Hongdae Free Markets

John greeted me this morning with a borderline catatonic, definitely regretful, "You made the right decision, Shayne" in reference to my not going out last night. It wasn't until 3pm that we went for a walk up to the university to check out the market. 

A little indie live music was a nice touch to this creative faire. Most of the goods were hand made knickknacks, which had drawn a huge number of people to view them. 

Saturday afternoon in hongdae is incredibly busy. The only thing more impressive than the number of people walking these streets, are the ones trying to drive through them. One such small truck was even reversing down a busy street, borderline nudging people with the body of it. 

This made us laugh:

Dinner plans consist of meeting up with a couple friends from my university days in Daejeon. We're heading to one of the best restaurants in Gungnam, or so they say. To get there, it's a 14 stop train ride, and we're fairly sure the hour we left in advance will get us there on time at the very least. 

Note to self, top up metro card. 

History in the peninsular

John and I made an uncharacterlisticly (try getting that one past autocorrect) sober and unaccompanied trip to the national war museum today. It's humbling just how much strife the Korean people have been through over the thousands of years they have been there. Everyone has attacked them! Japan, multiple times, Russia, the States, even France had a go (and lost, hah)! And yet, we all came together to support them against the North. 

There is no shortage of weaponry here. Daggers, to muskets, to cannons, to bombs. The Korean peninsular has seen so much trouble, it makes Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber seem like the perfect couple. 

After the museum, we had some Korean BBQ shoulder pork. Kind if expensive, at $20 for 200g and a beer each, by Korean standards, but tasty all the same. The only reasons we went there was that we had decided that we'd had too much fried chicken lately, and that it was right next door to our favourite fried chicken place. Priorities. Convenience. Seoul caters to all. 

After dinner, it was back to the hostel for a few drinks. John had to talk me into them, given as we had been walking around in 29degree heat. Took him all of one second before we were into last  night's left overs, and a couple frenchies coming back with a few bottles of beer and soju to get me in the mood. 

They decided to go clubbing again, whereas I'm kind of over it for now. We've been drinking so much lately, for the cost of peanuts, that I hung back tonight. 

Instead, I went to the local GS25 for some snacks, and to attempt these damn triangle things. 

These can be best described as triangle sushi. I didn't notice at first, but this one is bae-i-kon flavoured. Bacon! Phoneticised for great diciousness. 

These are complicated because it's wrapped in such a way as to keep the seaweed and rice separate until you open it. 

You open these by first pulling the central strip, and cleaving the wrapping in two. 

Next, you tear off one half of the packaging, followed by the other. The way the plastic wrap separates from the rice and seaweed sticks them together, leaving you with a handheld meal. 

Not a bad whee triangle. Tastes like bacon and mayo. How much I've drunk to be teaching you about opening a rice-based snack I'll let you decide. It's important information as far as I'm concerned! It only costs $1! Eat that sushi time lovers. (myself included)

It's 2am. 

No rest for the wicked

After the night prior, we were convinced that yesterday was going to be a day of rest. Technically, we've said that every morning since we got here, and it's never been a quiet night - last night is no different. 

The day was rather mild, and spent trying to organise some more activities to do. Unfortunately, the massive k-pop concert sold out before we could get tickets, and we're still on the fence about the Ultra Korea electronic/trance concert, due to it not having the big name artists of last year. I found a good couple possibilities regardless, but will have to get some suggestions from those here. 

So what was there to do but have a whee drink. As we do, we reigned in a few other hostel goes to join us, and suddenly a plan is forged to go clubbing. 

Being a Thursday, the streets are awash with fellow booze heads. It's just so much cheaper to go to a nearby convenience store, get some soju or beer, and party in the park. Hell, the shops themselves have tables and chairs outside that you can drink on, day or night. Quite common to see older men doing this by lunch time. 

The clubs are packed. You can see in this picture a bunch of people on a step in front of the dj, most of which know hand actions to the lyrics of all the songs. This gets good crowd participation, who do them back, and makes for a fun night. 

As we bounce between clubs, turning a corner suddenly strands John and I, with no sign of the others. It's only 2am, but we call it quits and stumble on home, surprisingly getting the directions mostly right for a change. 

There's talk of some sort of pool party tonight, so we'll see where that goes!

A royal affair

The day begins like any other, with the exception of John and I being early to meet with our friends - couldn't take any chances after how late we were last time. Furthermore, they were actually late. 

Off for lunch we went, which included a Korean pancake to share between us. When in doubt about what to eat, bulgogi is always a safe bet.

After eating, we went to the larger of the various palaces for the changing of the guard performance. 

$3 entry fee and we were strutting around like we owned the place. The architecture, decorations, and sheer enormity of the palace was awe inspiring.

The palace museum is right outside, so we went to have a nosey through there. Gina was explaining a lot of the finer details to me, while I was butchering the Korean language trying to read it all. 

After the museum, we went to play dress up in traditional Korean clothing. I'm the King!

It's been a long, hot day, and those kingly robes didn't make it any easier. Our next stop was a popular ice cream cafe, which really hit the spot and cooled us down. Sharing is a big part of the culture here, so we all dug in. 

Finally(!) it was time for dinner and drinks. They each had things they needed to do in the morning, so we kept it to a small night out over some spicy, boiled chicken and beer. 

We then parted ways along our respective subway lines, where I found these little fellows on the seating. Neat idea really. 

We picked up some beer on the way back to the hostel, and promptly got shitfaced with a bunch of frenchies. Pretty standard really. 

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!)