June 21st- Everland

I know it’s only been a week since my last post but with Bali, Indonesia coming up in a few weeks, I need to do some catching up for you guys! One of our co-workers (Dave) had only a week left on his contract and he was not extending. There were a lot of things that Dave had not done and Daniel and I were willing to do whatever he wanted to do in his last couple weekends. Korea is somewhat known for a few of their theme parks and water parks and we figured that the weather had been getting nicer and it was a chill weekend, Dave could experience his first Korean theme park on one of his last weekends. This place is called "Everland" and is said to be Korea's most famous theme park. If you don’t know me, I love theme parks and all the crazy rides more than anyone, so I was stoked to say the least. I become a little kid at places like these.

On Saturday night we figured everything out about how to get there, what subway line to take and then what bus to take. The three of us woke up early on Sunday morning with quite the day ahead of us. We took the subway to the bus stop which was a non-stop, to and from bus to Everland. When we got there, it reminded us so much of Disneyland. From the entrance to the themes and whatnot. We went to get our tickets and we knew they were supposed to be 35,000 Korean Won and that translates to about $30.00 which is very cheap compared to Disneyland. For some reason, using our bank cards, we were given a 50% discount and it turned into a really cheap ticket and day. Instantly when we walked in we were all taking pictures and just taking it all in. It was not long until we walked by this crazy ride we had never seen anything like. It is really tough to explain (I have some pictures of it) but you are sitting in a seat side by side with others in two rows and the ride goes in circles and spins you upside down and was extremely jerky. Just when you thought you were going upside down, it would jerk you and spin the other way. I loved it but Dave and Daniel were not willing to do it again. After the welcome ride to Everland, we began walking around looking for the roller coasters and there she was.....this HUGE wooden roller coaster that looked amazing. We ended riding this roller coaster three times. It was maybe one of the best roller coasters I had ever been on. It is known as the roller coaster with the steepest drop in the WORLD! It honestly looked like the drop brought you even more than 90 degrees. It was so intense. Daniel and I tried to bring our camera with us and take a video for the blog but there was a sign that said if their camera's sensed an object like a camera, they would stop the ride instantly. Now who knows if they really would have done that but it was a risk not worth taking. You never want to be known as "those foreigners" in Korea. Needless to say, this was the best ride that Everland had to offer. After lunch we did some walking around, checked out the landscape of the park and just enjoyed ourselves. I am pretty sure that this day was the first day in Korea where it was really hot with full humidity. No joke, just walking around, the three of us were sweating profusely. We did a few more rides on the day but nothing too special. I have a few pictures of a Dave and I on a ride and it is really funny. I took it mid ride and we were doing a ton of spinning and I am loving it and Dave looks like he is going to throw up. It is one of my favorite! After that ride, Dave was not going to join me for many rides and Daniel had already given the nix to that ride and most spinney rides with Dave and me.

One thing I noticed about Everland and probably Korea in general is that it is so safe. At each individual ride, they had lockers for each ride seat for you to put your belongings into. There was no lock and no worries about anything being stolen. We put wallets, camera, cash, phones and anything valuable in them and had no worries. I don’t think that would be the case one bit back home. You are better off getting a locker with a lock (maybe even your own lock). All in all, we spent about 8 hours or so at the theme park and had a blast together. We were glad Dave was able to do something like that before he left because on his actual last Saturday in Korea, we had to work from 10AM-8PM and he flew out early Monday morning. I think you will see that we had an awesome time together in all the pics.