This weekend was one I was very excited
for. Ever since deciding to move to Korea
I have been anticipating my visit to the capital, Seoul.
The trip was organized by my lovely friend
Rob who bought us the tickets (he says that’s not organizing but considering how hard it is to work anything out
in Korea
he was getting Kudos. KUDOS!)
We hoped onto the KTX at Dongdaegu station
and zipped our way through the mountains (literally straight through a big hole
in a lot of mountains) and arrived at Seoul
perfectly on time.
The KTX experience was fantastic. Large
comfy seats, TV’s throughout the carriage to
entertain the kiddies and a beautiful view. The train moved so smoothly it was
scary. We didn’t know we had even set off
at the beginning.
Once arriving in Seoul we tracked down are last minute hotel.
When we were trying to book a hostel we discovered a 4* hotel that was empty
and selling rooms at a great discount. We were living in luxury. Coffee, comfy
beds, TV, P.C, Robes and most importantly a Jacuzzi bath…oh Jacuzzi bath, how I miss you!
Our first priority on Friday night was
getting a beer and some food.. We headed to the Itaewon area of Seoul to meet
up with Rob’s friend and have a ‘proper’
beer. The bar was a delight, more like a European beer hall than a bar. They
had IPA’s, Stouts and Ale’s. I myself wasn’t there for beer as Cass is about as much as I can handle so I was
content with the wine list. There was actually more than one white.
It was a little pricey for food but then
again we are small town Daegu-ians so to us it was all expensive.
The food was equally as good but a special
mention goes to the home made southern Red Velvet Cake. This piece of culinary
genius made my great night fantastic.
By the time we had racked up a impressive
tab we headed back for the night. We were aiming to get an early night but we
were thwarted by the Seoul
taxi bias.
In Daegu taxi’s are everywhere. They stop even if you are just waiting at a
traffic light for the green man. In Seoul
it seems you have to launch yourself on the bonnet to even get noticed. I can
only contribute this waygook racism as bad experiences as taxi drivers would
turn their light off the second they saw we weren’t Asian. They would say that they were picking someone up or going
home even though they would stop a few feet away for someone else.
It was a weird feeling and perhaps my first
experience of prejudice while being in Korea. Western people are quite
loud and rowdy so I can only assume that we have annoyed the population of taxi
drivers over the years with our drunken behaviors. This being said (and
understood) it still felt horrible to be discriminated against. We just wanted
to go to the hotel!
The next day we were up bright and early
and ready to experience the city. The main aim for the morning was brunch. We
read of a few places and settled on a place near us called ‘Organic’.
We had read great reviews so spent a little bit of time tracking it down and it
was definitely worth it. There is only one option for breakfast. It came with the
nicest French toast I’ve had as well as bacon,
sausage, egg and salad. My only complaint would be the lack of potatoes but that’s the greedy westerner in me.
The coffee, people and smoothies in the café were particularly lovely.
Our next mission was to head to the Palace.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we arrived just in time to see the changing of
the guard. It was a interesting and intriguing ceremony that made you imagine
what it would have felt like to hear those war drums beating in the distance
100’s of years ago. I would not
like to be against the people playing those drums.
The palace grounds were a lovely site. We
sat in the sunshine taking in our surroundings and teaching each other the most
offence words of our countries (the way to spend any sunny afternoon) .
After a quick change we were ready to hit
the town. (At this point I was annoying everyone with my camera so I left it at
the hotel room and settled to annoy them with my Iphone instead)
We had dinner in a weird little
tapas/chicken place that felt like a food chain that time forgot. It was very
tasty and filled a gap. The choice of eateries in Seoul is too much to take on
board sometimes. Unless you know exactly where you are headed you might be
wandering a good while.
After food we could hear live music in the
distance and followed our ears to track it down. In a near by park we found
crowds of people listening to different types of music. Rock band, rappers,
blues and a silent disco. It was a great atmosphere and felt more like London than Korea.
After some Makholie, Soju and Mikju in a
local watering hole we snuck into a trendy cocktail bar that we amazed with our
drinking skills. The poor waiter couldn’t keep up. The drinking was sped up mainly because of the ‘Bruce Forsyth’ style drinking game of ‘Higher
or Lower’. Its safe to say I was 100%
right 2% of the time (and 3 Cafri beer’s
later). I did drink a beautiful Cosmo and strawberry margarita. It definitely
is the perfect spot for a girlie night out. (My lovely UK friend Jess,
I’m taking you here in
October).
From then on the night was a blur of
dancing and shenanigans. We danced to Gentleman (of course) as well as a mix of
other Kpop. I think the people here I’ve
made friends with in Korea
are some of the best dancer’s I’ve ever seen. Their dancing makes my nights at least 10times better
every time.
At about 4 we started to flag and walked
the short walk home. Got tucked up in our luxury beds and dreamed of the
Jacuzzi we would have in our hung-over stupor in a few hours.
Many coffee’s and some cake later our Sunday led up to a H&M where all the
boys bought some ‘digs’…I’d like to point out the girl
on the trip did not do any shopping !
Before we knew it the KTX was whisking us
back home to our lovely Daegu.
It felt great to be home. Daegu has definitely
become our home in a very short time. I enjoy the pace of life here and the
people. The people of Seoul
were generally lovely but Daegu will always have a special place in my heart. Seoul will have to be visited
quite a few more times before my time here is done but Daegu, I’ll love you forever.
Overall, as weekends go it gets 10 out of
10. Good friends, good sights and most importantly good dancing.
