On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
12/1/2018. We woke up very early on the second day upon meeting up with inlaws. This was a day both interesting and frustrating for me. Interesting because brother-in-law had booked a guided tour for all of us and we got to visit some beautiful places. He made reservations for us (party of 5) weeks before departure, I think it was through a travel agency online. Frustrating because I felt very sick later that day and threw up on the way back to Seoul (it all went away the next day lol)!
The main events for this guided tour were (1) visit The Garden of Morning Calm by a tour bus, (2) lunch, then (3) ferry to Nami Island, which what this post is about 😄
Both Garden of Morning Calm and Nami Island are located outside of Seoul (as seen in the pictures below).
The itinerary was
1. Business plaza to meet with the tour guide (I think it was around 7:50am?)
2. Tour bus to Garden of Morning Calm
3. Self-guided tour (or, just get lost in the scenery 😍) at Garden of Morning Calm (around 2 hours)
4. Tour bus to arest area just before border control..?
5. Lunch
6. Ferry to Nami Island
7. Free-roaming on Nami Island (around 2 hours)
8. Same ferry back to the "border control" gate, then tour bus back to Seoul
The first thing we did that morning was getting snacks for the trip! Everything in the picture above is what we got from a convenience store near the hotel. And yeah....we finished all before reaching Garden of Morning Calm!
After everyone was ready, we headed to a business plaza to meet up with the tour guide. We didn't know what the guide would look like. We only knew the guide would be waving a flag at a set time in a set place. The plaza was only a few minutes by foot from where we stayed, so we got there quickly. The problem was there were many tour guides waving flags at the same time in that same plaza. Some with the same color, some different. Each tour guide had a sign indicating the name of the tour he/she was with (taped? or just hung over their neck, now I can't remember lol) the front & back of his/her coat. After a moment of searching around, we found our guide. Our tour guide was waving a yellow flag in the picture above. She talked fast, in Korean and English, and overall seemed friendly. She led us and another family to the tour bus and asked us to wait on the bus, then she disappeared in the crowds to wait for more reservations to show up.
W and I started eating our breakfast right away 😂 This roll was SPICY! I liked it a lot, though I still don't know if it was this very roll that made me sick hours later.
The Garden of Morning Calm
After hours of travel, we reached "The Garden of Morning Calm." This beautiful garden hosts differents festivals throughout the seasons. In winter, there's a "light festival." We only stayed here for around 2 hours during daytime, so we saw no lights. However, the scenery was stunning. Weather was perfect and the air was fresh, so I personally really enjoyed our time here.
Below are some pictures I took as we strolled around.
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| This tiny house (above) was so popular among tourists. So many people wanted to pose with it (I did too 😂). I waited until there was barely anyone around to snap a picture of it (but someone's purple bag still can be seen on the left side, oh well, I tried). |
Throughout the garden, different lighting setups can be spotted. Also many little props and pastel-theme decorations can be seen on trees, next to the path, or on signs/buildings. Even though we didn't get to see the lighting festival, I'm sure it looks wondrous in person (a quick Google shows many amazing photos visitors shared).
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| This is "road to heaven" 😎 |
For lunch, the tour bus dropped us off at a rest area before this "immigration border" (seen below). The rest area is pretty much a big parking lot area with several restaurants and a public restroom surrounding the parking lot.
As soon as I stepped off of the tour bus, I heard screams ❗ Apparently one could zipline their way to Nami Island!!! At the time it had already been 2 years since I last ziplined. I told W if we didn't already have this tour group, I'd be down to get to the island via zipline 😊
Nami Island
After everyone was done with their lunch, the tour guide led us directly through a gate to get on the ferry. The ferry ride wasn't long. It was less than 10 minutes of a ride! Lots of visitors here that day. According to Tripadvisor, "Nami Island is Korea’s most globally recognized tourist destination and cultural brand welcoming over 3.3 million guests annually." Walking around the island was very relaxing. We didn't follow any specific route, just walked around aimlessly. At first we moved around as a group of five, then we separated and it was just W and me. We met up about an hour later for snacks and tea (seafood pancake was legit delicious here). It seemed like there was always crowds of people so patience was important as many people were posing for their Instagram 😂.
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| I actually have heard of this drama "Winter Sonata" A LONG TIME AGO. I never saw it so I don't feel connected to this whatsoever. The island was truly peaceful and beautiful and could totally see why K-drama shot scenes here. |
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| All recent U graduates would recognize the sign our hands were making. "IMAGINE U" hahahahaha |
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| While walking around, we caught on this wonderful smell of "Nami sausage." I'm not kidding, I still remember it. It smelled soooooooo good. I smelled it from being blocks away and urged W to look for "whatever that smell was" with me. We found it. 3000 won (about USD $2.70) per stick. We got it. The verdict is it's so worth it! 😋😋😋 |
As mentioned earlier, I got sick later that day. It started on the way back to Seoul. At first I just didn't feel well but couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with me. I just felt unease and tried to take a nap on the bus. We think it was the bumpy road that gave me motion sickness? I was the only person that threw up on the bus (oh yeah, everyone including inlaws, tour guide, other passengers, saw it and heard me gag, such an embarrassing moment). Since I was the only person that puked, food poisoning was ruled out. It had to be something I ate that no one else had (maybe that breakfast from the convenience store, though not likely because W also had half of everything I had and he was fine), or it really was just motion sickness. The guide checked with me several times to make sure I was ok and I appreciated her offer of bottled water.
Aside from the puking, it was a very nice day trip. I recommend both Garden of Morning Calm and Nami Island for people looking for a day trip from Seoul. I will treasure these memories for a long time, even the puking part hahaha.
💗 CM
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