Pint, Park, and Poutine

The day begins with a jaunt down to the local shops. Coffee and a perouse through the giant local drug store. Thirsty work.

We spotted an Irish Pub on our first day and went all in for brunch. Striking up conversation with a local, Tanner, gave us some tips on how to spend the day. Dude was a few barley sandwiches ahead of us. 

Off to Canada Place, the waterfront area of downtown Vancouver, where we took a stroll alongside the seaplane and boat docks towards the big nature park in the city.

We arrive at Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium. So many cool things here.

Beyond the fish are some reptiles and aquatic animals. We were lucky to be there for the sea otter feeding frenzy. 

Heeding earlier advice, we head to Fritz' European Fry House for some famous (awarded) poutine. Chips amongst proper cheese curds and gravy. Couldn't help myself, and added some spice on top. 

We hit up a few bars, and called it a night. The Morrissey is famous for being emo, courtesy of The Smiths.

Or so we thought. We stumbled upon a bloody mushroom dispensary. 

Psychidelic mushroom drinks, wow! Didn't realise that was legal here. We smell weed occasionally, and everyone is really chill about this kind of thing. 

Big day planned tomorrow. Roll on Saturday. 

Vancouver? I hardly know her.

It was a bumpy ride into the northern hemisphere. The plane was packed, and sleep was scarce, but we landed safely and got down to business. 

Checking in at the Airbnb was a bit of a let down. No help from host beyond carrying luggage, but reviews say they are a great yarn, so we will forcibly friend her tomorrow.

We wandered down the road for some initial supplies (beer and pizza) then headed for the beach. What we found when we arrived was absolutely amazing - people having good wholesome fun.

Everyone was playing volley ball, frisbie, dogs, music, paddling in the cold, cold shallows. It was just a gorgeous day for it all. Imagine Hagley Park next to the beach, with a couple beers, and that was the paradise before us.

We spot a seal while walking the beach, and a cheeky rabbit. Couldn't get close to either.

As we walk,  the tunes reach us. There's a dj playing some sweet beats further up the beach. We stumbled upon a vegan night market and equally good vibes. 

On the way home we grab some essentials from the local store, and call it a day. Some beverages at the accommodation brings us to now, midnight, blogging and boozing. Pretty standard really. 

We're off to Stanley Park tomorrow for more adventures. 

Everything since that night

Doing as much catch up as I can right now. Winter is coming and all...

When we left off, I had just had some chips and beer with some lovely new friends.

Later that night, Rowan and I went to meet a mutual friend from.last year at Kimchee Guesthouse - Daniel. We meet him at his job neat the playground for some pizza and beer, and then to Thursday Party for tequila and beer pong. Along the way we found Calvin and all went for some extra food and drink and a cool underground bar with a built in waterfall.

Fast forward to 8am and Calvin is freaking out because he left his phone at the bar and his flight is at 10am. Add to the game to that he also.missed his initial flight to Korea from Japan and you begin to see a trend appear. I'm over this shit and head to bed to leave him to it. Gilbert, one of that the staff and also still drunk like the rest of us is doing his best to arrange things for Calvin to go.

The after waking up and getting a Kebab I make the grim discovery of Calvin's phone in my pocket. I get back to the hostel and find that he's ditched his flight to stay for his phone. Everyone is pissed at him for this and he's broke as all sweet hell. I tell him the good news and explain that his tiny iPhone 2 is smaller than my wallet and I had no recollection of picking it up for him, nor could easily feel it in my pocket earlier that morning. He was a little pissed at first but was happy to have his phone back. He now works at the hostel to pay for his room. Until he leaves.

That afternoon I get off my lazy ass and rent a bike down at the river. I overestimated the bicycle quality and soon found myself with semi flat tyres, buckled wheels, poor brakes and chain slippage. Still powered 20km in the hour rental duration though. The cycle ways are excellent here with great views of the high rises dotting the river.

The next day I head to the baseball stadium and sit in the LG section to support my favorite team. The amount of crowd participation is insane, with everyone chanting and singing along to theme songs and cheering for the big hits. LG lose in the end but I'm keen to go there again.

That night I meet Daniel again for some early birthday drinks at his hookah bar in Sinchon.  The place was dead but we got pretty smashed. He fell down the stars and sprained his arm and ankle. I split a flaming drink all over my hand and the bar as I picked it up. Good times.

It's now the 2nd of June and I await whatever plans John had been trying to organise.  Unfortunately he drowned his s6 edge while It was charging and wasn't able to quite complete said plans. I was merely told to expect a few old friends at the hostel that night. Trouble was this Turkish guy that smelled insanely bad was hanging around.  A group of guests even resorted to drinking in the smoking room to avoid him. Unfortunately he smoked also. Worse still was the story of why he came to Korea. This gentleman came to seek out the Korean military, because of their technological advances, to aid him in removing a chip in his brain that was causing him to receive signals like a human antenna. We were all thoroughly freaked and told him he stank. He was apologetic and left us alone.

With no one turning up by midnight, a group of us went to the playground and into the clubs as we so often do until daylight.

June 3rd and some Singaporean guys are keen to drink. Given as its as Friday that means all the kimchee staff have to join in as well. Culturally, if you do not join in on your workplace drinks, you're a social outcast and criminal. About a dozen of us got stuck in with a brief appearance by the owner for a shot or two. We hit the clubs yet again that night, and I'm getting really sick of all my clothes smelling like cigarettes, but the laws are slowly changing here to ban smoking in clubs.

June 4th and oh my God.  An old American mate and I head to the swanky side of town to catch a set by a few Djs that will play at Ultra Korea. It's in a hotel club and there are some seriously gorgeous people here. We sit down and have a drink, followed by a group of said gorgeous people sitting next to us - we don't just look like a group because of this, but we look like guests of the hotel.

As the beer flows and a bottle.of vodka appears on the table, we're assured that all the beer is complimentary, but we didn't realise and nor did the water ever say it was complimentary for hotel guests, given as we were sitting in the unsigned hotel guests seating.

After flashing a several hundred dollars bill at us we remain staunch at having done nothing wrong and are let off the hook due to the confusion. The entire group of us were asked to leave the reserved seating so it's not like we were alone in the confusion.

As a result of the 18 dollar Redhill vodkas at the hotel bar, we leave and make for Hongdae.  We check out some reason
Open air rooftop bars and have some Hennessy along the way. We meet an apparent local legend and bar owner along the way and head to his joint for some tequila Jager grenades. Quite the eventful night in the end.

That brings to now, 502am and trying to write this while I have the motivation.  Last night I went to the playground for just a few hours to see the Singaporeans off. Met some friendly faces and old acquaintances along the way, but didn't really drink much at all. Tomorrow should be a proper day of rest as I prepare for the new checkins at the hostel, and the welcome shots we will give them.

Blue and a View

Drum festival was absolutely awesome. I didn't realise how much I had missed the previous night by leaving for dinner, and this time a hostel mate and I stayed until the end.  Later that night, a few of us went to the park and ended up at some club.  Standard stuff really.

The next day, I met with a new friend for coffee and a tour around a few new places. We visited the Blue House, which as you might guess is the Korean version of the White House, and had a look around the back end of the main palace. They have some evening opening hours going at the moment which would be nice to see.

We then taxi'd up a mountain on the southern side of the city called Palgakjeong. The view was good but there was just a bit too much smog preventing us from seeing the whole city. Taking the long way down, we followed a hiking trail for about an hour before reaching civilisation again. The most astounding thing I noticed along the way were the birds. I could actually see and hear birds! I hadn't realised that I'd not heard any during my time in the city until just then. I reminisced briefly about home and carried on.

Some chips and beer rounded off the night with grand plans forming for the coming weekend.

I'm not dead, yet

Since the pub crawl last Saturday, it's basically been a downhill spiral of me quickly losing my morning hours in exchange for more evening hours. 2, to 3, to 5am finishes have often left me without any motivation to do too much during the afternoon, but I have actually accomplished a few things.

I've visited the rose garden festival out in Jungnang, with its hundreds of varieties of roses lining trellis tunnels between the main gardens.

I've hung out in the basking area of Hongdae, with particularly good performances from the dance groups. One guitarist however was an absolute showman, walking down from his podium and getting right up close to anyone with their camera out for a better shot.

I've partied with the guesthouse regulars many times, and often hatched terrible plans to go out drinking only once 2-3am has rolled around.

One of the workers here will be studying at Seoul National University, so I joined them to find and explore the campus. On yet another bloody mountain (as many campuses seem to be), the campus was a gorgeous place with an already vibrant evening well on the cards, as evident by the groups of students congregating with their chicken and beer.

That evening a half dozen of us went to the local international bar Thursday Party for some beer pong. I won my game, but the other kiwi here (and also from Chtistchurch) didn't fair so well.

Throw in the odd day of rest and finally catching us up to yesterday. I went out to Seoul City Hall for the Seoul Drum Festival in the early afternoon. It didn't start until 8pm, and I spent the afternoon lounging on the Lawns in front of the stage/city hall as the groups did rehearsals and sound checks. I took the time to finish off my book in the lovely weather as I did so. Particularly good performances had the drum groups playing along to rock and dubstep tracks, which I thought was awesome.

As the evening rolled on, I caught up with an old friend for dinner, and we partied into the whee hours back in Hongdae Playground, making and forgetting new friends in the haze of convenience store alcohol.

Today I will be going back to the drum festival for more sweet music as my anticipation for Ultra Korea grows. There's some other music performances happening in Itaewon afterwards which I'll check out as well. Hopefully I'm still alive tomorrow!

Seoul

Day 1 back in Seoul and I decide to make it a quiet one (as far as drinking goes) while I try to get some things planned for the rest of the trip. There's a couple friends about an hour outside the city that I'll need to catch up with when able, but the real challenge is trying to contact everyone that's in the city whose kakaotalk IDs I'm missing. Friends of friends will need to relay messages for me.

I went out to a bookstore to pickup some korean study books, which it turns out I don't happen to like once I've torn off the packaging. Ah well, at least I can read it. Practice makes better (never perfect), as my teacher would say.

A nice walk around in the 30 degree heat wasn't nearly as bad as it is in NZ. How I'm not already sunburnt is beyond me, but I plan to do the same again today - gotta get those 20k steps in, and exploring certainly helps with that.

The local university is abuzz with people - turns out I'm in the middle of some double weekend long celebration. To my surprise, Psy had been singing there last night, and is due to perform again at another university next weekend, along with some other kpop groups - something to gate crash.

At this university however, they've setup a hundred mini pubs in the stadium alongside the stage. As night falls, the throng of people crossing the road to pass the gates reminds me of shibuya in Japan. They have all sorts of things going on as I walk the grounds, even a dance battle right along the main street. I do not feel enriched for having witnessed it. The stage captures the attention of thousands of students, while I have zero idea who is performing. The crowd engagement is intense - something that's all to easy to notice missing at other gigs.

More amusing were the water balloon throwing booths. Several hapless Koreans with their heads sticking through holes in a slab of MDF were relentlessly pelted by passers by for a dollar or two.

Temporary tattoos (it's illegal to do real ones without being an actual doctor here), surfing simulators, knickknacks and freebies galore made for a wonderous, albeit completely confusing night given my current level of korean language. The hustle and bustle and hecticness is exciting regardless.

This morning I find myself at my breakfast cafe a bit later than usual, and to my detriment. The place is packed. A seat at the bar was my only option for writing this with a cappuccino next to me. I scoped out a dog and cat cafe yesterday that I'll look at visiting before lunch. Reportedly they have crazy cat lady levels of animals on hand to play with while you have afternoon tea.

Tonight however is the last day of the Hongdae university celebrations, which I'll align with a pub crawl in the same area to catch up with Tasos, one of the owners/guides of the crawl. That just leaves me with occupying myself between afternoon and evening. Idle hands and all that.

Taipei 101

The next day (three days ago now) we went for the tallest building in Taiwan, and 5th tallest in the world, Taipei 101. This thing was a massive piece of engineering that surely only the most demented of minds would consider putting together. The view was great though, and I picked up an obligatory magnet soivineer at the top.

Later that night we had dinner with another of Judy's friends and maid of honour, Brigit. Afterwards we all headed back to our apartment for some after dinner drinkies and the usual games that accompany them. Another of her friend's, Akin, brought some Taiwanese whiskey for me to try, which was particularly good at ruining us with the games.

In the morning (two days ago) we walk from the station to the national museum. The most noteworthy exhibit was perhaps the history surrounding their national flag prior to the Japanese invasion. The famous, original, gold tiger on a blue flag has been missing since it's transfer to the Japanese emperor's palace during the war. Reportedly, a copy was commissioned by the japanese, which is what now hangs in the museum. The original's whereabouts remain unknown.

Next it was a short walk through the park to the national war memorial. Squirrels were aplenty in the trees as we went, and always invited a dozen picture takers whenever they appeared. As we went, we came across a practice ceremony for the swearing in of the next president. Volunteers were guiding (or being dragged by) giant inflated balloon people as the announcers rehearsed their speeches. The best part was watching the officials try to keep people out of the path of the balloons, and the odd cruiser sauntering through with no fucks given as to what was going on around them.

Yesterday was just about wrapping up affairs here in Taiwan. We saw Dave's mum off at the station, and went ourselves after watching Captain America at the cinema. Very cool movie.

I got to my hostel after midnight, and was sad to find no one partying in the common room. Will have to fix that tomorrow.