Monday 3 November 2014

에버랜드 | Everland

Happy Birthday!
Another testament to how far behind I am with these posts, I went to Everland with Nick and Kiegan (Korvianites, woo!) for her birthday weekend. On October 5th.

Everland is one of South Korea's few theme parks (understandable, considering there's not much space to be wasting on rollercoasters) but it's decently sized and looks the part. Apparently it's better than Lotte World, but I guess I'll just have to go there to compare ;p

Anyway, we had an exciting journey via the subway, including the very new chunk of light rail line that I think was built specifically to make it a bit easier to access Everland and that stretch of the country.

Driving the trainnnn~
The weather was great and we actually saved an awful lot of money thanks to the fabled "Native Teacher" discount that we weren't 100% sure existed. It was a bit of a mission finding the right place to go and then filling in all the paperwork (all in Korean, because I'm assuming it's not a common thing for them to talk about or have papers printed for) But lo, we presented our papers and the lady behind the desk issued us 3 wonderfully discounted entry passes.


Starting small, we first went on a log flume so that we could dry off as the day went on, so obviously no pictures but it was kind of scary. We apparently 'got air' on the last drop (because they're boats, not on a rail or anything) but I was too busy screaming to notice, I assume.

We then took it easy on what I think was a kids ride, whereupon we initially complained that it was too slow and cutesy...




But apparently that was just the beginning and it ended up really quite alarmingly fast.

"look terrified, it's more fun"

This continued for a little while, with us going on small rides with varying degrees of amusement (or lack thereof) before deciding we should man up and go on a proper ride. I say 'we', I mean 'Nick and I', Kiegan was ready from the get-go. Sorry! ;P

So we went for the T-Express, a huge wooden rollercoaster at the edge of the park, which you can see behind my giant finger in this photo below:

It was sunny and I couldn't see the screen very well, okay?
Unfortunately it was restricted access due to it being one of the most popular rides in the park, so unless we wanted to pay for a queue-pass, we had to wait about an hour. Strangely, we took that as "go and eat a lot of food so that you feel kind of ill when you get on the terrifying ride".



But the food was good, and surprisingly low-cost for a theme park (still pricey by Korean standards, though) and by the time we were done it was time to queue up for our doom.





File under: things I don't really want to see before a scary rollercoaster ride. I'm pretty sure it was built with extra bits to look like the most rickety, broken ride ever, so that while you're in the agonisingly long queue you can ponder your mortality.

The ride is supposedly 3 minutes long, but it felt like maybe 1. It was terrifying and great. Mainly because I can't do vertical drops gracefully. I think I imploded Nick's eardrum, and I also missed the great view before the first drop (which again the approach to is horribly drawn out.) because I was too busy freaking out into my hands.

I'd consoled myself with the thought that after the first big drop it was easy riding, just lots of twists and turns...I was wrong. There were a lot. I screamed a lot.

I also ducked a lot, because there were many times when the structures above us looked waaaay too close to my head for my liking. It was probably an illusion considering people go through there with their hands up, but still. I like my head, I'd like to keep it.


We also went on a great river rapids ride which gave you an adorable built-in splash protector, rather than leaving you to get soaked like they do at home. The 'boat' was weirdly segmented so it would wobble and bend with the water, which I liked but it also meant my feet got wet.

I wanted to get a photo of us on the wooden ride, because our faces were priceless, but unfortunately the cost of the photo was not. And of course you can't take a blurry photo of it. So here's Nick recreating his photo, with an owl that looks very similar. They're not quite as full of rage as the first one though.
Yes, mum, Nick borrowed your sweater. I'm keeping an eye on it :p
We went on another coaster with proper loops and things, which I love, and...weirdly they'd glued a photo of Psy and a horse to the ground under one bit so you'd see it if you look "up" when you're upside down... no idea why.

I also went on a funfair-esque ride which was like a doughnut-shaped Viking that also rotated. One girl was shrieking before it even moved so I have no idea what she was like on the other rides but goodness me. Calm yourself.


Kiegan went on this ridiculous contraption.
There's also a zoo in Everland, which is upsetting. I don't like most zoos, and I like to vote with my money. I wish there'd been that choice here, because I really didn't need to see a sad, too-warm polar bear in a too-small enclosure surrounded by screaming children. Alas, it was on our way through the park.

I'm annoyed with myself for buying into this and taking a photo but I'd never seen a fennec fox irl.
The park itself is actually quite nicely designed, and looks very cute and spacious, just thought I'd throw that out there. It was Halloween themed because obviously Halloween runs for the whole of October in the commercial world. I liked it but after seeing that commercial I was terrified of running into a zombie.

Travellator outdoors. For going up the hill. Incredible.


We had to leave early to avoid zombies (and make it home) so we didn't have time to watch the K-pop hologram show, but we browsed the YG merch store and bought some snacks before heading home and narrowly missing out on a zombie apocalypse. Yay!

Thanks for a great day out~

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