Whenever anyone asks me why I travel abroad, one of my answers has got to be that it makes me laugh. Laugh at myself. Laugh at the world. Traveling really is a great confidence booster because it perpetually reminds you that life is bewildering and ridiculous.
All beginning travelers try to get it all right. Things start making sense, you get through security with no hiccups and you start to tell yourself “I’ve got this. I own this traveling thing.” BOOM! You inevitablly trip on the carpet, land flat on your face, and watch as your suitcase crashes to the ground exposing socks and clothes to all and sundry. Yes, that happened to me. I landed nose to the floor smack in front of the hotel doors and had four lovely bellhops standing around in shock and awe.
It was a 5-star hotel with highly important people milling around. I just got in because the school had a group rate and wanted to impress us. Olympians, you will recognize this place because it’s where you stayed during the Beijing games. But trust me, few Olympians have accomplished the sheer magnitude of that landing. I hit with all the style that only an overweight little German dumpling can accomplish. It was glorious.
Which brings me back to my point, traveling makes me laugh. You really can’t help it, because with the world as crazy as it is, you either laugh or cry. It helps that between the adrenaline and slight hysteria that comes with all new adventures, everything becomes SO much funnier.
You just never catch a break when you adventure outside of your comfort zone. There are cultural differences, natural differences, and of course utterly random differences. I recently visited China and Korea, and if asked to compare them, one thing really comes to mind–hotel rules. You can slip into the culture really quickly, but spend hours trying to negotiate proper hotel etiquette. The worst part about traveling in Asia is the lack of good clothes washing abilities. Hotels often don’t come with washers and never have dryers so you generally find yourself sending anything that needs pressed out to dry-cleaning. The problem was that in Korea you had to bag up your clothes and carry them to the desk.So down I went with my suit pants to ask where I should leave them only to get the look. Continue reading
Delicious desserts at a small restaurant in Japan. It was actually attached to a little shop beside our home station; and we ran in for some lunch before a movie. The signs all pointed to it being a omelette shop (Japan has many restaurants that serve lunch and dinner omelette), and we thought it’d be another mom & pop place. Instead it was incredibly fancy and the dinner was arranged prettily and with elegance 🙂 Luxury in Excess!
Random photos from my trip to the Seoul’s Grand Park Zoo! Great place to take your kids 🙂 Just make sure you have run and play clothes cause the kids like to hit the fountains, play areas, etc.
_____________________________________________________
Subway Stop: Seoul Grand Park
Subway Directions: Take Line 4 to the Seoul Grand Park stop (i.e. toward Oido) and follow Exit 2.
If you look at the subway map here, it is the 7th stop after crossing the river.
ONWARD TO THE ZOO!!
When you take Exit 2, you will see a long walkway in front of you. All you have to do is go straight until you come to the big fountain and the building behind it that says zoo.
There is a little ticket booth at the big building, where you buy a shuttle ticket for 1,000 Won. Go through the gates and get on the shuttle; the zoo will be on your first stop. Check out the map below for directions.
Shuttle Yay! So Exciting 🙂 Hard to miss the big tiger at the entrance.
From there it’s all fun and games and pet-the-animals 🙂 After you enter the zoo grounds, there are red, yellow, blue, and green lines painted on the paths. Each one is a different route, and you can pick and chose which you want to follow via the maps. I ran up the Blue and Green paths, which took me past the big wild animals (Bear, Tigers, Elephants, etc.), ocean/marine animals, and a few other odds and ends. Plus I got to hit the HUGE ski lift which carried me down the mountain over the tiger/cheetah/lion exhibits and some gardens; an amazing experience. I am seriously going back there just to ride the ski lift again. I also like it cause it gives the kids something fun to do on the way down without making them walk all the way back down the mountain when they’re tired. With my undying distaste for anything snake related, I always avoid the reptiles and birds weren’t really high on my list; however that all available as well.
The people of Tianjin, China are very proud of their cuisine; and for good reason. I am an extremely picky eater due to allergies (Pork, Fish, Tomatoes, Soy, Nuts, and more) and I usually have to subsist on Pringles and Microwave meals from the Convenience stores when I stay in Asia. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tianjin is actually not as bad for me as some of the other places. Most of the food served in Chinese restaurants there are actually vegetable dishes. I expected tons of rice, but found that you frequently only got a teeny tiny bowl at the end of your meal. Most dishes were pea pods, cashews, leafy greens, mushrooms, peppers (green, red, and yellow), eggplant, and other such organic foods mixed together with varied sauces and meats. While I did find myself eating a lot of pork; my allergy to that isn’t so bad so I was able to bypass the effects there and they served a lot of beef, duck, and lamb dishes. Amazingly, I found that their concept of dessert was fruit: Watermelon, Cantaloupe, and Grapes were served all summer as a refreshing meal end. I actually lost more than 20 lbs this summer between the exercise and healthy foods. To give you a taste, here are some of the great dinners we had!
Nonetheless, while Tianjin cooks serve hundreds of yummy dishes, they are most famous for three different Continue reading
“M 16” by Astrofireball on Deviantart. Click here for the link to the artist’s image.
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 