Seoul Road Trip to See the Lions

My weekend was great, but it actually started Friday night when I went down to Sangin after work with Hyo Jung to have some Chinese food and Chinese liquor, which was potent but not too strong. It wasn't a late night but it was fun to have the night there.

Saturday I got up at 8:30 to catch the subway to Dongdaegu, We had 10:15 tickets to Seoul. I met Geoff, Jarrod and Hayley and we rode the train up, playing Civilization 5 the whole way. At Seoul Station Geoff and I left to head to Jamsil to get tickets to the ball game. In fact, Sports Complex is the closer subway stop but we didn't know that, so we had a bit of a hike but got in line at 1:45, with tickets going on sale at 3. We got seven tickets in the Samsung Lions fan section. We were joined later by Jarrod, Bobby and his friend Kate and my friend Serena and her friend Su, neither of whom had ever been to a ball game.

Before the game we explored a Lego display built at Olympic Stadium, which was built for the 1988 Olympics and now hosts soccer games for Seoul teams and the national team.

Olympic Stadium

built of Lego

outside Jamsil

We then entered the stadium and got out seats, which were right on the main walkway. This made the first inning a bit of a drag, though once people found their seats it was okay. Jamsil is certainly a step up from Daegu's stadium, as it holds 30,000 and is right on two subway lines and a bus line. However, it is still fairly dated compared to many modern stadiums in the U.S (it is 30 years old now).

Jamsil from outside

inside looking towards the infield

towards the outfield

The game itself started with LG (the Seoul team) going up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. It was then seven innings of shutout ball until LG managed a second run in the 8th. The top of the 9th may have been one of the most exciting innings of baseball I have ever seen live, as Samsung loaded the bases with two out on a single and two walks. With bases loaded they hit a line drive to third and the runner heading for third was called out on such a close call that both managers were out (in reality he was probably out). Everyone there had a blast and were all up cheering. Serena and her friend loaded up on clackers for us, so were were all making noise.

Geoff with his CFL import clackers. BC Lions. 

Samsung Lions. Close enough.

Serena and Su

Bobby and Jarrod

the crowd is up!

After the game we headed to a Canadian run bar in Gangnam. Geoff's fiend Kwang Ho also joined us here for a beerA Gretzky Oiler Jersey really set the tone for the place, and we managed a few beers there before parting ways. Jarrod off to meet Hayley, Serena off to the last bus home and the rest of us out to Ilsan where Bobby lives. When there we grabbed dinner, hung out for a while and headed to bed.

Sunday Bobby and I were up early so we did a coffee and bakery run. There's a great bakery near his place. Around noon Geoff and I left to meet Jarrod and Hayley and get our family seats (saved us like $20 each on the ride down). I got in around 4 and I headed home to unpack and crash out.