During Chuseok I took my first trip to Seoul, the capital city of Korea. The place is enormous! There are more than 12 million people in Seoul and 11 lines on the subway, which makes the subway map look like a plate of multicoloured spaghetti.
Once we arrived in Seoul we went to a pirate bbq restaurant for bbq pork, seafood and makoli. This was Ruth's millionth visit to the place so they gave us some free food and discount on the bill.
Down in Gangnam there are these really tall sort of lamp posts called media poles, stood at the side of the road. Dozens of them are lined up along the street. They have a touch screen and a camera. You can take a picture of yourself, add things little things to the photo like a clowns nose and so on. Then once you've finished, you can email it to someone for free.
The next day we went down to Insadong, a more traditional area of Seoul, there we watched a very funny Korean guy make traditional sweets, had tea in a Tea house and went to a Buddhist temple.
We then took the subway to Itaewon. Itaewon has a big American military base and a mosque so has a large foreign community. There are a lot of street stalls, a Taco Bell, a street full of British antique shop, a Harrods and an English book shop called "What the Book?". If you head down to the mosque you find yourself in a small Muslim quarter. Here there are a whole bunch of Middle Eastern restaurants.
Just past the US military base is the War memorial and museum. The memorial marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean war, or forgotten war as it has been termed. Outside there is the memorial, which is a little similar to the memorial in Tiananmen square in Beijing for anyone reading who has been there. There are also poles dedicated for all the countries that helped South Korea during the war. There are dozens of tanks, planes, rockets and even a warship that were all used during the war.
The last picture is particularly interesting. The two men are brothers. The older South Korean and the younger North Korean. The crack down the middle of the mound represents the country being divided.
Inside the museum you are taken through the whole story of the war, from the Japanese surrendering the Korean peninsula through to the end of the war and South Korea's story thereafter. Most of it is in Korean unfortunately so you have to depend on the pictures a lot. They even have the torpedo which sunk the South Korean navy vessel near the North Korean border in March of this year on display. The museum is free, but there is a photo exhibition all about the DMZ that you can enter for 5,000 won. The War Memorial and museum are fascinating and for anyone making a trip to Seoul I highly recommend visiting them.
That night we ate pizza while watching Cemetery Junction then went out down Gangnam to meet some of Ruth's friends. We met them in a very arty farty bar, then went to a Sheesha place. That's right I was sat in a bar in Korea smoking Sheesha! Next to a picture of Lee Myung Bak and Kim Jong Il aswell!
The night then took us to a bar called Woodstock across the road. This bar has one of the biggest CD collections I've ever seen and take requests as their playlist.
The following day we went to the Seoul tower. It's on top of a hill and many people walk up the hill, but being the lazy buggers we are we took a bus up. At the top of the tower there are amazing views of the city. The windows have the names of famous cities from around the world printed on them, with their distance from Seoul. What's interesting is Pyongyang is given as being in North Korea, but Busan is given as being in Korea.
After making it safely back down on the ground we headed for Yeouido(여의도). This is an island but you wouldn't think so as it's also the Wall street of Seoul, and were the once (for about 5 minutes) infamous Building 63 is, right on the Han river (한강). There is a small park here were you can rent bikes and cycle along the river.
Once again we went out. This time around Hongkip University (홍익대). This is a great area to go out in, much like Seomyeon (서면) and KyungSung (경성대) in Busan. The only problem with this area, is that it's a bit too Western. The American influence really shows here. There is a park in the middle of Hongip where foreigners where having a party. People were driving in on motorbikes and joining the party. It was like being in an American Pie movie.
Still Seoul is an amazing place with so much to do. Anyone who is able to go there I highly recommend it. I will definitely be going back there soon.
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