Mary & Heidi in Korea - Palaces, Museums, Amusement Parks, and more Edition

Finally, Mary and Heidi came to Korea~

Hi Everyone~ This week's blog will be on my sisters' visit to Korea and their time here with me~ We stayed together in the same place so it was easy to be together and hang out. Through out their trip we went to the palaces, museums, Lotte World, went to the Gangnam K-pop Star Road and saw Cube Ent, JYP, and the back side of FNC, and ate so many food! They also got to experience snow in Seoul, too~ It was great seeing them again after 5 months. Thanks to my friends who also welcomed and showed them around :] You guys are the best!!!

On the first night here, we went to eat Ddak galbi (딹갈비) with Debbie and Shena.

The steam only came towards my direction...

Afterwards, we went to eat at Ssulbing and got their Strawberry Bingsoo cake (which is very delicious).

The next day, I took them around City Hall where they went to their first palace, Deoksugung palace. I think some of the picture may be blurry due to my camera having a hard time focusing. I think that the lens is broken now :[

They are having their first look at the Korean vending machines in which they've only seen in dramas. They bought nothing to drink in the end...

Even though it was my second time visiting here, I'm still like looking at the buildings.

After finishing the palace, we walked down to Cheonggyecheon stream where the Christmas decorations were still 

  

After looking at the Kyobo bookstore and buying some books, we went to take a look at the statues of Admiral Yi Sun Shin and King Sejong the Great. Afterwards, we went down to see the museums dedicated to each of them located under the statue of King Sejong.

We planned to go to the palace but since I was wearing boots that day with a small heel, my feet were killing me and the girls were tired too so we headed back to Sinchon. Never wear heels here unless you can walked around the whole day with them. I learned the hard way...

For dinner, we were planning to eat at the Shabu Shabu place in Hongdae that Shena recommended but ended up eating all you can eat BBQ down the street for dinner instead due to the 2 hour wait time at the Shabu Shabu place.

We still had a delicious dinner even if it wasn't Shabu Shabu~ After dinner, Sam left for her tutoring~

Since Minamo and Debbie didn't eat dinner with us (they ate ramen earlier in the day and was still full), we made a stop at the Ahjumma's Deokbokki stand that we always go to and had more food there.

We also tried Cheese Hoddeok for the first time. It was too cheesy for me so I don't think I'll be eating it a second time.

For dessert, we went to the cafe call "A to Z Cafe" and ordered some drinks~ Here are the Blueberry drinks and the Strawberry drink. 

On this plate, we got Peach Crush (?), Grapefruit Ade, and Oreo Milkshake.

On another day, we made another visit to Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) since the last time we didn't actually go into the palace and just visited the Plaza (take a look at my previous post about Gyeongbokgung if you haven't). I don't think I'll get tired of Palaces :]

After entering Gwanhwamun, across from the ticket counter, there is a free-entry museum that we went into. They had a new section for the Portrait of Kings. The rest of the museum was still the same as when I went a few months back.

The pond had started to freeze but not completely yet. It was still beautiful though.

We also went into The National Folk Museum of Korea. This time, I was able to explore the opposite side of the museum that I could the previous time I came during the Yonsei tour back in August. This is the food history section of the museum.

They all look so real and delicious~

After walking around for a few hours, we went to eat lunch at a nearby Kalguksu (칼국수) Restaurant near the Palace. It was delicious! The mandu are made near the door and are really big :]

Manduuuuuu!!!

We also stopped at Chocobruni to eat a favorite of mines that Debbie got for me in Hongdae. This branch is located near the Palace too and is vanilla ice cream with chocolate and salt on the outside and caramel on the inside.

I also showed them around Bukchon Hanok Village~

We also walked over to Insadong where they bought so much backpacks that it can be used for each of the children in our home. LOL. Not really but they did go all out :]

Since we were tired from all the walking, I ordered some food that they always wanted to try. I got some black bean noodles (짜장면), sweet and sour port (탕수육), fried dumplings, and then we got some steamed dumplings as service! We were so full form all of the food~

The following day, we made our way to Lotte World in Jamsil.

Making our way up to the attractions~

This is the inside view of the park~

We waited in line for about a little over an hour for the hot air balloon ride that went around the inside of the park.

This a shot from the ride showing the ice rank and some of the attractions.

After waiting for the roller coaster ride for another 2 hours, we finally went to take a look outside.

This was taken after our ride from the Gyro Drop! It was fun but scary at the same time that I closed my eyes on the way down and scream the whole way down too. I'd love to ride it again though. We waited in line for about 30 minutes for the Haunted House 3D ride. We were watching a video with 3D glasses from a cat's point of view. It was interesting but not scary. If you want to see a cat wandering around a haunted house and a graveyard, you can watch but I wouldn't go on it again...

For our final ride, we went onto the Gyro Swing. It was so cold but was worth it :]

This was our last shot together before leaving the park~

We made a stop at The Dongdaemun Plaza to take a look at the LED flowers before making a transfer over to Myeongdong for dinner.

They wanted to try Army Base Stew/ budae jjigae (부대찌개) so I searched randomly while walking in Myeongdong and decided to eat at this place. It was really good too.

Mary ordered a Spicy Korean Noodle/ bibim naengmyun (비빔 냉면). It was spicy but delicious. 

We ordered a set with the stew and got this beef patty~

We also got some ice cream. I finally got to eat the honey comb ice cream but I think I'll eat the syrup one next time instead of the honey comb one since it keeps getting stuck in my teeth. The syrup tasted really good too.

Mary really liked the squid fish cakes. They were really good though :]

We also visited the National Museum of Korea. I finally made it to the 3rd floor and was able to explore the place all over again.

They look so interested in the model~ 

After exploring the museum, we made our back to Sinchon to meet up with Shena for dinner

We only had to wait for less than an hour so we finally had the Shabui Shabu that Shena wanted to eat.

Shabu Shabu!!

We also got some Green Tea ice cream. I thought it would taste too strong of green tea but it wasn't so I enjoyed it.

The following day, we went to Changdeokgung Palace.

Haha! They're the best!

We were waiting for the Tour to the Secret Garden~

The pond was frozen!!!

The stream was also frozen!

It was sunny during the morning but it started snowing a bit later.

These girls, strangers, totally photo-bombed our photo!

I tried taking the same scene that I had previously. This time, it's not autumn but winter now.

I took them to eat Potato/Pork bone Stew. It was located down the street from Changdeokgung. I just randomly picked a restaurant since I didn't know any that was in the area. It turned out to be really good and with lots of meat!

These dumplings were also very good. Mary wanted another serving but I told her to say it herself. She didn't say it so she didn't get any more to eat :] But we were stuffed with eating the stew.

This is how it looks when the bring out the dish. It would then be boiled on a stove in front of you. If you're very hungry, it would be best to get a single portion one where it is already boiling hot so you don't have to wait for the whole pot to come to a boil while staring at it.

They had some potatoes, kimchi, mushrooms, hand torn noodles, and other veges that were inside of the soup.

Before going into the restaurant, it had already stopped snowing. While we were eating, it started to snow again and for a longer amount of time.

EXO ♡
We made our way down to Gangnam K-Star Road and took lots of pictures with the K-pop bears. Since Heidi and Mary aren't sending me any of their photos, I don't have that much photos of this place. Heidi took pictures of all the bears and some of the companies that we went passed.

FT Island!!! ♡

2PM!! ♡

The following day Heidi and I made our way to Everland without Mary since she had enough waiting time at Lotte World and didn't want to go on anymore rides.

This day was kind of a let down since most of the rides were shut down or not in operation due to the weather. The main roller coaster ride that we were wanting to ride was shut down. After waiting an hour then coming back after eating brunch, the ride was still wasn't opened so we decided to walk around instead. Smaller rides and kid rides were the only ones opened. We were able to ride the smaller roller coaster and the ride across from it. Those were really fun though. After spending the whole day there, somehow, we made our way back to Sinchon so that I can have her try Curry Udon.

WELL..... they gave us the wrong order so we ate regular rice curry instead of curry udon. Mines was too spicy even though I usually order level 2 spicyness.... It didn't turn out to be a good dinner experience for me... I liked that it started snowing while we were eating and we had a window seat too, so that part I enjoyed.

We also ordered some cream cheese croquette that were delicious~

I really enjoyed going all over again to the places I've gone with my sisters and my friends. It was also very fun exploring new places with them too. Exploring for 2 weeks straight, everyday, was also very tiring for me. I usually only go as long as a few days when going out. So, sleeping for fewer hours and waking up earlier than I was used to made it harder. But, it was totally worth it in the end.

Thank you for reading!

The next post will be on our trip to Namsan Hanok Village and Namsan Tower~

♡ Christina