Julianne was the designated navigator for the day (to give me a rest, and her the practice of traveling around in Seoul's subway system) and did a good job.
The subway in Korea runs underground and above ground. Here we're crossing over the Han river . . .
COEX mall is GI-NORMOUS. We walked around for about 30 minutes so Julianne could see some of it and then headed into Bandi & Luni's bookstore.While we were walking around I noticed that it was snowing pretty hard outside . . .
Later, after the bookstore, we decided to try out Uno's in COEX. Julianne told me that this is a big pizza place in Chicago and Florida. Me being Canadian I'd never heard of it.
We ordered their deep dish pizza . . . it was really good.
Julianne's worked in pizza places before in the US and said that the pizza was pretty good--for Korea.
We walked around more trying to work off the carbo coma that struck after eating the pizza. After a while we bought tickets (15, 500won each) to get into the aquarium.
If you're an animal lover and/or hard core animal rights person you won't want to visit the aquarium. I've learned to turn off the part of my brain that notices details like the sizes of enclosures for animals and other details . . .If you're into photography the aquarium is a great spot to practice your skills.
I think the aquarium is worth a visit if you're in COEX but the price is a little steep. When I went to Atlanta in the US I visited the world's largest ocean aquarium . . . COEX doesn't compare. If you've already been to something like the one in Atlanta you may be less than impressed . . . especially if you've seen this,
The COEX aquarium has a big tank but nothing like Atlanta's--I shouldn't compare . . . but I remember being in AWE of the Atlanta place.Anyways, moving on to "Fishes" . . . lol.
One of the first things we saw was NOT a fish . . . uh-huh . . .
The aquarium is geared towards children. A lot of the tanks and displays have Korisney-style decoration--I didn't take pics of them because I think they're boring. Instead I took closeups . . .
Again, not sure why a DESERT lizard is in an AQUARIUM . . . but what do I know?
Okay, I took one pic of the cutesy display-aquariums . . . and at the same time advertise for a big company that makes these fridges . . . if you look in the center of the fridge you'll see a tank . . .
Seashorses are freaking hard to take pics of . . .
I think the bats had had enough of flashes and humans . . .
This little guy was on SPEED! He kept racing around his tiny enclosure with a friend . . . I spent 15 minutes trying to get ONE good shot. It was awesome practice for me with my camera--especially considering I wasn't going to use a flash.
Wassup?
Julianne and I thought this fish was very cool. She says it looks like a 'cheerleader with pompoms.'
This guy was taking a rest right by the glass . . . he was an excellent model and stayed very still.
Otters are another animal that I can never get a decent pic of cause they move around a lot. This guy was tired so I actually got a decent pic.
I put my metering setting on 'center-weighted average metering' for a lot of these shots. The hues of the colors are really nice.
This is a stingray but I think the head looks a lot like a shark. He has that whole perma-smile thing going on too.
Weedy Sea Dragons are also really hard to get good pics of--at least with the set of skills I have right now. I think this shot is pretty nice all things considered.
These fish were fun to take pics of. The tail-thingys coming out the end of them look really cool.
And . . . a bunch more pics of fish . . . can't think of anything interesting to say about them--so, enjoy.
True love . . .
And speaking of true love--Julianne.
Julianne and I both tried to get good shots of the jellyfish but without using a flash it's . . . nuts.
This guy started moving his arms all over the place while I was taking pics . . .
The next morning we woke up and went out to find breakfast. The sky was blue and it was fairly cold.
We decided to go check out Namsan Tower . . .J
I like the pics of the animals. I need to practice that kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteWas the Han River frozen over? Wow! I haven't seen that for some time.
Emma loved the Coex aquarium(we went in late December), and I've never been to anything better, so I thought it was pretty cool although I have a short attention span. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you been to On The Border in the Coex? MExican resturant, very yummy. In fact, this reminds me I have a bunch of pictures from our trip to the Coex that I never posted. So many pictures, so little time.
Hi Kushibo,
ReplyDeleteYeah, taking pics of animals is difficult and something I need more practice doing too.
I THINK the river is called the Soyeong river, not the Han river. In Seoul the Han river wasn't frozen over where we were, but going home to Chuncheon parts of the Soyeong river were.
Have a good weekend,
J
Hi AM,
ReplyDeleteI can see why Emma would love the COEX aquarium. I couldn't help comparing it to the aquarium in Atlanta cause I was there this past summer.
On The Border in COEX--yes, but it was a long time ago. Check out Amigos in Itaewon for Mexican food too though it's a little pricey. For Korea, as in all things foreign here, it's not bad and some things are really good.
Take care,
J