Day 3: Everland

Starting this post with so many photos irrelevant to the title. Because I didn't really take many photos in Everland. Was too busy queuing for the rides. More about the rides later. 

Everyday we start the day by visiting this bakery near our guesthouse. Their pastries and breads are freshly baked daily. They even have a kitchen inside. Don't know if this is just a small shop or a franchise because it's a quaint little bakery, like a family business or something like that. Not very cheap either but once I step inside I just feel like buying so many of their stuff. And they even have some samples of bread and cakes for people to try before buying. I bought a small light cheesecake for about S$5. Which I normally wouldn't have in Singapore but I did. My mum called me crazy but I just liked it. Haha. And as with Koreans and their 서비스 (service?), when you buy quite a lot, say more than $10, they give you something for free. Like a pastry or something. Okay this is turning into something like an advertisement because I can go on and on about it. Anyway it's very nice. If I ever live in Hongdae again I'll definitely visit the shop again. And the ajumma in the shop understood me when I spoke to her in Korean, which made me quite happy. Haha cheap thrills. Purposely enlarged this photo because the bread looks so nice. Maybe just in my opinion>< Disclaimer first. 

So we had to travel to Gangnam to take a bus to Everland. I think travel times in Korea was quite long because of the distance but generally it didn't feel too long, either because I wasn't paying attention or not in a rush or maybe the trains travel quite fast. It was quite a long walk to the bus stop because we didn't exactly know where the bus stop was. I would say we were just hoping to find the bus stop. Got distracted by this poster of Micky. It's for a cafe when I initially thought it was for jeans. Such a -.- moment right. In Korea I just kept stopping and taking photos of advertisements, that the Koreans must find me weird because they get to see it everyday. But nevermind the weird stares. Hahaha. We were quite lucky to get a seat on the bus to Everland, because it was so coincidentally a public holiday in Korea. The bus was filled with couples of my age or younger. And they had to stand all the way there. And speaking of public holiday, I think they had a 50% off the Everland ticket on that day, just happened to see one of the tickets a guy was holding there. And we only got a 20% tourist discount. Just felt a little sad that we paid more. And we had to squeeze with the crowds and queue for so long just to take a ride. Haha I sound like such an auntie. 

Okay so the entrance of Everland! That's my brother in front with his new backpack from dongdaemun. Everland is like a world on it's own. Something like Movie world. Just more fairytale like. I felt happier just stepping into it. I guess that's the way theme parks make you feel. Forgetting everything in this world and stepping into another. Though a little old for these fantasies and fairytales, I liked it. And the weather was quite cooling, like natural air con as I always say. Didn't even feel warm or sweat in my long sleeved knitwear.

A photo with pororo! I got to know pororo from Running man. Quite weird right! When pororo is a cartoon character from a show for kids. It's still very cute. Suxian took the same photo last year. So I think this standee must be a permanent fixture there.(:

Inside the theatre or something for the 3D show. The show was entirely in Korean and meant for kids and I managed to understand about 80% of the conversation. Haha Korean still fail. Afterall, I only completed the beginner's level. Everland is really big, it even has a zoo part which we didn't really look at. The map of everland that they provided was quite comprehensive as well. They suggest routes for you depending on what you want such as indoor attractions, exciting zoo, thrilling time. But we didn't follow any because the queues were too long and it was rather crowded. And it drizzled quite a few times. Luckily it wasn't the pouring kind, just intermittent rain.

Thought this tree looked like the kind you see in fairytale movies. There were many people taking photos at the tree trunk itself. I think there were swings at the tree trunk.

Tried to attempt an artistic shot of this ferris wheel. It looks like the kind you see at the pasar malam and many kids would want to ride this. Wanted to take this but sadly it has been 'retired'. Looks very vintage, I feel. And I made the mistake of not packing a single pair of shoes, so I ended up wearing my birkenstocks there. Couldn't take a single ride that threatens to fling my shoe off, which was quite sad because the rides looked really fun.

They have these travelators for the uphill journey, for lazy people like me and for old people who can't really walk uphill. Though I can't understand why people say walking down is more damaging for the knees. And then they refuse to walk uphill because it  uses up too much energy. So what do people want to do? Since they don't want to walk upwards or downwards. Just walk on flat ground? Just a random thought.

Lunch was at the western restaurant. Even at the western restaurant I insisted on having something 'Korean'. So I picked bulgogi pasta with cheese. Kind of cheated by the bulgogi. Because it was just small beef pieces. Still tasted nice though! I love anything with cheese and bulgogi!

I think we took a grand total of 7 rides the entire time we were there. Most of the time was spent queuing for the 2 rollercoasters, the rolling x train and the T express. It was the first time my brother had so much patience in queuing. It was really quite funny. Because the T express, it seemed to me, was the most popular ride in Everland. When we started queuing, the estimated waiting time was 1 hour and 30 minutes. So I kind of braced myself for the long wait. But the wait got longer and longer because of the rain, so they had to stop the ride for a few times. And because we were queuing in the open air with no shelter, I used the brochure that I was holding as a makeshift umbrella. It was quite a comical sight looking at the staff wearing a raincoat and making an announcement through a loudhailer to all of us queuing for the T express, trying to promote the purchase of the Q pass I suppose, a ticket which allows you to cut the queue. Because I couldn't understand a single thing he said, so we could only guess. At first many left the queue, I think to buy the Q pass, and the queue got shorter, much to our delight. But after a while, no one left already. And after that we sought self entertainment from other people queuing in front and behind us. Many couples in couple wear. Not couple tees, it was practically a animal suit. Which was rather cute and you would hardly see that in Singapore. And then there was this couple, and the girl was asking the guy to keep a promise. I was translating for my brother. One of the benefits of knowing the language. You get to accidentally overhear others, lol. So yes, keeping a promise. And the promise turned out to be the guy having to carry her! Like out in the open. So the guy tried to, or rather, the girl just jumped onto him leaving him with no choice. But I guess he had no strength to carry her, he kept saying he couldn't. Which was quite funny. And then we noticed other things like how thick a girl's bb cream was and other nonsensical stuff. There was a good looking guy who looked like a mix of yunho and jaejoong with blonde/golden hair. But not as tall as them of course. It was a really really long wait. I think we queued for about 2 and a half hours, just for the ride on the world's first wooden roller coaster. I must say it was indeed very thrilling. For someone who doesn't take rollercoasters often, this was really the 최강(max)! I didn't even notice there was the 360 degrees turn until I was on the rollercoaster. Kept my eyes closed throughout but I still screamed my lungs out, which was quite a waste right? During the ride I felt this inexplicable feeling in my heart. Though I said it felt like my heart was going to fall out, it wasn't really like it. I felt when the rollercoaster goes down or when it went in circles, or maybe it's just a force. Just can't explain it. But I learnt that it was due to the g-force. Which is quite interesting to know. The rolling x train wasn't as scary as the T express, but still it was scary.

You can see the T express in this photo. It's in the background. And check out the 2 people running from the rain. You can see the momentum. But this was just a random shot. Haha!

With my brother on the cable car, or is it called the skyway? Haha I don't have fantastic memory. I have the brochure in front of me now to refer to the names of the rides. Always wanted to ride on this even since I watched we got married and the Adam couple took something like this at the ski resort. Glad I got to experience it^^

We took it down, and it was only a one-way ride):

Another photo of the T express! Rather proud of myself because my mum proclaimed it a waste of money to visit these theme parks since 'I don't dare to take rollercoaster rides'.

This mystery mansion was quite fun. It was just a shooting game. Competition among my mum, my brothers and I. The game result was shown at the end of the ride, which I didn't expect at all. And obviously I'm no pro shooter><

Ice cream which was pretty good but melted very fast.

Kiwi Ice which tasted quite blah. Just shaved ice and syrup. As usual, food stuff is always overpriced. I think this cost about S$3.

These buildings remind me of petite France, which is at Jeju Island. Excuse the random people in the photo.

Trying to capture the buildings. And I realised that some 'buildings' were just boards or paintings. Like those at the background of this picture or rather, those at the back. Quite disappointed when I realised it, but at least I realised it when I was leaving.

Another shot with pororo and friends!

Hongdae for dinner again. It was at frypan chicken. Tried my first glass of beer with fried chicken and the combination is so good. Though that doesn't mean I'm going to drink beer often. We patronised this shop quite often, but this was the only time we ate at the restaurant. The rest of the time we ordered take-out and went back to the guesthouse to eat it.

The potato is really good. Tasted like potato chips though it's really fried potato. They had different sauces to go with the chicken but I just ate them as it was.

My cup of beer, which was quite cheap. I think this cost 2800 won, which is about S$3. Don't really know the prices of alcohol here but it tasted quite nice. The thing is I don't even know what brand this beer is from. -.-

Gangnam train station had quite a number of shops with stuff I liked, but didn't get the chance to walk around  and shop because it was already late and the brothers wanted to have fried chicken for dinner so we headed back to Hongdae. Next time perhaps!