and yes, i hear your groans from my clearly NOT funny jokes.
here we go:
after completing the last of my lessons, packing my warmest gear and sending off all my new year/christmas cards and gifts, i hopped on a plane with J to Seoul. We got in mid afternoon and by the time we reached our "guesthouse" for the evening, it was very late afternoon. i say "guesthouse" because that's what they called it but i think roach-infested-shit-house is a much better description. though we had booked it for 2 nites, we changed it to one because it was late-ish and there was no place else for us to go. for those of you thinking of heading to korea, that's a big ass NO on the Wind Road and Flower Guesthouse in Hyehwa. What a dump. think of the dirtiest place you can and put two bunk beds by the door (which they considered the "dorm" area), add a single room in the back (which i admittedly did not see), add another "double" room across from the bunks (which is where we slept; i'm telling you, two of the filthiest single beds on top of a giant pile of dust perpendicular to another bunk bed set -- so hey, i guess we had 4 beds to choose from!), add a kitchen which i refused to go near, and top it all off with a bathroom that had the toilet and the shower and sink all together. so theorhetically, you could shower while taking a shit and brushing your teeth at the same time. SOOOOO messed up.
the next day, j slept in but i couldn't sleep (i refused to shower and anyone who knows me knows i don't sleep well if i don't bathe) so i got up and had a stroll around the area. it's college town so it's cheap and dirty but not that bad.
after j FINALLY got up, we booked our DMZ tour and found other accommodation. since it was the holiday season, everywhere was pretty much booked up but Seoul Backpackers found us a "homestay" with this lovely lady named Helen. she let us crash in the spare room of her house in Anguk, which is a wonderful little part of Seoul near Insadong-gil. So after setting our stuff down, we got to go for a little walk down the funky little shopping street:
From a great little art exhibit on Insadong:
Insadong at nite (we walked down this area about 4 times)
We visited this awesome art gallery featuring this exhibit by Ji Yong Ho called Mutants. this guy makes beautiful animal sculptures out of tires. the animals look a bit scary (they're supposed to), to show the fear they must feel from human encroachment. it was really awesome.
took a walk down Cheonggyecheon canal which was COVERED with lights. it was really beautiful (though not very environmentally friendly, i suspect):
and capped our christmas eve with Tofu Chigae:
On christmas day, we woke up late-ish and made our way to this awesome juk place. "juk " is korean rice porridge and the stuff is made from heaven. i tell ya, the chicken one (sammgae juk) is the best thing EVER!
we bid farewell to Helen and went right up the street from her house to the Tea Guesthouse which was our second accommodation. this place was very cool. yes, the toilet and the showers and the sink were all together (this is the way it is EVERYWHERE in korea; a first for me) but it was still clean and traditional and nice. we enjoyed our stay here and i was glad that we had booked it for 2 nites.
we went to Namdaemun Market which is a massive shopping area full of shops, stands, stalls, and just tables with stuff on them. i am always fascinated by wet markets and shopping areas like this ergo the camera happiness:
we walked back up to Anguk passing through Insadong again. J seemed to be in need of non-korean food so we stopped by the Lime Tree Cafe for sammiches and massive icecream topped waffle dessert
not exactly what i had imagined for a christmas dinner but it was still good. (Sidebar: korea had TONS of coffee shops and sammich shops. there was one every couple blocks! and trust me, we visited quite a few of them.)
Post-christmas day we went back to the juk place (our second round was not as good as our first round choices. i ate every bite nonetheless) for breakfast and then went to see the Changdeokgung Palace (this was the 2ndary palace):
There was a "secret garden" known as the Biwon there:
afterwards, we went for a walk along the back streets of Anguk near a couple schools and found some cool shops. i got a stick of BBQ chicken from this nice cowboy:
who turned the camera on us!
we kept walking and came to a "SoHo" like area with lots of cool funky shops in the Jogno-gu area:
we also found the Eros museum and decided to have a look-see:
we went back towards Insadong to find some dinner afterwards and ended up in this little cafe quite late. i had a glass of wine (it was VERY sweet) and we had a bite or two to eat:
SIDEBAR: Seoul is totally lit up! there were light displays EVERYWHERE. check these out:
On the 27th, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace (the main one) and got there just in time to see the changing of the guard:
here are some shots of the palace itself:
and afterwards we went to the National Folk Museum:
i was totally cultured out after that. we went back to the Tea Guesthouse for a short rest before heading to our final accommodation place, the Namsam Guesthouse. This place wasn't that great either but i guess it was ok. we were really only there to shower and sleep so it was no biggie. but then Tragedy struck. J lost her cell phone somewhere on the street so she went back to get it blah blah blah, i was getting sick (now that i think of it, it was probably because i waited with our luggage down by the metro and i was super cold down there) so by the time we checked into our next place we were not having any more fun. J decided she was going to stay in that nite (i needed to get to a pharmacy stat before everything closed plus i was really hungry (Sidebar: J never really seemed to be hungry. she kept saying her stomach felt weird. she's funny about food -- read VERY picky -- which was not so good for me since i am a major foodie. it was a a bit of a bummer) so i set out to find meds and food. i walked through this very cool shopping area and they were having some kind of show on the stage so i stopped for a minute:
by the time i got back to the room, i was fully sick. i started to run a fever and i was a gross mucus filled mess. not fun at all.
but the next day (the 28th) was our trip to the De-Militarized Zone (the DMZ). this is that place along the 38th parallel which divided the two koreas. it was a foggy, drizzley mess of a day which made it BAD for photos. i managed to fill up my memory card anyway. here's freedom bridge and the surrounding park:
we couldn't take photos inside the tunnel but here's the entrance into it:
the tunnel was super long and deep. it was quite the climb down and a bitch to go back up. underground it was rather warm though and the tunnel (this is the third infiltration tunnel) was low and very wet. everyone was banging their heads against the top (we are required to all wear these yellow construction worker helmets) but i fit just fine! afterwards we watched this short informational movie about the north and south relations which was like a really bad eighties rock video and afterwards we went through the museum. very educational. here's the peace statue on the outside:
then we went to the Dora observatory where you can "see" north korea (on a clear day anyway). here are a couple of the poor unfortunate soldiers who had to guard this icebox:
then we had to stand behind the yellow line to take photos of north korea:
here's north korea:
we also visited Dosan train Station. one ticket to north korea please?
after the first part of our tour, we got dropped off with a handful of other people at the lunch spot, after which we were supposed to join the other tour to go visit the JSA (Joint Security Area). our bus was a tad late which meant that we only had 20 minutes to eat. our food didn't come for 10 minutes and by the time we had finished wolfing down our food, our bus had left us behind! unbelievable! we had to call the tour company and make them turn the whole fucking bus around to come get us! there were 7 of us that got abandoned so we kept each other company. after the bus finally came back, we made our way to the JSA:
After getting dropped off at the Lotte Hotel, we went back for some good ass grub to the Namdaemun Market with a couple of our new friends:
the combination of the soju and the meds put me flat on my ass at 9:00 that nite!
the next day, our LAST day, J went to get her phone (it got returned) and i went to the Seodaemun Prison for a look-see. although feverish and still running all color of mucus, i decided to brave the museum (hey, it was my last day!). this is the biggest prison built by the Japanese when they occupied korea. yes, all the torture and stuff was horrible there but i thought i was very interesting how they had a bunch of "re-enactments" by the life-size manniquins there. some even came with audio (i'm talkin' loud ass screams and yelling and whip sounds) and some even moved (the bamboo stabbing under the fingernails, the electrical torture, even the execution!). you could also "experience" some of the different types of torture like the standing coffins and you could even go inside the cells. yeah!
even more puzzling was that parents brought their CHILDREN here. this would NOT be something i imagine americans would do. some of the stuff is very graphic and i found it disconcerting that the parents were taking photos of their kids taking part in the try-this-torture-device-yourself sections of the prison. i guess, that's one kind of family vacation!
i went for a walk afterwards to clear my head. there was a beautiful park next to the prison:
as well as another market (this one had no tourists at all; must be for locals only):
after a bowl of bibimbap for lunch, i walked to city hall to catch the metro to Dongdaemun. i went to a bath house out there (it wasn't anything special like the guy promised. i find cleaner and friendier bath houses in japan) and took a walk around the area (also known for shopping):
J and i were supposed to meet up in Itaewon to have dinner with her friend so after walking some more, i caught the metro again and got out at Itaewon. Talk about foreigner central. this was like the roppongi of Seoul which meant the prices for everything are super inflated. i barely stepped out (i spent no more than 20 minutes there) before my germs caught up with me and i wanted to head back. i got a call from J telling me her friend cancelled anyway so i went for one more round of Namdaemun market for food. we had some of the same stuff from the nite before (J's request) and i got to try a BBQ food stall which was quite good:
it was good to come back to a warm room to rest (it was freezing cold and i had even witnessed a few snowflakes that afternoon) and since the fever was settleing in again, i went to bed rather quickly again. we had to catch our bus to get to their airport fairly early the next day so it was good.
all in all, a very good trip though not very christmassy. i am happy to be back in the land of sushi and in my nice, warm, comfy bed.
