I am very sorry for the long delay between posts but we have been very busy lately with long weekends and weekly activities, I haven't had time to sit down and focus long enough to write. For my readers however this delay is good news because there will be a lot to catch up on and lots of our adventures to learn about! Now without further delay... Lotte World!
After visiting Laurie at the hospital (it was the same day, despite the long time between the posts) I met up with Mike and the kids at the bus station for our family trip to Lotte World. The trip was being sponsored by a local fraternity (not the college kind) and was part of something called Operation Santa Claus. It was free for anyone who signed up. Once all the buses were loaded, we left and drove for what seemed like forever, especially in Korean traffic! When we arrived we did the usual keep everyone waiting on the bus as long as possible. Finally they took us in, but not through the official entry gate where everyone usually goes. We were ushered into a back hallway and then a huge freight elevator. At that moment Mike made a typical Mike comment, something about us all being victims of human trafficking. All I could do was sigh and shake my head, while someone standing by commented he had the same thought but didn't say anything. When we got off the elevator we went down another long hallway until we reached an area where there was a Christmas Tree and a whole bunch of stuff. After more waiting one of the "brothers" explained when each age group was supposed to come back to the scary hallway and get their gifts. Then finally we were released to explore Lotte World!
The mascots for Lotte World are a couple of racoons or chipmunks, no one is sure which. These guys were everywhere though. Describing this place will never do it justice. It was a huge, multi level amusement park complete with indoor ice rink, attached to its own mall/department store, and then there was the huge Disney like castle and out door amusements as well! Around the whole top of the building is this "hot air balloon" ride. We got in line for it at one point but had to get our because we would have missed the bus home in order to ride it. There were a couple roller coasters, lots of kids rides and even a special room with foam structures for little ones to play on. We easily could have spent more time there. We didn't even get to walk out side. There was a full size trolley driving around inside and a huge performance stage and even a cosmetics shop.
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| Cosmetic shop, just in case! |
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| All this is indoors. |
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| This was outside one of the rides. |
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| Not sure what was going on here exactly, but the Korean Santa had lots of helpers and attention! |
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| Mike giving Giulianna a ride. |
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| View of the ice rink and all the levels! |
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| Trolley! |
Here is the part that made this experience very annoying for us. As we waited our turn to enter the "World" for the first time, one of the "brothers" was handing something out, looked like tickets, so we asked if we needed one, and promptly were told no that we would be good to go without it. We took his word figuring that it would be fine and like any other amusement park where once you are in, everything is included and we would be good to enjoy everything. Well as I have alluded to, this was not the case. Somehow the language barrier and cute kids allowed us to get on a few rides by looking like dumb tourists who didn't know what they were doing, and therefore the nice Koreans didn't argue with us. Well until the carousel. We got to the front of the line and the girl was checking tickets, which we didn't have. So I got to explain to another ride worker who spoke English what happened. She very nicely escorted us to customer service where I explained again, twice at least, and showed her the paper work confirmation that I luckily brought with us. After about 25mins and a lot of confusion, we were given a special hand written ticket, and escorted back to the front of the carousel line. I know that doesn't sound like that big of a deal or waste of time, but it meant we really didn't get to ride much else because we only had like 3 hours total there.
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| Finally riding the carousel. Rhyon is there too, but hiding behind his sister in this photo. |
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| Giulianna and I riding the "exciting" car that went around the wall! |
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| Check out the coon in the window! |
After that we went back up to the hallway so the kids could get their presents. They each got a little wooden car which they still play with a lot. Giulianna got some Mega Blocks and Rhyon got a little elephant toy. They were both very happy with their goods. Then we went back into Lotte World. The best part was when we got back out there is was dark enough out all the lights on the rides came on inside and made it look really pretty!
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| This photo shows a pretty good over all view of the place. It is enormous! Notice the balloons along the top of the picture! |
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| All the lights on. |
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| A birds eye view, looking extra pretty for the Holidays. |
We decided we needed to take a little break and eat. They actually had the traditional burger and fries American "park/fair" option, but we opted for a little something different. Peanut butter roast... squid! It was actually pretty good. A bit strange but good. It was a little sweet and slightly peanut buttery, a little chewy with a soft coating. Mike and I ate most of it, Rhyon liked it too. Giulianna stuck to her fruit snacks and crackers, she also had corn on the cob on a stick. We indulged in some cotton candy and something they called a crepe. It was similar to the breakfast kind you see stuffed with fruit, but they take the pancake like part and make it into a cone and put ice cream and custard and fruit inside. Ours was strawberry banana and was delicious. Unfortunately, Mike got more of it than I did since I got picked to drive the bumper car with Giulianna.
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| Munching on my peanut butter roast squid! Yum!!! |
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| The back of the box of squid. I didn't know I was in the shot, I was busy chewing, hence the face. |
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| Doing the Korean picture pose! |
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| Its so much fun to be allowed to run Koreans over with a moving vehicle! They drive like this all the time, especially cabs! |
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| Rhyon was very tired and getting upset by the end. |
We had a good time overall. It was certainly an experience. Rhyon was very tired and slept the whole bus ride home. By getting to go on this adventure we learned some important things about Lotte World. Number one, do not to go on a weekend, especially a Saturday, its insane in there! Number two, dress warmly, it was downright cold in there, we wore our coats the whole time and we were indoors! We will go again, hopefully on a weekday, perhaps on a long weekend in the spring or fall. I definitely want to hit up some more rides and checkout the outside stuff. I also wouldn't mind checking out the huge store that's attached!
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| We could see the castle as we got on the bus. |
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| The entrance all lit up at night. |
Finally here are a few random pictures from our ride home.
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| Wooribank, we are not convinced we would put our money in there... |
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| This is the best shot I got of the lights on the river and Seoul Tower in the background. |
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| I am not sure exactly what this is but it looks really cool! Traffic on the bridge would be my guess! |
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| Some of the pretty lights on main post. |
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| Entrance to Itaewon. |
