Late for dinner

As we often do, we immediately got lost coming out of the hostel on our planned journey to the subway station. With no time to spare, a rush hour taxi ride soon had us at our destination 25minutes late, where we met Yunni and Gina for dinner. It's one thing to be told what we'll be having, but another to see it in all it's glory. 

I still don't remember the Korean name for it, but it was glorious pork all the same. 

After dinner, we went for a walk along the river, repeatedly threatening to throw the girls in the water, as one does. 

We found our way to the main statue of the Korean king, Sejong, who invented the Korean alphabet as an easier way for the poor folk of Korea to read and write. It was too dark for pictures of him though, but I'm sure we'll be back there, given as he sits outside one of the historical palaces of Seoul. 

Here's a badass metallic horse. 

11pm and it was time to call it quits. The girls helped us get subway metro cards for the ride home - too bad they can't help with our sense if direction when trying to get to the bloody station from the hostel. 

What happens in Itaewon...

My birthday started rather mild, beer, soju, Game of Thrones (omg that ending), but the rain couldn't stop us from getting out and about for the night. 

John and I team up with a couple guys from the hostel - Daniel and Leigh, an American and an Aussie, to hit the town. Daniel we met at the hostel last year, along with a few others we still keep in contact with. Somehow, a plan was forged over soju last night to come over here again next year and all get together to relive the good tines. 

So we all hop in a taxi to Itaewon and hit up the red light district. Daniel gave us a guided tour of where it's ok to be, and where it's not. We were only having a look around when one such lady of the night wrapped her arm around mine and proceeded to try and pull me into her illicit sex dungeon - well that's what I though she was suggesting, my Korean is not quite that good yet. After tearing myself away, I was assured that she was not all she appeared to be - and so that's how I was accosted by a lady boy. 

Beers, whiskey (in the form of birthday shots courtesy of some Canadian pilots we met) and some games of pool had me quite drunk by 1am, so in the taxi we went back to the hostel. The others stayed out a bit longer in the more local bars, whole I showered and slept. 

Not bad for a Monday night, really. Now, we recuperate before going out to meet some friends again. The plan was to hang out along the Han river (a popular social gathering/drinking spot), but the rain has washed that plan out. I'm sure no good can come from whatever we end up doing anyway. 

Trifecta

We began yesterday with the previously mentioned tacos and beer. Late lunch consisted of chicken and beer, then we topped it off with pizza and beer at a hipster pizzaria. 

Hostel mates decided we couldn't stop drinking until midnight, when my birthday rolled around, so we powered through a few bottles if sojuice, ever offering some to the new entrants of the common room. 

Today, we're going to watch game of thrones over food and drink at the hostel, and no doubt end up on the town to party for my birthday (29, but Koreans add one, making me 30 in Korean age, omg!)

Hitting the ground running

A whirlwind journey puts us at the hostel come 4:30 on Saturday, and we're told the common room is out of action due to flooding. Only thing to do in 30 degree heat is go find us some beers. 

Of course, we got lost for 20mins and thus had no time for pre-meeting beers, and thus waited at the train station for Yunni snd Gina, two friends from our last trip. 

A couple servings of fried chicken, several bottles of soju, and a couple jugs of cold beer hit the spot. We had died and returned to chicken & beer heaven. 

One restaurant wasn't enough though - we follow this up with two cocktail bars before returning to the hostel, more alcohol in hand. I don't remember how clean the common room was to start with, but we and a few other guests certainly made a mess. Friendships were made and forgotten in a haze of alcohol. 

Today, we are recuperating, with tacos. 

What goes down, comes up

Made it to Hong Kong after copious amounts of Jack Daniels. The layover time in Auckland was all of 25 minutes after landing to when we had to board, which left us worried as to getting to the international airport and getting through customs in such a short amount of time! We managed to squeeze a Hawaiian BK chicken burger in before boarding, which didn't stay down for long after the inflight meal :S

Hong Kong customs pointed out it wasn't a good idea to take a bullet shaped key ring through the X-ray scanner, but let me take it anyway. 

Now I'm hungry...

Chch airport

Here we go!

Trouble already...

First sign that everything is not going according to plan - John stayed up until 4am drinking/cleaning, put his head down for a quick nap before his 7am flight down to Christchurch, and proceeded to sleep through any and all alarms he had made.

A couple hundred dollars later, he has now arrived here in Christchurch, a few hours behind schedule.

I think I'll triple check my ticket now...