N. Seoul Tower...Getting into Gimpo airport late on Friday, around 10:30 pm and meeting up with Keifer and Shane, we decided to head to Julia's brothers house to drop off some stuff and head out for the night. He was only about 5 subway stops from Gimpo, but being so late, we opted for a taxi. The subway in Seoul only runs until 11:00 pm, which makes absolutely no sense to me being that Seoul is the 2 largest metropolitan city in the world. Yeah its huge. Bigger than New York by more than 2 million. Thinking that something could be bigger than New York, I simply could not fathom.
Needless to say I didn't see nearly enough, though are days never lingered. I got completely unadequate sleep and drank way too much coffee in the mornings and a lot of beer/drinks in the evenings. Sleep was not a priority.
Julia called in early when we got there and we planned to come back to her brothers to sleep in his spare room later that night. Turned out, that in all of Seoul, Keifer lived in the exact same area. His was about a 10 minute walk from her brothers place. I mean, the crazyness of this just blew our minds.
Keifer, Shane and I headed out to the University neighborhood, some dong that I can't recal right now, and visited several bars and even a club. Not too much of my scene but the bars were lively with suprisingly many foreigners playing great music. We ate cheap street food, but it was all very delicious (chicken on a stick, fish cake on a stick, ddaapooki). We were out until a suprising 5:00am when we decided that should probablly be all for the night and headed back to Julias brothers and Keifers neighborhood. Kefier offered us his place to stay, but had nothing to offer. Julia never answered her phone (acceptable and 5:00 am), so we decided Keifers was better than nothing. What really got me is that he honestly had nothing to offer. He used one comferator for himself with no extra sheets to even offer he started throwing heavy sweaters and scarfs our way. Shane even ended up using a 500 case CD logic case to aid the mass of substance on his body. Yes that is a first and most likely last that will ever be used as a shelter remedy but I tell you it happened (picture was on Shanes camera as mine was at the brothers house).
The next morning we met at Starbucks and had breakfast and of course coffee. Having slept only about 4 and half house, we were not necessarily feeling wonderful, but we still had a bit of drinks I think in our system so we wanted to make sure we would not feel horrible the whole day. Julia explained that next door to Starbucks there is a pharmacy and we could get hang over remedies there. This baffled me again thinking that there was such a thing as an ailment for drunkness. Okay, why not. Korea, drinking is so built into the culture, everyone does it and basically any time. There is food that prevents hangovers. Drinks that prevent getting too drunk and not to mention any cases of fridges with it available to Take Out of just about any corner street in any city you go to. Paying under 5 dollars we got 3 things that we had to ingest at the pharmacy under a pharmacist. I kid you not. The sweet old lady had quite the laughs as Shane and I were blurry eyed and Julia was translating it all.
We headed out, first to a shopping neighborhood that I will enter the real name in here later, but is famous for many street artists, souvenier shops, oddball stores. Plus is close to the palace and makes for a fun excursion before we headed to the history lesson of the journey. I remember reading about this neighborhood before and hearing that this is the only place in Korea that every sign is in traditional Hangul and not in English. Even Starbucks, which was a big controversy is in Hangul. The only one of its kind not bearing the famous $-bucks font.
Starbucks in Hangul....
Buddhist merchant selling flutes...We met up with Keifer and headed to the big old palace (which will be edited later when I am not so tired). Big and beautiful and cheap as can be, we walked in and strolled the grounds. Taking pictures of the elaborat detail and ornate cherry blossoms, we leisurley made our way around. Waiting for Justin and Rachel to arrive, we got to taking photos. I had the mistake on shooting on too high of a shutter speed for a lot of it, so many of my pictures came out too bright. Luckily I realized it halfway through and changed it, but my best were lost to the light.
Finally meeting up with Justin and Rachel, we showed them around a bit and took more pictures. Feeling hunger pains, we opted to get something I have yet to have had in Korea that I knew I would miss: Mexican food!
Justin reunion!!
Us boys, inside of the palace where kings once stood...
Shane and Justin on a beautiful day inside the palace...
Where the kings entertained their guests. Not to shabby I would say...
Welcome Rachel! Her and Shane in front of the main room...
Perspective shot...
I'm guess Julia would not have been able to able to do this 700 year ago...
Look Keifer is smilling, finally caught in the act. Thats not even a beer in his hands...
This kid reminded me of a Korean Calvin. His imaginary cat, Hobbes was around somewhere...
Supposedly just a garden decoration...
View of the N. Seoul Tower from inside the palace walls...
Making our way to Itawon, we went to a Mexican restaurant that Keifer knew about. I had fajitas and a mojito, it way good, but certainly not great. Koreas like to put odd ingredients into Mexican food and call it the same thing, so I found carrots amongst my peppers and onions. Also the skimmped on the guaccamole and sour cream. Once was enough for me.
Inside the subway...
The proportions of Korean to American style Mexican food is rather laughable...
At a Canadian bar I forgot to mention...We then decided it was time to do to Dandaemun, the largests shopping center in Seoul, possibly the world. 24 hours of bargaining your way into a good deal. Most of the places would carry small shirts, so finding a design I liked in my size proved to be challenging. There was some funny Konglish, but nothing picture worthy really. I did buy a couple shirts. One of a lego dude with an afro and another of a artful tree with a nice shadow to it.
This guy was simply cool. Buzzing around the streets on this...thing....
Itawon subway....
Dongdaemun manican that freaked us out...
The spinning beer offer from Julia...
Walked around for a while, bargaining and looking and having a good time doing it. Strolled off from there and took a long taxi ride back to Julias brother house/Kefiers neighborhood where we called it a night.
More to come later....so tired still....
Be Well ~
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