We came, We Seoul, We conquered.....(Day 23 - 24 by Chris)

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Friday 9th October 2015

We had booked a train ticket directly to Seoul the day before and after checking out of the sex Motel we made our way to the train station and took the 3 hour train journey without any issues. We did bump into an American guy before we got onto the train who seemed very happy to have met a couple of backpackers and said that youth was wasted on the young. Made us feel young and not the tired messes we really are at this point!!

Arriving in Seoul you instantly know you're in a capital city; skyscrapers, McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King and the like all line the train station. There was also hundreds of people rushing around - good job we like busy places.

We took the metro one stop to where we were staying, 24 Hour Guesthouse, which is located in the Namdaemun Market area. We found the guesthouse without much trouble and checked into our clean yellow room. The guesthouse still has a sign outside stating its Grand Opening, and you could see that it hadn't long been open. This meant that the bedding and shower room were clean, which most people would expect as an absolute minimum, but we have developed lower expectations recently.

In desperate need of some clean clothes, we spent our first few hours in Seoul washing clothes and hanging them out to dry. Later that evening we were meeting with Jay and Lucy, two of Gemma's work colleagues from ASOS who were in Seoul for a work trip. They had made plans for us to meet them at their Hotel which we managed to locate on the map quite easily. We took the metro for 10 mins and arrived at the station close to their hotel. We walked down a small residential area surrounded by bewildered locals staring at us as we entered what can only be described as a council block. It was at this point we came to the conclusion that we would not find the Grand Hyatt Hotel here. On consulting the metro map, it became apparent that someone (Chris) had mistakenly taken us to the wrong station in completely the opposite direction. Both stations did begin with 'H' so there is some similarity I suppose. We jumped into a taxi and spent the next 20 mins whizzing through Seoul. We arrived having only spent about £6 (bargain!) and toasted our first G&T of our trip with Jay & Lucy in the hotel bar.

We took a taxi to Garusa-gil area which is where all the trendy youth of Seoul hangout. Having been joined by 2 of Jay & Lucy's friends, we stopped at an underground bar in the centre of Garusa-gil to continue on the G&Ts. Next stop was a glitzy club called Octagon, where we lived it up VIP style. We spent the evening dancing to trance music, drink in hand and being taken to and from the toilet by our chaperone, who also looked like the bloke from the Gangnam Style video. We finished a great evening drunk and driven back to our Guesthouse in the pouring rain at about 4am, via a Family Mart to buy our own body weight in Pringles. Thanks Jay & Lucy - see you in Bali for another G&T??!!??

Saturday 10th October 2015

We woke the next day after 12pm surrounded by empty cans of Pringles and spent most of the day feeling sorry for ourselves. We managed to drag ourselves out for some food, but crawled back to the guesthouse for more sleep soon after. A wasted day, but hangovers are not pretty sometimes and this was one of those times.

This brought our first stop in Seoul to an end. The next day we would take the Express bus to a Gyeongju

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