Korea - Day 2

Day 2

We started day 2 with a bit of confusion, caused by alcohol, lack of sleep, and that our hostel room was in a basement with a window the size of a shoebox. Our sleep was also interupted at 4:45 am by someone's alarm going off. Mark woke up and announced to everyone that "someone's alarm is going off" (thanks for that Mark). After a minute and a couple more announcements by Mark he came to realize, that yes, it was his phone that was going off (thanks again Mark). We caught about several more hours of sleep in our cave and then we got ready and made our way a block from our hostel to grab a breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and woah they had bagels. I have not seen a bagel since leaving the US back in February. After we made our way to an old Korea palace and took part in the English tour. The tour was not very impressive as our tour guide was about an enthusiastic as a tree but the scenery was quite beautiful.

From the Palace we read in the tour book that there is an old prison that was constructed by the Japanese to house and torture the Koreans during one of the wars. We took the subway to the prison and walked around there for an hour or so. The area is well kept up and is quite a sombering experience, very similiar to the concentration camp that I went to while I was in Germany. We left the prison on got back on the subway to make our way to the Seoul Tower. The subway system in Seoul is crazy, I have never seen a more intimidating subway map in all of my travels. I think they have close to 12 lines that criss-cross around the city. Though, after a couple rides it starts to make sense and actually becomes quite intuitive. The US could really take some notes from how these international cities plan their subways and how useful and convenient they are.

Seoul Tower is a huge tower (similiar to the Seattle space needle) that is built on the tallest hill in the center of the city. It is quite the hike to the top but the views are amazing. Seoul has some of the most beautiful scenery of any city that I have seen. The city is built along a huge river which is sorrounded by mountains and hills in every direction. The city kinda weaves in and out of the hills. When we reached the top of the hill we got tickets and took the eleveator to the top of the tower. The view from the top was amazing and on each piece of glass they had the name of different cities around the world and how far those cities were from us in Seoul. The walk down from the hill was uneventful as we just watched the sunset and then hopped on teh subway back to our hostel. It was when we got back to the hostel that we realized that we had not really eaten all day aside from the bagel in the morning.

We explained to crazy, let me repeat crazy, Mr. See that we were starving and he led us up a couple of alleyways to a Korean BBQ restuarant. He asked us how much money we wanted to spend. One he received the amount he told the old women owner/waitress lady and the food became flying out if the kitchen. Before we knew it we had a complete table full of food. Mr See was nice engouh to teach us how in the world you actually eat/cook all the food that was put before us. You end up taking the cooked meat and making a sorta lettuce wrap with all the ingredients. It was an amazing meal and of course a good amount of Korean Beer was had by all.

We then went to a bar up the street that was having a kinda party for the people that were staying at some of the various hostels around the area. We ended up playing drinking games there for a few hours and drinking a bit of Korean beer and the Soju. We ended the night at the club district but skipped going into one of the clubs becuase it cost 20,000 Won just to enter. We wandered the streets and actually ran into a mobile Kebab store which of course we had to try as there are no real Kebabs in China. We ended the night around 3 am and made it back into the hostel. James, Mark and Kibuuka decided to stay out a bit later and I think that they stumbled back in around 5am after another around of fried chicken.