Advertisement
Published: July 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Palace Guards
And Dunkin' Donuts LOLZ ANYOHASEYO! Hola, Korean style. Our stay in Seoul was filled with heat, protests, nightlife, culture, and--of course--food. Let's begin.
When we got into Korea, the first thing we noticed was how green and lush it was. Pretty dang tropical actually (which came with its fair share of hideous, ginormous bugs). But it was nice and clean, which was a nice change from our smoggy Shanghai lodgings. Our airport bus had a Korean game show playing--just a taste of the fobby, ridonkulous things we were to expect for the rest of the trip.
We stayed at the New Kukje Hotel in Seoul, right down the street from City Hall. It wasn't the Janky McJankersonville that I expected, since the hotel actually had windows (the New Western had rooms that didn't).
Since we got there early, the first thing we did was go visit Evan's friend, Gea, who is working in Seoul. We must've walked by 3 Dunkin' Donuts, 2 Paris Baguettes, and 5 Starbucks. The franchises there were out of control! PS-Paris Baguette is sort of my favorite bakery/dessert shop ever. I went 3 times in 3 days, consuming goodies like Walnut Cream Bread and Red
Bean-filled Bread. Big pimpin.
With Gea in tow, we headed over to a grand palace which was the main hub of power for centuries; and it's the palace used as the backdrop for Korean drama. It was a huge complex of intricately-painted pagodas, and we spent a good deal of time just relaxing as the sun set.
That night, while others ate their delicious Korean BBQ, I was relegated to buckwheat cold noodles. And when they say cold, they don't mean without broth or lukewarm. They mean chilled with broth. It was the oddest experience ever.
And now on to the first taste of nightlife. Not quite the best experience because of communication issues, but an experience nonetheless. We decided to pre-game at the hotel, and my friend Bryan said that the famous Korean drink was the Soju-yogurt mix. Soju is the hard alcohol of Korea, but it is housed deceptively in beer-sized bottles (much to Lu's chagrin). So I mixed mine with banana milk, which was yummy...even though everyone else hated the milk LOL. But my friends started to get pretty drunk, and we needed to meet my friend Kim at a party place called Itaewon.
The cool thing about Korean clubbing versus Shanghai clubbing is that the clubs in Korea are centered on two streets--making club-hopping an optimal choice. We wanted to meet Kim by 12, so I started pushing people to leave around 11:30. They got carried away and we ended up leaving the hotel at 11:50. Then our taxi driver got lost. Needless to say, we were late and Kim was there alone (she was staying with a Korean student she hosted), and she was upset because of the creepers hitting on her. We felt AWFUL, but some of us were pretty drunk, so that didn't help her mood.
Eventually, we left Itaewon and went to a more Korean, less-shady area called Hongdae. In the taxi we were explaining the situation and apologized, and I felt a little less guilty--but only a little. We went into this club called QuVo that played Hip Hop, but Bryan couldn't get in because he was wearing flip flops. UGH the tension got so bad that Kim was ready to leave. It ended up being Lu, Kim, and I; and, luckily I was sober enough that others' drunkenness couldn't get to her. The club was jam-packed,
Namdaemun
Me + Garlic = True Love but the guys actually gave us space. Strange, but nice.
The next day was our time for shopping. We went to a place called Namdaemun, which is an outdoor market for Korean cultural and pop trinkets--and by pop trinkets I mean items dedicated to Korean boy bands. Picture frames, notepads, calendars, keychains...even socks with pictures of Rain and company. SO FUNNY. And, of course, the street food was amazing. There was a dish called Hoto that I only got to eat once, but it still haunts my dreams. It is pan-fried dough with a brown sugar, caramel-y center. lakjflasjflakfj. The lunch we had was down one of the shady alleys in Namdaemun that ended up being, in my opinion, the best place we ate all trip--and the least expensive. I had what would be known as "Tracy's only dish eaten in Korea:" dolsot bibimbap. Although, I would hardly call it coercion, since I love the rice mix with vegetables and sauce and egg in a stone pot. If you don't know, Korean dishes come with a plethora of appetizers: Korean pancake (amazing stuff with veggies), kimchi (spicy, preserved cabbage), beansprouts, and potato salad just to name a few.
And Korean rice is AH so yummy and sticky. And then the metal utensils. The chopsticks are flat and metal, which gives the whole meal an oddly refined touch. But this is why Korean rice is sticky, and then the bowls heat up so you can't bring them to your face Chinese style. I was burned for my cultural habits hahha. The women who owned the little shop and the other customers were super nice to us, and we were trading food and everything.
We have been SO pampered in China with prices. Our "cheapest" meal was still about $5 or 5000 won. In China, I can get a cheap meal for $0.50. Korea basically had US prices, which was depressing--I spent so much money on food!
After that, we walked to this place called Namsan Mountain and took a cable car up to the top (not before we walked a friggin' mile to get there--so fit!). The cable car was a little unnerving, but the views at the top were incredible. I thought it would just be a small viewing platform, but there ended up being a tower with restaurants and performances by tae kwon doe masters.
When we went over to see the view, we saw thousands upon thousands of locks on the chain link fence! They were all in pairs, signed by lovers in the most public display of affection I have yet to see--and the most romantic kind teehee. Some of them were super elaborate, with huge heart shapes and pictures and such. Our group ended up buying a pair of locks, because When In Korea... We signed our names on one of the locks and put GLP Summer 08 on the other. Nerd-a-lerdys! While we were putting the locks on the fence, I felt a single, heavy rain drop. Then the screams and shuffling footsteps. Then a DOWNPOUR started, like in the movies. RIDONK.
Later that night we ended up getting ready to go out at about 12am, and I was tired as all heck. So after searching for a taxi, I decided to head back. The thing is, the political situation here is not the most stable. They are having protests against importing US meats because they fear mad cow, but the protests have escalated to a general protest of the newly-elected president. And we were staying by City Hall,
so we were in the center of it. We saw a crapload of buses parked end-to-end in front of our hotel, and we looked closer only to see metal grates on all the windows. Police buses as far as the eye could see. So as my friend Alex and I were walking on the street, a Korean cop car stopped and told us to move towards the right. Then 2 battalions of riot police marched past us towards the protesters! When we tried to get to the sidewalk, we were blocked by the buses and the various police with their shields and riot gear. SO SCARY! Not to mention the fact that we were alone in the middle of this chaos without a Korean speaker.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0418s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb