JAG Journeys: aquarium

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

COEX Aquarium

Day 1 of Quiring-family visit

On Thursday, June 28 we all enjoyed a little bit of a sleep-in. My parents and brother were tired from their journey (and their random awakenings at very early hours) and Jonathan and I were happy to have a day to sleep in a bit longer than we could while we were working. So we had a lazy morning and a yummy brunch at home before heading out into Seoul. We got my parents and Tyler T-money cards so they could ride the subway and then found the right subway to get to the COEX Mall. After a bit of a walk underground, we finally came up in the mall courtyard, surrounded by tall buildings. After a saunter through the COEX mall, we found the aquarium. My mum and I had a great time watching all the little preschool- or kindergarten-aged groups of kids that were there on a field trip. We had a lovely several hours looking through the very unique aquarium before we exited and found a yummy Italian restaurant just down the mall hallway. After our supper, we had some delicious frozen yogurt for dessert before heading back to our apartment for another good sleep. All in all, a great way to start our vacation time!

We had some fun with the trick mirrors :)

Fish in a fish-shaped sink

At this aquarium anything could become a fish tank. Even a toilet!

Kimchi-fridge tank

Fish tank headboard

This picture might look like Ali's scared, but really she just loves sharks

Ali-angel!

Tyler relaxing while waiting for his frozen yogurt

Pops, the frozen yogurt deliveryman

Yum!

Ty's cool old-school film camera

Lights

Friday, January 20, 2012

Busan Trip - Day 1: Haeundae Beach

After the cold weather we'd been experiencing in Cheonan, we decided to head for the southernmost (and, we hoped, warmest) city on the Korean peninsula for the last five days of our term break on Wednesday, Dec. 28. While we had planned to travel to Seoul the night before with a few perishable items to leave in the fridge in our new apartment, on Tuesday afternoon we found out our new apartment wasn't ready for us yet. So we stayed one more night in Cheonan. We left our apartment for the last time at 7 the next morning and caught a taxi to the KTX (Korean bullet train) station. There we traded in our tickets for the 10 o'clock Seoul-Busan train for an earlier train right from Cheonan and got reimbursed for the Seoul-Cheonan portion! By 7:50 we were on our train and two hours later, about the time we would have been leaving Seoul, we disembarked in Busan. We used our guidebook and an English Busan tourist map to find the hotel we'd picked out back in Cheonan and unknowingly chose a beautiful area of Busan - Haeundae Beach - for our stay!

Departure and arrival at Cheonan and Busan KTX stations - Ali

Ali loved these smiling-pig planters along a street in Haeundae

Our first glimpse of Busan's famous Haeundae Beach - Ali

Zigzag boardwalk

Bunny statue welcomes walkers

1.5 km-long Haeundae Beach

Princess Hwangok (AKA the Little Mermaid) looking toward her home country, the mythical land of Naranda

Fisherman - Ali

Pre-sunset colours

Local cats entertaining boardwalk pedestrians

Seaside boardwalk from Haeundae Beach to Dongbaek Island (click to see full-size)

Dongbaek Island lighthouse

Field of buoys - shellfish nets

Buddhist-themed gazebo overlooking the ocean

Sign telling how Haeundae got its name (we never did find the rock with the inscribed characters) - Ali

Gwangan Bridge at sunset

Nurimaru APEC House (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) - Ali
Nurimaru is a combination of two Korean words, nuri meaning world and maru meaning summit