Do you know the Makgeolli Man? - the sights and sounds of Seoul

---

My third trip up to Seoul and this was the first time I would see much of it! As my school gave me an optional day off work, I headed up by myself on Friday afternoon, taking the 5-hour bus for cheapness sake. We were staying at Base Camp hostel in Hongdae, the university area, and it has a really cool set-up: basically bunk beds in enormous canvas tents, in one large room. It was already very hot outside, a good 5 degrees hotter than in Busan at least. I headed off to Namsangol to see a traditional Hanok village. This area mostly consisted of five traditional Korean houses from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), recovered from different parts of the city and relocated to the northern foot of Namsan (mountain). The interiors of each of these five houses reflect owners from different walks of life, from the middle class to the yangban (who were mainly high government officials, noblemen and aristocrats). Some of them had been re-constructed but most of them contained original features. The interiors were beautiful, especially the furniture, and contained partitions which allowed for rooms such as the sitting room and master bedroom to be joined into a single large room or to widen a room whenever necessary. Very smart! There were organised participation programs for traditional Korean activities, but I'd arrived too late for those. Around the park were some scenic grounds and an enormous time capsule that's only due to be opened on 24th November 2394, to celebrate Seoul being the capital city for 1,000 years.

Back at the hostel, I met up with Conor and we went out for some Samgypsal before commencing our own walking tour of Hongdae. The area has such a fantastic relaxed atmosphere! There were so many buskers and street performers to stop and listen to, with big crowds too. The windy streets were brightly lit and tree-lined, and it was still nicely warm after dark. We ended up in a small park full of people, with different bands in different corners playing music from acoustic guitar to rap to jazz. We bought some makgeolli from the Makgeolli Man (the happiest man in the world who sells makgeolli from his cart) and stood listening to a really good jazz/rock band. We started chatting to some Korean students sitting beside us who gave us a beatbox/rap demonstration, it was amazing! So much fun but we had to be in bed at a respectable hour.

The next morning Conor and our friend Emma departed for the DMZ. Deb was supposed to be up too but she was laid up in Busan with an infected toe. So I stuck to our original plan and took myself off to Suwon city to visit it's toilet park! This proved a nightmare journey, after an hour on the subway I also spent an hour on the bus touring Suwon accidentally as I couldn't work out where to get off! It ended up being only a short taxi ride away. In Korean, the toilet park "Haewoojae" is loosely translated as "a place of peace where you can solve your worries", which I was hoping for after the hassle of getting there! It was formerly the home of Mr Sim Jae-Duck, a mayor of Suwon who helped found the World Toilet Association and was committed to helping improve sanitation around Korea and the world. He built his house in the shape of a toilet and after his death it was converted into a museum. Inside they had toilet signs from all over the world (I did not recognise any), information on sanitation projects, and a toilet themed art gallery. The most fun was to be had outside in the garden where there were many entertaining sculptures such as kids pooing in their mother's hands. I took a few compulsory squat shots over some toilets and fake poo before leaving. Only so much fun you can have there on your own!

After another adventure trying to find a subway station, I finally made it back to Seoul and embarked on the next stage of my day - touring cafes! First up was the Hello Kitty cafe which was appropriately pink. Not much to say about it, it was all about the decor. Next door to that was a cat cafe - which stank to high heaven! I paid W8,000 for my coffee, disinfected my hands and put on some foam slippers. The cats were busy sleeping or looking bored, and most seemed to have an aversion to being petted. Cat and dog cafes are flourishing all over Korea, partly because the majority of Koreans live in apartment blocks, and some buildings will not allow pets. It was a strange experience and took awhile to get rid of all the cat hairs that had stuck to me. Next up was an Edwardian themed cafe which was very beautiful and reminded me of one of my favourite bars in Belfast. I sat in a private booth lined with heavy curtains and read my book. At this point I was very tired and full, so I only stopped in to look at the sheep in the Sheep cafe! This was probably the randomest cafe - enjoy your coffee in the presence of two very white and woolly sheep.

Back at the hostel we had a few beers on the roof before heading out for the night. We ended up getting this delicious bulgogi dish at a random restaurant. It is grilled marinated beef and all of us had been served some at various school lunches. This blew what we thought was bulgogi out of the water though! We ended up ordering about 2lbs of meat, there wasn't even enough room on the table! We let the bulgogi fry on the top of the rounded hot plate with the spring onions, and when it was done we let it slide down into a trough running around the bottom full of soy sauce and garlic. It was so incredibly delicious. When we finally finished eating we went to a few bars together before ending up at the same wee park again. I met up with some other Seoul friends and we watched the park entertainment - dance offs and boxing. Two guys offered to let anyone box them for varying amounts of money. For the cheapest price the guys would not use either hand and instead the customer had to land a punch. For the next level, the guys would box with only their weaker hand, and for full price they would box properly.

The next day was 'laze around until our train leaves' day which involved Taco Bell, frozen yoghurt and a Prague inspired bar/restaurant called Castle Praha with a gothic replica exterior complete with fake astronomical clock. Seoul definitely has some interesting places to see and explore!

---