King Sejong And The Cheonggyecheon Stream

Another touristy post of when I took my mom and sister sightseeing~ I didn't want to travel far and I don't really know many tourist spots because I personally find things like this a bit boring... so I took them to see the King Sejong statue, which is near my school. It's pretty famous and comes out in dramas a lot. Behind the famous statue is another one of him sitting down. 

If you walk around to the back of that, it leads you to a basement where there is a museum. It's pretty big inside and you lose your sense of direction, so when we walked out of the museum, we ended up on the opposite side of the road xD 

Chime things

More chime things 

Display in the museum 

Swords

More swords... with weird handles

I think there was a small art exhibit going on as well because I don't remember it being there the first time I came. I really liked the creative art that tied in with the historical atmosphere.

Little paper people~ Look at the ones
hanging on for dear life!

I think this whole dress was made out of
traditional Korean paper

Candles reflect the characters on the wall

After a coffee break (the weather was surprisingly nice and on the warmer side that day) we walked to the Gyeongbokgung (palace). I think it's weird to see a huge traditional building like this in the middle of a busy city. It's $10 to actually go inside the palace, but we decided against it.  We went on a Sunday so it was packed and (bonus!) there was also a street market thing going on in front of it. 

Near the palace is the Cheonggyecheon Stream, which I actually know nothing about... it's just one of those sightseeing spots so we walked along it. Of course, it was mostly full of couples and tourists. At night there's a light show which we didn't get to see, but I plan to come back to watch it some day! I think it'll look much nicer when flowers are blooming too.

I don't really know the significance of this, but
use it as a landmark to find the stream! lol

And that concludes my adventures with my family. I didn't think I'd miss them, but it's only been a week and I feel really homesick. I was doing fine until I spent time with them T____T Now I'm counting down the days 'till I go home.... this is not good.

Namsan Tower aka N Seoul Tower

When visiting Seoul, it's a must to do tourist-y things so for our last night with Jeff, we decided to hike up to Namsan tower (tbh we didn't do that much hiking haha). The last time I went there was 2 years ago and I took a cab so I wasn't too sure on how to get there but it wasn't too hard. From myungdong station, take exit 3 and walk toward Pacific Hotel. Stay on the right side of the road and keep walking up the hill. There's a small fork or two, but if you just walk straight up on the right side you'll reach a staircase and ta-da~ No, you're not at the tower yet, you've reached the cable car building. During our walk, a girl who was heading to the same place came to talk to us and told us her tragic life story of her terrible time in Korea. She just kept going on and on and I felt really bad about her situation, but was surprised at how open she was. I guess she was just relieved to find English speakers to talk to. And I was definitely relieved that my stay in Korea has not been so horrific.

View from the cable car going up

 We payed $8 for a roundtrip cable car ride because no way were we climbing up and down that giant mountain in freezing cold weather (I actually wouldn't do it in any weather or for any reward regardless). I'm glad non of us were afraid of heights because it was quite a trip in that rocky cable car that's who-knows-how old.

View of the city from the cable car, mid-way up

It's mostly geared towards couples though, so be warned. Everything is super couple-y and cheesy like the locks and souvenirs and little things you can do like take a photo together and post it there or write messages on magnets and stick it to the wall. It brought back memories which made me feel kind of sad, but I tried not to think about that. One day I'll come here with kareshi and do all the cutesy things together!

Couple write messages on locks and put them on the "tree"

To go up to the observation deck of the tower is another $9. We went at the absolute perfect time because it was right when the sun was setting. It was so awesome seeing the whole city gradually light up. We didn't stay up there for long and we lost our new friend along the way, but I still had fun. 

At the base of the tower!

Goodbye Namsan tower, until next time~

Aloha Table: A Taste of Home

When Jeff was here, we decided to grab lunch together in Hongdae with nowhere particular in mind. We were wandering the streets, quite far up from the station when he spotted the Aloha Table sign. I knew there was one in Seoul, but I didn't expect it to be so close. I work right near the one located in Waikiki back home so I was excited to go to this one all the way across the Pacific Ocean.

The location, decor, and atmosphere were all nice. The servers were wearing aloha attire and I almost forgot where we were once I stepped inside. We got the window side and got to sit on comfy couches. The wall side had rattan chairs, a surfboard, and vintage paintings. I don't know if it was the wrong time or day or season, but the place was fairly empty even though the restaurant was really big (in Korean standards). I wish more people would come here D:

Of course, the menu was a bit on the pricier side compared to restaurants serving Korean food, but since we went during lunch time some stuff on the menu was a bit cheaper. The cocktails were pretty ridiculous prices, but we couldn't pass them up :P Jeff ordered mochiko chicken curry and a lilikoi drink while I chose a loco moco and Malibu Sunset.

A lot of things were different compared to the Aloha Table in Hawaii, but I don't think I was ever this excited about ordering local food before. I'll definitely be coming back here a few more times during my stay.

Tim Burton Exhibit

Until mid-April, the Seoul Museum of Art is hosting a Tim Burton exhibit. To be honest, I haven't even seen most of his films, nor am I very familiar with his other pieces of work, but I was really interested in going. I like art-related things and I thought this would be a lot more fun than observing plain old paintings on the wall (not that I have anything against people who do that nor am I criticizing artists. They are great; it's just not my cup of tea).

 I was really sad that I couldn't take pictures of the art pieces because everything was so impressive. The collection included the very beginnings of his life, such as doodles he made as a young boy. There were also many, many napkins with drawings that he all kept instead of throwing away. Countless walls were covered with his obscure and eerie art, all of them unique and eye-catching.  The picture below is of the wallpaper before going into the actual exhibit rooms.

I enjoyed seeing the never-before-seen art pieces, but it was also fun finding recognizable pieces too like the puppet from the Nightmare Before Christmas or the creepy looking dolls that sing in the beginning of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. I liked how they had pieces like that and Edward Scissorhands' hand, catwoman's suit, and many other pieces actually displayed instead of just photos or pictures.

Only photo I was super-stealthily able to take of the actual art pieces
Super cute, right? Totally couldn't resist. 

There were also many screens playing his films throughout the exhibit, all with Korean subtitles. I was a little disappointed that there was barely anything on Alice in Wonderland (my favorite) but I guess it can't be helped because it's not his original work and it came out fairly recently. I also wasn't satisfied with the gift shop, but I still bought a photobook and a set of playing cards. I really wish Hawaii had cool exhibits like this.

Most of those were all sold out :(

"Romeo and Juliet"

Bau House

In America, it would be impossible to have a place like this, but in Korea where there is no FDA, anything is possible xD It was my first time going to a dog cafe and I am not really an animal person so I didn't know what to expect. But my roommate and I met up with Jeff again and the two really wanted to go so I tagged along.

My roommate supposedly knew how to get there but she read the map wrong so we almost got lost. Then, when I figured out the map and got us to the location, the dog cafe was not there! So in the end, Jeff looked it up on his gps (why did we not think of this earlier -___-) and we finally succeeded in finding it (it ended up being all the way up at the next station).

When we stepped inside, all 20+ dogs started barking at us at once. You enter a small wooden gate where there are a few smaller dogs and after you enter the bigger gate there are over 15 bigger dogs running around, napping, jumping on chairs, and playing with the other customers

Just lounging on the counter

Lazy dogs

Teaming up on the ugly one :(

Super fluffy <3

There are booths and tables along the left and right walls, but nothing that separates you from the dogs once you're inside. It's free to enter, but they compensate by making the drinks about $6 each. I think it's worth it though because we stayed for about 3 hours so that's just $2 an hour to play with lots and lots of dogs.  What's also cool about the place is that you can bring your own dog(s) to play or you can even leave them there for the day for their daycare service. 

I don't even know...

Looks cute, but I didn't like this one 

LOL enjoying too much

biggest dog EVER 

Another super fluffy one

Another super giant, but lanky dog

The workers were nice and really efficient about cleaning up after the dogs. It was cool seeing dogs I've never even seen before in my life and I actually wouldn't mind going there again. Since I haven't been to other dog cafes, I have nothing to compare this one to, but I would give this place a pretty good rating based on first impressions.