Seoul Land

Terrible selfie brought to you by Budget Power Rangers

So, we've been to Everland and rated it, so this time we went to Seoul Land for Nick and Justin's joint birthday party, even despite the forecast for rain, because what could possibly be more dismally fun than a slightly creepy off-brand theme park in the pouring rain?

But first, I want to turn your attention to this:

This is human ingenuity at its finest.

I'm totally blown away by this. I'm not even kidding. I was so amazed. This, my friends, is basically the best snack invention ever. Why fumble around with a box of popcorn chicken in one hand and a paper cup of cola in the other? Why not combine them?

Basically, it's a specially designed cup that you fill with a drink of your choice, and then a tray of popcorn chicken slots in over the top, with just enough room for a straw to poke out. Bam. Problem solved. They even give you little sample sticks so you don't have to worry about getting your hands dirty (or your dirty hands on your food, whichever).

"Elephant Train" sounded a lot cuter and less ethical than it really was.

Seoul Land is in a huge area of Seoul Grand Park, along with a couple of zoos, a lake, an art museum and basically all kinds of cultural development and entertainment. Due to this, there's a little 'train' that drives around, similar to the ones you find at the beach (at home, anyway), to save you some time.

Quite possibly the most confusing sign if you can't read Korean. One is for the exit and one is for the entrance.

We bought tickets for the little train because, in addition to being lazy, it was also raining a lot and we didn't really want to be soaked before we even got there.

We also bought some cheapo ponchos from some entrepreneurial old ladies and ended up looking like some sort of superhero team. I'm not sure what we were fighting against. Soggy jeans?

Looks nothing like an elephant tbh

Actual and Post-Birthday Treats

So, to continue my boastful tirade of "look how wonderful my birthday was!", I'm writing this post. When I got home, after keeping things pretty secret (I didn't want much of a fuss) Nick presented me with a surprise birthday cake which was all kinds of airy cream and chocolate.

The strawberries on top were a sweet bonus, because I'd been growing a little strawberry plant for the past few weeks, and after finally getting it to sprout by placing it in the corridor...it vanished.

Either my Korean is terrible or nobody reads notes asking you to please kindly not steal my tiny little strawberry that could stand on a 50p piece. But either way, I was a little devastated and Nick convinced me it'd gone to bulk up and become part of my birthday celebrations. Dark.

Birthday cakes are pretty easy to find here for very reasonable prices and they're all far superior to the dry, cloying things you tend to pick up in supermarkets back home. They also have the added bonus of coming with candles, matches, and a little knife so you can celebrate anywhere and everywhere. Super cute.

We also joined Ziggy for samgyeopsal in the gogijip (it's literally called "Bupyeong Meat House") behind our apartment and found out that it's not only a great price but also really delicious! After gorging ourselves on pork and beef, we went to get some bubble tea and generally hang out for fun times. Thank you to you both~

Pre-Birthday Treats

In the ongoing series that is "My Birthday Celebrations", I will tell you about the weekend beforehand, where we went out for Korean BBQ (understandably the best thing ever and so my favourite thing to eat in Korea)

Nick and I went with Erin and Morgan and we basically had a bit of a food adventure around Hongdae. After a rather large amount of BBQ, and possibly the best I've had so far at this point in time, we headed off in search of something sweet. We grabbed some fruit Mochi, which I failed to take a photo of because we were too busy devouring it, but it was so soft and velvety and the filling of a chunk of fruit was far preferable to the usual red bean paste.

Then we decided to get something to drink, whereupon we were introduced to O'sulloc, the land of tea, tea and more tea. Everything is tea and nothing hurts.

I ordered a rather exotic sounding Tangerine tea that I think used various ingredients from the lush mystery island of Jeju. (I say mystery because I know barely anything about it other than it has Olles and it's very gorgeous)

The waitress placed the little lid on top, saying "Wait. 3 minutes. Enjoy happily."

And enjoy happily I did! It was great tea, with wonderful presentation, and a couple of little biscuits on the side that I am fairly sure were flavoured with tea. They might even have been traditional Korean tea biscuits in a bundle similar to that of the tea set we bought at the guesthouse in Fukuoka. They certainly go with herbal teas a lot better than a Rich Tea ;p

We also grabbed some (second) dessert. Nick had the Green Tea tiramisu on the left, and I had the monstrosity on the right. I'm pretty sure it was just called "roll cake" and there were a lot of interesting-sounding flavours but of course I had to go for the one that was simply named "black".

It looked like a car tyre full of ectoplasm, and when I tasted it...I was confused. The texture was really nice, but very different to what I was expecting. The green tea filling was just as expected, just the right amount of bitterness and...green-ness, but I couldn't work out what "black" was.

Turns out it was just very dark chocolate, hahaha. It was great!

We also got a little art card with each of our orders and I'll definitely be back for more tea!

차이나타운 | Chinatown: Nick's Birthday

Before we start, I guess TLDR: On the 11th of September, it was Nick's Birthday, and we celebrated by having some great food with a great family.

Nick is friends with his school's IT Technician, and they are the loveliest family, inviting us to dinner after moments of knowing him, and sharing their culture and language with us. We always have a great time together and spend a lot of time laughing, which is always good.

Aside from that, there's not much to say, really. We went to Chinatown, near Wolmido, and had a ton of incredible food - including 탕수육 (tangsuyuk), basically battered pork in a sweet yet very sour sauce - and went for a walk with the children. (I'll refer to them as T and H for a bit of safety)

They surprised Nick with a really great birthday cake, complete with 23 candles. Okay, 5, but that's because in Korea they're a lot more sensible with candle distribution on cakes. They have long ones to represent tens, and short ones to represent units. So much better than a cake collapsing under the combined weight of the crippling passage of time.

Or something.

Anyway, as is always the case with children and birthday cakes, there was some disagreement as to who should be blowing out the candles. I think T won several times.

N: "But it's MY cake!" T: "I don't care. I'm adorable."

The rivalry crackling behind those smiles is pretty intense.

We had a whole group photo afterwards, which I feel we don't get enough of at these events, and I ruined this wonderful one by blinking:

So here's one that's just as nice.

After eating enough to feed a small country we decided to walk it off. Nearby there's a famous little photo spot with some giant Chinese food you can take photos with.

The most aegyo siopao bun you've ever seen.

The walk got a little more intense because we decided to climb a mountain. I'm not sure it was the best idea but it was pretty at the time and we didn't have much choice once T had run about 2 miles ahead of us. Where does he get all that energy from??

King T, looking very much at home on his makeshift throne. (Or, as I've just noticed, floating a few feet above it.)

Understandably, the decorations in this area are all very distinctly Chinese style, and it's interesting to see the differences in architecture and decoration.

We stumbled upon a little performance going on, with a little girl singing Trot songs, some magicians, and a troupe of young Taekwondo students. It was all very fun (so much that I forgot to take any more photos) until H started trying to play with a dog that wasn't having any of this 'petting' lark, and a man looked like he was trying to steal him Pied Piper-like with his harmonica. Erm.

ANYWAY. Thank you very much 진호씨 and family. It's always a pleasure~