- Welcome -: Korea7

This post is already super long due to all the pictures so I'll try to keep the writing to a minimum.

Today 'dongsaenga' (동생아) and I spent the day in Everland (에버랜드), South Korea's largest theme park!
He used to work here and was super excited to show me around.
Before leaving my hostel, I'd looked up the weather and it was supposed to be 18°C (which is completely fine. This is a summer day to me) but I was cold ALL DAY. Dongsaenga said that it was because Everland was on top of a mountain and that that was the reason for it being cold. If you go, don't make the same mistake as I. Mountains are apparently cold. Bring a jacket and pants.

Everland is located right outside Seoul in a city called Yongin (용인) and it's super easy to get to. You can take the subway/train all the way to Everland Station.

Dongsaenga took a lot of selfies so you're going to see our faces a lot in this post.

It became a thing to do weird poses and expressions when taking pictures. Don't mind it.

Right across the bridge from the station are free transfer buses that will bring you to the entrance of Everland!

We saw a bunch of people wearing hair clips and headbands. Some of the more extreme wore these giant hats.

You can grab free guides at the entrance - they come in English as well.

Since Christmas was only 1 month and 10 days away, beautiful decorations were already put up.

Aaah yes. Christmas flamingos. Classic.

Bringing me to an amusement park is a horrible idea because I am terrified of roller coasters and will absolutely not try them right away. Instead I stick to rides like this one.

Translation: "It's great because you're by my side."
These signs with cute/cheese lines were all over.

A... German(?) inspired area

Everland also features a zoo area with all kinds of animals! Here we went on a 'safari tour.'

Look at this tired baby.

Time for another safari tour. This guide talked through it ALL. He spoke fast and used a lot of words I didn't understand but I like to think I caught the gist of what he said.
He told a couple of the animals that they were beautiful.

We also fed the giraffes!

We found a place where you could buy little amounts of bird food and hand feed them.

Today was the day I'd been dreaming of since childhood. Today I became a Disney princess when I got to hold birds in my hands for the first time. Not only did I hold one bird but 6 ENTIRE BIRDS IN MY HAND AT THE SAME TIME AAAAH!!!!

CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT?!

AAAAAAH

Instead of walking up and down the hills, enjoy a free lift ride!

Before going into this really cool retro restaurant, we stopped to take pictures in what reminded me of a giant barbie doll packaging. A couple of Korea guys saw us make funny poses inside it and, surely enough, ended up having their own mini photoshoot once we left.

After eating, we went back outside to take pictures with the funny dressed non-Koreans.

Time for a panda tour!

And a 'smile battle' machine that would rate your smile and have you compete against other smiles.

Dongsaenga bought this ridiculous hat and tried to put it on my several times.

Here's a picture of the one time I let him succeed. It's been half a lifetime since I last felt as ashamed as when he took this picture.

Tiger feeding time!

Now's time for one of my favorite rides. River rafts!

While waiting in line, this SUPER upbeat music was playing and the guides were dancing as if their lives depended on it! A couple of military uniform clad boys in front of us seemed well entertained by this. It was a total mood-lifter.

The ride was super fun but we got quite a bit of water on us even though they covered us in plastic blankets. Luckily, giant flame-throwing fans were provided for guests to dry off their butts with.

Adorable sweets~

Dongsaenga is actually pretty great at these Dance Dance Revolution-like games! I couldn't for the life of me keep up with his pace. When we got off the machines to play something else, another guy working there got on and asserted his dominance as the ultimate dancer when he thought no one was watching.

Next stop was the giant carousel where safety belts were a must. I thought it was just to make sure little kids wouldn't fall off but one of the workers signaled for me to put it on ㅇㅅㅇ

We asked a janitor to take this photo. He seemed to like our poses.

This little boy would not break eye contact.

Every evening there is a light show and a parade here.

The street was filled with Everland theme music. I tried looking up the song without luck but instead found this playlist with other Everland theme songs. It's really great if you need some pick-me-up music.

I was surprised by just how many foreigners were in the show. Out of all the girls here, only one appeared to be Korean. I wonder if working in Everland is some sort of lucrative summer job for foreigners that I haven't heard about? I want in on the secret!