A little more Seoul
I saw Mao Zedong's body yesterday. It's preserved, in a building right in the middle of Tiananmen Square. It was kind of creepy.
My favorite part? The communist blanket draped over his body.
So then, to finish off tales of South Korea:
On Monday Amanda and I went to the Olympic Park and Stadium, since Seoul had the Olympics in 1988. Unlike many other cities, the Olympic Park and Stadium still stand and are still fun places to go. The Park starts out with an enormous gate, followed by the flags of every participating country, and then you follow winding paths over water and hills, past hundreds of sculptures (they keep adding sculptures, evn now), and arrive at some stadiums and gymnasiums. After that we went to the COEX Mall, the biggest in Seoul, for gifts and such. I saw an UNO Pizzeria there, which made my stomach very grumbly. That night I got my camera back from being fixed (130,000 won = $140. Blast it all!) and Amanda bought a new camera. Then we went to our motel, which we got that morning (from Monday until the end of a trip, we shared a motel room because Sal and Hyuein were busy during the weekdays), and is right in the middle of downtown. We just hung out at the stream that night, eventually buying crappy alcohol and then soju, and yeah, we got pretty drunk in our room. Ahem, moving on to Tuesday.
1 The main gate to the Olympic Park
2 One of many strange sculptures. Oh, and a thumb
On Tuesday Amanda and I decided to go to one of the many palaces scattered throughout downtown Seoul. The Japanese (who else?) invaded Korea twice, in the 1590's and 1910's, and so many palaces were destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, and rebuilt again. Thus why there's so many in Seoul. This one was called Changdeokgung, and unfortunately the only way to view it was through an organized tour, meaning we were following an enormous group of about 60 people everywhere. But the Biwon ("secret garden") at the back of the palace was pretty much worth it. So, after that was over and a quick stop at a coffee shop, we went to a huge outdoor market and flea market called Dongdaemun. Here is where South Korea reminds me of China, as stalls and products and stuff were just everywhere, with some bargaining thrown in. The vendors were a million times less pushy than their Chinese counterparts though. Finished with that, we went to Apgujeong Station (man, Korean words are hard) to meet... SeAhn and Claire! SeAhn and Claire studied at NCC my freshman year, so it had been over a here and a half since I had seen them. It was pretty great. First we went to this fancy Korean restaurant for a dinner of bibimbop, then to a bar called 安 that had fruit soju. We had apple soju that was poured into cups made of hollowed out apples! Then we ended the night with more karaoke (that had free ice cream!). The girls kept paying for us and wouldn't take no for an answer, although we somehow managed to pay for them at karaoke. After that we parted ways, and while I saw SeAhn again later in the week, I didn't see Claire again.
1 The Secret Garden. Found it!
2 Me, Claire, SeAhn (with short hair!), and Amanda
Wednesday was a great day. Although it started off kind of confusingly actually, and it was my fault. Amanda and I walked to the Japanese Embassy where I thought the comfort women protest was supposed to be at 10 am, but it wasn't there. After checking the guidebook I realized it was actually at noon. So we had breakfast and just kind of walked around until noon, with Sal meeting us before that. So then at 12 we went back and it turned out to be amazing. The comfort women are Asian women (in this case Korean) who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II, and there still has not been any sort of apology or compensation by the Japanese government. The protest lasted an hour, and it was led by 4 elderly Korean ladies who were beyond cute, but also quite sad. There were a bunch of performances though, by Taekwondo, children singing, Japanese people who gave speeches about how they supported the Koreans. It was great. Afterwards, us 3 walked to two more palaces: Jongmyo, which is the shrine and main visitor hall for the kings of old, and Changyeonggung, which was standard palace fare. Afterwards we went to a teahouse in the old district of Insadong that was supposed to have birds flying everywhere; we only saw a few, but my plum tea was amazing, so it was worth it. Sal left us after that, but then at that very moment Amanda's foot just died. She was in a ton of pain. So after an easy dinner at McDonald's, we just went back to the room so she could rest it. Sal met us later that night and we played cards while Amanda and I drank more soju. Sal left before we got too drunk, but after a bottle and a half each, we both stumbled to the stream for absolutely no reason. Oh soju.
1 Drummers at the protest
2 The teahouse
Thursday was our last full day in South Korea. We wanted to go somewhere easy so we didn't inflame Amanda's foot, which was feeling better. So our first order of business was to head to the 63 Building, one of the tallest in Korea. And it's gold! We got a combo ticket, which gave us access to the skydeck, the aquarium, and the IMAX Theater (which played some silly movie about Native Americans). The whole time we were there, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of schoolkids; they would all yell "Hello!" to us and then giggle. After we finished that, we went to the city hall area, to another palace called Deoksugung, but this one was really cool because it had Korean architecture mixed with Western gardens and architecture, which ended up looking really cool. After that we wandered around the skyscrapery city hall area until we got to Namdaemun, another crazy market, but this one was a lot more fun. After buying a bunch of stuff (including some metal chopsticks that I'll miss using in Korea), we met Sal and he took us to Sinchon, to the restaurant we ate at on our first night there. Meehyun and Hyuein were also there, and it was just as delicious as the first time. Then we went to a crazy bar called Mu because our guidebook said it looked like something out of Star Wars; instead, it just looked like a crazy mushroom alien land. After all that we said goodbye to the girls and Sal, and it would be the last time we saw Hyuein.
1 The 63 Building
2 Western garden and fountain in front of an Asian building. So cool!
1 A cool gate
2 The outside of Mu, which might give you a clue about the inside
Friday was our last day in South Korea. Amanda and I woke up, checked out of our motel, and then went to Sal's apartment to drop our stuff off. After hanging out with him for a while, he walked us to his univeristy (Yonsei University), and then left once SeAhn arrived, our time with Sal over until January. SeAhn took us out for a psuedo-Chinese lunch and some dessert, and then gave us a tour of the university. After that it was almost time for us to go, so we said our final goodbyes and then went to Sal's place to get our stuff. Meehyun met us there and took us to the subway station where we would get on a train to Incheon (the port). We said our goodbyes to her and waved as the train took off; an hour later, we were at the port. There's not much to say about the boat ride back, it was pretty much the same, and still 27 hours long. When we arrived in Tianjin (the Chinese port) on Saturday night, we had to take a 3 and a half hour bus ride to Beijing, and spent all of our Chinese money to do that. Once we got to Beijing we walked around (it being about 12:30 am) looking for an ATM so we could take a taxi to the university. I ended up talking to a construction worker about our dilemna and he was nice enough to give us enough to get back to school. Finaly at 1:00 am our trip ended, as I dropped myself into my own bed once again.
1 The building that Sal has classes in
2 Thanks for a great trip, Amanda Beehn! (this is at Incheon Port)
My favorite part? The communist blanket draped over his body.
So then, to finish off tales of South Korea:
On Monday Amanda and I went to the Olympic Park and Stadium, since Seoul had the Olympics in 1988. Unlike many other cities, the Olympic Park and Stadium still stand and are still fun places to go. The Park starts out with an enormous gate, followed by the flags of every participating country, and then you follow winding paths over water and hills, past hundreds of sculptures (they keep adding sculptures, evn now), and arrive at some stadiums and gymnasiums. After that we went to the COEX Mall, the biggest in Seoul, for gifts and such. I saw an UNO Pizzeria there, which made my stomach very grumbly. That night I got my camera back from being fixed (130,000 won = $140. Blast it all!) and Amanda bought a new camera. Then we went to our motel, which we got that morning (from Monday until the end of a trip, we shared a motel room because Sal and Hyuein were busy during the weekdays), and is right in the middle of downtown. We just hung out at the stream that night, eventually buying crappy alcohol and then soju, and yeah, we got pretty drunk in our room. Ahem, moving on to Tuesday.
1 The main gate to the Olympic Park
2 One of many strange sculptures. Oh, and a thumb
On Tuesday Amanda and I decided to go to one of the many palaces scattered throughout downtown Seoul. The Japanese (who else?) invaded Korea twice, in the 1590's and 1910's, and so many palaces were destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, and rebuilt again. Thus why there's so many in Seoul. This one was called Changdeokgung, and unfortunately the only way to view it was through an organized tour, meaning we were following an enormous group of about 60 people everywhere. But the Biwon ("secret garden") at the back of the palace was pretty much worth it. So, after that was over and a quick stop at a coffee shop, we went to a huge outdoor market and flea market called Dongdaemun. Here is where South Korea reminds me of China, as stalls and products and stuff were just everywhere, with some bargaining thrown in. The vendors were a million times less pushy than their Chinese counterparts though. Finished with that, we went to Apgujeong Station (man, Korean words are hard) to meet... SeAhn and Claire! SeAhn and Claire studied at NCC my freshman year, so it had been over a here and a half since I had seen them. It was pretty great. First we went to this fancy Korean restaurant for a dinner of bibimbop, then to a bar called 安 that had fruit soju. We had apple soju that was poured into cups made of hollowed out apples! Then we ended the night with more karaoke (that had free ice cream!). The girls kept paying for us and wouldn't take no for an answer, although we somehow managed to pay for them at karaoke. After that we parted ways, and while I saw SeAhn again later in the week, I didn't see Claire again.
1 The Secret Garden. Found it!
2 Me, Claire, SeAhn (with short hair!), and Amanda
Wednesday was a great day. Although it started off kind of confusingly actually, and it was my fault. Amanda and I walked to the Japanese Embassy where I thought the comfort women protest was supposed to be at 10 am, but it wasn't there. After checking the guidebook I realized it was actually at noon. So we had breakfast and just kind of walked around until noon, with Sal meeting us before that. So then at 12 we went back and it turned out to be amazing. The comfort women are Asian women (in this case Korean) who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II, and there still has not been any sort of apology or compensation by the Japanese government. The protest lasted an hour, and it was led by 4 elderly Korean ladies who were beyond cute, but also quite sad. There were a bunch of performances though, by Taekwondo, children singing, Japanese people who gave speeches about how they supported the Koreans. It was great. Afterwards, us 3 walked to two more palaces: Jongmyo, which is the shrine and main visitor hall for the kings of old, and Changyeonggung, which was standard palace fare. Afterwards we went to a teahouse in the old district of Insadong that was supposed to have birds flying everywhere; we only saw a few, but my plum tea was amazing, so it was worth it. Sal left us after that, but then at that very moment Amanda's foot just died. She was in a ton of pain. So after an easy dinner at McDonald's, we just went back to the room so she could rest it. Sal met us later that night and we played cards while Amanda and I drank more soju. Sal left before we got too drunk, but after a bottle and a half each, we both stumbled to the stream for absolutely no reason. Oh soju.
1 Drummers at the protest
2 The teahouse
Thursday was our last full day in South Korea. We wanted to go somewhere easy so we didn't inflame Amanda's foot, which was feeling better. So our first order of business was to head to the 63 Building, one of the tallest in Korea. And it's gold! We got a combo ticket, which gave us access to the skydeck, the aquarium, and the IMAX Theater (which played some silly movie about Native Americans). The whole time we were there, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of schoolkids; they would all yell "Hello!" to us and then giggle. After we finished that, we went to the city hall area, to another palace called Deoksugung, but this one was really cool because it had Korean architecture mixed with Western gardens and architecture, which ended up looking really cool. After that we wandered around the skyscrapery city hall area until we got to Namdaemun, another crazy market, but this one was a lot more fun. After buying a bunch of stuff (including some metal chopsticks that I'll miss using in Korea), we met Sal and he took us to Sinchon, to the restaurant we ate at on our first night there. Meehyun and Hyuein were also there, and it was just as delicious as the first time. Then we went to a crazy bar called Mu because our guidebook said it looked like something out of Star Wars; instead, it just looked like a crazy mushroom alien land. After all that we said goodbye to the girls and Sal, and it would be the last time we saw Hyuein.
1 The 63 Building
2 Western garden and fountain in front of an Asian building. So cool!
1 A cool gate
2 The outside of Mu, which might give you a clue about the inside
Friday was our last day in South Korea. Amanda and I woke up, checked out of our motel, and then went to Sal's apartment to drop our stuff off. After hanging out with him for a while, he walked us to his univeristy (Yonsei University), and then left once SeAhn arrived, our time with Sal over until January. SeAhn took us out for a psuedo-Chinese lunch and some dessert, and then gave us a tour of the university. After that it was almost time for us to go, so we said our final goodbyes and then went to Sal's place to get our stuff. Meehyun met us there and took us to the subway station where we would get on a train to Incheon (the port). We said our goodbyes to her and waved as the train took off; an hour later, we were at the port. There's not much to say about the boat ride back, it was pretty much the same, and still 27 hours long. When we arrived in Tianjin (the Chinese port) on Saturday night, we had to take a 3 and a half hour bus ride to Beijing, and spent all of our Chinese money to do that. Once we got to Beijing we walked around (it being about 12:30 am) looking for an ATM so we could take a taxi to the university. I ended up talking to a construction worker about our dilemna and he was nice enough to give us enough to get back to school. Finaly at 1:00 am our trip ended, as I dropped myself into my own bed once again.
1 The building that Sal has classes in
2 Thanks for a great trip, Amanda Beehn! (this is at Incheon Port)