This is a little long...sorry, but it is the whole week...Hope it is detailed-ish enough...
Summer Vacation…Traveling Korea for one week. Well not really traveling Korea; it was more like a couple of days in Seoul and a couple of days in Busan with a stopover back in Gwang-Ju for a night between the two. Over-all, vacation was FAB-U-LOUS! Maybe not the grand adventure going to another country or having better planning could have offered, but relaxing and chill and fun is all I needed…
Friday night:
Schools out! Ate downtown with Brooke and bought tennis shoes. Meet up with some of the guys including a newly returned Jeremy! Head home to get a little sleep…
Saturday:
Up early to finish laundry, begin packing, and went to Kitty’s (a student) Mom’s hop for a manicure. Meet up with Terry for lunch and finished laundry. Packed up and headed to Seoul! Arrived and found our hostel…it was really nice, clean, amazing shower, and comfortable. After settling we headed to Itaewon for Indian food. There is this place I went to once before that I adore.
Afterwards we hit up some bars there. Unfortunately, for the budget conscious that we had to be, drinking in Seoul was hard. The best and cheapest we found was a Canadian (bring on the jokes) bar called Rocky Mountain Tavern that had the cheapest drinks and great atmosphere. We also hit up some “pub,” tried to find a seat in Woodstock, which offered live music, and in honor of the band we later were going to see Oasis (“the bar you had in mind”)…Finally after beginning to fall asleep in Oasis (no patrons, comfy couches and easy listening music) we headed back to our hostel.
Grabbing a night cap from the family mart we stopped in this little gazebo-ed park right down from the hostel to finish off the night; however that was not to happen. At the gazebo “slept” two very drunk guys. One was semi-conscious enough to say hi and the other vomited onto his shirt sleeve. Sometime later three other guys show up; they happen to be the not passed out friends of the sleeping guys. We begin talking…We head out to a place where more beer is ordered and chicken (always chicken). Finally around 5 am we return to our hostel to catch a few hours of sleep.
Favorite moments of the night include:
Over hearing “…and then he said he had a girlfriend; and so I was like, hell no! get out of this cab, get out right, fucking, now!”
Explaining the difference between hick and redneck and explaining why (the drunk Korean guys) shouldn’t use the “n-word”
Terry explaining English to me on the bus ride
Sunday:
Forced up by the desire to see Oasis in concert, but not happy about it from the late night before, (Terry can be an absolute baby about getting up…) we headed to the subway after a quick bite from Starbucks. The Jisan Valley Rock Festival offered a free bus to Jisan Valley at the end of the yellow line. It took us almost 2 hours to get to that spot though; Terry slept and I dozed, but mostly kept watch for the line changes and such; we finally caught a bus and slept our way to the festival another hour away.
Once at the drop off it was somewhere around (?) 2 or 3- ish; the festival was about a 1.5km walk from where the Seoul bus dropped us and so we trekked (not a hard one and the streets were lined with people trying to sell all sorts of things). Hundreds of people of every shape size and color together (We even managed to run into Mark (Bongsongdong co-worker)) …Asian Kung fu Generation was playing as we entered the concert area and we wandered a bit to get our bearings. Finally, Terry decided on some food and we sat for a while enjoying the atmosphere and music. Patti Smith absolutely rocked the early evening concert; we thought she would be hard to beat, especially with as temperamental as Oasis can be, but Jet had a great set and Oasis played a full 90 minute set with classics, a few new and mostly the arrogant stage presence they are infamous for.
After the concert I had a temporary panic attack when we thought we would not be able to get back to Seoul due to lack of buses, but that was sorted out when we realized what exactly was going on…(though I am not sure now what it was)…Anyway we passed out again on the bus and then taxied (almost too cheaply we don’t know how that happened) back to our hostel where once again we had a night cap outside and went in…
MONDAY:
I was all ready to go bright and early the next morning. I was in a tourist mood; that was one of my goals in Seoul was to get some of those tourist things “out of the way.” So I finally got Terry roused and headed to the tourist help area of the hostel. Danny (the director) was very helpful; he also thought Terry and I were married.
“Your husband is still sleep? How long have you been married?”
“Wait, what? No, no we are not together…just friends-co-workers”
“Oh…sorry, my mistake…”
So, Terry and I went to Subway (it was amazingly fantastic); a palace; a shrine; tried to find another palace; walked along the stream and finally a market area before heading to meet up with Charles (the Korean-American co-worker who “lives in Seoul”)
After a subway ‘where are you” adventure we headed to the “it” area for night life and at that point in the day late afternoon life. Unfortunately, with university on break and Charles recovering from a two day whirlwind trip in Tokyo with his cousin the night would be a little slower than we thought it would; but that was okay. We did drinks and dinner and coffee and almost had our fortunes told. (It closed at midnight, however, and we made a decision to do it about a minute before. Terry won a stuffed penguin at a little carnival booth and gave it to me. After saying goodbye to Charles and making it back to our area we once again had a nice nightcap at the gazebo and sauntered off to bed.
Tuesday:
Terry had it in his mind to go back to Gwang-Ju so he packed his things when we finally got moving, but I was committed to one more night. For lunch we ate bad Tex-Mex in Itaewon before going to the War Memorial museum. It was absolutely huge; and we only toured the outside. It was also one of the best displays I have seen for honoring not just the Korean military, but the military powers across the world. There were some moving tributes to the fighters of the Korean War.
Later I dropped Terry off at the Express Bus terminal and wandered around some of the different shopping districts and the river walk again. Made it to another palace (just the outside grounds as it was closed) and to Insadong (been there before and was surprised at the construction occurring) I meet several different sets of people who tried to talk to me for one thing or another and one even gave me a little phone charm that was a bottle of “Cass” beer (since it’s my name…) around midnight I headed back and sat outside at the gazebo for a final night before goodnight.
Wednesday:
Nothing terribly exciting to report; I headed back to Gwang-Ju after a relaxing morning in Seoul. Laundry and re-packed for Busan trip. Walked around our downtown area just because and had a great dinner at my favorite little California Roll.
Thursday:
Headed to Busan mid morning, it took more than five hours to get there due to heavy traffic and then another hour by subway to get to my hostel area. Checked in, changed and etc then headed to Shanghais/Texas street to meet up with Terry and Matt. What was once the Chinese quarter has been taken over by Russians. Terry was propositioned for new beautiful cloths and told that he had very ugly cloths on (to be fair the shirt he was wearing makes him look like Shaggy form Scooby Doo; though it really is a nice shirt). Anyway. After walking for a bit Onaje came into twon and we meet up with him near our hostel for dinner. Starting by Quizno’s subs and walking around for a while looking for something else we ended up back at Quizno’s.
Poor Terry got himself burnt that day; he made lobsters look white he was so burnt. It was pretty funny for a while, but then he started to feel the heat exhaustion that drinking and time can cause. So we went to a familiar Miller Time to wait for Lisa. Lisa is a gal we meet at Mud Fest two weekends before. She was to take us to what is now my favorite Korean club/bar (almost beating D’Alla in Maastricht, but you cannot demote your first love): Ghetto. Ghetto was right around the cornor from out hostel and had the cheapest drinks in town: 1,000 won (a little less than a dollar) shots and 2,000 won beers. You also had the option of ordering an entire bottle which several of the groups of patrons did that night with tequila.
Now a few more things to know: Lisa and I were two of maybe a half-a-dozen to a dozen girls in the bar that night, but there were many guys so our guys now refer to this night as Gay Night. Second as two girls, foreigners, who danced a lot and very well we had no problem getting attention that night. As we were dancing shots were being put into our hands; it was crazy. Around 530 we wound up at McDonalds and a little after 6 I was getting ready for bed in the hostel.
Friday
I was up pretty early for being our so late and headed straight to the big tourist beach. It was a little overcast and cooler, but still a nice day to lounge by the water. Haeundea (spelling) is the biggest and most popular beach in Korea and there was no shortage of people there on Friday. Koreans are so afraid of the sun they have umbrellas set up all along the beach that you have to rent (basically you rent a spot on the beach). I finally found a non-umbrellaed area at the far end of the beach where I set up shop for the day; which means that I read until I napped and read and napped.
Around 1:30 ish I did venture to the bathrooms and to find some food and who should I run into? Matt and Terry following Manila, Won Jon Nihm, Manila’s parents, and all three children! I said hi to all and briefly considered a road trip across Busan to the big fish market, but decided on more beach time.
Around 7-ish I headed back to meet Onaje for dinner. ‘Naje had decided to visit a temple that day. We thought it would be a nice night to go to a closer smaller beach that had a bridge that is all lighted up and such. It was gorgeous/fabulous etc. I happened to feel/get really sick though later that night and headed back to the hostel leaving ‘Naje to fend for himself at the Family Mart.
Saturday
After waking up slowly from such a rough night of being sick I attempted to rouse Naje who had wanted to be roused. I spent most all morning waiting for him (which was a mistake). Eventually we both were able to begin moving and headed to the UN Memorial Cemetery for the Korean War. You may not know this, but I am a little obsessed with death and cemeteries and this one did not disappoint. It was mostly peaceful and fascinating.
There were only two times by calm was broken while there. Once was when a group of kids began to play in the Unknown Soldiers waterway and took off all their cloths (kinda pissed me off that the parents didn’t bother to control them). The second was more powerful. While looking at the names on The Wall of Remembrance a couple asked me what nationality I was. I, of course, told them American. They asked if I knew anyone who fought; again I said yes. Then they said Thank You and walked away. I was in awe of this younger couple.
Another memorable moment at the cemetery included seeing the grave of a man who served in WWI, WII, and died in Korea. The cemetery home to a little less than 40 US Soldiers, yet we had the most deaths outside of natives for the war.
Post cemetery we ate and changed before heading down to Haeundae again. This time for the kick off of the big Sea Festival they host ever year. There was a huge stage with all sorts of popular and semi-popular Korean Pop groups performing and a pirate ship circling the bay. After a time we meet up, again, with Lisa and a Steve, Aiden, and two Chris’s (none of which are any relation to our Steve, Aiden or Chris). We hung out on the beach and watched the mass of 500,000 plus people moving and grooving and settling in for a night on the beach. It was chaotic and fabulous. The evening “ended” with a spectacular fire-works show over the water. A while later we decided that dancing was in our future and we headed to “my” area to the Ghetto.
Now a quick story about Naje and his crocs: he is a follower of the croc and for some illogical reason, though logical at the time, he decided to buy a two dollar pair of flip flops and ditch his crocs. Within half an hour he regretted this decision. As we left the beach and trekked that street again, what was still there on the side of the road, the crocs! It might be a “had to be there” to understand moment, but it was hilarious.
Arriving at Ghetto was very different from Thursday night. It was packed and came with a cover charge of 5,000, but you got a free drink with it (so free still just an obligatory drink). Once again shots came freely and with more people in the place more often. It was hotter than the August midday sun as we danced and danced. Finally, I split off a little and made my way to the balcony that had a little bit of the outside breathable air coming in. Some of the others just went outside. There were some Koreans and several Indians (literally form India) students who I started to dance with. It was mad crazy throughout the night.
Waaaay later while trying to find out where everyone went we ended up in a Hookah Bar upstairs. It was relaxing. Later yet we found ‘Naje being woken up at the Family Mart and having lost his camera yet again. We did finally find the camera, but not until after Naje pissed many off and we got into a bit of a scuffle. It was pretty bad. Lisa and I ended up again at McDonalds and then I got into my hostel by waiting (oh I forgot to mention Naje had lost his keys the night before and stole my keys from me that night). I showered and headed back to Gwang-Ju which was a great idea because people had trouble getting in later in the day due to high traffic and etc. So that is my Sunday as well.
Since I didn’t sleep I still could Sunday morning as part of Saturday. On the bus I meet up with this Finnish chick that was backpacking through Asia and slept about an hour before arriving in Gwang-Ju. I showered and cleaned up and meet Brooke in the park and then slept. Forever. Vacation was nothing as big as what some people did, but it was fairly satisfying. Nothing major happened (Oh except getting my pant leg caught in an escalator…I almost forgot about that…sorry—got my pants leg caught in an escalator and they had to tear/cut me out of the subway in Seoul.) Nobody was really injured-other than pride- and we all had a good time. So there is most of the story…
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