Is it Thursday yet?

Last night, we hit up Thursday again for more beer pong. We really need to stop going there, as it's too easy to drop $100 on drinks when you're having fun. 

Later that night/morning, we hit up the street vendors for snacks. I (think I) had a battered and fried jalapeño, sausage, and chicken-something. Half the fun is not knowing. At 50c a piece - why not have a punt?

It's the third day in Busan now, and we still haven't really accomplished anything except drinking too much, spending too much, and sleeping half the day away. 

So at the crack if 2pm we got out of bed and bought some soju. Standard really. Come 10pm after a mild drinking session, we went to the beach to swim! Not usually the sort of thing you do after drinking (and we didn't even wait 20 mins first), but it was 21 degrees at that stage, and still is as I write this now at 4am. The water was great, really refreshing, despite thinking I would develop an ear infection due to how much water I thoughts had gotten into my ear. It's happened before!

After showering back at the hostel, we played some jenga with a few fellow hostel goers. Build it, and they will come, as the saying goes. We strategically left the ready-to-play game on the bench directly in front if the entrance to the common room. We rebuilt the trap several times while releasing our captives and headed off to our love-to-hate bar (now) Thursday Party. There were a couple of familiar faces, but we stuck to the dart board this time. 

I staged an epic comeback and thrashed John in every game, despite how evenly we were matched most of the time. 

We have one more night in Busan, but hopefully we will actually get something done during the day here. We plan to attack Centum City just a few subway stops up the line, the worlds largest department store, before getting sloshed and fare welling Busan come Friday morning. (probably at Thursday Party bar). 

Train tickets back to Seoul are expected to be around $55 for the 3hr trip, of which we will probably sleep through, as we have to check out by 11am. Far too early for us...

Busan, whosan?

We didn't really expect much to become of tonight, but when has that ever stopped us?

A jaunt through the market left us nearby our favourite beer pong bar - Thursday Party - to which we had to patron. 

John was far too sober, and thus too accurate with his shots. Somehow, we recruited a couple Koreans, of which if was impossible to explain the rules to, for several more games. Both John and I had to to barf in order to keep playing. Such a sorry state of affairs. 

Worse still was fighting them off if of us later on. We all went for BBQ, which was great, but Mr Korean refused to let us go after the meal. 

30 mins after everyone else was smart enough to go home, John and I had to convince the Korean dude to taxi home by himself, while we walked home. He wasn't too happy about letting his new bff's go, but we managed, and got to the hostel by about 5am (Tuesday morning).  

Time to sleep in. 

Daejeon, Daejeon

An hour on the KTX on Friday and we found ourselves in Daejeon. $25 and speeds up to 300kph make for a quick trip. 

Friday night was spent resting, lamenting the theft of our power adaptor from the hostel. Saturday, we met with our friend Yan, and she helped us purchase a couple new ones. Some more cheese beansu went down well and cooled us off. 

It was then back to our hotel to change and get ready for a night out. This is where I find the adaptor at the bottom of my bag, hah hah. We started with a very cool BBQ place that let's you bring your own meat. Of course, this makes the butcher located downstairs the source of choice. 

We were then taken to a traditional tea house on the outskirts if Daejeon for some Lotus Leaf tea. The place would make a great date spot. I felt very special. 

Next, we hit the town to visit my old haunts, Yellow Taxi and Sponge Bar. Great to see the old bars again, though Sponge had turned into something of a club. Home by about 5am. 

It's Sunday now, and we met with a friend from the university, Hyung Min. She shouted us lunch with a surprising twist - spicy chicken with cheese! Not bad at all. 

After that, we walked up to the university dormitories, something we had to do many a time after having gone to the local restaurants and bars when I studdied there, and checked out the local sculptures along the way. It looked as though they were building a few more dorms too. 

After walking back down the hill, we retreated from the heat back to the hotel. We failed to find anywhere to do our laundry this time, and we've resigned ourselves to doing it at the new hostel in Busan tomorrow. Feeling kind of dirty now. 

For tonight though, we will hit up one more favourite bar to say hello to the owner, Mr Lee, shoot a tequila (even though I hate it, but it's tradition) and listen to some Bob Marley (traditions rarely make sense). 

Edit:

I was shocked and appalled to find that our intended destination, a bar called Santa Claus, had bee replaced by a bank. We drowned our sorrows with Long Island ice teas and played a few rounds of darts, before going for some chicken and beer. 

Preparing for takeoff

Accommodation is all booked and waiting for us in Daejeon and Busan. 3 nights Daejeon, and 4 in Busan. Saturday and Sunday we have planned to meet friends at our favourite haunts. I'm just happy we didn't have to stay at a jimjilbang (open spa/sauna) for the duration. Would have been 5x cheaper, and 100x times more restless though. 

John and I were watching our first and favourite k-drama series until 8am, as usual. We found out that the actual movie sets for it have gone display in Dongdaemun, a half dozen subway stops down the line. When we get back to Seoul in a week, we plan on checking them out, to further cement our Korean assimilation. 

At 11 am, I decided it was too hot to sleep and went to check out the shops, planning future purchases for when we return (and for when my pay comes through, running on fumes here!). I'm heavily in overdraft to the Sleep Bank, and that bank always collects in the end. I image I'll coma out for 16hrs one of these days. 

One thing I did buy though, is a couple volumes of a Korean comic/manga/man what that I've only read through in English. I will surely be the envy of my nerd friends. 

Being our last night in Seoul, we having a couple drinkies to get us in the mood for whatever plan gestates. Sickness be damned. Surely the purifying qualities of Soju can act as medicine!

Drama, the good kind

Pretty quiet past day or so. John and I stuck inside from the rain, nursing our broken immune systems. 7 days of drinking had to have some kind of negative effect I suppose. 

We stayed up until 9am watching movies, most notably a Korean rom/com with no subtitles. Surprisingly enjoyable, My Sassy Girl was an immensely popular and high grossing movie when it was released over a decade ago. 

A few hours shut eye and we've moved into K-drama territory, powering through half a dozen episodes via streaming. My Love from Another Star has some serious humour, in addition to its neat effects and gripping plot line. One episode is all it took to hook us. 

We will probably power through until daylight, then go out for some breakfast. 

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.