Korean Adventure: Thursday

Friday was a school holiday of some sort, so Thursday was my last day at the school. It was fairly uneventful, marked by the occasional group of students making their way to the English office to say goodbye. More goodbyes were said to the teachers, some of whom are transferring schools and won't be there when I come back in the spring.

In the evening, we decided to head to the financial area of Seoul which occupies an island in in the Han river. Our destination of the 63 Building, the largest building in the area and third tallest building in Seoul. It's 60 stories tall, with 3 more underground, hence the 63 Building. There's a windowed observation elevator and the top floor has an observation deck and mini art gallery. There's also a aquarium at the base. Oh, and the place is a horrible ripoff.

First, we didn't realise that the observation deck and the art gallery were the same place, so we weren't guessing we'd have to pay to see the deck, or at least, not much. The gallery cost 10000 won each. Now, every museum and tourist attraction I've been to in Seoul was less than 6000 won entry, usually 3000-4000. This place was 2-3 times the cost, and was so bad. The art gallery is tiny, and not exactly quality. The current exhibit, which had been showing for the last 6 months, was Hello Kitty art. Seriously, and the stuff was really bad. I could not make this up, take a look:

I mean, what is this stuff?



Never underestimate the Asian popularity of Hello Kitty.

And this was a video of shitting snowman ice cream cones!

And the observation deck itself wasn't that great. The glass had this extreme sheen to it that made it incredibly difficult to take photographs. I mean, I know the flash would ruin things, but even just the lighting messed things up unless you were really careful to block all light. I'm glad we didn't pay for the aquarium too. My fiancee claims that this was the first time in Korea where she felt ripped off.

Traffic anyone?

Afterwards, disappointed, we decided to walk in the park that runs along the Han.

Perhaps not the most successful evening, but we had a good laugh at least.