my favourite memories with Korean people and the haircut was pretty cheap at $25 with all the trimmings - wash, cut and blowdry.
We endured a 2.5 hour train ride for the 'Garden of Morning Calm' where a light festival was being held. So much snap happy moments occurred then LOL. Extremely cold though ... like our fingers and toes felt like they would fall off. Luckily, they had little shelters where heaters were located for us to warm back up to normal temperatures.
'Lotte World' was visited and conquered. They had a massive ice-rink in one of the lower floors of the indoor portion of the park but it was massively crowded especially since it was a relatively small space. Lines were amazingly long with one ride taking us about 2 hours to finally get onto. I don't really know if I would recommend it ... We just didn't find it that great to be honest.
On the last day of the year, we went to the 'DMZ Zone' or the border between South and North Korea. Our driver told us little interesting facts along the way such as the speed cameras only now capture the driver side's in photo as it resulted in too many divorces when the two front passengers were captured - wives finding out about their cheating husbands when the photos arrived home. His shock at our lack of Korean drinking and too much shopping made us all laughed especially when he started telling us about all the good places to shop LOL. It was great to see what efforts the South Korean government are making towards a reconciliation and the hope that the South Koreans have to be once again be joined with their North Korean counterparts.
These posts are turning out a lot longer than I expected and that will probably continue to happen LOL. Sorry if you don't like wordy posts ... This was a great week looking at the history of South Korea, what it can current present to its citizens and visitors, and the future of South Korea with their hope of the North and South ends to be, one day, combined into one harmonious country.
That pretty much sums up my second week in South Korea. There will be an in-focus post about the 'Garden of Morning Calm' coming up so look forward to that :)
So until next time, remember it takes more effort to frown so smile because it's easier.
