Just a tad messy

In a mega city of 28 million people, you have to appreciate when you run into someone you know, especially as a foreigner. 

No sooner had we destroyed a platter of chicken and a jug of beer that we see Younis stroll past the restaurant. We met Younis at the hostel last year, and he happened to be visiting someone nearby when we spotted him. 

Despite his protests, we drag him in for a beer and get to catching up and reminiscing about the escapades of yesteryear. We plan to meet up again later that night and part ways. I pick up some soju on the way back to the hostel and we get started on socialising with the other guests. 

I didn't know whether to be shocked at the potential trouble we might have been in, or impressed that we have a reputation, when a guy called Nathan walked in and asked if we were the kiwis.  As always, we through caution to the wind and got him drinking with us. Nathan is from Switzerland and works with Greenpeace, so our conversations inevitably took a turn towards the political spectrum of matters. I hate that I do it, but I do so love having an opinion on everything. He's interested in going to the DMZ this week, do we may well end up joining him. 

Turns out that a couple other guests and hostel employees let him know we were coming, as there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm for going out among the other guests that night. It was a Sunday after all, but not as far as John and I were concerned. 

We taxi up to the university and wander around looking for somewhere lively. We started drinking again in the park (not as bad as it sounds) until Younis arrived and ended up in a cozy restaurant with copious amounts beer. I was happily hammering it down and didn't actually notice the shot glasses at the bottom of my drinks for some time. Enter biligerant and loud Shayne. We were already in a bit of a state, so we had gotten the table next to us to order our food and drinks, which included a shot of soju in our beers. 

We wrapped things up at about 3am, and this morning we've downed our poweraides over some sandwiches. We'll go for a wander up towards the university and do a bit of shopping. We've really got no plans for the day, so who knows where we'll end up. 

It's gonna be hot

We've made it to the hostel without trouble, and are getting ourselves ready for some chicken and beer. Being a Saturday night, I'll be disappointed if things don't escalate to the next level.

Weather wise, it's about as horrible as you can expect. We'll need to keep ourselves properly "hydrated" for the foreseeable future, but that was on the cards already. 

Starting simple

Well, here we go again.

As I wrap up my last day at work, I still feel like I've not made enough plans for this, my 3rd year in a row heading to South Korea, and my fourth trip overall. I suppose half the fun is rocking up there and just seeing where the drink takes us. Hongdae, the area my mate John and I will be staying in, is a university district, and it's been difficult to get ourselves into any real trouble (so far) there amongst the sea of equally stumbling locals.

I'm taking Friday the 29th off from work to get some last things organized and to say adios to this bloody cold country for a while. Meat packs and beer boxes are on the menu that afternoon, as John and I have a few people around for a farewell party, something we've done the last couple years for no reason other than it's a good excuse to catch up with a lot of people at once.

At the risk of lowering my colleagues opinion of me, I've linked this blog on my work intranet profile so everyone can have a laugh at my escapades and misfortunes. I think the best part about keeping a blog like this during what's sure to be an alcohol fueled trip is that the stories are there to be remembered further down the line after the Soju (and bank account) has faded. I'm always surprised at how much I remember the next day after an eventful night, given as I'm half hangover and tapping these blog posts out on a phone, but that's the effect of noodles and Poweraide I suppose.

The last two years I've gone to Korea, there's been some massive trouble. First was a fiasco in even getting to Korea and then having no real money until we got to Japan 3 weeks later. The second was nearly getting kicked out of the flat because someone wasn't paying the rent while I was away. It's a little sobering getting a notice of ending tenancy when you're 10000km away, after which I promptly got into a fresh bottle to rectify. I'm feeling good this year though. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Nothing.

The end is nigh

Our last weekend in South Korea went as you would expect - drunken nights, and sleepful days. We bailed on our initial plans if seeing a huge night market in Dongdaemun on Friday (in favour of sleep), partied hard Saturday, and again bailed on plans to visit the huge communications tower in the middle of the city. We saw Trasformers instead. 

Saturday, both John and I took separate taxis to get home due to being drunk and lost. In either case, 1km down the road was really as far as they needed to take us before we recognised where we were. We'd have been embarrassed if we weren't stumblingly, sluringly drunk. 

Tonight, after transformers, we went to hongdae park one last time with some soju and coke. It was fairly quiet, so we didn't stay long. A few of the group went to a club, but sensibility prevailed in my case, thinking I should get an early night. Yet, here I am at 4:30 unable to sleep. 

We fly out of Seoul at 3pm Korea time (6pm NZ) to Hong Kong, and have a night flight back to New Zealand, arriving in Chtistchurch about 2:30pm. It's just as well we're going, because we're just about to run out of money. I foresee even more noodles in my immediate future. 

We've had an amazing time here, and will miss our adopted family of fellow hostel goers. David, the manager, probably can't wait to see the back of me. Something to do with all my terrible Irish impersonations. Diddlie-dee potatoes. 

We'll return again to catch up with old and new friends alike, but until then, it's cheers to you, Korea. 

Gombae. 

We cried, we crawled

We headed 9 stops down the line to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza for a little girlish indulgence. The film sets for the Korean drama John and I watched we on display there, so we figured that we'd complete the assimilation and go have a look. 

The plaza itself is seriously strange, with a futuristic twist. 

Inside we were greeted with imagery and media of our intended expo - many of the more dramatic scenes evoking all too fresh memories of the series. Below are shots of the two lead's bedrooms. 

The series used effects similar to those in the Matrix movies, wherein dozens of cameras take a picture from different angles to create a 3D image.

We took a couple photos using this, which were collated into a short movie by the staff for download. 

The expo even had a chicken and beer cafe inside, which was a prominent feature if the series too. Naturally, we had to partake. 

Later that night, John had his sights set on a pub crawl. My heart wasn't in it initially, but with all the effort he had to go through to get it sorted for the hostel (first pub crawl event via them), I had to give him props and come along. 

Unsurprisingly, this is where we met the only other Kiwi we've seen on this trip. Paul, a teacher, had been here for 5 years, and already seemed like he had preloaded a few drinks before meeting. 

I'd heard stories of the Adios drink, so naturally made john drink one. Drinks seemed to magically appear from all angles. The crawl itself was 4 bars and a club with a big screen. 

Illuminated devil ears, foam sticks, flag/ears, and other Korean paraphernalia we all on hand for the party leading up to the game, cheer leaders included. 

Come 5am, the club settled down and everyone watched the Korea vs Belgium game.

Korea fever subsequently died down. 

Eye of the beholder

Today, we met with Yunni and Gina to visit the Trick Eye and Ice museums, conviniently located in the same building (along with the Love museum, but that may take more convincing). 

Being the giant freezer that it is, it reminded me of home. 

It was refreshing after the 28 degree weather we'd forged through to get there, detouring for some BBQ on the way. 

Next up was Trick Eye. There are a lot of very weird scenes to take pictures of in there, for all if which I maxed out my crazy meter to make some of the strangest poses imaginable. 

Haha a bum. These are on the backs of most of the seating. Truly a fun place to visit. I'll add some more pictures after I receive them. 

Plans to visit namsang tower in the centre of the city had to be abandoned due to time constraints. Back on the to-do list it goes, for action during these quickly diminishing last few days. 

Turkish Delight

Unfortunately, we did find somewhere to go drinking at 3am, which is where my story last left off. We shared some drinks with some extremely touchy-feely Korean dudes until about 7am, as it was time to get some breakfast courtesy of Burger King.

Fast forward a few hours, and we haven't had nearly enough sleep, but we soldier on and meet a Turkish friend of mine from when I studdied in Korea. She works at a popular Turkish restaurant in Itaewon (the foreign district), and shouted us a lovely lunch there. 

Lamb was the order of the day. Delicious. Apparently Koreans don't generally like lamb due to its (divine) smell. 

Next stop was the mosque, the major point of prayer in Itaewon for the Islamic community. Due to their beliefs, my friend wasn't actually allowed inside with me, due to that area being designated for men. We somehow skirted the dress code. 

After saying our farewells, we promptly return to the hostel and straight to bed until about 9pm. Still not feeling particularly wonderful, we place our faith in hair of the dog, and cruise through to about 2am, when yet another plan is forged. 

Younes, the frenchie that was leaving later that morning/day, was in gangnam and keen to hit up some karaoke. We debate it for a while, due to how far away it was, but the soju gets the best if us and we find ourselves paying for a taxi across town (still only $15). 

After some prepatiry drinks at a restaurant, we attack the karaoke room come 5am for an hour. I had to refuse any continued singing to get us out of there at a not too horrendous time (again). Even then, we didn't get back to the hostel until 7:30am. I failed in that regard. 

Sleep was short and sweet. John and I had to get up at 11am to check out of the room we had been in, and into another, before we attacked this new, sleep deprived day.