Korea 2

We pick up our story on Wednesday. Anthony and I leave the hotel early to take the train to Seoul Station. At first we get a little lost because the underground has what feels like 18 million exits, but a very nice city worker helps us out. Pointing has always done me justice. Once we get to the station we see that the older part looks like its being renovated for something. Although it's raining its so hot I can feel the droplets steaming on contact with my skin. It was my bad judgement to wear a jacket and Anthony was no help to me as I tried to take it off with out removing my 30lbs of luggage. I should say it was OUR luggage because I only brought my back pack as a back up bag and we had to use it at the airport because his bag was too full to be a carry on.

Anyway, once we got to the new and fancy station we got information on tickets to the Mud Festival and then ate at McDonald's. We place our order minutes before the change to lunch. Lucky us! All of the employees had shirts on for the Olympics and each continent had an item attached to it. The Americas were a big breakfast, Asia was fries, Europe was a chicken sandwich, Africa was chicken nuggets and Australia was a hamburger.

Then we moseyed on to Itaewon which is a neighborhood a little bit outside of Seoul proper. It is popular as a foreign restaurant area which is probably why it was so hard to find good but cheap hotels. We found one place that was upwards of $100/ night but we kept looking. I have to admit that we were tired, wet and dragged down by our luggage and walking up and down one street like 5 times. Neither of us were happy campers. We found information people who weren't all that helpful, then we tried to go to the tourism office. Murphy's  Law has a funny way of showing up at a time like this. When we reached the office everyone was a lunch for the next hour. I just started laughing; not sure if Anthony thought it was so funny. FINALLY we found our way to D'oro hotel.

If you ever stay in Itaewon be sure to ask about it and stay there. We had two options of getting there: walk up a steep ass hill or walk up a creepy ally of stairs. We chose the stairs. What was really interesting was as we walked up the stairs we found a 24-hr fitness club. You have to be in the mood to work out when you get there cause you've already done some cardio on the stairs.

After resting for a bit we went to a shopping area. Anthony was so excited about getting stuff for cheap that he didn't take the time to turn around when the mile-long (only 2 exits) "mall" we went into was filled with old lady things. He was convinced that if we walked further down there would be more stuff for us. They had a few things that we really cute but they were in Asian sizes, which, let me tell you, I'm nowhere near fitting. So after being tired from the morning and tired from the mile-long hike through these tiny, cramped stores, we were ready to relax. As we were leaving, however, we passed the cool young people mall. I cried a little on the inside. That night we went to another area of Seoul. We got dinner at a place called

4°C Garten Beir. The tables have 4 cup holes to put drinking glasses where the glasses will be kept cold! There wasn't much on the menu that had pictures with it, so we ordered a platter of meat and pineapple and strawberry soju. I didn't realize that I was ordering a pitcher. They didn't even bring regular glasses with it, they brought shot glasses. The platter was good.

It included sausages, bacon-wrapped things, pineapple and honeydew. I'm not entirely sure I have the Korean diet down exactly, but I think it's mostly meat, cooked fish, friend chicken and kimchi. Also, I'd like to take a minute to give thanks for Soju. Anthony says it's unregulated so you never know the strength of the brand... unless you know the brands well. For a person who doesn't like the taste of alcohol or beer, soju is an easy mixer with anything. And for alcoholics who want special powers, it also mixes well with beer. It wasn't gross and even though I had a buzz by the end of the meal, it didn't stick or make me sick. Here's to you soju! *raises shot glass* 

So then we went to a theater to watch a live performance of JUMP, a non-verbal comedy about a martial arts family (tae-kwon-do) there is a man who likes the daughter and he is forced to participate in their practice. Then one night two thugs break in. Hilarity ensues! before the show started there was an old man walking around. He kind of looked like the Korean Col. Sanders. His hair was white and looked like it was blown back, his mustache was white, his suit was white, and he was bent over his cane. We couldn't figure out if he was part of the show or not, but I decided not to stare anyway. Anthony, on the other hand, couldn't keep his eyes away. So the old man comes over to us! I'm looking the other way and he motions like he needs to scoot by us. We stand up so he can, then he very creakily takes a seat on the arm of my chair. My face is so hot by that point I'm pretty sure everyone could feel it. Then he motioned for me to massage his back. I put my thumbs to work, still not sure if this is part of the act or not. But when I felt him it was not like feeling an old man with saggy skin. Then our seat neighbors came up and he game us all a candy from his pocket just like a real old man. Then a little bit into the show there was some audience participation. The grandfather of the family (not the same old man) came to the audience and asked Anthony to stand up. Not only did he pick the one guy who has tae-kwon-do training, he picked the guy who also has theater training. Again, hilarity ensued. The guy asked Anthony some question and Anthony answered but the guy said, "Hey, man. Yes only, okay?" HAHA!Then he takes Anthony on stage and the characters start pulling weapons from his person. It was amazing how they hid everything. Just as one of them is pulling a broad sword from his back he shrugs (not knowing what was happening). Then they mimed for Anthony to do what the other characters were doing. They did kicks and rolls and of course Anthony was great. Then the grandfather said, "Hey, man, you win." Ant got a book with all the actors' pictures and information about the event. After the show we got everyone's autograph. 

We spent an hour trying to flag down a cab after that, but I would have rather gone on the train. Since we were tired and it was raining pretty hard we saved our going out for the next night. I made a vow to eat at a Dunken Doughnuts since there was one on every corner.  In the morning when we woke up there was a puddle in our room because the window was leaky. 

Thursday we get out to go to the Lotte Department store, which is apparently the 5th most popular mall in the world. I'll tell you why - the 4 floor duty free shop. Still too expensive for me, but the shops in the underground were great. must go back for that.  We ate breakfast of REAL waffles in the underground at a convini that is tiny enough for only one person inside. We walked around Lotte store for a long time checking out all the really expensive things you could buy. The mall was really classy. For lunch we went to UNO for some Jambalaya pizza. There. Was. So. Much. CHEESE! 

Then we had to catch the express from Yongsan to Suwon for the 5:00pm showing of The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX! So we get to the station at 3:00pm just to be sure we don't flub anything up. The train only comes once an hour and the normal ride from Yongsan to Suwon takes over an hour. So when we ask the information lady where to go, she tells us to go to the track for line 1. Remember when I told you the rail system was hard to figure out? This is what I was talking about. One entire side of the train station is for line 1. There are about 9 tracks for this one line because there are 3 end-points and about 8 ways to get from one station to another if its on the other side of where you are. This is just one line. So we go to track one and get on a train that arrives at 3pm. Our train is supposed to leave at 3:05, the lady said 1, so we figure we're in the right spot, but this train has a name and real seats. I tell Anthony I think we're on the wrong train, but we ride out. In the wrong direction completely. We get off at the next stop which is 30 mins North of where we started. Get on the regular train back down. By the time we get back we can make it to the next express train. We ask two information people at the gate who tell us to go to track 5. They were wrong. It was hard to know which of the 8 tracks to get on because half of them had the same next stop labeled on the glass. Then the line has about 30 stops in each direction, but only 2 or 3 are posted. In retrospect I should have looked just at the last stop, but I trusted the people who were directing me. We get on a train that was going south, good. But at one stop the line splits to East and West. So we started going West instead of East. It took a while to realize it, but when we did we tried to change trains again. Finally we were on the right track and only missed the first few minutes of the movie. Thank goodness for movie trailers and warnings. 

So Japanese movie theaters keep the lights out while the credits roll, but the Korean theater did not. Also, I don't remember what IMAX theaters are like in the states but the one we were in had cushy seats but the isles were tiny.   After the movie we ate left over pizza outside. When we got on the train to Seoul we had the strange luck to get on the express! I'd also like to say that we were helped out over the past few days by random strangers who saw that we were lost or unsure where we were going. Some spoke perfect English, some we had to point and mime, but I'm so grateful for those people. I'll remember that when I am living in a place and see people who are looking a little lost. I hope you all do as well.

When we got back to Itaewon we went looking for a pub. Anthony learned the difference between a lounge bar, bar, and pub. We drank bad sangria at an Irish pub. We should have had the Guinness. We passed a few party vans/ trucks on the street. They parked near the sidewalk and   open up the sides just like a bar. It was a pretty easy night.