gavin, our friend from vancouver who is currently on exchange in kyoto, came to visit us with his friend, payton.  yay new friends!  we brought them to everland, one of the three amusement parks in seoul.  ok, i’m not sure if it’s in seoul since it was an hour bus ride away…

here’s the entrance to everland.  definitely gave me a korean disney land feel.

group picture!  michael joined us too, he’s like a new addition to our family since he’ll be here for a while!

first ride up, the pirate ship.  i remember from the past that pirate ships (although not a scary ride), gives me the most motion sickness.  i was surprised that this one had no effect on me, partly because michael and i spent the whole ride laughing at a kid crying.  horrible, i know, but so darn funny.

this was everland’s version of it’s a small world.  the dolls were totally creepy.  not to mention that canada was no where to be found.  no, we do not live in igloos and we are not all lumberjacks… 

there was this one section that was super cool because it was 50’s themed with an american diner and everything.  this picture was meant to be for the roller coaster, but you can see a part of it on the right (along with sanger’s head).  i don’t know why i didn’t take more photos of the cool 50’s area.  

and of course, a classic car at a 50’s gas station calls for one of these.

the park had a bit of everything, even a beautiful roman-esque fountain.

and not to mention a lot of flowers.  but i took this photo for the wooden roller coaster, x-train.  apparently, it’s the fifth steepest wooden coaster in the world.  gave me a mini heart attack going in, but it was a ton of fun!  p.s. - stefan took off his shirt during the ride for the photo, and it was nicely bleeped out with “everland” all over his chest.  we were actually going to buy the photo!

the park also had a little holland area with authentic beer.

and along the lineup for the rides were some really cool backdrops.  this one was for the x-train.  they made it look like an expedition with old school blueprints of the roller coaster.

this is everland’s main attraction, the lost valley.  no, not the meerkats…  it’s a safari ride with a line up of 2 hours.  luckily, these animals were there to keep us company while we lined up.

and so we finally got into the bus.  if you saw the video, you can see how this bus can go down into water!  i was told that it was like a transformer; i thought it would actually make transforming sounds, but it was just a bus that rolled into water.  not exciting, but still impressive.

this is the closest i’ve ever been to a giraffe.  our tour guide fed it with veggies so it would come close to our bus.

there was a tent that said bug’s garden i believe.  we thought that it was literally a garden full of bugs, but it turned out to be a tent full of little budgies!  they even sold seeds so that the budgies would fly onto your hands.  so smart.

there were so many.  keep in mind, this is only one tree.  there were at least five.

to kill time during our line up for the lost valley, michael played psychology games with us.  i found a whole new meaning to giraffes.

and then sanger, ash, tk, and i shared 4 different pizzas.  they were surprisingly very delicious.  a great end to the day :).

friday was such an eventful day full of one of my favourites and unexpected surprises.

i’ve been dying to come to this place ever since ash told me about it.  so on friday, she took us to kwang jang market - a market selling wholesale items, fabric, and vintage clothing!

this is the ground floor of the market, just full of random shops.  kind of like any market you would see on the street.  to get to the “vintage” section, we had to walk up a a flight of stairs in a building.

i turned the corner and felt like i walked into heaven.  the shops were endless and adrenaline hit.  my arms and hands were ready to sift through those racks.  couldn’t help myself, i already purchased an item at the first booth (i hear a haul video coming up).  prices weren’t like value village thrift price, i guess they get a bit of a premium for calling it vintage.

see how the previous photo, all the clothes were nicely racked.  well ash said there’s a “grandma” section where she finds most of her gems.  this is where the real digging occurs.  it was actually quite tough to find good stuff here and i couldn’t find any pieces for myself. 

i spent most of my time here with the shoes and bags.  i did see some nice bags but pretty worn out.  asian people know their big houses so anything that is chanel or louis vuitton etc. are nicely hung on racks for people to pick instead of dig.  i really wish i could spend a full day here.  hopefully i’ll have a chance to come here again before i leave!

we then went to korea university where ting goes to.  there was a k-pop music festival going on.  it’s not really a seoul experience until you go to a k-pop concert!

i’m actually so jealous of the kids that go to this school.  they have so much school spirit and so much fun.  since snu is a public school, we don’t get any of this at all :(.  we got there at around 5pm and for a good 3 hours it was just KU kids and showcasing their school spirit.

and when the sun has set, all the k-pop stars come out.  this is kim bum-soo, an ajumma killer.  i didn’t take much photos, but we also saw a-pink, a girl pop group.

we were surprised with a very close-up fireworks show.  KU even has their own fireworks!!!!  i am so jelly.  it was a pretty good show.

then epik high came out.  i believe they’re one of the more popular k-pop artists out there.  i’m not sure if k-pop is the right category for them.  they were more (alternative) hip-hop.  i was surprised at how much i enjoyed it. last group up was 2ne1, a very hit girls group.  no photos, but you can watch their performance below!

we bumped into andras while we were waiting for stefan’s friend.  we then all proceeded to monkey beach, i bar/club with no cover!  we had to cab there because we just missed out last leg of the train since they close at midnight.  oh what a night i must say.  this was the only photo i had because my phone died :(.  

this is the photo mandy had.  and as you can see a full bottle of tequila in our hands (and ignore my face).  there’s a pole at the bar with a bell at the top of the ceiling.  if a girl was able to climb up that pole and ring the bell without any help, she receives a bottle of tequila.  mandy and i were the only girls in the group, so you guessed it, we spent the night with 2 free bottles of tequila.  that night was the birth of my alter ego, victoria.  

stefan found out about this master chef cooking competition from one of the clubs.  cooking is always a lot of fun, especially in a competition.  

mandy’s buddy invited her to a makgeolli gathering thing just before the cooking contest.  we shared a little over 2 bottles of makgeolli between the 4 of us.  downed it like a champ.

and 10 minutes later…

well here’s my #ootd for the makgeolli gathering and the cooking contest.  knew we were going to be outside so i opted for some cute doggy shorts with drawstrings.  fits in perfectly with the track backdrop. cooking meant messy so black was my pick and wore my toms cauz i don’t wanna have my toes chopped off!

and the cooking begins.  we asked to be in the same team, but was still lucky enough to meet a new friend.  this is sanjaa from mongolia!

there was a little challenge to determine which team got to pick the mystery box first.  there were several sandwiches of which only 1 was spicy.  other teams had to guess which team member got the spicy one and the team with the most correct guesses got to pick first.  we brought that one home no problem.

i think i effed up on this part.

i was expecting to make something awesome like tonkatsu, but instead, we got gimbap and rice cakes in hot sauce ==.

then we started cooking… kind of buzzed.  super dangerous, but super fun (and efficient not to mention).

we kinda messed up at the beginning because we didn’t follow instructions (always follow instructions kids!).  our hot sauce wasn’t thickening because we cooked the ddeokbokki separately, but obviously we needed to cook the rice cakes in the sauce so that it could thicken up from it.

and it turned out just perfect (in our opinion).  you would not believe how good we thought this dish was, we really couldn’t stop eating it.  we were sure that we were going to win this competition.  

but obviously, everything was just in our own imagination.  for the record, we were team #1.  count the stars yourself… haha.

the weather god has been kind to us and gave us some beautiful weather for the two full days that we were in busan.

our first stop was the haedong yonggung temple.  i think this is the first temple i’ve been to in korea.

this is my #ootd for a day near the water.  a vermillion jersey maxi with some circle sunnies.

some of the guys went out drinking the previous night so these were the only people who made out to the early temple visit.

everything here has a good scenic view.  the temple was right by the beach and it made look like it was located on an island.

there was a wishing fountain where people tried to throw their coins into the bowl that the statue is holding.  i was close; hit the turtle.

we went on the buddhist’s birthday holiday weekend so they were celebrating that with a ton of lanterns.

see what i mean by a beautiful day and beautiful scenery.

we went down to the base and took some photos seaside photos.

such a nice group photo with the water and the temple (stolen from stefan)!

we split up for lunch and met up at the haeundae beach.  i forgot to take a photo of the area because i was just too busy taking photos with people in swimsuits.  anyways, it was pretty interesting how this beach was just right in the middle of the city.  so literally 20 steps after you step off the sand, you’re pretty much at a crosswalk of a huge 6 lane street.

perfect opportunity for stefan to show off his… yea…

girls photo!  the water wasn’t as blue as the one at jeju island, but the water was bearable, even for me.  it tasted salty though…

we just pretty much took a lot of goofy bikini/swim trunk photos.

then we buried stefan in the sand.  

and he proceeded to dunk the girls in the water.  it wasn’t too unpleasant.  best part, i got some real nice beach waves!  then we played some frisbeeeeeeeeee.  that was fun; everything in the sand is fun :).

ending the beach off with a full group photo.  i’m so grateful these people are here with me :).

i heard busan is the place for young people to party, so obviously we would be out drinking for at least one of our nights.  you wouldn’t believe it, i wouldn’t believe it… we started drinking at 12:45am.

and proceeded to club fix at 2:30am.  usually, that’s when i leave a club…

as you can see from this photo, the night was fun, daring, and a little unexpected.  a huge club made it hard to find people.

by the time we left, it was a little after 6am.  it was weird walking out from a dark place to sunlight outside, and rain…  but what can i say, i’m only here with these awesome people once, might as well go all out!

last day here wasn’t too eventful because most of us were tired and we needed to catch a train at night.  so we all paid a visit to the shinsegae in busan, the largest department store in the world consisting of 14 stores, which included a golf course, a movie theatre, and a ton of shopping!

waking up to sunshine for our second day at busan.  

we started off the day with a trip to gamcheondong culture village.  first thing this place reminded me of - a colourful version of the slums of brazil.

here’s my #ootd for our exploration around town.  tribal silk pants with a plain white top and some brown ($5) loafers.

i was so amazed with this place.  it’s definitely at the top of my list for the places i’ve been to so far on this trip.  it’s got so much art, colour, and personality.  if i was disembodied into a village, this would be my village.

it was truly a beautiful day and the scenery is just spectacular.  just look at these amazing colours.

and nothing is like me without the quirkiness. 

girls shot at a random photo op!

and nothing completes the story without a korean temple.  the doors were locked so we weren’t sure if it was a tourist destination or not…

busan is also known for its fresh seafood.  so we paid a visit to the fish market for lunch.  oh yes, the smell is no different from any other fish market.  ground was all wet and water splashing everywhere from ajummas gutting fish.

here’s lunch!  a combo of 3 different fish.  honestly, i’ve had my fair share of korean sashimi already.  it tastes great, but all 3 fish tasted the same.  i was pretty much done with this after my… 10th piece maybe.  japanese sashimi is still the way to go.

after lunch, we went to the busan international film festival (biff).  the festival wasn’t on but this is where they hold it.  i guess off season, this area is just a tourist attraction.  there were soo many people, so crowded, we called this the myeong-dong of busan.

it’s a huge area with different shops, lots of food tents, and a wholesale market.

it was also a very short walk to yongdusan park.

where the busan tower is.

and another temple like area.

the busan tower was very reminiscent of the seoul tower with all the couple-y photo op areas.

the view from up top was surprisingly comparable or even nicer than the one in seoul.  you can see the sea port, the cultural village, along with the typical skyscrapers.

we just happened to be at the park when they were holding an international pole vault competition.

we saw people asking for her autograph.  we had no idea who she was so we embarrassingly asked, “are you famous?”  i thought she was an olympic champion, but she turned out to be the champion for the women’s pole vault competition. 

for dinner, we had a mandu (dumplings) that weren’t really mandu.  this was a pretty famous restaurant for what they do and i just sneaked in a picture of the lady making some of the dumplings.  she definitely knows what she’s doing.

they were pretty small dumplings.  i would say that this is the korean version of the chinese wonton noodle soup.  after that, we stopped by the megamart near our hostel and some of the guys bought ￦20,000 converse.  wish they had my size :(.  we went home early because we knew our next day will be jammed packed.  stay tuned!