➹ gwanghwamun summer night memories

Summer nights in Seoul are simply glorious moments. The temperature goes down and beautiful lights are turned on. It's the perfect time to sit back, enjoy the view and the occasional cool breeze and finally take a rest from fanning yourself all day! ^^




It's nice to wait for sundown at Cheonggye Plaza and Gwanghwamun Square. I've talked about an afternoon spent musing about life's ironies at Cheonggyecheon before. You can just imagine how fond I am of this place now that I can't help but mention it again while reminiscing Seoul summer sunsets.

Because I didn't know the exact time for sunset, I waited for some time at the Cheonggyecheon stream. Next time, I would gladly consult the timeanddate website hehehe... Or not~ It's so nice just to hang around the Cheonggye Plaza that it became dark almost before I realized it.

Crossing over to the Gwanghwamun Plaza, I was greeted by the delightful shrieks of young fountain enthusiasts. The brilliant fountain lights just bring out the kid in everyone haha! There is definitely a different vibe in the area at nightfall with all the kids playing and laughing in the water.







I was definitely reluctant to head home... But the thought of a nice relaxing shower after a humid summer day was as equally enticing as these beautiful lights. And quite frankly, I was getting too envious of the refreshing laughter of those kids having a blast at the fountains! Indeed, summer is for those with a guiltless license to be drenched and carefree. It's a season to not think nor care about consequences ^^.

➹ picturesque everland

I've been looking at our old Everland pictures since I learned that May 11 – June 17, 2012 is Everland's Rose Festival! How I wish I can be there to witness it now. My Everland pictures didn't have any roses on them but they're still a lovely set of memories I'm forever fond of.











I have always been a fan of parades ^^.







The safari tour was in Korean so we didn't understand everything the guide was saying. We didn't need to anyway hahaha, the animals were all too captivating!









Remember that Protect the Boss scene where Cha Jiheon was asking the Board members this question~ what do they think is their theme park's major competition? It's not other theme parks but smart phones, game consoles and the internet! That was brilliant and true! I especially like the part where they wanted to collect netizens' precious theme park memories since most (if not everyone) would have one.

I myself, can compare my complicated love-hate relationship with my smart phone, internet and other electronic consoles with my precious theme park memories! Spending a day out playing like a kid and not getting judged (too much) for it is just priceless and rare. Good thing South Korea has tons of theme park options so that I can always have that theme park day in my itinerary.




There's so much of Everland that I haven't seen yet! How I long to go back on a charming autumn day and finally see that Pororo 3D attraction we missed last time.

➹ what to eat at lotteria?

It's interesting how local fastfood has become characteristic of a destination. It isn't at all weird to find local burger joints on a traveler's itinerary aside from the default streetfood adventures or traditional cuisine experiences. And it is (should be) 100% understandable to see foreigners taking pictures of french fries and softdrinks ~ much in the same way that it is ok for foreigners to take souvenir photos on subway stations hahaha. Hence, when you go to Seoul or anywhere in Korea, dining in Lotteria is as authentic an experience which warrants a facebook update as it is visiting a Joseon palace!



I first tried Lotteria from a small branch near Daejeon KTX station. I didn't do my research at that time so I was not sure what to order. The extensive menu is quite intimidating! For sure, they had more options than a Korean Burger King or Mcdonalds. I think I played it safe then (ignorance begets extreme caution) and just ordered a regular burger, fries and strawberry ice cream sundae for lunch. Everything tasted ok, nothing really extraordinary. I wasn't too keen on eating there again but then I heard from a friend that their Shrimp Burger is really really good …

So I had to try it out on my succeeding trips. And true enough, the Shrimp Burger warrants its own close-up picture like this.




Because I am neither a burger nor a sandwich aficionado, I can't say much about the Shrimp Burger except that it does really taste different in a really good way haha^^. My only memory of a shrimp sandwich was that from Wendy's (i think) but it was quite a long time ago. Lotteria's shrimp version is much tastier and much more memorable. The set which comes with fries and a drink is definitely a LOT filling!

My friend and I also wanted to try Patbingsoo 팥빙수 from Lotteria. So I tried to order it by saying the English name on the menu which reads "Red Bean Sherbet". But the staff didn't understand me until I pointed out the dessert from the menu ... at which she exclaimed "아! 팥빙수야!ㅋㅋ". That's when I gave up trying to be such an ignorant foreigner hahah! We ordered the fruit variety and the original one...






... not knowing how huge the servings were! This is a dish for sharing! But the cool dessert was also really good so we managed to finish out at least half of our bowls in the end.

The last time we dined at Lotteria, they also had coffee selections which were so very tempting! I imagine that a nice hot cup would go well with their cheese sticks which are also too yummy! We should come back for those just for the heck of it ~

➹ teddy bear overload at n seoul tower

It was 2009 when I visited the Teddy Bear Museum at Namsan. That was our first day of vacation in Seoul and my first time at N Seoul Tower so I wanted to experience everything the place has to offer. I didn't want to pass up the chance to explore the museum especially since there were 2 huge teddy bears displayed just on the entrance to the tower itself!



I didn't know it then but we apparently visited when the museum was just a few months old. The Korea Tourism site reports that the museum was opened last 2008 and is the 3rd of its kind in Korea following those in Jeju and Paju Heyri. Ticket for the museum only is at KRW8,000 for adults. But we bought the ticket package worth KRW14,000 which includes the Teddy Bear Museum and the N Seoul Tower Observatory.

We went up the Observatory first since it was almost sundown after we bought our tickets. We wanted to see the view before it gets dark and then wait a while to also check out how the scene is with all the lights nicely lit. We probably went down to the Teddy Bear museum at around 7PM-8PM? Plenty of time to immerse ourselves in Teddy Bear heaven before it closes at 10PM.

I didn't research about the place so I didn't know what to expect at the museum. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised to see the historic theme of the exhibit with all the teddy bears decked in Korean traditional hanbok! The thing is, we actually did the self-guided palace tour in Changdeokgung earlier that day so seeing the overwhelmingly cute teddy bears in their palace setting was just too crazy cute and nostalgic.



There was only a small group of female highschool students with us at the museum at that time. We lost them at some point ~ didn't know if they got ahead of us or if we left them behind. So we were able to take as much pictures as we want and ogle as much as we can at the cute bears! The displays were complete with motion sensors so that music will start playing and some bears will start moving when we approach an exhibit. This was perfect since we almost had the museum to ourselves so it really felt like the displays were being set into gear for us!

If you watch saeguk drama's, you can certainly appreciate some of the scenes depicted by the teddy bear exhibits ^^! Each section tells of Seoul's history from the Joseon Dynasty. Everything was extravagantly laid out and each teddy bear had a role and a scene all on his own. Even the miniscule details on the exhibits were really crafted well. We couldn't decide if we should be taking pictures of the entire exhibit or focus on specific bears!






We spent a long time at the at the first Gallery not knowing what's in store for us on the next one. I think we even deliberated if we still wanted to check it out (probably got a bit too overwhelmed by tons of bears!) or go grab dinner haha. Good thing we did head on over to Gallery 2 (which had a separate entrance I believe).

I was ecstatic seeing what was on Gallery 2! It was like the teddy bears got hold of our Seoul itinerary and decided to give us a preview of our vacation on our first nightㅋㅋㅋ. It was literally a teddy bear version of a Seoul vacation guidebook: Everland, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, Insadong, Cheonggyecheon, Hongdae, and even the Blue House had their spots in the museum. Famous shows like Nanta and B-boy and even a scene during a world cup match were all depicted perfectly! How fun would it be if the displays were also laid out as a scaled down map so we can pretend to visit the places or maybe re-enact a previous trip? Haha, just a thought.










At the end of Gallery 2, there were more bears but they were not necessarily Seoul-related anymore. It was an interesting sight to see the evolution of this cuddly toy but I admit that the grandeur of the previous exhibits made this set seem too simple. There was also this multimedia section where you stand at a spot on a bluescreen and gets to be in a CGI scene with bears. Soo cute.

When we got to the souvenir shop, we almost couldn't stand to see another bear anymore ㅋㅋㅋ! I guess we reached our teddy bear limit for that day.

We had tons of fun at that museum and we were so psyched to execute the rest of our Seoul itinerary. It was definitely worth the ticket. If I ever get to Jeju or Paju, I would love to check out their versions of the Teddy Bear museum too.