Travel Stories: Eolmaeyo? Seoul, South Korea (Day 2)

The next few days were a mere whirl in my head. I couldn't really remember the events in their actual sequence. One minute we were on a bus to Everland Theme Park, the next we were already waiting at the airport for our flight home.

Blame it on the chilly breeze. This, plus the lack of sleep had taken its toll on me beginning day 2. I was freezing, suffering a severely throbbing head, and fighting the urge to vomit while on the bus. But still, the fact that I'm on a tour in Korea made me forget the possibility that I might have caught a fatal disease (lol, O.A.). I felt okay at least, during the times when we were outside the bus basking in the snow.

My first snow ball! Photo cr. Star

Yes, it snowed! (nice segue there, huh?) Peter, our tour guide, told us about it the day before. I think he intended for it as a warning, but we were actually more excited than worried to experience snow. And Korea didn't disappoint. While having breakfast at the hotel, we glanced outside the window to see actual snow falling like little cottonballs. Yey! But it was only for a short while though. When we went outside it was sunny again. Bummer. We took pictures of the small white piles around us instead. For proof when we brag about it when we get home. Haha

Day 2 was for Everland Theme Park and for shopping at Dongdaemun. Everland was big. And it had a safari zoo where they had tigers, giraffes, grizzly bears, and Ligers. What are Ligers, you ask? Well a liger's just a cross-breed of a lion and a tiger. Both feline species are living together in the safari, and you know what happens when you live with someone for so long. *wink* Ligers really just look like lions but with faint shades of black on their fur. If you didn't know about them, one could just pass off as an ordinary lion. 

Gloomy day to go to a theme park

Balot na balot

Pao and jedi. Super nice autumn colors in the background

Peter's call time was 4PM, so we hurried to get on at least one of the crazy rides before we ran to the meeting place. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY. The last time I saw that kind of wild ride was at the Nickelodeon theme park at Gold Coast, AU. But I didn't get to experience the ride since my father pulled me out of the queue before I could get on it.  This time, I'm ready. To give you some perspective, it goes around in a circle vertically (?), while spinning you around. Kind of how the earth rotates while revolving around the sun. It spinned me so many times that I pondered about why I got on that ride in the first place. But it was really fun.  I wasn't able to take pictures but I think some of my officemates did. I'll snag one once they upload. :) 

[edit: got a photo from Ms. Abbie's FB]

After Everland we headed to Dongdaemun for some shopping. The area housed Korea's top cosmetic brands: The Face Shop, Etude, and Skin Food. I didn't buy anything as it was too crowded inside the stores. Plus they have branches here in the Philippines anyway, so no opportunity lost there. Apparel stalls occupied shopping buildings in this place. It's similar to our Greenhills, but a little more organized. Dongdaemun should have taken a big chunk of my money if the stores weren't mostly selling winter clothes. So I saved my Won(s?) for the next day. I should have taken photos here to give you some visuals, but my energy was on the lowest level and my bag and jacket already felt heavy on my hands and shoulders...holding a camera would be torture. 

Oh, and Peter taught us how to say, "how much?" in Korean. It's "Eolmaeyo?" (pronounced ohl-mai-yo) thus, the title of this entry. I tried this once on one stall selling bonnets. I walked in confidently and asked the guy, "Ahjusshi, eolmaeyo?" trying a Korean accent as much as possible so he'd understand. And understand me, he did. So he told me the price...in Korean. I felt a thought bubble pop out of my head with a big question mark in it. Since then I just asked in English. Less stressful. 

That's all, thank you. :D

Low budget koreanovela. photo cr. Jaja