I got Seoul but I’m not a soldier!

This weekend we made out first ever trip to Seoul, South Korea’s capital and LOVED IT. Now some people may say that its just like ay other big city but when you have been in the sticks for a little while, lacking good Western food, H&M and catching up with friends, Seoul is amazing for all of the above.

We set off Friday night after school and caught a bus for 5 hours to Seoul. On a Megabus in the UK this would hurt – a lot. However, buses in Korea are a whole new level of bus. They are called limousine buses and they live up to their name. You each get a wide, comfy seat that reclines to almost 45degrees AND has a foot rest that comes up to the same level as your chair making it a very comfy ride indeed. When you buy tickets for buses in advance, you get a seat number meaning that there is no last-minute fight to board said bus and get a seat – you just take you time and chill out. Korea, you are good at public transport.

Anyhoo, we arrived and decided that being 11pm and never having navigated the underground before we would just hop in a taxi. To our dismay, the huge queue of empty, idle taxis would not accept us and kept pointing down to this long queue of people standing waiting on taxis driving past. Confused, we joined the queue and then realized that these people were waiting for taxis that have English interpreters. A short journey later and we arrived at out hotel called Hotel Biwon. We had arranged to meet up with our friends from orientation – Sarah and David who have come from Oz to work in Korea and Katy and Danny from Colorado – and we all arrived about the same time and so, with out Seoul tour guide for the weekend (Danny’s friend JP who is from Korea but grew up in the USA but now lives back in Seoul), we headed out for a beer. We all decided that to get an early start in the morning would be good so had one beer and then to bed.

Our room in the hotel was pretty cool and our first real experience of Korean hotels. It had a massive flat screen TV, all the toiletries you may require, a spare single bed and a sauna in the the shower cubicle. Pretty cool. My favourite was the escape rope in a box in the wall “in case of fire” I’m not sure I want to jump out of the 11th floor with a rope? Sheila would love this though – does anyone remember the escape ladder she made us have in Dorchester Ave?

Self-explanatory.

Breakfast courtesy of Krispy Kreme.

Danny in his second wedding.

On Saturday morning it was decided that the boys would head to Yongsan Electronics Market (uh huh) and the girls would head to Myeong Dong, the main shopping district in Seoul where there is a real H&M. We were amazed at how quiet the shopping area was at 11am and even through to 2pm it was still pretty quiet. I spent lots of money in H&M and had a pretty good strawberry juice from a street vendor.

We headed to Namdaemun Market for lunch as JP insisted we had to try some proper street food. Namdaemun is a typical Korean market, which sells anything and everything – kind of like a really big Barras. However, it is now my new favourite place as I found this wee Turkish man selling delicious chicken kebab wrapped in pitta bread with lettuce, veggies and sauce. It was amazing! The others had some interesting Korean delicacies – including intestine, lung, and liver. No thanks!

T-shirt in Namdaemun Market.

Ginger superman? Yes please!

Traditional Korean clothing for children - they wear these for special occasions but particularly for their first birthday.

Rocking the agjuma look.

David. He is a special one.

Roasting chestnuts, some of the more palatable street food.

Walking out of the subway.

In the afternoon JP took us to Namsan Park, a huge park in the centre of Seoul which has a traditional folk village at the bottom and Seoul Tower at the top. We spent some time exploring the traditional village and then headed up the tower for views out over Seoul.

Me as a traditional Korean lady.

Traditional Korean kids game, not dissimilar to those played in the UK in the olden days.

Sauce pots - where spicy red and black sauces are made, left to cook by the heat of hte sun for weeks or months. Nice.

Another traditional Korean game where you whip the wooden piece with a whip to keep it spinning. Would never be allowed in the UK.

Roasting sweet potatoes.

Traditional Korean home - they are set up off the ground so that the inner living areas have space under them for under floor heating, which was used way back in the day.

Inside a traditional Korean home.

Girl learning how to make rice cake. Slowly.

Flower baskets at Seoul Tower.

Grafitti at Seoul Tower.

The final steep walk to the tower.

Really amazing wire sculptures that hung in the air above the tower. At night they were lit up and looked fantastic.

Going up in the elevator.

Cheesy tower face.

Wow, its a long way home.

Some clever camera trickery from Garry with the tower and the sunset.

Another example of Korean couple cuteness - they buy padlocks and write love messages and then hang them all around the railings. Its looks pretty cool. Garry refused.

Made me laugh quite a lot. Just feel it.

Another wire scultpure.

Where else would all the gingers in Seoul go?

The best part of the day was yet to come however. JP had told us that he knew of the BEST Mexican restaurant in Seoul which did amazing burritos, margheritas and salsa so off we went to Gangnam, an area south of the Han River which hosts all the Head Offices of major Korean companies including Pohang’s very own POSCO (steel company). And JP did not lie! The food was good. It was a small place with no frills and we had to wait about an hour for a table (good drinking time I say) but the food spoke for itself and the people were really friendly. And they had limes – something I have not had in Korea for over 2 months.

Katy, who loves Mexican food more than life itself, was rather excited.

Corona, two of them, with actual lime in. Amazin.

Enjoying the margaritas ladies!

It was pretty late by the time we finished eating and so after another beer, we headed back our new hotel (long story but there had been issues with booking and so we had to change hotels for the Saturday ngiht). This was also a whole new experience as the new place was called ‘Hotel Dodo’ and as soon was we arrived we knew it was a love mote. There was clearly a lap dancing club downstairs, it was lit in a huge amount of neon and there was a middle aged man cleaning rooms at 11.45pm at night. Not your usual chambermaid service! Anyway, we checked in and the rooms were hilarious. Ours had a double Jacuzzi hot tub, a huge bed, silk dressing robes and lots of Korean porn on the TV (which is just odd let me tell you). David and Sarah lucked out with the best room – it had a glass walled bathroom with a massive round Jacuzzi and great lighting. Well, it was another Seoul experience.

Rather phallic looking hotel opposite our love motel.

Love motel stylee.

The next day we headed slept late and headed back to the bus station to get tickets – the only buses with spaces to Pohang were at 1pm so we bought those and were soon on our way home. Note to self – buy tickets on arrival in Seoul in the future.

We arrived back in Pohang about 6pm and headed to our favourite sam gyup sal restaurant – this is now tradition after a weekend away.

So, another great weekend in a country that I feel I am learning more and more about all the time. What I love most is that every weekend feels like a little mini holiday, catching up with friends and seeing new things and we always seem to have really different experiences.

I do not like the work dread however…….