Last pictures from Korea
This is pictures from our last trip in Korea. We went to the Issac's mother's parent's tomb, sadly they have passed away already but I was at least able to visit their grave. So I have now met the whole Won family! The pictures this time is in different sizes because I had a lot of difficulities uploading them due to bad internet. Why I all of sudden got bad internet, I will explain in the next update ;)
The surrounding area. The tombs here are often not at church yards, but instead in nice scenaries like this one.
This is a resting place we passed by when driving. It is very pretty, especially when the leave changes colours, so many photographers come here during Autumn. I'm also very sure I have seen this place in one of the commercials on the TV.
Indeed a very pretty place, and made even brigther with our dear parents.
Beside the road
This river is at another place we went to
Our mother has the soul of an explorer!
A historic site of the one who succeded and completed the Koreanized "Neo-Confucianism". This is a temple area where Confucian rites are being upheld and we could try the life of Confucian scholars too.
Father and son competing with trowing sticks into a pot. The father won!
Tea ceremony
After enjoying tea, it was time for get to the core of scholars' life - Styudying the Confucian texts. Here we are dressed up as scholars infront of the teacher. We were taught the meaning behind of some Confucian qoutes, and to really memorize them, we were taught how to sing them like a hymn. Fortunately, I have studied both classical Chinese and a bit of the Koreanized Neo-Confucianism so I could keep up fairly well.
When it was time to close up the place for the day and we were about to leave, the woman from the tea ceremony gave me the flowers used for decorations. I must have been not too bad as a student!
The next update will bring some great news! We have left Korea and travelled to new countries, which I will tell you about and show you pictures from. My blogging here have also influenced an interest to my fiancé, so, we are currently working on creating a blog together which we can both can write and update in! I hope you all look forward to it!
Busan
Continuing the trip, here is the same beach in Busan in day light
Today was a special day in Busan for three reasons. One I have already told you, the international film festival was currently hold right here. The second reason is it was Hangeul day - a national holiday to honor the invention of the Korean alphabet. Because it really was invented, by King Sejeon and his scientists, as an alternative for the people in the lower class, as the far more complex Chinese alphabet took such a long time to learn only scholars could read. So as celebration, there was some events going on on the beach.
Not sure was liquid nitrogen ice cream is, and although the making process was interesting with all that fog, a salt tasting ice cream was really not something I would recommend. Not at all.
Yep, we went to check out the world's largest department store. But other than food, the stores was too expensive to be of interest.
Rice cakes in all kinds of flavors and shapes. Especially shapes.
Ice brink inside the shopping mall
And a collection of Swedish brands!! Fjällräven, H&M och Haglöfts!
Moving on...
This picture.... just happen to be funny. The staty is taking a picture of the military man's butt! Hehe!
And here was our last destination in Busan. The BIFF street, or, Busan International Film Festival street.
Zhang Yimou's hand! (A Chinese director who have made many great movies such as Hero, Flying Daggers etc.)
Oh! A Swedish director's hand! Jan Troell?
And, lastly, the third reason why this day was special. In Busan, there was also a festival in the fish market area, and here is a parade celebrating that, walking from BIFF to the fish market.
So, not only was there unusually many tourists (since many came for the film festival), and not only was is a holiday so all school kids was off from school (because of hangeul day), it was also a market festival. As you might understand, the streets was crowded with people. After spending about half the day in Busan, we retired and went back to our small Chungju city. The sudden increase of people was just too much for us!
Gyeongju
We went on yet another trip here in Korea, this time to the historical city Gyeongju and then to the modern city Busan. It was only a two day trip but I took many pictures so I will let the pictures mostly speak for themselves. So, first off, pictures from Gyeongju, a city "for both the dead and the alive", filled with historical buildings and tombs from Goryeo dynasty.
They are not sure what this is, but one suggestion is that it was used for studying the stars.
Some of the tombs
The sign shows that a drama was filmed there
A garden from Goryeo dynasty. There used to be a lot more buildings, but they were burnt down during the Mongolian invasion (Djingis Khan, you have all heard of him), and not all buldings have been restored yet.
How it originally looked like
Can you see the crane?? It's in the middle of the picture, sitting on a tree branch
The crane is flying!
Where we had out lunch
Asian fusion sandwhiches with veggies, meat and rice.
Gyeongju Bulguksa - a temple area that was completed in 774 and served as a center for "Silla Buddhism". (Silla is one of the early dynasties in Korea)
We were not allowed to take pictures of the buddha inside...
A building where a monk is said to be buried. It was believed back then that if a very good monk died, pearls will come out of his body. So they are currently looking for the pearls.
Flowers with prayers
A big bell used for prayers
This was the historical site I was most curious about - an artificial cave with very complicated architectural design. And inside the cave there is a staty of a buddha. However, not only were we not allowed to take pictures inside, we were not even allowed to go in the cave. Only to see it through a glass from outside, so, although I understand the destruction massive tourism can cause, I couldn't help feeling disappointed. I would have at least want to see the roof where the complexity is most apparant.
Lamps with prayers
This cave was quite remote, and the last kilometer we had to walk. But the walk was pretty indeed.
Refilling the energy with some fresh fishcake sold at the gate
Old ladies selling edible goods on the street
While waiting for the bus, there was public cameras where people could take their photos. By mistake, we our picture ended up saved in their gallery for everyone to see
This night there was a lunar eclipse!
After a long day in Gyeongju, we went with the bullet train KTX to the nearby city Busan where we stayed the night at this hostel.
Busan is right next to the sea
A night market with fish food
Just to hop in and point at which fish in any of the fish tanks you would like to eat
While we were in Busan, there was an international film festival going on.
Studio Ghibli exhibition!!!
There is a Studio Ghibli exhibition going on right now in a shopping mall in Seoul. Studio Ghibli, lead by Hayao Miyazaki, is a Japanese animation firm, producing amazing movies enjoyable for both children but also for adults like me! The movies often have a deeper message and moral in it. Typical characteristiscs of Hayao Miyazaki's works are the strong will of the young, peace-loving main characters, human destruction of nature and in almost every movie there is a woman with a strong personality.
Outside the shopping mall, a scene from "Ponyo on the cliff by the sea".
Inside the exhibition, they have recreated scenes from a selection of movies. Each room have a description of the movie in the beginning. Here is "Howl's Moving Castle"
The "castle", which really did move, compare the two pictures!
Calicifier!
Inside the castle
Howl himself
Saliman's dog Heen
The main character in the movie - a young lady in her 20ties who was transformed to an old granny by a witch. Throughout the movie, she slowly starts to accept herself and stops comparing herself to others as well as finding confidence in herself which eventually breaks the spell.
The picture above is illustrating the scene below from the movie. The picture below is a TV-screen showing the movie
This is one of my top favorities among the movies! Sadly this part of the exhibition was not as big as the others. This movie, however, is the one that shows most clearly (and dramatically) about the human destruction of nature
The wolf princess who have joined the forest gods in the fight to protect their forest
Pom Poko! A movie about racoons, and just like in the movie right above, they are trying to protect their forest against humans too.
Protect the forest against humans like this one...
A scene from the movie
This is probably the most famous movie, or at least the one that sells the most souviners. The story is about two young girls who just moved to the country side and found a big and old tree nearby where a forest spirit called Totoro lives in. The trick is, Totoro can not be seen bby adults, and even among children, only lucky ones who are friendly to the forest can find him!
The tunnel to the tree
Hah! I'm still within the lengths of a child!(?)
But not you. Are you not a friend of the forest??
Totoro sleeping!
Scenes from the movie, when one of the girls first found Totoro
A scene where the girls are waiting at the bus stop for their dad to come back from work, when all of sudden Totoro joins them too.
(It's raining in the scene, so Issac joined the scene while protecting himself from "the rain")
The end scene
Porco Rosso, not one of his famous movies, but still enjoyable.
If Totoro is not the most famous movie, then this one certainly is. It's widely considered to be one of the best animated movies in history. The story is a bit complicated, and yet the deeper messages are eve more complicated and there is still discussions about how to interprent the movie. It is truly great!
(I'm posing as the girl in movie)
(Another pose)
TV-screen showing the train scene, recreated here below
I'm trying to mimick the girl in the movie.
Issac and his new buddy the No Face
The last picture, from outside the exhibition togehter with Totoro again at the rainy scene at the bus stop
Couple pictures from a valley close by
Well, the title says it all
On our way back from the mountain
Since it was quite a car ride going to the mountain from the city in where we live, we stayed the night at a hotel nearby. The morning view from our room was quite fantastic!
This is the Ulsanbawi Rock we had climbed the day before.
Our lovely parents
On our way back we stopped by another beach, that is famous for a reason I will tell you soon.
"Gratis är gott!" (Free is delicous) as we say in Sweden. Here the mum is on the hunt for seaweed flowing around in the water.
I also went into the water, but not as far. Still amazed the water temperature still was warm even in September!
I wrote yesterday that Koreans are very concerned with fashion, and here is another example of that. You ust can't walk around with shoes covered in sand! So here is a very, very, very very very strong airblower to blow all the sand away. So strong my skin looks scary!
And this is why this area is famous, North Korea's diktator himself once stayed here for vacation when the border between the two Koreas was a bit more diwn south than now.
His house
The view he once enjoyed
And nearby was another vacation house that South Korea's first president Syngman Ree and his Austrailian wife stayed at once the border was moved more north to where it is today.
Last, and least actually, a vacation house for one of the influencal South Korean politicians during that era.
After visiting the beach and the vacation houses, we continued our trip back home and passed by an interesting looking waterfall. It's so thin yet long, and it was hard to imagine how the water actually made it all the way to the end of the cliff. Isn't the end slightly going upwards?
Drinking the water!
This was our last stop before we came home. A pretty valley with a river where Marilyn Monroe actually performed for the soldiers during the Korean war! There was a picture with the audience and her far, far away on a stage.
Pretty flowers
Ulsanbawi Rock Mountain
Hello! I haven't updated this blog for a while. I took a rest from the computer just because I can. Once I go back to Sweden and start studying and working again I won't be able to have this freedom since everything, especially at the university nowadays, one must check the computer at least once a day, or simply just all the time with the advancement of smartphones. Power points from classes, annoncements from the teachers, home work instructions, submission of homeworks and applying to exams etc is all done online today. I might sound old-fashioned now, but it is truly a relief and a sense of freedom to not be bound to anything.
However, I have now gathered pictures and will update the blog again!
Issac's parents took us for a weekend trip to a famous mountain called Ulsanbawi Rock Mountain, but first, a visit to the beach
The water was still warm!
At the beach shore there was motorboats offering a short trip on the ocean, driving around in circles aiming for the waves.
The driver
After jumping around with the boat, we got back to the car and drove the last part to the mountain. And here it is! Or parts of it. The Ulsanbawi Rock mountain is a part of a long mountain chain.
This energy drink sounds like anything but delicious....
If you look closely, at the middle of this mountain there is two lines. It's for the cable car for those people who are not so interested in hiking, and just want a quick look at the view (Almost all Chinese tourists went for the cable car). Our goal however, was to really hike a mountain!
The hike started with about 3 km long walk on flat ground
Chipmunk!
Now the real hiking begins! The cement road has ended, and stairs made out of stones have replaced it. Now it's only 4 km of hiking until we reach the top
Getting higher up!
This is the mountain we are trying to get closer to!
Passing by a buddhist temple half way up
Almost there. But my legs are already very, very tired.
The stone stairs was now replaced by steep(!!) metal stairs
Almost there... and my legs are shaking from tiredness and from the hight.
And up! At the top! Finally! 876 meters high!
On our way down again (which was equally hard I had aldready passed my limit and my legs was now shaking and hurting...). I took this pictures to show how the latest trend in Korea. No, not pushing a rock, but hiking. And it's visible through the clothes. Koreans are very concerned with fashion, so if they are going to do hiking, their clothes from top to toe has to be real hiking clothes from a famous brand such as North Face.
Another buddhist temple
The guards of the temple
Sunset, first picture with the sun behind the mountain, and second picture with the sun at the side of the mountain
Mid-Autumn festival
The Mid-Autumn festival is a harvesting festival being held every year when the moon is the biggest according to the lunar calendar. So the weekend before the festival, we spent preparing food.
Making Korean pancakes. This kind of portable frying pan is common in Korea, as many live in small houses or apartments.
I helped with peeling roots and making salad. Small tasks that doesn't requires knowledge in Korean cooking.
And this is how it looked like om the Mid-Autumn day when we finally had set up the tables and was about to eat it all! Only the soup is missing from the picture. The food was enough both breakfast and lunch. This is at Issac's grandmother's home. We had to get up at 5.30 am to drive about 2 hours to Daejeon where she lives. There the whole family of the father's side gathered and ate meals together and talked for long. Very much according to the Korean tradition, the men was mostly sitting down in the living room relaxing, while the women worked. Especially the daugthers-in-law. However, I was an exception, as I don't understand much Korean, I helped a bit with setting the table, and then I was told to go and sit in the sofa. Not much you can do when you don't even understand what's going on.
This is rice cake filled with sesame seeds and boiled with pine tree needles.
Me and the grandmother when we were outside to take a walk.
End of the tour - More beauty and girls being valued more than boys
This is the last update with pictures from Jeju island. The last two places of the tour were a half-island shaped by volcano and a museum about the women living in Jeju.
The shape of this half-island is very interesting, especially from above but the tour didn't include a helicopter ride above unfortunately.
Climbing the mountain
Or, well, if walking up on the stairs is counted as climbing.
Beautiful view from the top
The peak is shaped like a bowl
From the side
As I mentioned earlier, Jeju women worked hard to support their families since their husbands often travelled on the sea fishing or trading. And not uncommonly, the husbands drowned, leaving the women as the only income maker. This is a museum about them.
How they lived
The kitchen
A boat they used when going further out in the sea to fish
What's so special about these women, is that they fished by diving down deep without any equipments at all, sometimes staying under water for as long as two minutes.
Because of their great work, they even had a saying like this one above! This is the first time I have ever heard of a new born girl being more celebrated than a boy in history. At least some place in the world, although very small, and hopefully really is true, girls were accknowled too as a big support for the family.
That was it for Jeju island. Next coming up is pictures from the Mid-Autumn festival.
Second day, more nature and the excitement of riding a horse
Korean breakfast at the hotel. Pretty much the same as we ate for lunch yesterday - rice and different dishes.
The first stop of the tour this day was at a shopping mall with Jeju specialities, mostly tandarin candies and medicines. And fake bangs.
This was followed by a walk through the forest on a hill.
The laughing walk
A buddhist temple
Stone was collected and put like this on a mountain pass, as a praise to the mountain God who was believed to be a guardian spirit
Mountain mineral spring
Watch out for that tree!
So, one event on the travel itinerary was horse riding...
Wearing that cowboy hat was a must!
Well the horse riding wasn't so interesting, the horses just nicely followed each other and all we had to do was to sit there and enjoy our five minutes. The lined us up for taking photos too, and I was thinking of maybe buying a photo for fun. But just one photo costed 35 dollars, or 250 kronor!! Whaaat.... We took our own photots
For lunch we got "black pork meat", that is, meat from a black pig.
After lunch we were taken to a traditional jeju village
These figures was often placed infront of villages at the gates to both scare away bad spirits and to welcome guests.
How the roofs was secured from tyfoons
The women in Jeju couldn't express their anger upfront, so they expressed it by using a jar as a drum to hit while singing. Jeju women also had to work hard supporting their family while the men was out fishing and trading on the mainland Korea. So instead of softly cradle the babies softly until they fall asleep, they rocked the cradle fast so the babies fell asleep quicker from dizziness...
A black pig
Tools
Medicines that can cure anything and beautiful nature scenes
Continuing the first day of the tour,we were taking to a tandarin farm to not really learn anything about how tandarins are farmed, but to be convienced to buy things.
Sumo-tandarin
So after hardely given anytime to look around first, we were taking into a room to listen to a seller telling us how very healthy products from Jeju island are. Koreans cares a lot about health, althought even though each seller spent at least 15 minutes talking about the great effects, not many actually bought the products.
Tandarins
A mushroom so healthy it can cure flu and pretty much anything.
Tea that also cures flu and makes you so incredibly healthy.
Finally leaving the farm, we were taking to some of the scenes we actually came to Jeju island to see!
Map of Jeju island. There is a vulcano in the middle
The lonely rock, said to have been a woman who waited for her lost husband at the sea shore so long she turned into a stone.
And so the first day's your ended. Issac had a dream to eat at a specific Japanese place called Aruyo so we went there for dinner.
The menu
And the master chef himself in the kitchen (the bald man). He was the first winner of the American Masterchef cooking program. After winning, he opened up a small restaurant in Jeju island, so small it is he himself making the main dishes.
Fried chicken and kimchi
Japanese pork noodle soup and sea food noodle soup
For dessert, a watermelon ice cream from the convenience store. The pink part tasted watermelon, the green pear, and the "seeds" was chocolate. Yum!
When booking the tour, a stay at this hotel was offered for free so we took it. We were worried it would be a not so good place since it was free, but it was actually really nice!
Good ending of the first day!
Half of the first day: Theme parks in Jeju island
Since Jeju island has poor transportation around the island, we joined a two-days bus tour for Koreans. The trip was not only cheap, the intinery was indeed planned for Koreans with so many stops for different sellers to sell us medicine. The day however, started with a Thai elephant show.
I'm feeding an elephant! There was bananas being sold outside to feed them with.
Give mee
The elephant had been taught to recognice to things: bananas to eat, and money.
The money went straight up to the driver
Dancing elephant
Strong!
The elephant was an artist!
Painting by elephant
Massage á la elephant
Water show
Elephant throwing darts
And playing basketball
Since many tourists comes to Jeju island, all kinds of theme parks are growing like mushrooms there. The tour took us to one with miniatures of famous buildings. See how many places I have been to during just a half hour! Now I don't need to travel the world anymore...
The slanting tower of Pisa
Court house in Korea
Statue of liberty
A light house
London bridge
Statues from Chile
Journey of the west - a Chinese old and famous story, monkey king is in it!
Palace in Seoul
Eiffel tower and one of the gates in Seoul
The forbidden city in Beijing
The great wall of China
Ankorwat in Cambodia
Taj Mahal in India
Jesus in Brazil
Pyramids
At the end, was for us the most interesting exhibition - how Korea looked liked back in the 60s.
Cameras back in the time
Toys
Old classroom
Candy
The second theme park we went to was called illusionary park, giving you a chance to get some things off your bucket's list (the list of things you have to do before you die)
Fight with a bear
Find a treasure chest
Water a money tree
Walk with the famous
Rob a store
Feed...the hungry big mouth man?
Greet the Samsung boss
Or the Iphone inventor
Sky glide!
Pull a truck forward with your muscle strenght only. Go honey! You can do it!
My mother-in-law feeds me well, I grew so much!
Catch the cabbage
Ripping of Van Gogh's painting
Amazing Issac and his sidekick Spiderman
So strong!!
I'm pretty smart, teaching Einsten and other so called clever guys
Run!!
There was also an ice room, with statues of ice in there. And it was really cold to kept the ice from melting, especially when wearing summer clothes.But that didn't stop us from trying the ice slide!
The temperature difference was so big when coming outside from the ice room, my glasses instantly got completely foggy, and stayed like that for some minutes. Not even wiping them helped.
This was only half of the first day, but we took so many pictures so I will stop here from now and upload the rest later. Tomorrow it is the mid-autumn festival, a festival that could be called the East Asian Christmas. This is when the whole family and relatives gather together, eat food they have prepared and.. well, I will get to know the rest tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this update! :)
Going to Korea's furthest south
After we came back to Chungju, the city where Issac's parents are staying at, we rested only one day and then left for more adventures. This time we went furtherts south in Korea to the the Island called Jeju. We arrived there with airplane in the evening and stayed at a nice hostel called Art House. And artsy it was!
The English doesn't really make sense...?
To turn of the light, pull the animal.
This blog update was short, I'm still working on the pictures from Jeju island but more pictures will come soon!
Fourth day, Meeting friends and relatives
This day we had three appointments with people. First one to meet two friends of mine, one Swedish girl who now is studying as an exchange student in Korea, and one Korean girl whom I met when she studied abroad in Sweden.
One of my friends ordered a milk tea, consisting mostly of milk and almost no tea at all, but served in an interesting glass bottle
We shared a Taiwanese mango shaved ice with ice cream on top
Second appointment lunch was with the same Swedish girl from the morning and one of Issac's college friend from the States. We ate samgyopsal, the grilled pork belly I have showed pictures of before. And here is what was interesting about this table in the picture: it has a drawer with chopsticks, spoons and tissues fastened underneath the table so we easily can reach it without having it in the way when eating! And do you see the "call" buttom on the table? Now we were the only guests in the restuarant at that time so we didn't need to use it, but this buttom you can press instead of having to wave your hand and shout to get the waiter's attention. When pressing the buttom, it will silently let them know we want their help. (Maybe through a lamp being lit somewhere, I don't really know since we didn't get to try it). So nice though! All restaurant should get those, and in Sweden too!
After lunch we said good-bye to Issac's friend as he had another appointment, while we headed for the biggest underground shopping mall in Korea!
But the shopping mall was under renovation, so well we could get a feeling of how long it was by walking through it... but we did not get amazed, just tired of the long and plain walk
Only a few stores was open, like this one. Made by Jesus huh? Didn't know he was a fashion designer too!
Aquarium in the mall
And some cool buildings outside
As it was getting closer to dinner time, Issac and I headed to Incheon to meet Issac's oldest uncle and his family. By now, the rush hour had started, with people everywhere and the subways packed. The train we where catching was late, so a terrible amount of people had gathered on the station by the time it finally came. They rushed into the subway and kept pushing each other forward until there was no space left at all, no space at all to move, and hardely even space enough to breathe.... Never again taking a subway in rush hour!
I don't have any pictures from meeting the relatives (I thought that might make it even more awkward if I go all paparazzi with them too on the first meeting...). The relatives was nice though, treating me friendly and kindly. My Korean is really nothing to brag about, or even to mention. I could only understand a little bit, and it took a lot of concentration to just keep up with what topic they discussed. So although it was a bit tiring, I did enjoy the stay. With the first family we met, we went to a restaurant and ate Korean-Asian fusion dishes. We ate it traditionally too, using a traditional table that is very, very low while sitting on the floor. The food was alright, some dishes I liked, some dishes not so much. The family was a bit traditional too in the roles of the people. The husband, who was oldest, didn't say much and didn't do anything else than paying the food. The wife was as active in talking and keeping the conversation up as she was in the kitchen home arranging and fixing things. The daughter was 29 years old, but looked so much younger, and talked like a kid. And that leads me to probably the biggest culture shock here, altough I have heard about the Korean term "aegyo" and understood that girls wants to act cute. But young adults talking and acting like kids is very new for me. This is how the girls make themselves approachable here, a too strict and serious manner would be unfavorable for girls. While in Sweden, an adult (anytime above 15 years probably) talking like a kid wouldn't be taken seriously at all.
We slept over at the first family's house, and before we left in the morning they prepared big breakfast with many dishes for us. It was meat, noodles, soup, side dhishes and rice, so perhaps more like a proper lunch meal than breakfast in western standards. They gave me a dress too and wished to meet us again. Shortly after breakfast we left to travel back to and through Seoul to the other side to meet the second uncle, aunt and both their families. With them we had lunch (grilled duck) and had a nice time too. But they were many in total, and it was a bit hard for me to remember who was who. I recieved a flower bucket from someone, one of the girls I think, not sure...
Third day
This day was our rest day, after two days of intense seightseeing. We just walked around and did some shopping
We passed by a performance rehearsal, these guys are dancing Korean traditional dance
Scared me, all of sudden started to play drums right next to me!
Drum battle
This is also one of the traditional dances, he moving his head so the long white ribbon is flies around in circles
We could have stayed an waited for an hour to see the real performance when they wear the traditional clothes too, but we had more things we wanted to do. First, a visit to the first cathedral in Korea. On the way we saw many nuns belonging to this cathedral (I didn't take pictures of them though)
And now finally, time for a lunch. And not just any lunch, but a buffe place! This is why we have been eating at convenience stores latetly ;)
Different kinds of salads (western, lotus and bambu, sweet pumkin and mushroom salad) and sushi
Moving on to the Chinese fried meat (pork, chicken and shrimp), vegetable dishes like eggplant (in the middle) and western pasta (garlic spagetthi and carbonara)
So full... but I still had to try a little bit of the Korean meat (kalbi and samgyopsal) and Japanese tempura fried fish. The fish was so delicious!
I was so full by now, but I still had to try out the desserts! Blueberry ice cream, mocha cake, chocolate cookie, green tea cake, brownie, lemon cake, roll cake, raspberry cheese cake and cream puff. And on top of that, coffee. Perfect!
Second dessert - the Korean way. Patbingsu, or shaved ice with red breans, fruit and mochi (rice cake).
After this much food, we had to take a good walk to digest. One interesting thing about Korea, is that they are very, very concerned with beauty and skin products. So there are many stores selling skin products, and quite often guys are the model. In western countries it's usually only women in the commercials. This could be for two reasons, first of all, I'm sure many girls like buying products from the store their favorite actor or singer is promoting, and secondly, Korean guys are buying most beauty products in the world among men. This, however, doesn't mean everyone on the street are wearing make up, most of the buyers are probably the huge amount of actors and idols in the Korean entertainment industry. Still, many guys even on the street does care for their skin a bit at least.
While guys also caring about their skin could be positive, the Koreans are really too obsessed with beauty. Plastic surgery is in fact very common, and many girls (and some boys) are dreaming of creating a new face like this one on the picture. Instead of teaching the young people to accept and learn how to love themselves, they are constantly being told by media, TV, commercials and even people around if they are pretty or not so pretty. Doing a double eyelid surgery (creating a wrinkle right above the eye so it looks more western) is not even concidered a plastic surgery. It's just something almost every girl does. It's even not unusual that the parents pay for it. Even worse is that when it comes to changing the face, everyone wants to go for the same popular look, creating the word "Medical twins" because they all look the same.
This is a really interesting building, although I don't find it beautiful, it's is remarkable
So what about the shopping I mentioned before that we did? Well, we followed the trend of Korean (and Chinese too) couples and bought couple t-shirts! There weren't many that came in the right size for both of us, Issac even had to get the XL size! He has medium in American stores... Anyway, we found a funny one, with spelling mistakes too. What do you think? ;)
Hehe
Cute socks
And nice bags, one for him and one for me
Second day, National museum and the Korean-like Korean palace
As the title tells, we first went to the National museum. It had free entrance (yes!) and was very big, spacious and had exhibitions on three floors. But just the first floor about Korean history took us three-four hours to go through, including a short lunch break.
Namsam tower in the background
A statue with a turtle in the bottom and a luck-bringing dragon on the top
A crown made of gold, with the front part shaped like a deer horn. the historicans are not sure who used these kind of crown, if it was the royal family or someone great within the imperial palace or perhaps shamanists. It only exists 8 crowns like this in Korea, but these crowns have been found in Turkey too, sugesting some form of trading must have existed.
When trading was done with further western countries, it usually was through the "silk road". It is the middle line in the picture, going through China among others. The trading was done so far as to Rome!
Halfway through the history, we took a lunch break and went to the nearest convenience store. While we in Sweden can get a sandwhich at most for something to eat other than candies at the convenience stores, most of the convenience stores in Korea even sells lunch boxes and provides microwaves to heat the lunch up!
Back to the musem, here is the emperor's seat. I didn't take many pictures in the museum, wasn't sure of how interested you would be in it. After the musem visit, we went to one of the two biggest palaces in Seoul. Compared to the one we went to yesterday, that was heavily influenced of Chinese style, this one is more Korean in artchitecture and design. The main differences is that while the Chinese style has a lot of decorations and is very colourful, the Korean style is relatively simple. Also, the Korean roofs are even more bent, both at the middle of the roof and at the end.
The visit to the palace started with a tour to the secret garden behind the main buildings, and wasn't really a secret, but more of a secluded place for the emperor's family to enjoy.
This small house has two pillars in the water like a pair of human legs, symbolising us.
While the round island in the middle of the pond symbolises the earth. And the temple up high is heaven.
A gate made of stone in one piece, standing firm and therefore symbolising eternal life. The owman in the front is our guide, dressed in humble Korean traditional clothes.
A pagoda shaped as a fan
The emperor had a rice field in the secret garden so he could try out the life of a farmer.
These buildings have less decorations and no red colour like the others, to reflect the humble and restricted heart of the prince who devoted himself to studies.
A very old tree
The tour of the secret garden was now over, and we could freely walk around the main buildings of the palace
Japanese french pancakes...
Hoddok, Korean rice cake pancake with sweet filling
And a sweet rice drink.... had a very interesting but quite good taste
From the palace we went to a part of Seoul that still has traditional houses left. It's a residental area, so people are still living there.
On our way back to the hostel, we passed a market. Issac bought me Turkish ice cream that is very sticky and doesn't fall off!
And this is how the ice cream was served... I was just as fooled as the kid by the seller. "Here, catch the ice cream!"
"Eh? Were did it go? Did you drop it?"
"Oh! It's over there!"
"Oh no, you dropped it. It's right there on the ground, can't you see it?"
"Juuuust kidding, I was holding on to it. Here you go! Or not! Hah!"
Outside a chicken soup place...This chicken wasjust looked too funny.
That was it for the second day. I will try to upload more every day now so you can catch up with where we have travelled. Thank you for reading!
Back to Seoul
So we went back to Seoul to see more last week and here are the pictures.
First of all, people are very helpful, even looking up the directions on a map on their phone.
Cute donut
Getting a buzz thing that vibrates when your order is ready isn't anything new, but this was the first time I've seen one that has TV on it. Although they showed commercials only.
Of course, we had to come to Gangnam - the fanciest place to be at in Seoul. Yes, this is the place Psy was singing about in his song Gangnam Style that got so popular before.
Samsung here is so much more than just a phone company. Here is their head quarter.
The tv is taller than me!
Trying out the cameras by taking pictures of doll houses
Cutting the hair is cheaper in Korea than in Sweden, so we treated ourself to a visit to the British brand Toni&Guy. They were good, I had both the professional hair dresser and his assistant working on my hair. They liked my hair a lot, hehe. I gave the hair dresser some free hands on the front part of my hair, suggesting he can cut bangs if he thinks it will suit me. He didn't cut bangs, but he went for a model look and divided my hair on top of my head instead of on the side like I usually have it. I tried to keep the hair that way for one and a half day, then I got tired of the hair falling down infront of my face so I just put on the cap. You will see pictures of me below, but first, to keep it the pictures in chronological order, I will show you some pictures of the palace museum.
The painting that was hung behind the emperor.
Map of one of the palaces, how big it was before. Unfortunately, it was burnt down by the Japanese during their first invasion in 1592-1598. The palace was not restored until 19th century, and only the main parts was restored.
Shelf for traditional eastern medicin
Palace, the front gate
Guards changing time
The emperor's seat
"The blue house" - where the president lives. Did you know that Korea's president right now is a woman? Girl power!
This is a mythological creature in China and Korea called Haetae (or xiezhi in Chinese). It can tell good from bad and protects from fire, so they were put on each side of the front gate to stop bad people from coming in.
This is the front gate, guanghuamen, and it was also destroyed by the Japanese once.
The square infront of the palace.
And a ridiculous amont of police men!
The police was standing on each side of the staty of King Sejong - the king who (together with scientists) invented the Korean alphabet during the 15th century. Can you see the difference of the charactes on this stone, and the ones on the palace gates? The ones on the palace gates was Chinese, because for a long time Chinese was used by highly educated people while the Korean alphabet was used by poor and women.
On each side of the squares was long rows of police buses. What were they doing there?
Probably overlooking the protest going on. It was a protest against the (in the protester's eyes) weak measures of the government after the tragical ferry accident a few months ago. But... the protesters was so few, and the police so many! A little bit too much maybe? However, the police men were probably people doing their service in the military so they weren't getting paid anyways.
King Sejong was one of the two most important historical figures in Korean history. The second is General Lee who fought and won every battle(!) at the sea against the Japanese. He basically won because he had invented a "turtle ship" that the Japanese couldn't destroy.
Oh? Some one famous?
The politican of the opposite party who ran for the president seat but lost during last election.
This was a natural stream before, that was closed down before and then restored recently.
City hall
Old city hall in the front and the new one in the back
Interesting building!
Such a run-down old building, and interestingly located right next to a fancy sky scraper.
Old Seoul station
New Seoul station
A bigger amount of protesters for the same reason as before in front of the station
Lights on the road
Namsam tower
It is belived that if you hang a locker with your and your lover's name on it at the top of Namsam mountain, yur love will last forever.
So much love...
That was it for the first day! More pictures are coming.
One night in Seoul
We stayed one night in Seoul since there was more buses going to Seoul from the amusement park than back to our city. We will however, go to Seoul later on and stay there longer. This was just the appetizer! ;)
Night life in Seoul. The street is filled with restaurants, coffee shops, kareoke rooms and other stores, and this is not even near the center of the city. So nice!
More grilled meat at the table!
The subway system here is pretty cool. First off, they don't have huge barriers or doors like Stockholm. The passage is unblocked, and only gets blocked at your legs if you don't pay. Which leads to the second great thing, you can pay with your credit card by just simply putting your card on the censor. If you rather want a special bus card there of course is one could get, and that one works in whole Korea! NIIICEE! But, on the other hand, the subway map is just... ridiculus.
Doors preventing accidents and suicides.
This is the queue to the escalator when exiting the train station!! Whaaaaaatt.... To the stairs it was no queue at all! We took the stairs.
What is this fancy place? It is a jimjilbang! Korean sauna house! The Koreans really like these kind of places, and it's far more advanced than our sauna we are used to in Scandinavia.
Even the entrance is fancy....
So the sauna house is several of floors, and this is the main floor. Here people just gather on the floor and relax, hang outs, eat food, play games, talks and even sleeps. Yeah, sleeps just like that on the hard floor without any mattress. There are pillows though to borrow. On the same floor there is also gaming rooms filled with arcade games, and on the floors above there is swimming pools and hot springs divided between women and men because you are supposed to be stripped naked before bathing. So, if I wasn't standing out walking on the street in town, I sure was standing out inside this very Korean territory. Not understanding Korean well, being naked trying to figure out what I am supposed to do, I was the topic of two eldery Korean ladies, who didn't seem embarrassed at all staring at me.... For the saunas on the other hand, they were for both genders mixed, so special clothes had been handed out before hand. As you can see on the picture above, everyone is wearing the same clothes.
The warm saunas we all know how they are like. Hot or hotter. So I took only pictures of the...well... crazy ones. Like this ICE room.
And this Jade room. It was neither warm or cold, and I don't understand what's it's for. But it seems like I wasn't the only one, since the room was completely empty. Other rooms was the "green room" which was green with some plants and some ovens looking rooms for unbearable heat.
We bought Korean oat tea, served cold with ice.
We did try to sleep at the sauna house, like real Koreans. But really, sleeping on the floor... was just too much even for my Korean fiance. So we went to a Motel instead. On the way we passed by a subway concert, with a cheering audience.
Seoul in day light
A not really interesting place. It's not even a real palace, just copies to get more tourists. And tourists there was, for some reason I can't understand, so many Chinese people went there! Next time when we go to Seoul, we will have more time so we can see the real palaces!
Selling Korean traditional handicrafts
We just missed a show with archery...
Myeongdong - the most popular shopping area in Seoul
Super cold ice to either cool the products or to attract attention, I'm not sure for which reason they had it, but they did get attention.
Even though it was so warm weather, some people was dressed up in large animal suits doing commercial. They must have been close to fainting!
Dancing event to encourage people to donate blood
For lunch we had Japanese food. Issac ate schnitzel and I fried pork with mayo. Both bowls had fried rice underneath the meat.
Patbingsu! Shaved ice with fruits is very popular here, and not suprising at all with the heat they suffer from during the summer. We ordered shaved milk though, that was served with two rice cakes on top, and read beans on the side. The beans we put on top of the ice-milk and voila! It was good!
That was all from Seoul from this short trip. But we are going there soon again! I won't be able to blog while travelling though, but I will make sure to upload many pictures as soon as I come back again!
Everland
Everland is an amusement park outside Seoul, with a zoo and a few rides. There was many interesting animals there, and I have tons of pictures to show!
(The queue was sooo long, and we even got there before it opens!)
(The monkeys could be fed here, and as soon as someone came with food, they all rushed over!)
And now, for the very rare animal from China, THE MONKEY KING! He have been portrayed in many ways and are one of the most common charachter in traditional stories of China. Usually his characteristics is smart yet naughty monkey who is the king of his valley, and just loves to create trouble for the other gods. One of the animated movies for kids about this monkey king has been translated to Swedish and was my favorite movie as a child. So now you know, I was very, very, excited to see the actual monkeys!! I have never seen them before!
The baby! So cute!!!
Ugliest monkey of the zoo
Oldest looking, but most playful monkey of the zoo. I could hardely catch them on picture!!
Most bored monkey.... but she had a baby on her back!
How much orangutans eats per day compared to pig and humans. 25 kilos in total!!!
More monkey king photos!!
The show-off, he and his friend was very eager to get the attention by doing acrobatics!
Sloth...sleeping of course.
BATS!! So many of them! Iiiuuhhh!!
"What do you think you are doing, taking pictures of us? Go away!"
I have never seen this animal before, not even on tv!!
Squirrels
There were tunnels of nets above us for squirrels to run around in. this one was sleeping and not at all bothered by other squirrels jumping over him.
Aha! Timon! I have found you! Now were is Pumba?
Map of Habitants of The Lost Valley. Here we took a safari tour in a bus to see endangered animals from around the world.
The guide: "Now, the giraffes might come close but don't touch them ok?"
Very, very close!!
Cheetah. But only the head is visible from where it's hiding up on the rock.
And now another tour in another bus to see not endangerous animals, but DANGEROUS animals!
This is the king of the tigers! He never gets down from the hill (unless food is served) and no other tiger is allowed to come up either.
This is Korean tiger, the biggest tiger.
What animal is this? Not a natural one, but a liger. A mix between lion and tiger, artificially made by human scientists. These kind of experiments is not going on anymore, and this is the last liger in Korea.
Altough the tigers seemed agressive, the brown bears have been taught to do follow commands. "Sit!"
Stand!
Say hello!
Come over here!
Beg for the food!
Catch the food with your mouth!
Catch the food with your hands!
Jjiajiangmyon for lunch - noodles in bean stew
Love tunnel
Flume ride!
It's went upwards... and downwards! The boat was thrown into the water so that we got water on us!
Baby lion and baby tiger!!!!
T-express. The second most steepest and fourth tallest, sixth longest and ninth fastest roller coaster of wood in the world! And Issac made me go on it. I'll tell you, it was not fun. It was super crazy scary!!
there was a room for k-pop lovers, where you could take pictures of yourself and then they show it as holograms on the wall while teaching you the major dance move. When we got there they were having PSY theme. If I knew the picture was going to be shown on the wall, I might not have made that face.
Drama scenery
We went on a trip to a place called... It's not really a famous place, but it's a bit interesting because they build up a copy of one of the palaces in Seoul there. Why would they do that? To film tv-drama shows with historical background!! Korean tv-dramas are very popular here, and is getting more and more popular among young people (especially among girls) in Asia and even in Europe. For Koreans, the tv channels usually have dramas on the most popular viewing time, and for foreigners there are webpages on internet where fans have translated the dramas into different languages and uploaded them so they can be watched for free.
But first, on our way there, we passed by two museums. First one about Korean pottery, both traditional and modern.
Famous artists showing up their pottery on display.
Explaining how the pottery is made, from first to the final vase (the final vase is not in the picture)
A vase that have been formed and decorated, but not burnt yet in the oven.
Ovens where the pottery is being baked.
Korean most famous traditional pottery are green, coloured with something called celadon and then heated up intensively. The exact method of how they were made back in the times, however, are actually not known and today they still haven't figured it out. Yet, they are undoubtly good at making vases! (The one below is more of modern art)
It seems they have hold some kind of international competition in pottery making, because there was a display of different countries vases. And my mother in law found Sweden's contribution! Yeah, Sweden takes fancy in modern art....
Korean traditional clothes
Second museum was about confucian art and rituals.
The classroom with the teacher...
...and the students.
Memorial service of a teacher. In the back of the table is a grey tablet with the teacher's name, and in front food is placed as sacrifice. The students bow in front of the table and reads greetings, prayers etc. for him.
Temple sample
For lunch we hade kalbi, which is grilled pork belly (sidfläsk) and doenjang jigae - soybean paste stew. As always, the main dishes is served with small side dishes, and those are for free. This place was extra generous, 12 side dishes plus a scallion pancake!
So now we finally are at the drama scenery. Though the small historical looking town and palace here are fake, the place itself does have a historical background. It was through this mountain everyone back in the time had to pass through to go to Seoul when they were taking the examination tests. Those who wanted to become officials back in the times hade to pass an confician examination that included memorizing the long tests and poems of confucius and his disiplces, and different kinds of art such as callegrafi, horse riding, archery etc. For each examination, usually about 500 students would take them but only 32 would be accepted. Plus, not examinations was hold only once every fourth year! Imagine the pressure these students must have had, while walking on this road towards Seoul!
Cute bench!
Commercial about a wine made from a special berry, that even was offered to Obama when he visited Korea.
Some of the historical dramas that was filmed here.
Outdoor kitchen
Jars for storing kimchi etc.
The copy of the royal gate in Seoul
"Here, son, come and lay down here so I can show how punishments back in the times was done!"
No, this is not just a chair. It's the chair you sit in and get your arms broken with the poles behind you if you get caught doing something bad.
Oh, what is that? Cars? From a tv-channel!! And lots of people!!
OMG THEY ARE FILMING A DRAMA ON THE SPOT!! See that tall guy in green dress, white arms and black hat? He is dressed in Korean traditional clothes! Keep your eye open for a drama called "Secret gate", because you have just seen photos from where it is being filmed!
Issac's parents wanted us to dress up as the king and the queen from Joseon-dynasty. On my head I'm wearing a wig (that was really heavy and looks weird on me because it doesn't match with my blond hair). But the queen and higher up women used to have really long hair and have hairstyles like that.
This road is made for walking bare feet, the stones will feel like foot massage
Materials for the filming set, such as swords and spears!
Even though it was a cloudy day, the sun was still strong when we were facing where it was hidden behind the clouds.
Just a picture of a cafe there with a very cozy atmosphere, much thanks to the green view!
Oh! And here I just have to show you, just what that hole-in-the-ground toilet is! Yep, you just squat down here and do your business. The level in the front is how you flush it. Korea doesn't have these much anymore, just some left in public bathrooms for the older generation who haven't gotten used to our sitting-down toilet.
