Seoul Sister (Brother)

In t-minus 8 hours, I will be on a 4.5 hour bus ride en route to Seoul.

There will definitely be some mad updating when I get back on Sunday.

-로라

Update: I didn't arrive in Seoul until 5 p.m. yesterday, because I was busy following a live Red Wings blog during during game 3. Definitely a mistake. There is way too much to see in that city of 10 million to feel aesthetically or culturally fulfilled after having only been there for a night and a day.

En Route:

Couples like to dress alike

Arrival:

Sick.

Seoul is a mad house. I met up with some friends in Itaewon, which is around the corner from a military base. While there, one can't help but stumble upon hundreds of Westerners; at least one third of the pedestrian traffic. Easily. This is a huge change from life in Gyeongju.

International cuisine is everywhere. There are Shawarma street vendors, Greek, Mexican, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caribbean restaurants. There are New York Steakhouses, Thai curry stands, authentic Italian hole-in-the-wall restuarants, etc. You name it, Seoul has it. It is literally one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world, second to only Tokyo.

* * *

We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant called Santorini, where I was able to indulge in saganaki and chicken with lemon sauce (amazing). After dinner we went to a bar called The Bungalow, where you sit in hammock-type chairs, the floor is filled with sand, and margaritas are a reasonable price (W7,000 = $5.50 US). The Bungalow got old real quick, though. There were too many military men doing too many tequila shots, all the while making Americans look like fools who drink too much. So we left, and headed for Hongdae.

Hongdae is one of the 25 major districts in Seoul. Having never been to New York or Los Angeles, this was my first real taste of any sort of metropolis. I loved it too much. There is an endless nightlife, people from all over the world enjoying each others' company, live music in every third bar (or at least it seemed), incredible dance clubs, and, as previously stated, 24 hour international cuisine vendors available on every corner.

A dance club in Hongdae.

The night (morning) ended late. Even though it was 7 a.m., I was too awake to sleep, so I hopped a bus back to Gyeongju at 7:55, and arrived back in my little microcosm near 12:00. Whenever I go back to the city that boasts 10 million people (22 million in the greater metropolitan area), I will be sure to book a motel.