Another Mission to Seoul

This weekend actually sort of started on Tuesday night, as Wednesday (August 15th) is Korean Independence Day (coinciding with the Japanese surrender to the allied forces on Aug 15th 1945). It's been celebrated as Independence Day ever since so on Tuesday night Paul came up from Ulsan to meet Mike and I and celebrate with some bbq and a few beers. I spent the actual Wednesday cleaning, relaxing, watching movies etc.

Friday night was when the real Seoul trip started. Kris had left a few things in Daegu before he moved to Seoul so Mike and I were taking them up to him and spending the night at his place is east Gangnam before going our own ways on Saturday. We took the KTX and got to Kris' around one. He has an apartment in a great area with a real neighbourhood feel. It's small though. Like three of us sleeping took up the entire floor space. But to live in the heart of Seoul it is worth it. the neighbourhood is amazing though, a real neighbourhood feel. There is a little strip but it seems to close very early, though Sincheon is 10 minutes away in a cab so if we had really wanted to get going...... In the end we settled on a bbq and bed by 3.

The next day we all got up and headed across Seoul to Ilsan. I was off to see Bobby and they were both off to visit friends in Ilsan. I got off at Juyeop after a 90 minute train ride and dropped my stuff off at Bobby's place. It was threatening to rain all day so we did a bit of sightseeing between rainfalls or in the drizzle. Ilsan has a huge lake park and is generally a very affluent suburb or Seoul, though because it is technically outside of Seoul prices are kept down a bit real estate wise and food wise so housing is much better for the same price than you would get in Seoul proper and food is closer in cost to Daegu than Seoul. We hung out and swapped vacation stories before meeting several of his friends including his old coteacher, her sister and their cousins. Although only Eun Young was bilingual the rest of us managed to put enough English/Korean/alcohol together to have conversation. After that Bobby insisted on taking me to a Chinese place that had lamb, a meat that is very popular with many mainland Chinese but all but impossible to get in Korea. It was delicious and worth the midnight dinner. After that we went back to Bobby's and crashed.

Despite my joke about translating liquor we actually hadn't had that much so we were both up at 930 fresh and ready to go. I had planned to meet Jenny, Kwangho and little Jenny at COEX to see the Seoul Aquarium (back in east Gangnam) and though Bobby was invited he had some prep work to do and so decided against the 90 minute subway ride there (and unavoidable 90 minute ride back). We had breakfast, watch a Louis Theroux documentary and then I headed out. I met Jenny and Kwangho and COEX where we had a big lunch and then headed off to the aquarium. Little Jenny seemed very excited to see me and actually wouldn't stop dragging me everywhere. I was happy that she remembered me actually, as she never used to. We saw the aquarium, which was actually very impressive and got to play with a very cute two year old until well in to the afternoon when it got to being nap time (I'm not sure for who). We parted ways and I went to catch up with Mike, Kris and their friend Greg who I had met in Daegu a few weeks ago and is actually from Kamloops B.C. They were eating Mexican food, which to be honest didn't really look that good and beer which did. It was clear that their night had been far longer than mine but Greg seemed awake enough to catch up with and Kris was more or less alive. Mike was there :P We then moved to a patio and had a couple beers and chatted until 8 when Mike and I had to get a cab to get our 9pm train. Midnight and I was home in Daegu. A great Seoul weekend that actually was very light on the wallet, though I am looking forward to a quiet week.