Sunday at a Zoo

It looks like spring is finally coming to Korea. :) The weather is getting warmer and everything's beginning to bloom. It's really nice outside so it would be such a waste not to go anywhere on weekend. 

My boyfriend and I wanted to visit the Zoo a week ago already. Unfortunately, so did hundreds of other people. We got stuck in a traffic jam near the Zoo and we suddenly didn't want to visit the Zoo anymore. There were just too many people. So instead we stopped at Sori Arts Center which is almost right next to the Zoo. There were almost no people so it was nice and quiet, just some couples walking around or sitting on benches and kids playing with roller-skates and badminton. The weather was also really nice and warm.

That day I really felt like eating cake so my boyfriend and I bought it and took it with us to eat it outside. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed our blueberry cake. We sat there for a while, walked around a bit and watched the cute little kids exploring around. At the Sori Arts Center, there's this strange looking sculpture and I wondered what it's supposed to represent. My boyfriend's explanation was that it represents 'Whisper' with a drop of blood on it. My boyfriend can really be romantic at times ;) Just in case you don't know: 'whisper' is a brand of female pads originally called 'Always', but known as 'Whisper' in Korea, Japan and some other Asian countries.

This weekend we tried going to the Zoo again. The weather was a bit cooler than last week (around 15°C) so I was hoping there would be less people this time. Also, we left home a few hours earlier to get there before the huge crowd arrives. And this time we were lucky. There was no traffic jam and we got to the parking lot without a problem. It took as a while to find a free space to park though, but we made it. The Zoo itself didn't seem too crowded because the park is really wide.

The entrance ticket is ridiculously cheap here. Or is it just ridiculously expensive back in Slovenia? Here a regular adult ticket with no discount costs 1300krw which is less than 1€! I just checked the website of the Zoo in Slovenia and an adult ticket cots 8€!!! Can you believe it?! Visiting a Zoo in Slovenia is actually more expensive than watching a movie at a movie theater. How is it in other countries, I wonder... Please share in the comments if you have the time. ^^

Anyway, after paying the entrance fee we walked around and looked at the animals. I didn't take too may photos this time. I already have lots of photos from our last year's visit to the Zoo and I think I was just a bit lazy this time. Or my hands were just too busy, because I carried the snacks in one hand and held my boyfriend's hand with the other. :) We bought this colorful snacks that my boyfriend wanted to feed the animals with. I know you're not supposed to feed most of the animals, and on some cages there was a sign asking people not to feed the animals. So we didn't feed those, mostly just sheep, goats and these huge fish in the pond :) I think the fish ended up eating most of the snacks. My boyfriend might not be an expert on this but he assured me that this snack can't hurt the animals and I also don't think any of the sheep, goats or fish will get sick because of it. 

We brought our own lunch with us, since we wanted to have kind of like a picnic. So before going to the Zoo we stopped at this pab-burger place. It's a special rice burger sold in Korea. It's popular 'cause it's really yummy and really cheap. There was a menu written in English in the store, but I can't find a photo of it online. Instead if you can't understand Korean, you can look at the photos on their website to see some of the different types. 

I think my boyfriend got beef bulgogi with tuna-mayonnaise topping and I got tteokgalbi with tuna-mayonnaise and cheese topping. We came to a conclusion that whatever rice burger you choose you need to have tuna-mayonnaise with it. It is so much yummier this way. :) Or at least that's our opinion. You get plastic spoons with it so you can eat it like my boyfriend does - you mix everything and eat it like a meal. Or you can eat it the way I do - don't mix it and just eat it with a spoon. But actually the original way to eat it is to squash it with your hands before removing the wrapping. If you do this then you can actually hold it and eat it the way you would eat a regular burger. But everyone has it's own way that suits them. :)

We found a nice bench for our lunch but as soon as we sat down the wind got really strong. It felt really warm but as soon as the wind blew we felt cold. We didn't want to carry our jackets around so we decided to leave them in the car. It was like this the whole time, there was no wind at all but as soon as we found a nice bench to rest on, the wind started again. Until we found this one bench behind the lion's cage. There was really no view from the bench but the back wall of the lion's cage and it's probably the most unpopular bench in summer because there is no shade. But this time it was perfect. It was so nice and warm that we almost fell asleep there.

I watched the kids walk around with their helium balloons. They looked so cute. :) I really thought Hello Kitty would be the most popular balloon among the girls but I was wrong. Hello Kitty is apparently more popular among teenage girls or girls my age that like cute and pink stuff. But the little girls in the Zoo seemed to prefer Frozen characters, Pororo characters and Secret Jouju. Boys also had lots of Pororo, dinosaurs and I believe dolphins were popular with both boys and girls. :)

The famous Korean penguin Pororo and his friends.

 

Korean Secret Jouju

I remember I also loved helium balloons when I was a kid. Once, our neighbor took me and my sister downtown and bought us heart shaped helium balloons. My sister picked the one with Mickey and Minnie mouse and I picked Superman lol Now I'm all into pink and girly stuff but when I was a kid I picked Superman :D Well, I had a huge crush on him when I was in preschool, so that's why. ;)

Is it also common in your country to have a small amusement park for kids inside the Zoo? I don't think it's that common in Europe. But it's a normal thing in Japan and Korea. Some of the rides actually looked quite fun and prefect for my boyfriend and I since we are a bit of grandma and grandpa when it comes to amusement park rides :) So we both agreed it would be great when we have a kid so we will be able to get on those rides, pretending it's for our kid's enjoyment, when it's really for our own ;)