Last weekend in July - Seoul trip

Last weekend Dallas and I went to Seoul. We hadn't been in awhile and wanted to check out some new places and go dancing (there aren't any good places in Jinju). We decided to leave super early on Saturday morning and sleep some on the bus instead of spending money on a hotel room.

We got up at around 5:30 and met at the bus stop. We tried to get an earlier bus, but the next one to have seats was the 7:10, so we sat at the bus station for a little while. We tried to get a coffee somewhere, but none of the close places were open and we didn't want to risk missing the bus. We bought some granola bars for breakfast then got on the bus. The trip wasn't bad and we made it in less than 4 hours. Our first stop was Seoul forest. Neither of us had been there and we wanted to do something outdoorsy since we had so much fun at Olympic park. It was a really hot day, but we found the forest easily from the subway and walked in. We found a community garden and it had what I'm assuming were supposed to be scare crows made out of water bottles and decorated to look like monsters or Harry Potter.

Dallas next to the Seoul Forest sign

A pig with wings

Some really pretty flowers. Maybe some type of lily?

Writing his name with a rock on the arbor.

We tried to find the cafeteria and followed the signs, but we never found it. Instead, we went to a convenience store and bought water and peach frozen ice cubes - they are really good and I want to find them when I go back to the States. We walked around an arbor and saw some fake deer. Then we went into the butterfly house and stayed there for awhile. They had some beautiful flowers and some huge black butterflies that looked like bats when they flew over your head.

Orange flower with black bat/butterfly.

Blue and orange. I like him even if he is wearing Florida colors.

This one "landed" on Dallas's finger.

This white and blue one was really pretty. They had so many colorful flowers in here, but it was kind of steamy.

Then we went to the insect house, which for some reason had catcti, turtles, fish and other random animals, including an Asian chipmunk. It didn't have that many insects, but I was kind of ok with that.

A variation of cacti

Crabs in a topless tank. I almost picked one up but there was a random guy in the room looking at us, so I didn't.

These three turtles were in this pen with a rabbit too. We named them Winston, Harry and Betty. Winston is stepping on Harry's head.

Then we walked around outside again and came across a deer area. They had a stand to buy food for the deer, but it was sold out or broken, so Dallas didn't want to walk through the deer park without food. Instead we walked around it, following a sign to "the Hill of Wind". We passed a fence and a buck with some pretty big antlers came up to it. Dallas gave him some cashews and he let us pet his face and antlers, which really do feel like velvet. We found the wind hill, which wasn't anything except for a slight breeze, sp either we were in the wrong spot or got a bad day. Dallas spun in a circle for a few minutes to make wind. Then we walked down a bridge to a path along the river. We didn't go down to the path because we were both sweaty and hungry. Dallas said if he didn't eat in the next little while he was going to get grumpy and I don't like grumpy D. I know this because my siblings and mom get sort of like that too.

Here's the deer. He was really sweet. And he really wanted those cashews. Hope they are bad for deer.

Dallas spinning on the hill of wind.

Me on the bridge to the river path.

View of the park from the bridge. It didn't look like we could go down to that area though.

View of the river and skyline while we're standing over the highway.

On our way out, we passed this little waterfall called the waterfall of wishes. I had two coins in my purse, so we each threw one and both of us made it into the bowl. Then we walked down a semi-shaded path and back to the subway.

Waterfall of Wishes

We decided to go to a jimjilbang to relax, cool off and eat. On the way, we stopped off at a grocery store. Dallas bought a salad and apples and we ate them on the walk to the spa. We went to one called Spa Garden 5. It was pretty big. We split up for the saunas (because those are separated into women and men since you're totally naked the whole time). We said we'd meet in the co-ed area in about 30 minutes. First I went to the shower area because you're supposed to scrub down before you get into pools or saunas. I forgot shampoo, so I bought a little packet of it and washed everything. Then I got into the cold pool and swam around for a few minutes. There weren't too many people in there, but I was the only foreigner. Two younger girls (maybe 4th or 5th grade) kept looking at me and I have a feeling if I'd stayed in there longer that they would have come over to talk or play with me. The cold pool had some high pressure jets and I stood under them because my thighs were really sore. This was apparently a bad idea because the jets actually bruised me. After the cold pool, I still had about 10 minutes, and I saw a pool labeled "full body massage experience" and how do you pass that up? It was a tiled pool, angled like a hospital bed. You laid down on it and the majority of your body is under warm water. There were jets lined up under both sides of you - shoulders, back, legs. It was very nice and I hit the button three times. While I was being massaged, I saw a women with a waterproof pouch for her phone and I'll try to remember to do the same one day so you can see the inside of the sauna (but no naked pics of anyone :) ).

After the pools and water massage, I got dressed in the jimjilbang uniform of shorts and t-shirt. Then I met Dallas out in the common area. This area was much more crowded than the sauna. There were lots of families just chillin' or couples taking naps. First we sat in massage chairs and did a 15 minute massage for $2 - it was really hard, but felt pretty good. Then we tried to go to the restaurant, but it was closed for an hour. So we went to the snack bar and got juice (literally blended fruit with some ice) - I had strawberry, Dallas had kiwi, and tteokboki to split. After snacks, Dallas gave me a little tour of the spa. It had an ac room, some really hot kiln things, a PC room, and a nail salon. It also had a movie theater with really big leather seats. We tried to go there first, but it was full and they were showing a Korean movie, so we went back upstairs. They had 3 other sauna-type rooms: a wooden room, one that's apparently good for allergies and a salt room. We stayed in each one for about 5 minutes before Dallas got too hot. Then we went into one of these private nook things to try and nap. The nooks are actually a nice idea because they are dark and a little more private than the bigger rooms. The bad part is that people walk over your head so it sounds like a herd of elephants. It was also really hot, so I only slept for 15-20 minutes before it got too hot to sleep.

Me in the salt room lying on a bed of salt rocks in my uniform.

The salt room from where I was lying down to the door.

Me in a nook - you can see the mats and the steps to the platform above me where there are more mats for people to sleep or what sounded like clog dancing.

At that point we decided to get dressed, get dinner then check into our guest house to take a rest before going out later. On the way, we passed a make-up store and got some cheap nail polish because I wanted to paint mine before dancing. We tried to go to On The Boarder because I was craving non-Korean food since we were in Seoul. Unfortunately, the wait was almost an hour and both of us were really hungry. So we decided to go to another place that is sort of other Asian - Vietnamese or Thai fusion I guess. Dallas got chicken pho and I got beef and pineapple with rice noodles. It was really good and made me happy.

After dinner we walked to a graffitti wall, where they repaint every week or so. That day was a cat.
Then we checked into the same guest house that we went to in May. This time we actually stayed in the real guest house instead of getting upgraded. It wasn't as good - the room was a decent size, but had none of the stuff that most motels here have - like shampoo or q-tips. We went out and got some soap and shampoo, then stopped off for coffees. When we went back to the room, the elevator was acting weird and stopped slightly mid-level between floors. So that made us slightly nervous - not nervous enough to walk down the stairs later though. Dallas painted my nails and did a better job than I can do myself, so he's going to be my new manicurist. Not sure he knows that yet. After nails, I took a short nap, then got ready to go out.

Getting eaten by a painted cat.  I have bad hair in the one of me standing normal.

This was our room number - I took a pic for those in the know :)

The nails...and my fat fingers. Anyone know finger exercises?

We went dancing at some clubs. I got a little (and by little I mean a lot) drunk and don't remember a lot of that experience. I haven't felt like that in a long time. I think it was because I hadn't eaten much and drank too fast. At one of the clubs we met some male flight attendants from Ireland and Scotland who lived in Dubai for work. They were really interesting people and were only in town for the one day. That's when I stop remembering. When I woke up in the morning, my face hurt and I figured out why - it was bruised. I apparently fell down really hard on the sidewalk and ended up with a fat lip, black eye and bruise under my eye. I also busted both knees pretty badly too. I actually got pretty lucky because it could have been so much worse. So I'll be more careful from now on. There are some pictures, but I don't want to scare anyone or have one go out in the interweb somehow.

On Sunday, after we woke up and got ready, we walked around looking for food, but nothing sounded good. Then we went to H&M because Dallas can't not go there. He bought some pants that were on sale then we decided to try and find a dog cafe that I had read about. Some tour guide people were on the street and gave us a map and exact directions to the cafe, which was awesome and unexpected. Then we were transported to the world of cuteness.

We walked into Bau House and instantly fell in love. The front area had smaller dogs and a Golden puppy. The back area had bigger dogs and some of the wilder small dogs. We went to the back first to set our bags down. The dogs have the run of the place - they sit on the benches, hop over the tables, sleep on the ledges. We ordered some drinks (because you don't have to pay to go in, but you're supposed to buy a drink), then played with the dogs. Some were super calm and just snuggled with us, like a giant Huskie and an older Golden. Others were nutso and ran all around. We switched to the little dog area for awhile and one of them fell asleep on Dallas's leg. When he got up, the dog moved to me. A Pomeranian crawled into my lap and used my feet as a pillow until I reached for my camera. Then he went all crazy licky and wiggly. The Golden puppy passed out and just let us pet him - he snuggled up on my leg for a little while too.

This is one of the few non-blurry ones because he was so wiggly.

A fat lab, a random black dog and the Huskie chilling at a table.

The black maybe Dachshund on my lab was super snuggly. The what might be a schnauzer was sweet too.

This place was super fun and made me miss my dog and also want to get a million dogs as long as I had hardwood floors and someone who cleans up after them. The other interesting thing about the cafe is that you're allowed to bring your own dogs too. One lady brought her little white dog and he hated it and wouldn't leave her side. Another couple brought their two either Huskies or Akitas who were perfectly trained and beautiful. It was still weird and I would never bring my dog - partly because she's a moron and would just eat everyone's snacks off the tables. Before we left, we used the lint rollers to try and remove some fur, but I still had some when we left. I'm definitely going back when I go to Seoul again.

After the dog cafe, we were really hungry and decided to go back to On The Boarder for lunch/dinner. It was really good - I had a chicken quesadilla and guacamole, which I miss! After lunch, we went to the bus station and got tickets to go home, then got some drinks and sat at a coffee shop close to the terminal. The terminal wasn't air conditioned and we had like 40 minutes to wait. My lemon tea was super strange - carbonated somehow and too sweet, so I couldn't really drink it. Both of us fell asleep on the way home - I was actually able to lie down so I actually slept instead of that weird half awake/half sleep state.

It was a really good weekend, even though I don't remember part and ended up with a busted face. Next time I'll watch myself! It hasn't been a week yet and already my face is almost healed, so I'll be ok, even though my boss and co-worker are worried about scarring, but I think they're just being overprotective. I love weekends when I find/try new things, and this one was full of that.