63 Building

Another awesome Sunday caper!

Today Nick and I went to the 63 Building. The 63 Building is located on Yeouido Island on the other side of the Hangang River. The island also houses the National Assembly building, the Korean Stock Exchange, and a park famous for its cherry tree blossoms in the spring. The 63 Building is 63 stories tall and is basically the Korean version of the Empire State Building, only GOLD. Inside they have a plethora of awesome things to behold.

First, we went to the 63 Seaworld. There we had the best time petting penguins, touching otters, and viewing the awesome array of fish, lizards, frogs, seals and eels. It wasn't a very big aquarium but the fact that we got to TOUCH A PENGUIN and play with otters made it SO worth it. The first thing we saw when we walked into the aquarium was a lone penguin in an open air tank. He was on interactive display. There was nothing stopping us from reaching in and petting him. They had dozens more penguins in an enclosed area swimming and frolicking and being fed, but the initial penguin was the most fun because we could pet him and call to him and he would swim right up to the (low) glass to check us out.



The otters had a really cool complex complete with clear plastic tunnels for them to swim through into several different columns of habitats, and several of the habitats had holes to the outside. For a few thousand won (or around $2.00) you could buy little wiggly worm like fishes and feed the otters through those holes. The otters were SUPER cute. They would stick their whole arms through the holes trying to reach for the wiggly worm-fish. We got to pet their little hands, they were so cute!!!



We also saw a huge octopus, a giant sea turtle, 10+ pound spiny crabs, sharks, stingrays, at least half a dozen different varieties of eels, seals and sea lions, and more. They also had a very fun exhibit with little anchovies that had finger holes on the top...you stuck your fingers into the holes and the fish would all swarm around your finger and nibble on you, it was very ticklish and funny.


After the aquarium Nick and I went up to the art gallery. It is the highest art gallery in the world on the 60th floor. They had a beautiful exhibit called "Into the Garden"...they had some very cool art pieces all about flowers. Lots of interactive pieces also, which we really enjoyed. And, of course, the views of the city were amazing.

Between the art gallery and the aquarium we were most amused, but we weren't done yet! The 63 Building also boasted a wax museum that we checked out. We got fun pictures with Obama, Tiger, Frankenstein, Mozart and more...even Jesus at the Last Supper! The wax figures were a little creepy but we had fun all the same. They even had a haunted house that we walked through...admittedly I jumped several times and Nick laughed at me the whole way through.



Despite the many restaurants and shopping in the 63 Building Nick and I decided to go somewhere else for dinner. We quickly checked out the very pretty and marvelous metal tree garden outside the building and then hopped back onto the subway to go back towards the main part of the city.

We got off at Anguk and headed over to Insadong. We had been in a small part of Insadong before but hadn't gotten the chance to see it all and figured now was as good a time as ever. We found lots of awesome galleries, tea houses, and antiques. I have a feeling our families will be getting some very cool packages come Christmas time :)

We had Italian tonight, we found a gorgeous little gem of a restaurant down one of the tiny little alleys off Insadong. The restaurant was called Ahndamiro (serve you with the plateful meal lol). Despite the Engrish it ended up being breathtakingly stunning inside (we especially loved the candlelit staircase), very very romantic, and the food was DELICIOUS. Nick had pasta bolegnase and I had fettuccine with beef tenderloin and Gorgonzola tomato cream sauce with mushrooms. They also served us amazing walnut bread, olive and tomato foccacia, and garlic bread. It was goooood.



Now we are home and relaxing a little before the work week begins tomorrow morning.