The Three of us at the Trick Eye Museum
Yesterday (Saturday) we made our first trip in to Seoul (well other than the one we made to the Immigration Office) and we had a full day of fun planned!
Movie :)
First thing in the morning we decided to go see a movie called The Face Reader (관상) which is a Korean historical movie that just opened up last week.
It stars some actors we love (Cho Jung Seok and Lee Jong Suk, specifically) and we read online that the Lotte Cinema in Hongdae (a part of Seoul) played Korean movies with English subtitles between the appallingly-early hours of 10AM and 11AM...
Which is aparently a lie, because there totally wasn't any English subtitles. Oh, well. We got ourselves some popcorn and coke and then did our best to keep up with what was going on.
It actually wasn't too hard to understand and the movie itself (except for the ending, I'll just throw that out there) was really good. It was filmed beautifully and had an engaging soundtrack. Even with our limited knowledge of Korean we were able to enjoy it.
After the movie we met up with a good friend our ours (Michelle) who has been studying abroad in Seoul since earlier this year and we headed out into Hongdae to the Trick Eye Museum.
Now, I'm not a big Museum person but I love interactive museums and this is one of them. There is two parts: the actual Trick Eye Museum and the Ice Museum (both are included with your ticket)and they are full of fun photo-ops.
So cold!!
We went to the Ice Museum first. For obvious reasons, it's super freezing cold inside so they give you a little blanket you can wrap around your shoulders. Once in, there are many unique ice sculptures and you can take pictures.
"Warming our hands" inside the igloo!
After the Ice Museum we went into the Trick Eye Museum. It was really busy (probably because it was a Saturday) which made taking pictures a bit frustrating but it was totally worth it.
Throughout the museum there are different paintings and set-ups that make things look 3D.
It looks kinda like I'm hanging upside down, right? :D
It's pretty awesome and so much fun! We took a million pictures but we still didn't even do everything...there is just so much!
I think we spent a few hours in there before we left and headed out to lunch. We ate takkalbi (닭갈비) which is a delicious spicy stir-fry chicken dish. It has cabbage and onions and even ddeok (rice cakes) in it. So much yum!
Ah. Makes me hungry.
After lunch, Michelle wanted to lead us around Hongdae a bit. It's a really trendy (indie) area of Seoul and they even have a free-market where people set up booths full of (generally) hand made stuff and you can just walk around enjoying the scenery.
What was exciting for us is that Hongdae is a popular spot for filming dramas. One spot in particular:
Graffiti. Everywhere.
The playground! Many dramas have had scenes here but the most memorable for us is the hilarious and sweet A Gentleman's Dignity.
Scene from A Gentleman's Dignity where Lee Jong Hyun (as Collin) plays guitar and sings at the playground.
We were totally on the wrong side because we couldn't remember the scene exactly, but whatever! Our first drama site!
We were there!
After embarrassing ourselves by being so tourist-ie we walked around the free market for a bit and then headed to the next spot on our list and probably one of South Korea's most famous drama locations:
The First Shop of Coffee Prince! It's a cafe that served as a set for the uber popular drama Coffee Prince.
Screen cap from episode 4 of Coffee Prince
We just took pictures of the outside because you are not allowed to take any photos/videos inside (therefore we didn't even bother going in and paying for over-priced coffee). But it was really cool to actually be there.
It's really pretty!
The coffee shop was our last stop in Hongdae. We wanted to visit the Korean Tourism Organization so we got back on the subway and headed a few stops over and got to see the lovely Cheonggycheon river.
So nice!
This was apparently a massive (not to mention expensive) restoration project that took place back in 2003 because the river used to be covered by a highway. Now it makes for some very pretty scenery.
Anyway, the Korean Tourism Office was close and we picked up some information booklets and stuff. We didn't spend too long there because we wanted to make it to our next destination before it got dark. Back on the subway!
Second-to-last stop: Yeouido Hangang Park! (여의도 한강공원)
We made it before dark!
This is one of the first places Jenee and I wanted to visit in Seoul because it was a filming site for one of our favorite dramas: City Hunter.
Scene of Lee Min Ho playing in the fountain from City Hunter
There is a fountain here that served as a set for an adorable scene from the drama but the park itself is actually really nice and runs along the Han river. People ride bikes and have picnics. Fried chicken and beer is apparently a favorite food staple in this area (though we didn't have any)!
The water was so refreshing and nice, I was sad I hadn't brought a change of clothes so that I could actually get more than just my feet wet. I'm sure this will be a favorite spot of mine next summer when it's insanely hot outside.
Right next to the park (or at least the area of the park we were in) is Mapo Bridge. It has a small modern-art sculpture thingie on it that you can walk up for a nice view. This was also used for a scene in City Hunter.
You can only kind of see it in this screen cap (in the background) but it was the best I could find:
City Hunter episode 4
The view was really nice! Since it was getting dark we walked for only a little longer and took some nice evening pictures of Seoul.
...and then this really awesome shot:
Divas in Seoul
Haha.
We decided it was time for some papingsu which is really finely shaved ice mixed with sweetened condensed milk and other flavorings, then generally topped with some sweet bean paste and ddeok (rice cake).
I want moooore!!
Michelle took us to a place she was familiar with that had really good papingsu and boy was it delicious! We got split a regular one and a green tea flavored one.
Yeah. This happened.
Finally, it was time for our last stop: norebang (karaoke). The one Michelle suggested we go to had a purikura (little sticker pictures) place on the first floor so of course we couldn't resist and did that first.
LOL
Then we headed upstairs to totally fail at singing for an hour. The place was pretty cool and had different themed rooms. We tried our best to sing some Korean songs and lost our voices. We kept getting bonus (service) time though for some reason (we only paid for an hour but they continued to give us more time) and we're pretty sure it was because they could hear how horrible we sounded and thought it was the funniest thing ever.
It was especially fun when we started singing some old '90s songs that we magically still knew the lyrics to (we're talking Backstreet Boys, In'Sync, and even some Spice Girls).
Anyway, when we left we could hardly talk and since it was so late we had to take a taxi back to Bundang.
I feel like I just did a weeks worth of stuff in one day. It was exhausting but soooo much fun!
0 comments:
Post a Comment