COEX Mall Ocean Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea

On the second day of our stay in Seoul we headed by subway to Samseong station on the Green Line to COEX Mall.

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

Gyeongbokgung/Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea

This past Saturday morning Julianne and I took a taxi to the train station to get out of Chuncheon and spend some time in Seoul.

I usually do two pics of the departure . . . one of the tracks and the train . . .

. . . and, of course, my favorite shot of the train itself with blue sky for a background.

As usual to pass the time on the trip (2 hours) I took pics of the landscape.

The window I had sucked cause of some black spots . . . oh well.

The Pink Hotel . . . hmmmm . . .

It's really cold here right now. The river has a lot of ice.

More winterscape shots . . .

I wonder if it ever freezes enough here to skate on the rivers?

The mountains were well lit and the skies had fantastic clouds . . .

A new highway and I think a high speed train line are being built . . .

On the outskirts of Seoul . . .

Jongno tower . . . I love photographing this building.

In the subway . . . this guy was staring at us so I stared back--with my camera . . . oh yeah, I hadn't chosen the right shutter speed and this is what I ended up with--a cool mistake . . . lol.

Julianne enjoying the subway's wind (note to self: use flash in low lighting--argh).

Lunch at the Smokey Saloon--again, the best hamburgers in Korea. We ordered some home fries and they had some spices on them--yummy.

"The Cowboy"

Julianne and I then got into a taxi to head to Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul. This palace is one of the three most famous palaces in Korea, and is also a major tourist trap. Wikipedia describes it as, "the main and largest palace of the Joseon Dynasty and one of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty." So when I got into the taxi and told the driver where to take us--in KOREAN--I did not expect to have any problems . . . the guy had no idea what I was talking about . . . no freaking clue . . .

I then handed him a tourist map of Seoul with the palace name written in KOREAN--nope, still no clue. Julianne pulled out her English-Korean dictionary and looked up the Korean for "palace" and I told the driver again in Korean the destination--nope, clueless.

The guy then started trying to type in the name on his GPS monitor to get directions--this is when I just gave up and told him to take us to Insadong market which is about 50 meters or so away from the palace. He knew Insadong which was a relief because I was going to tell him to stop and get Julianne and I out of the taxi if he didn't know Insadong.

Julianne made a very apt comparison of our driver being like a cabbie in New York who didn't know how to get to Central Park--unbelievable!

He finally realized where we wanted to go after finding Gwanghwamun (the big gate in front of the palace that is being renovated) on his GPS and asking me if that was where I wanted to go--I said yes since it amounted to being the same location as the palace.

We finally arrived at the palace and walked towards the main entrance.

Some info from here about the palace,

"Built at the beginning of the Chosun Dynasty when the Yi Dynasty moved the capital to Seoul, this palace remained the main seat of power for Korea kings throughout much of the time to the present. Gyeongbok means Shining Happiness. The main gate (Kwanghwa-mun) separates Gyeongbok Palace from one of the busiest areas of Seoul. Gyeongbok Palace was built as the primary palace of the Chosun Kingdom by its founder, King Taejo in 1395, the fourth year of his reign.

It was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of 1592 and left in ruins for over 250 years. Starting in 1865, it was rebuilt to its original grandeur. When Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, most of the 200 buildings on the palace grounds were torn down by the Japanese, leaving only a dozen structures. The map near the front entrance shows the arrangement of the complex during the latter part of the reign of King Kojong. It shows the major hails, pavilions, offices, storerooms, gates and bridges of the 419,100 square meter grounds."

I tend to think the palace is small and not all that impressive . . . but "most of the 200 buildings on the palace grounds were torn down by the Japanese, leaving only a dozen structures." So the palace I look at today probably bears little to no resemblance to what it was originally. I think that's sad.

We got there just in time for the changing of the guard.

These guys must have been really cold.

I was trying to use the manual setting on my camera, then switched to the aperture setting . . . the colors turned out well, but the images need more focus.

It was a beautiful day.

I think this is about when Julianne accidentally hit the auto/manual button on the bottom of her camera . . . we couldn't figure out why her lens wouldn't focus and she was quite unhappy. I took a look at it but because it's a Nikon I don't know the model well. (We figured out the problem later that night and it's working fine now).

Julianne enjoyed walking around and looking at the palace grounds--but I knew she'd rather have been looking at the palace through the lens of her camera while taking pictures. She still had a good time but it's just not the same when both of us can't enjoy taking pics together.

Exchanging passwords . . . I think.

The flags are interesting.

I like this shot. You get to see the side and front view of one guy, and then the back of the other. You can get a good idea of what equipment and weapons they are carrying.

Change done, time to go back to wherever they came from and warm up.

I wanted to get some crisp, colorful, closeups . . . almost, almost . . . argh.

I like the blues here.

I wish that this pic was more in focus. I really like it but didn't manage to nail it--oh well, I still like the pic.

We had to go buy tickets to go into the palace. I think it was something like 3,000won each.

Frankly, the temples and palaces in Korea are not all that much to look at once you've seen 3 or more. It's the Korean landscape that combines with the palace to give it the qualities I appreciate. I think a lot of this has to do with how many were damaged if not destroyed during the Japanese colonization and the Korean War.

This is a shot of the exterior wall of the palace next to the ticket booth (out of sight and to my right). Behind the palace are some really beautiful mountains.

Taking a few more shots outside the main gate.

Just inside the first gate looking at the second . . .

During the spring and summer the trees and plants make this area look a lot nicer. The snow and blue sky make it look pretty good too, though it's a little too minimal for my taste.

Standing on a tiny bridge looking at the second gate.

Just on the other side of the second gate.

To the left of the palace is another wall with pillars. We walked almost to the end of that wall to a door that leads to another area with a building surrounded by a kind of moat.

This is a really beautiful place in the spring and fall (especially when the leaves are changing color). With the water frozen and covered over with snow it looks good IF the light from the sun is right, and the sky is blue.

By this point Julianne pretty much was ready to get out of there because her camera wasn't working. Ordinarily we have a great time walking around and taking a bizillion pics together--but watching your boyfriend taking pics while your own camera is not working is not much fun for a photographer.

We snapped a few shots of us together here.

We walked around a bit more . . . there were a lot of tourists there too. We heard some Vietnamese, Chinese, and maybe some people from the Phillipines talking and walking around.

Julianne likes the monkey sillhouette roof decorations.

More shots of the different structures on the palace grounds.

As I said before there are mountains that lie in the background views of the palace that make for some breathtaking scenes.

Behind the palace and to the right is National Folk Museum of Korea. This is a shot of the pagoda that sits on top of the museum.

The folk museum is a great place to go to during the late spring, summer, and early fall. I've been there when they hold traditional dances in full costume and gotten some awesome pictures. I highly recommend visiting this place at least once if you're in Korea.

In the courtyard there is a circle of Chinese zodiac animals.

Julianne's animal is the Pig. I'm a tiger.

Shot looking at the folk museum building and grounds.

Outside the palace grounds and walking towards Insadong we saw this,

We headed back to our hotel to rest and eat some dinner. The next day we would head to COEX mall . . .

J