See all the things! Part 1

In my first post about my recent trip to Korea, I mentioned that Mindy and I had 3 goals for our trip:

1. See all the things
2. Buy all the things
3. Eat all the things

We did a pretty damn good job of accomplishing these goals. And, though I can name at least a dozen things off the top of my head that we didn't see, this post is dedicated to how we worked to accomplish the first of these goals: See all the things!!

Museums

We went to several museums on our trip: the National History Museum, the National Folk Museum, the COEX Mall Aquarium (I'm counting it), a museum about King Sejong (the king who got the current Korean alphabet - hangul - going), and an Andy Warhol exhibit.

This history and folk museums were nice, calm, air conditioned breaks from our treks across Seoul. The museums I've seen in Seoul have been beautifully laid out with lovely displays and wonderfully chosen artifacts. Some truly top notch museums!

There's a big statue of King Sejong in front of Gyeoungbokgung Palace and underneath the statue is a museum about him. He was a really amazing dude. He wanted to invent an alphabet that would be easy to learn so all citizens could learn to read. He not only commissioned the development of hangul (the alphabet), but then used it HIMSELF to transcribe (or translate...) some huge classical epic to both improve and make sure it worked. Talk about dedication!

King Sejong!

 A lot of the things in the museum are dedicated to the Korean alphabet. The walls had things carved all over them, there was a calligraphy section where people copied classic poems onto beautiful scrolls in calligraphy. So pretty.

This says "Min" for Mindy!

This bench is made of Korean letters! Cool!

We also went to the COEX aquarium, which was really fun, too! It was inside this gigantic mall - the COEX Mall. Lots of fish, sharks, penguins, otters, and beavers! It was my first time seeing the namesake of my town - Beaverton - in the flesh. I couldn't decide if they were adorably or freakishly ugly. Still not sure.

It was kind of dark in the aquarium, so most of the pictures that aren't just, you know, fish, are kind of blurry. But Mindy got this cute (and not AT ALL creepy) picture of a couple standing in front of the giant viewing tank. Aw, so precious!

"Why is the foreigner taking pictures of us?" "Ignore her... maybe she'll leave."

The Andy Warhol exhibit was... a mistake. I thought we were getting tickets to something else. It was cool, but I really didn't care. Did you know he made movies? Me neither. From the clips I saw, I don't think I ever want to see any of his movies all the way through. :/

Gyeoungbokgung Palace

There are several palaces across Seoul and Gyeoungbokgung is the main palace. We, of course, decided to go on probably the hottest of all the days we were in Seoul. Nice choice.

I LOVE the colors at the palaces!

I made Mindy pull into the little shop after a few minutes to cool down in the air conditioning and grab a cold drink. I was so sweaty and hot! Ew. Luckily I carried around a hand fan like an old lady. I got a tasty ginger, cinnamon punch and Mindy got some kind of rice drink. Both were very yummy and cold (the important thing).

We were almost ready to go when we got pulled aside by a lady in a hanbok to try a traditional medicine experience. Why not? So we went into a little building (after taking off our shoes), read through a list of symptoms, and determined that Mindy has a cold body type, and I have a hot body type (obviously). Then we were given teas for our body types (Mindy got chamomile and I got peppermint). Then we were given a form to fill out before we saw the doctor. At this point the questions got a little too personal so we snuck out before meeting with the doctor.

*Oops! I guess that happened at another place: the Hanok Village! My bad!

Trick Eye Museum and Ice Museum

After our exhausting day in on Jeju Island (more on that later), we took a relaxing day in Hongdae to visit the Trick Eye Museum. It's a total touristy spot that has a bunch of fun paintings and backdrops to take fun photos against.

With our ticket, we also got entry into the Ice Museum. We had no clue what it was until we walked into a freezer with a bunch of ice sculptures. It was FREEZING! We totally should have gone there first while we were still hot from being outside! As it was, it made outside feel nice! Super cute. And, of course, there was an ice toilet with a little poop inside. Ha!

Namsan Tower

The North Seoul Tower in Namsan park is a big tower on top of a big hill in the middle of Seoul. We took a cable car up the mountain and then an elevator up to the observation deck where we could get a 360 degree view of Seoul!. The view was amazing.

 

One of the cool things about North Seoul Tower is that people go up there and hook locks on the railing. They take them down periodically and there are these tree things everywhere covered in locks. People write their names, messages, etc. It's supposed to be a super romantic place or something. I don't know why, really. I guess it could be fun to go with a sweetheart. A lot of the locks are put there by couples with sweet things written on them. One of these looks like someone proposed up there. How sweet!

"She said yes! :D"

As we were leaving the tower to head back to the cable car, we came across a spear demonstration! Super awesome cool!! One guy sliced through a bunch of boards like they were nothing! So cool!

Hello Kitty Cafe

I don't know how big of a Hello Kitty fan I am... but I love cute things with cute designs, pink, pastels, adorable animals, etc. And, for a long time, Hello Kitty was the go to for me for these cute designs and accessories. Now there are so many more choices out there (thank you, internet! and all of Korea's stationary stores!!), that Hello Kitty is no longer really my "go to," but I still love her. So when I heard there was a Hello Kitty cafe, of COURSE I wanted to go. There was actually an entire hotel/resort place on Jeju Island, but Mindy said no. Whatever.

HELLO KITTY HOTEL ROOM

While there was a Hello Kitty cafe in Hongdae where our guest house was, it was in the opposite direction of everything else we wanted to see, so I decided not to pursue it in light of my ultimate desire to not walk in the heat anymore than I had to. But, then! On our final full day in Seoul, we stumbled upon the one in Myoungdong!

Even though we were still full from a giant lunch, I made Mindy go up for a brownie with a powder sugar kitty face on it and seriously sweet lemonade in cute cups. Once you stopped trying to think of the brownie as a "brownie" and just as a chocolate treat, it tasted pretty good.

And everything was PINK!!

Noraebang!

A noraebang is a private singing room you can rent by the hour. Prices vary depending on the place, quality, and time of day. We went to two different ones and each time had a blast. The first time we had some difficulty figuring out the remote (which is HUGE with WAY TOO MANY BUTTONS). The second time we couldn't figure out the air conditioning. But we sang our hearts out and had a blast anyways.

So much fun!

Next up: See all the things! Part 2: Seoul City Tour!