Having a Roll in Seoul

Seoul’s amusement parks were the stuff of legends across the globe. If you went to any amusement park lover and asked them “What is your favorite amusement park? And virtually every single one of thing would answer with: the awe-inspiring Everland, the dignified Lotteworld; or maybe even the small but posh Disneyworld. However if there’s one thing that all amusement park lovers can agree on it’s that Six Flags is the king of the roller coasters. If there’s one expression that can describe them it’s most certainly “The Fast and Furious”.

Sitting down in the waiting room was a torture that no man should ever go through. Being forced to wait in anguish while other riders were screaming out of terror and joy. A mean jape I had to suffer often. The one complaint I have to make is that since 6 flags are renowned for it’s roller coasters it’s often chock-full with gawking tourists of every nationality – Trying to navigate it was like trying to walk through a brick wall.

Getting in to the roller coaster was a blessing in a disguise considering the amount of people queued for it. Barely a few seconds after the dark safety bars went down and the ride began the rollercoaster entered a dark tunnel with only a few ominous looking torches to illuminate the way. Walls started to converge on us from all around- not something I expected at all. The tunnel began to tilt upwards so slowly at first I thought it was just a figment of my taunt imagination but I didn’t realize how steep the tunnel was until I noticed the rider in front of me quietly and franticly muttering “Why did I agree to go on this ride, oh god why” – I had a good chuckle about that afterwards but at the moment I was preoccupied with screaming in terror as I whooshed of the tunnel into the daylight like tiger coming out of it’s cave after sleeping. Numerous Twists and turns later I came out feeling nauseous but ready to experience it once more. Alas it was not meant to be, as I was in the ride the queue had grown so large that it figuratively could of wrapped around the world like a anaconda wrapping around its prey.

 The next stop in my route was the artificial skiing resort opposite of 6 flags- the 2 parks were the complete opposite of each: For one thing 6 flags was jam packed with people while the skiing resort had hardly a soul in sight, 6 flags was boiling since the sun relentlessly attacked people under it. The resort in comparison was cool as a cucumber, chill like a hipster and refreshing like a glass of cold lemonade.

My experience there had it’s up and downs. For one thing I had a blast riding down the beginner slopes racing my sibling for bragging rights. Unfortunately I didn’t have that same experience with the steep tight turns of the intermediate turns. In fact I had one of the most hilarious/terrifying moment in my life happen there. It happened the first time I ever went on an intermediate course. I was approaching a particularly steep turn I slipped and crashed in a spectacular fashion on my face kicking up a cloud of white powder. When I tried to get up I realized that one of my boots along with the ski had fallen of my foot and only a sock remained on it. Slowly slipping down I made a grab for the boot but it was a fingernails length to far away. Luckily my father was there to help me and with his help I managed to get it back to its rightful place on my foot. From that day on I have always been wary of intermediate courses.

If there were one word that could of described my experience in Seoul it would most unquestionably be Merry. One day I might go back and have a completely different point of view of Korea but until that day comes this is the finest city I know of.  

Dominic