Seoul Day 5: Trick Eye Museum

We started our day early and headed to Hongdae area. Our plan for the day was to just spent our day in Hongdae for some sightseeing and shopping. By now, we kinda have a routine every morning. Grab breakfast, walked to the subway station, stopped at the entrance trying to figure out the line we have to take, and off we go.

Our first stop was the Trickeye Museum. The place is filled with 3D-like paintings that you can take photos with. It’s actually a pretty fun place to visit and I have to say they did a great job with the paintings and all.Tips: if you want to come here, go during weekdays when there’s not a lot of people. Since you probably wanna try to take pictures on all of their installation, picking holiday dates or weekends when it’s super crowded is probably not a good idea.

Seoul Day 4: Namsan Tower & Myeong Dong

After we got back in Seoul, we were dropped off at the cable car station for the Namsan Tower. We bid our farewell to Mr. Choi and the driver who have been very nice these past 2 days to us. We got there about an hour or so before sunset, so it was still bright. There was a line for the cable car, but it wasn’t too bad. We purchased our two-way ticket and rode on the cable car.

We found this magazine for tourists with handy maps and recommendations. But of course, those places we went the past couple days. Talk about timing.

And then again, there’s the stairs. I swear there are sooo many stairs in Korea.

The view from up here:

We stayed for a while there. After sunset, our stomach began to growled so we took the cable car back to where we were and walked to Myeong-dong for dinner.

I like Myeong-dong. The area’s filled with shops with bright lights and people bustling here and there. Even though it was a weekday, it’s pretty packed. It definitely felt livelier, more energetic and active here (or Seoul in general as a matter of fact) compared to Seattle.

We picked Wangbijib (왕비집), a Korean BBQ restaurant for our dinner. This place is apparently a pretty well known tourists place. The servers speak Chinese and Japanese (I think), so if you can’t speak Korean, you can speak one of the two languages. They grilled the meat for us too on the table. We were so hungry we ended up ordering more portions. At the end of the night, we were stuffed and happy.

Seoul Day 4: Petite French

On our way back to Seoul from Nami Island, we stopped by Petite French (쁘띠프랑스) since it’s nearby and on the way. The place is a neat little village that was built based on the Le Petit Prince (1943) French novel that’s pretty well-known in Korea. I think this place is some kind of a memorial building for the author of the novel. If you’ve watched Running Man in the past, this place might look familiar because they’ve shot an episode here before (and so does a couple other variety shows & dramas).

So here’s the location where they shot the drama ‘Beethoven Virus’:

There was a puppet show too for the kids. The puppets were dancing to Psy’s Gangnam Style blaring from the stereo. I guess that song never gets old around here.

Seoul Day 4: Nami Island

Day 4. Yesterday’s trip to Boseong took a lot of energy out of us. We passed out as soon as our head hit the pillows. So for today’s itinerary, first up is Nami Island. Originally, we were going to leave for Nami island at 8 am, but since we were so tired from the day before, we pushed back the pick-up time to an hour later. So after grabbing some breakfast from the nearby convenient store, we headed to Nami Island around 9. The trip took about 2 hours or so and it was a pretty smooth drive. When we arrived, Mr. Choi helped us bought the ferry tickets and gave us general information about the island. After that we lined up for the ferry rides. Side note: there are to way to get to the island—with ferry boats or with zipline. We chose the ferry boats because I’m afraid of heights :p

When you arrived at the island, this is pretty much what you’re greeted with:

We arrived around lunch time, but since it’s still a bit early, we decided to walk around a little bit. Surprisingly, there are many local tourists too in the island (or at least I think they are since they all speak Korean). The weather was really nice too, so it was really refreshing walking around and enjoying the scenery.

If you’re a Korean drama fan, you might watched or at least heard about the famous drama, Winter Sonata. Nami Island is where they shoot the drama at and this place has became a tourist attraction ever since that drama gotten very popular in Asia. I watched the drama a loooong time ago, so I couldn’t really recall the storyline very well now. This location (below) is supposedly where the lead characters have their first kiss.

After a little bit of walking around, we got hungry and decided to go for the chicken bbq (닭갈비) restaurant that was recommended by Mr. Choi (supposedly chicken bbq & buckwheat noodle are the signature dishes at Nami Island, so we gave it a try). We clearly couldn’t grill our meat properly because once we started, we somehow created a big cloud of smoke. One of the server came over and taught us how to grill our meat properly so we’re not filling the place with smokes. The meal was pretty tasty and all the dishes that we ordered were delicious.

After lunch, we decided to rent tandem bikes for an hour because there were so many people riding bikes around us and it looked like fun. Since there’re 5 of us, we rented 2 tandems and 1 segway. I have to say, tandem bikes are sooo hard to ride. Either that or I just don’t have a good co-ordination skills with my partner. It was so hard to start, but once you get going it’s not so bad. Although you’ll still have to balanced the bike so both you and your partner won’t fall. Anyway, I ended up not doing much because my partner have a super power strength :p It was pretty fun though. I haven’t rode a bike in a long long time and with the pretty sceneries and good weather, it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

We encountered emus roaming around freely:

After we returned our bikes, we made our way back to the ferry dock. My sister and I sat down for the caricature drawings (which turned out pretty good) on the way for souvenirs. And that’s the end of our Nami Island visit. Definitely want to go back again next time.

Archery: Take Two

Went to the archery range two weeks ago with a couple of friends. This is my second time trying archery (first time in Seattle) and I think I did better than the first one. When we arrived at the place, it was pretty packed. One guy helped out our group to get our bows. First, he made us do this eye check to determined which one of our eyes is the dominant one and told us that we should aim with that eye. No wonder the last time I did this, my arrows never landed onto the target, I was aiming with my non-dominant eye *sigh*. At least now I know :) He made us tried a couple of different bows and in the end us girls settled with the lightest bow (he had to make one for us too since there’s none available) and the guys with the heavier ones.

They gave us side-by-side lanes. It was a little bit tight since the range was full but they were kind enough to make rooms for us, so we’re grateful. The guy went over the range’s rules and taught us how the use the bows and arrows. After that, we pretty much just took turns and shoot. The first couple of rounds were hard. The arrows landed NOT on the target paper, but around it. But after half and hour or so, we all gotten a little better. Just need to practice I guess. We stayed there for about 2 hours until closing time. By the end of the session, I got used to the bows, which was kinda nice. Although I have a feeling tomorrow my arms are going to be sore like crazy. Nevertheless, it was fun.