Party in the Park

We decided to have something of a farewell party for Peter, one of the volunteers here at Kimchee. As per usual, this consisted of a stupid amount of soju - I opted for 2 1.8L bottles from the nearby mart for 9000 won, which works out to be half the price of getting it at the local 7/11, and only $11 NZD. 

At around 11pm, we sallied forth from the hostel, and found ourselves playing the game of kings:

10000 won for a game, which includes the beer. 

Charging on, we congregate in the park as so many others do to chill out and drink with strangers. It's not hard to find people that speak English, and while I do enjoy trying to speak Korean, it makes everything a lot easier. Surprising to see cockroaches there, but then again, considering how dirty the area is, maybe not. They went crunch under foot. 

Being the gentlemen that we are, John and I walk some random lass home, for the second time in recent nights, and get back to the hostel about 4:30, with snacks. 

Lunchtime today (yes, it was actually an acceptable time to still be considered lunch) consisted of traditionally fried chicken, curtesy of KFC. John then bailed and went back to bed like a nanna, and is still there as I write this at 6pm. I then went to have a look at the local chain department store, Lotte World, to check out the bookstore and clothing shop. Found a number of Korean Language study books and some survival guides, but nothing that really too my interest at this stage. May pick up a couple neat looking t shirts from the Uni Qlo store, after having lost what I had got from there in Japan. The dress shirts are far to trendy for me though. 

The rain seems to have dissipated and the thunderstorm rolled out, but I doubt I will get up to much more today. John and I need to book our accommodation for Daejeon and Busan this weekend, as we checkout on Friday. Busan should be easy because we are there on weekdays, but Daejeon could be a problem this weekend due to lack of hostels, and late booking. 

Murdered in Gungnam

We started with the best Korean pizza/pancake in town, and the praise for it is not undeserved. It was complemented by various other battered/fried veges and mushrooms too. 

 

A couple beers and soju later, we head to a very cool and popular restaurant a few train stops away. 

This place was packed. Good music, good atmosphere, good food. Most amazing though was the beer pourer. You would put you glass in, and it would tilt it, pour it, and give it back to you, with just a touch of head on it. 

 

We were given a numbered buzzer, which we could just show the cooks, and have them buzz us to know when the dish was ready. There were dozens of them in the central strip of the restaurant, all with examples of what they'll cook on display. 

Jake had missed his last train, and we managed to convince him to party. Next, we head to the local NB (Noise Basement, club). Things were pretty mild until a Korean hiphop duo get on stage to perform. The crowd surges forward, and I promptly lose track of John and Jake. 

I don't understand a word of the performance, but the crowd is electric.

A couple hundred dollars between us of jäger bombs later, and we emerge from the club at about 4:30, get back to the hostel about 5:30, and while I don't actually remember going to bed, wake up to the sound of the kimchee staff cleaning the room. Who the hell is cleaning the room so early? They've never done this before, we were thinking. 

Turns out it was 2pm. We managed to crawl regretfully out of bed for an hour, only to go back and rest until about 8pm, and emerge for chicken and beer at our local restaurant for breakfast/dinner.  The day has been wasted, really. All the drinking must have weakened my immune system, as I seem to have caught Johns cold to boot. 

And that's Gungnam. 

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.