Tracon and other stuff

Last week and the weekend before was a hassle but I'm happy I had something to do~

Tracon

3rd to 4th September I spend in Tampere in Tracon which is a yearly convention. I went there with Linda. We left early morning at Saturday by train, it was funny that we spotted alot of people in there clearly going to Tracon. I didn't cosplay anything as I haven't like in last 8 years but Linda cosplayed Daichi from Hikyuu. After looking at Linda and then other cosplayers I got the feeling I want to cosplay again :P Maybe next year? :D

So we got to Tampere about 9am and went to leave our luggage in big cloakroom. Then we went to get our bracelets, we had e-tickets like everyone else and had to change it to bracelet.

hi there, my look in saturday :P

Then we waited about half an hour and got in. We first went to leave my stuff to flea market (I had lot of stuff this year I wanted to get rid of that I don't use anymore). Funny when the volunteer worker who scanned my stuff to sale spotted some of my kpop stuff started like "OMG I'm a fan too, I have this!" and I was like ok :D

After dropping my stuff there we headed to sales hall where we just checked every table but didn't really buy anything... except Matcha pocky since both of us are green tea lovers :P

We didn't have anything to do before going to one panel so we visited karaoke and sang VIXX On&On lmao. After karaoke and panel we headed to eat because we started to get hungry.

We walked to near small shopping mall and first visited this kind of asian food store where we bought some snacks. Then we visited asian buffet right next to it although it was funny that it called itself thai restaurant when it had chinese name and partly japanese buffet lol.

Then we walked back to convention place and after awhile left to go to our accommodation which we got through airbnb. Our accommodation was right in center of Tampere, next to Koskikeskus shopping mall and like 300 meters away from convention so, very nice! Only thing disturbing was that our room at first was full of flies like wtf o.O they had disappeared though when we got back in the evening but came back in the morning again o.O

Anyway, at evening we went to one panel but we were sooooo tired that after getting some late night food to eat we walked straight to our accommodation to sleep. Although we took couple photos from Tampere's night before it :P We went sleep like 10.30pm.

Then I woke up 7am lol... and Linda woke up 9am :,D so I had to wait awhile but I was doing my morning routine and watching some random news sites from cellphone so it was all right, didn't get bored xD

my look on sunday~

So after gathering our stuff we left our accommodation about 10am. We went to eat breakfast and have good coffee to Fazer cafe, it was only cafe nearby open at 10am which was ridiculous. Tampere isn't a small city so you would think you could find alot of cafes open even in sunday in early morning but no.. then we left to drop our bigger luggages to big cloakroom and after it planned to go watch one program... but then I noticed I left my bag in the cafe T_T I'm an idiot... this haven't happened to me before, I usually take care of my stuff really well but I guess it was because we were in kinda hurry so... when I went back in panic the staff in fazer cafe was reeeeally friendly and they had taken my bag to safekeeping ;A; I thanked like 4 times because I was thinking that what if someone stole my bag or something from it but staff had noticed it immediately and kept it safe. I couldn't really thank enough because my wallet was in my bag ;A;

So, we walked back to convention place aka Tampere talo again, it was raining but still quite beautiful morning.

scenery from our accommodation

my breakfast :P

When we got back, there was an anime piano concert which we thought would be nice to see so we went to listen that. Weren't disappointed at all. Pianist played music from one of my all-time favorite anime; Inuyasha. I don't watch anime much at all anymore so it was kind of nostalgic feeling to hear some music from a series I watched like 10 years ago :D I have only one clip from concert and it was when pianist played Shingeki no kyojin (Attack on titan) theme song Guren no yumiya. Sorry my cellphone refused to film it properly at first T_T so the picture is blurry at first in the video T_T

After pianoconcert we just hang out. Our day was pretty much like that... because it took too much time for us to find a place to eat at day <_< we didn't want any fast food and it took a long time to find an italian restaurant where we could at least order pasta or something like that. But food was delicious in that italian restaurant we went to eat. Like one of the best pasta's I have ever eaten! Restaurant was in one side road opposite of Stockmann and nearby.

When we left to go home at evening both of us was so tired we barely spoke in train trip at all. But all in all we had fun convention and I'm still thinking that should I do a cosplay for next year :D

Last week

Last week was pretty much a busy week. I went to color my hair and then visited beauty events in Sokos stores. I visited events for Sensai and for Lumene with Annina and we had great time and got lots of tips to different makeup techniques. From Sensai we got a small thank you gift which was blotting papers and couple small samples of their toner and cleansing powder. From Lumene we got their new mask treatment and lip treatment when buying one product from Lumene (I bought their new lip color stick in shade 7, autumn beauty.) Propably going to review some of the products sometime when I have used them a little bit~

Other

Lastly I just want to recommend some things I have been hooked up with~
I watched korean drama Uncontrollably fond which I didn't like at all but it's OST was amazing. I got addicted to so many songs and it was funny because 80% of the music was sung in english~ But I liked all english songs and most of korean songs in the OST and here's couple I can recommend:

I have been addicted to two dramas lately that started recently. One is Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart: Ryeo which is historical drama based on chinese drama (so it's a remake basically). Lee Jun Ki, my favorite korean actor is starring in it <3 and his role is Wang So, a mysterious lone wolf prince with mask covering half of his face because of a scar. I have seen chinese version of it and I have to say it's totally different and for me it's just a positive thing because chinese version was a little boring. But anyway Scarlet Heart is drama number 1 I have been addicted lately:

Other drama I have been following lately is Love in the Moonlight which is also a historical drama starring Park Bo Gum, one of the hottest actors in korea right now. Firstly I didn't get why Park Bo Gum is so hyped in korea but now I totally understand after watching this drama; he's a great actor, he can express many things only with his face without saying anything. His looks wasn't my style at first exactly but now that I follow this drama he has been growing on me and I came to like his looks also besides his acting :P

So this is all for this post~ next post propably in two weeks since I don't have alot going on :,D

Just normal everyday life

Hello everyone~

I have been keeping quiet because I don't have much happening in my life. Well, I have been spending kinda summer holiday throughout July; I went to my mom's side grandparents with my mom for couple days (to Kouvola) and then went to visit my other grandparent and uncle with my brother (to Kajaani). And met some friends in July who I haven't seen in a while ^^ Now in August I have been quite bored lol.

Here's some photos from July~
First two from Kouvola and then the rest from Kajaani trip.

Now through August I have been just watching korean tv dramas :P I have one favorite over others which I'm currently addicted to soooo bad; it's called W - two worlds. Not far behind comes drama Let's fight, Ghost!

W tells a story of surgeon intern Oh Yeon Joo (played by Han Hyo Joo) who's father is famous comic book artist and suddenly strange things start happening and this comic world comes to life. Yeon Joo is pulled to the other dimension and that's where adventure begins. Lee Jong Suk plays Kang Chul, main character of this comic book world. The comic book is called W so that's the origin of this drama's name.

Let's fight, ghost! Tells a story of an exorcist Bong Pal (played by 2PM Taecyeon) who can actually see ghosts and fight them. He forms sort of alliance with one ghost called Hyun Ji (played by Kim So Hyun) to fight other evil ghosts.

Yahhoo, I'm waiting for next week because I finally get to go somewhere :D There's Tracon in Tampere where I go almost every year. It has become kind of tradition~ I will go with my friend Linda and propably will see other friends in there too^^ Tracon is a convention by the way, it concentrates mainly on japanese culture but in these couple years it has brought korean culture more and more to it as well as roleplaying themes and events.

And finally, here's couple other things I have been enjoying this month;

Laneige two tone lipbar:

I just love these! This lipstick has two colors, it gives inside of your lips a darker color and the edge area more lighter color. These moisturizes quite well also. And colors are so pretty^^ I actually bought these from Korea but you can also order them online. I seriously recommend to try~ I wonder when we get same kinds to western markets.
I have been using stylekorean when I order abroads, they deliver straight from Korea with actual physical shop prices so they don't have higher prices like most online shops tend to have. And they usually deliver in about two weeks~

Other thing from cosmetics that I have been loving is this Cathycat Code Glökolor Moomin limited edition cushion. I'm afraid this is only available in Korea. But I noticed it in OliveYoung and I just had to get it, look how cute it is :D I used this up already but I enjoyed it nevertheless. It had very light coverage but with it I felt light from my face and felt like I didn't have any foundation on. So if you happen to be in Korea, stop by OliveYoung to check this out~ (plus point is that cushion is changeable so you can save the cover if you like it^^)

And last but not least; I found an online shop that sells korean cosmetics - in Finland! So listen up guys, if you live in Finland now is your chance to get Korean makeup with cheaper price - no heavy shipping expenses and products are pretty affordably priced too. And when I emailed them to ask some questions, customer service was soooo friendly like I can't even!
The shop is called Bearel. Definetly check them out :)

That's all for now, next time going to post propably my feels from Tracon :D

Travel expenses to South-Korea

Hi everyone I'm finally back~

I got my laptop back a few days before my guarantee was up and guess what, this laptop started exact same thing which for I brought it to maintenance only one day after my guarantee was up.. dunno if they did that on purpose so I would buy their newest model or whatsoever. Next time I'm not gonna buy Acer laptop. I won't be bringing this to maintenance anymore because now it costs alot so when my laptop is in a state I cannot use it anymore I just buy a new one. I'm sick of going back and forth in maintenance... like with my last laptop. This is only one year old but started faults less than half year when I bought it... ggaaaahhh..

But anyway let's go to this post's topic which is

Travel costs and things you need to consider when travelling to South-Korea.

 These are my personal experiences and 3 out of 4 times I stayed 2 weeks so my calculations are based on that. And also because everyone usually stays only in Seoul I'm talking about travel expenses in that point of view. And I live in Finland so my calculations of travel expenses are most useful to those who live in northern europe.

Travel expenses

I live in Finland near Helsinki airport so I always leave from there. I got most of my flights as promotion tickets and I always had Finnair's direct flights. As I have mentioned earlier I have pretty serious motion sickness so I don't want to take connecting flights because it would make me feel sick two or three days (even though it would be most likely cheaper). But I have to say when Finnair is holding promotions you'll get flights to Seoul in pretty affordable prices. Cheapest roundtrip I have gotten was 459€ and the most expensive was 895€. It really depends when you're reserving and also if it's off season or not. But I would advice to reserve approximately 800€ for flights. Finnair has had promotions pretty often so *wink wink* if you're eyeing fligths to Korea from Finland (I feel like they have discounts every 2-months). And I advice you to join Finnair plus especially if you're finnish person, you will get news as soon as they have campaigns.


I have not stayed in hotels in Korea because guest houses and hostels are basically in level of average european hotel. To finnish person hostel or guest house might at first sound cheap accommodation with messy rooms but in Korea 7 out of 8 guest houses I have stayed in have been very clean and cozy, almost hotel like. So I always go with guest house option rather than spending my money on expensive stay in hotel. Cheapest price I paid for two weeks in guest house was 130€ and most expensive was about 290€. So if you would like to save money but still get comfortable accommodation I recommend guest houses. I would advice to save about 300€ for 2 weeks stay in guest house.

When you're in Seoul you will need travel card for subway because believe me, you will use subway alot. It's convenient and easy way to travel inside the city. I have to admit I rarely use buses because a) subways go almost everywhere in Seoul and b) because it's sometimes difficult to know where you are supposed to get off.
Most easiest travel card is T-Money which you can purchase from convenience stores for example. If I remember correct the card itself is 5000won (approximately 4€) and you can load it in machines that are usually near gates in subway stations. You can also return your card to those machines when you don't need it anymore and get a refund. I don't remember how much is the refund because I have been keeping my T-money card because I travel to Korea often.
I recommend you save 30€ (approximately 37000won)  for T-money for 2 weeks.

Food is really cheap in Korea. You can get a meal with couple euros in korean restaurants. For example kimbap is usually 3000won (2€), kimchijjigae 5000won (4€) and tonkasu 6000won (4,50€). More expensive is to eat something like samgyeopsal which is meant to be eaten with at least 2 persons and it costs about 11000won (9€) per person. So I'd say you'll only need a little over 120€ for 2 weeks for food.

I'll put this in here even though I said I will mainly talk about Seoul travel point of view; some people want to visit second largest city Busan while in Korea. I advice you to take KTX to save time. Even if it's a bit more expensive (something like 47000won for foreigners). But it's a bullet train and it takes you to Busan in 3 hours instead of 5½ hours. KTX leaves from Seoul station so it's right in center of Seoul.

Other things to consider

I advice to take big luggage. Especially for western people clothes and cosmetics are very cheap not to mention good quality so most people will end up buying alot. I mainly bought cosmetics because compared to Finland it was cosmetics heaven with really affordable prices :P

If you're average size in european sizes (M or L) you will most likely not find pants so if you like wearing pants like me for example, pack more than one pair. (with pants I mean mainly jeans etc). If you're bigger size in shoes than eu 38, it will be difficult to find any shoes also. You will find sneakers but that's mainly it so if you like wearing f.e ballerinas then take your own with you. Korea uses different size chart than europe, I'm eu size 41 and my size in Korean shoes is 260.

Check if your vaccinations are effective. You will need hepatitis vaccination for travelling in Seoul but if you're planning to go outside Seoul it is adviced to take vaccination for japanese encephalitis (this costs about 100€ so it's very expensive but the most important thing is health right).

I advice to take mosquito repellant with you, about half of guest houses I have stayed have had mosquitos. They are alive even in winter (really how?!)... so if you want to sleep comfortably then seriously take repellant with you.

 Learn couple words in korean. You will get treated more kindly even if you can only say "hello" in korean. But it would be good to know basic korean when you're going because even in Seoul people mostly don't speak english.

Because you are foreigner, people will stare. More than in most countries. Some even want to take photos with you if you're blond westerner (more if your eyes are light color). This is just normal behaviour for koreans as they consider everything light colored very beautiful. If you have pale skin people will most likely comment on this and call you pretty. Some might want to touch you to test if your skincolor is "real" but this you can decline though most people just touch you without permission. It's not rude to say "please don't touch me" because they are invading your personal space in their curiousity.

Beware of scooters. Seriously, they do not care if you are in the way... they're crazy. Even if it's small street they will just increase speed so as much as possible walk on side of road, not right in the middle.

This is just my personal tip but visit Myeongdong at least once in the evening. It's crowded but they have unique korean street food stalls in there. You can get ddeokbokki, hotteok, jjimbang, mandu and many more. They usually also have some things that is hard to find elsewhere.

Cost together

So how much you should save money for 2 weeks trip? If you're on low budget like me usually, you have to have at least 1300€ for flights, accommodation and food. If you have to take vaccinations, add 100€ more to cost (I took my vaccinations when I visited there first time).

So that's only cost of basic things. You will need more money saved if you want to do some shopping. Conclusion is... yes, from western countries it is pricey to go to Korea but it's amazing country with lot to offer so I recommend the experience. Look at me, I have visited there 4 times and I still have many things left to see and experience :P I hope I can go to Korea again early next year.

If you have something you want to ask me about travelling to Korea, leave comment below :)

Korea trip diaries: Day 13 to 17

Day 13

Ilsan & Itaewon

On thursday I left to Ilsan to meet my friend Hyojoo. She lives there and I love Ilsan area :) It takes about an hour to go there from Seoul city center.

You can access to Ilsan with line 3 (orange line) to Daehwa's direction and getting off at Jeongbalsan. And if I don't remember wrong, exit 1 and 3 will go straight to Ilsan's center direction (actually you're pretty much in the center when you come out of subway).
Using this station you can also access to Mbc's building which is close to subway station and there are recordings of music core for example.

I met Hyojoo at subway station 1pm. We went to post office first because I had a card I wanted to send to Finland :P Oh, about post in Korea; if you're planning on sending cards, best place to buy them are museums or then Insadong. Elsewhere is pretty hard to find any cards to send for your relatives and friends. And post boxes are reeeeally hard to find so I recommend you go directly to post office. They mostly don't speak english in post offices but it's enough when you give your card and say destination, they understand that at least. But because they don't understand english mostly, they always put the more expensive class (1st class) but it's still cheap for you if you're from western countries.

Then we headed to eat and OMG Hyojoo brought us to japanese restaurant where meals were absolutely delicious and art to the eye :D It was in Ilsan's mall, 2nd floor.

Then after we finished eating we visited Aritaum cosmetic shop and I bought myself a cushion blusher finally. I was debating if I should get it or not because it was on pricey side but Iope was highly recommended by countless bloggers so I decided to get it. Besides it was cheaper in Korea than if I would have bought it from online.

After shopping some cosmetics we bought coffee and started walking towards Ilsan lake park which is popular place to exercise and just hang out.

We stopped to one bench, drank our coffee and just talked. At one moment we were interrupted by mbc staff asking if they could interview us but we declined because we are not that good in front of camera. But it was funny how they came to us behind us and then looked at me and yelled "omg foreigner" xD they didn't expect that because at that time we were speaking in korean lol.

But I had nice day and view was sooo beautiful. It was sooo sunny at that day so excuse my photos that are looking a bit blurry.

After walking back to subway station and said goodbyes, I hopped to subway and went to Itaewon where I met Anniina and her friend at subway station. We had plans to go to eat and I was waiting like real korean meal and stuff because it was my last evening in Seoul. Anniina forgot to tell me that her friend wanted to eat vegetarian meal and they had looked up one specific restaurant to get from Itaewon. So I was clearly pissed off and they could see it... afterwards I was a bit sorry but when I get annoyed I can't hide it well. After Anniina and her friend ordered their meal, we went to nearest Taco Bell and I ordered my food from there lol. We all ate in there.

When we were talking suddenly at our side one girl came to us and was in finnish like "anteeks mut mä kuulin et puhuitte suomea niin oli pakko tulla juttelee" which is basically that she was saying she heard us speaking finnish and that's why she came to talk to us xD Then we just talked with her for awhile. She hadn't met finnish people in Korea except one from her university so she was a bit amazed.

After finishing our meals, we went to desserts in Baskin & Robbins (of course hehe). Then it started to get late and we headed up to Hyehwa.

Day 14 to 17

Because I was from friday to monday in my ex's house I won't tell about this part. But basically on friday morning I left to Buyeo and Anniina came to say goodbye at the morning.

I left Korea monday morning. First I had to hop on to airport bus from Gongju at 5am. I was at airport 7.10am, I had to search my check-in desk while trying to drag my heavy luggage lol. I bumped to people couple times ^^;;;

Check-in opened 7.30am so it was ideal. But I had to pay 75€ for overweight. I knew it was overweight and at least about a year ago Finnair offered advance payment which was 50€ but now they have removed that... those greedy...

Anyway, I was in trouble because my luggage was actually too heavy so I had to move couple stuff to my backpack. Lucky I had left my backpack half empty so they fit there easy. I felt like it was more strict in security check because one employee came to me like "backpack can only be 8kg" and I was like yeah? It is... Because I knew mine was under. She was really arrogant and lifted my backpack but I was amused when I saw her face go "oh" and then she was like ok and left. I almost said "I told you so."

Security queue went kinda fast but passport check took time. And queue was reeeeeally long. But after half an hour I finally got through. Then I straight up headed to other side. In Incheon, they have two terminal sides and one is where you have to use this kind of mini train to get there. And you can't come back to other side anymore. It's kinda like in Helsinki-Vantaa has schengen and non-schengen sides in terminal 2.

Anyway, I arrived to that side and my gate was close to shops this time (usually gates to Helsinki end up being really far back). I shopped last souvenirs and then it was already time for boarding. Everything went smoothly and we got to leave on time.

My flight was a little late in Helsinki's side but not much, like 20 minutes only.

I have to say I experienced many new things on this trip even though it was my 4th time in Korea. There's still much to experience. I'm already planning to go to Korea again in next spring. Maybe March? I can't get enough of Korea :P


---------------------------

My next update is coming maybe in 2 weeks? I have to bring my laptop to maintenance and as I have said before, I have tablet but it sucks. So I'm basically without internet at least a week. I don't know how long it will take to repair my laptop, it might be longer than 2 weeks. But I will be back as soon as I get my laptop back~

Korea trip diaries: Day 12

Day 12

Mata Hari musical in Itaewon

I went to watch Mata Hari musical on wednesday with Anniina. I knew something about the story but I basically didn't know what to expect at all. I chose this musical because one of main characters was played by my all time favorite idol VIXX's Leo and other cast was amazing too (like Shin Sung Rok who played main villain in 'you who came from the stars' series).

Advertisement in subway station

Cast of the day

We left something like 12pm? It was pretty easy to go to Itaewon from Hyehwa but we had to change subway lines like 3 times.

Musical was held in Blue square samsung electronic hall. You get there by subway line 6 (brown line) and getting off at Hangangjin station. I don't remember exit but station is connected to the hall so you don't have to go outside at all.

Musical was scheduled to start at 3pm. We were there something like 12.30pm but ticketing counters were still closed. We had already bought our tickets through interpark but like in concerts, foreigners only have one option to get tickets and it's by buying in advance and get physical ticket at concert/musical day. We get confirmation email after purchasing and have to go to ticketing counters to get physical tickets by showing our confirmation. Besides that we need passport because they check you are really the buyer.

Because counters were still closed we decided to look around. In parkinglot behind the building, there was some VIXX Leo fans waiting. It's veeery popular in Korea to wait for your idol to arrive and to leave because these are the only few situations you have permission to take photos of the idol in question. Sometimes it gets a bit crazy because fans rush and run after their idol...

We didn't stay in there though, we were a bit hungry so we left looking something to eat. After being confused about direction where is Itaewon's center we found main road and started looking a place to eat. We found one delicious Seollongtang (설렁탕) place like 100m away from Blue Square. I can recommend it to everyone! It looks expensive but actually for foreigners 8000won isn't that much. The restaurant is located on main road, walking towards center of Itaewon it's about first restaurant you encounter in left side of road. They had excellent customer service and delicious soups! And they speak english even though we spoke korean to them :P (Seollongtang is ox bone soup but it tastes a little like finnish meat soup).

After eaten ourselves full, we headed back to Blue Square. We picked up our tickets finally~ And I met one friend there who I originally met on one facebook site and we talked awhile. I also took couple photos of Mata Hari posters and ended up buying myself one. They usually sell merchandise at musicals so it's nice~

We got in half an hour before showtime. Our places were quite high up (cheapest tickets were 47€). I would have loved to see it more closer but tickets to first rows were about 140€ so me and Anniina said no thanks.

During show, photos were strictly forbidden. There was staffs who were keeping watch about that. Musical itself was enjoyable, I was amazed about the set especially. And o.m.g cast can sing like I was really surprised in positive way. I have seen and heard Leo live twice but in this musical he shone and dem high notes :D Shin Sung Rok was amazing, he has really deep voice and it's totally captivating. Lead actress was the most amazing with high notes although it hurt my ears because she went so high and loud lol.

After musical we rushed to back because I wanted to see Leo up close. Yeah I'm a bit of fangirl :P But it was crazy there. Too many fans... and why oh why would you need a small chair when you're already in front row!! Seriously they were blocking view from us in the back. I got few photos from Leo although he mostly looked away.. that lil... After getting into a car Leo opened window and waved to fans. Some fans were crazy and started to run and follow his car... seriously crazy..

 

But of course he had to look away when he was right in front of me :,D

I had fun day and we left towards Hyehwa really hyped up. We were a bit hungry so we decided to stop in one cafe in Hyehwa before going to sleep. I wanted to try famous rainbow cake :P so I ordered that~ We spend while in there and then said goodbyes and went to sleep.

Rest of my korea trip diaries coming in few days (have about 3 days left to tell about)

Korea trip diaries: day 11

Day 11

Everland

I got up about 7am to get ready and leave at 8am to Everland with Anniina. We wanted to get to Everland before 11am so we left early because we knew the subway trip will take time. But it was worst possible choice ever; people, seriously take the bus to Everland. Even if you have to reserve it beforehand just take it. We literally spend about 2 hours to get to Everland's subway station. And there was 3 change of lines for us.

But if you still decide to take the subway, this is how our route went:
Hyehwa line 4 (light blue line) to Chungmuro -> change to line 3 (orange line) to Dogok ->
change to Suin line to Giheung -> change to Yongin Ever line to Jondae Everland.

There are buses to everland which take approximately 50 minutes but you have to reserve your seat to them. You can check information from Everland's site.

Anyway, we managed to get to Everland's station about 11.30am. There was free shuttle bus to Everland (it took only 5 minutes).

When we arrived to gates it was somewhat confusing because at their online site they ask to go to booth which is marked like 'ticket office for foreign guests' if you want to have foreigner's discount but it was closed and we had to ask from info booth that is the discount still valid in normal ticketing booths (it was). So we went to normal booths and got our tickets very fast. And yes, if you're foreigner you will get discount (also applies to Lotte World). You just have to print (or take screen capture to your phone) from their online site where they have discount coupon for foreign guests. Bear in mind that you have to have your passport with you to get the discount. Normal price is 52000won (approximately 48€) but with discount it's something like 47000won (approximately 41€).

When we got in there was amusement park music playing reeeeally loud and entrance was full of families and school groups but there were couple foreigners also. It was tuesday so it was "quiet" day in the park. A little advice: do not go on weekend!! We looked around and felt like there's already too many people. We decided to find t-express which is famous wooden rollercoaster.

We happened to walk through zoo part of the park. There were all kinds of exotic animals (for us they were exotic) and we propably were most excited about polar bears xD (nope we don't have them in Finland like some people would think...)

We wandered through zoo part and saw very popular attraction "Lost Valley" which is kind of safari ride. There was over 90 minute wait in queue but we still decided to go~

There was animals beside queue path so it was pleasant wait actually :P The wait felt still looooong but at least we had some enjoyment :P And then after forever we finally got into the ride~

It was very fun and worth the wait although it felt a tad too short. I saw giraffes which are one of my favorite animals so it was great! Our guide even fed one giraffe so we got close look lol. Ride was a car but at one point it went through water pool and kind of imitating safari cars going through water ponds, it was sooo surprising!

After fun ride we went through merchandise shop and decided to buy animal headbands. It's actual korean way to enjoy amusement parks by putting at least some kind of headband on you lol. I bought lion headband and Anniina took desert fox headband.

We felt kinda hungry so we went to eat before looking which ride to go next. By the way, food was cheap when comparing to european amusement park restaurants. It was a little bit more expensive than in normal korean restaurant but for us it was cheap! We ate filled sandwich, french fries and had soda as drink. It cost about 7300won. Restaurant we ate was rainforest themed and ceiling was beautifully decorated. Really appreciate how much they put effort in amusement park's look~
 After eating ourselves full, of course we had to try t-express finally so we went to line up for that. There was also over 90-minute wait. And let me remind you: this was a weekday and park wasn't even full of people.

  It's common in korean amusement parks that when you 'get in' to ride there is a queue inside also. In t-express it was first on ground level after getting in and then there was about 5 staircases and levels you had to line up. We enountered pretty rude american group while waiting.. they were a little ahead of us but outside there was first 3 lining up and when we were close getting inside to queue, there was suddenly 6 more people... this is _not_ acceptable. Koreans were glaring and even me and Anniina got some stares because "we were also foreigners." But we ended up glaring these people too because even when we were inside one of their friend came behind and was like "excuse me!" to us and then passed us to his friends! The others in queue were staring this guy like "did he just really cut in line casually like it was nothing"... seriously I don't want to generalise but these are the reasons why americans aren't that much liked in korea... because they think they own the world and won't care about anyone else. I have met nice americans too but I have seen this type of attitude too often.. and then they inflict us other foreigners too by acting like that. I was sooo pissed off especially when we were waiting because other koreans started to first point at them and then stare at us like if we're acting the same. On top of that, that american group started playing some american hiphop music reeeally loud and even dancing middle of the queue! I was just so frustrated...

Well anyway, it also felt like forever when we finally got in and ready to go.
Let me say, this t-express is something you have to experience once but I wouldn't go twice. I enjoyed it but first two drops were horrible! If you know wooden rollercoaster in Linnanmäki Helsinki, then that's like kid's version compared to this. Here's a youtube video about whole ride. Seriously, first drop is almost 90 degrees...

When we got out, Anniina was like 'let's do it again' and I was like noooo way xD There was some play booths opposite of t-express and Anniina wanted to play. She won a small plushie from one. My competitive drive hit and of course I had to try one game too. I also won a plushie yay. It was really amazing how hosts in those booths gave you extra tries and cheered you on! No way in Finland, you never get extra from sympathy if you do badly at first. Just amazing customer service in korea!!

Then after playing we headed to buy ice cream and went to look tulips because there was a tulip festival going on. So pretty!!

There is this famous tree in middle of park area where everyone goes and takes photos. What's inside of that tree is on right side photo.

We walked a bit and tried couple rides before heading to eat to KFC :P And then we wandered a bit here and there before leaving.
By the way it's so funny when in Finland everybody complains if you have to wait 20 minutes in queue at amusement park. In Korea, 20 minutes is a short wait xD So be happy my finnish friends that we don't have big population in Finland xD

This was funny :D I wanted to take it with me :P

With all the lights, Everland was sooo pretty~ I wish we could have stayed longer but clock being 7pm, it was time to leave since trip back to Seoul city center would take alot of time.

We were a bit confused where bus for center leaves but after asking around we got the place. It was full of people and there was bus for Gangnam but it was reeeeally full, no hope for us to get in. There wasn't timetables anywhere and for awhile we were totally clueless what to do. Then we saw bus which was heading to Sadang where we could take subway line 4 to Hyehwa. We decided to get into it because driver said it would take 1 and half hour. Well, turns out driver was wrong. We were only near nambu bus terminal when 2 hours were gone and we were getting pissed off. We left the bus near nambu terminal and searched taxi to Hyehwa. Anniina had one friend which she had promised to meet so she called him after we got taxi...

Now to most horrible event which we experienced; Anniina's friend (who was korean) asked the taxi driver to take us to nearest subway station (which was literally only couple minutes away). There couldn't be no misunderstandings because Anniina and her friend both explained where we wanted to go. But what does this driver do? Drives 10 minutes around small roads while we were both demanding him to take us immediately to subway station. Anniina got angry to the driver because she asked couple times how long is it going to take and he was like "it's around the corner" all the time... eventually taxi driver also started yelling to us and got angry at us. It was horrible because he refused to let us off. Then suddenly after 10 minutes he dropped us finally off... to a station that was faaaaaar from where we departed when we got into that taxi.
We were so stressed and angry... but later we got info that if you get scammed by a taxi driver (just because you're a foreigner) if you report that taxi car plate and company, driver will get fined. But apparently this driver thought that because we're foreigners it's ok to get more money from us by driving long... In the future we know what to do if we encounter similar situation. If you get scammed and have a korean friend, ask your friend to call that taxi company and report. You will also get compensations if you got charged way too much.

So that was end of our day. We were both exhausted and not happy because of that incident. Next day was better but we still were quite frustrated...


Next post: coming next week. Now I'm just planning to spend our national holiday (which is starting in friday). Happy midsummer day~