No Seoul Pun

Seoul was quite a long time ago but I will do my best to finally wrap up my time in Korea.

I got out of the station without incident and got into a cab. I didn't have the address of the place I wanted to go but I knew the station I would have to get to. I didn't want to take the hassle of bringing all my luggage onto the subway. I ended up taking a luxury cab but it still wasn't all that much. I tried to bring the image of the map I had seen to get to the hostel into my mind but couldn't quite manage to conjure it. There are PC bangs all over Korea but I can never find them when I need to. I walked around some developed area with fancy restaurants and Koreans in fancy clothes. After pulling my suitcases and backpack all over the place some guy offered to help me. I was having to take a break every 15m. I found a PC bang and the address and realized I was on the wrong side of the street. I left my big suitcase on the street while I headed upstairs. I'm always disappointed to see that it hasn't been stolen. I eventually got to the hostel and I chatted with the girl who was working there. She bought me some ramen and we talked.... about her boyfriend and my time in Daegu. Her boyfriend was doing his military service.

I met a bunch of Japanese people who were staying there at the time. I went to bed and woke up late. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't have much interest in seeing Seoul. Maybe if I had a bit more energy or hadn't seen more interesting sights elsewhere. I went to the national palace and did the audio tour since it was so cheap 2000W I think. There were hardly any people there or anything that hadn't been rebuild sometime in the last 20 years. I suppose it was important to see though. I was still a bit torn about leaving Korea and didn't know how to feel about leaving. I still don't know how I feel about Korea, actually.

I think I went to Namdaemun that day. Maybe it was dongdaemun, I don't know. The more commercialized one. I really didn't see anything very interesting and tried to walk back to the hostel but I got lost. I always get lost, well take streets that I think will lead places but only lead to dead end or progressively smaller darker alleyways.

The next day I tried to go to Seoul tower. I was well on my way and fond the gondola up to the top but opted to walk. I was following a path that seemed to be headed in the right direction but as I kept walking I became convinced that it was leading me away from the tower. It started off heading upwards but later started going downwards. I ended up hoping over this little barrier and climbed the hill on my own. There were quite a few leaves and didn't look like many people decided to stray from the path. I was gripping trees and roots to climb up this hill at some points. I always feel stupid when I stray from the main routes and that I might end up stranded for days or become some unindentiable body when I'm finally found. I wonder if there's an equivalent to John Doe in Korea. Either that or I become convinced that I'm going to stumble upon a dead body. I always end up finding trash or broken picnic tables so I realize that I'm not actually in that remote a place. I finally make it to the top and casually climb over a barrier there. I didn't just walk up the mountain like some kind of caveman. I followed the road just like everyone else. The worst part was that Seoul Tower wasn't even open. I got there at the perfect time too. Right around sunset so you could see it lit up by the sky and then a nightscape of the city. I didn't realize it was supposed to be closed and then came across a sign that said it was supposed to be re-opened on December 1st. That was the day I was there. Maybe it was the second. At any rate it should've been open. The view from the top of the hill would've been more impressive had I been able to see through all the trees.

I went to the other market that night but wasn't really in the mood to be there. It was pretty cold too. This was the night that some guy asked me if I was Japanese. I still don't understand that. I also ran into some drunk guy who stole my waffle and started eating it. Then he offered to give me parts of it back. Then he jabbered away at me in friendly Korean and seemed genuinely surprised that I couldn't understand anything he was saying. This was actually the night I was lost but it doesn't matter. This isn't a very accurate account of what I did in Seoul but more of the impression that's been left on me.

I met a Dane that night though. He was born in Korea and looking for a job teaching English. A Danish Kyopo. I don't think they're very common. He told me I spoke Danish well even though I really only said a few sentences. It was still nice. I ended up leaving my towel with him. I felt a bit bad about it since it was long overdue for a wash.

I took a crappy tour of the DMZ. The Japanese people took the USO tour which I guess is much better and you actually go right to the border and can take a few steps into North Korea. I only got to go to some lookout point. It was still pretty interesting though. The worst part was that I had to wake up around 5am and the tour didn't start until 9 or so. It was all so I could be picked up my hostel even though the guy was 40 minutes late or something. The cave was pretty interesting but of course, photos were forbidden. At the lookout point you could only take photos if you stood behind some big white line. I still don't understand that. There was also a nice trip to a jewelery factory. Fascinating. I left after 2 minutes. I hate tours that sneak in trips tofactories.

I forgot to mention this little station. They've already built the station heading to Pyeongyang. They even have a little place where you can stamp your passport. I thought it was official thing. It turns out you just stamp it yourself. I was a bit hesistant about mutilating my passport so I debated it once I got the front. Then some guy from behind just took it and stamped it for me. It's pretty lame I think and it's upside down. I'm still worried some customs official will be disappointed that it's been mutilated but there you have it. There were other people debating about the implications of doing it. It's now a little spot of shame inside my passport but at least I wasn't the one to deface it.

I was pretty worried by this point though. By the time I got back to the hostel I only had 2.5 hours before my flight. I really thought I'd be back before then. It was a stressful ride to the airport as I watched the minutes go by. I got to the airport with only 55 minutes until my flight. The driver also wasn't very happy with my excess luggage. I could probably go into my luggage programs a bit more but don't really feel like it. I had a suitcase that weighed in at 35kg. My backpack was 27kg. I had to take out 5kg from the big one making my smaller backpack and labtop case extremely heavy. I was really surprised I made it onto the plane.

There's a really nice thing about line. In order to wait for the least amount of time, one has to either arrive right at the beginning or right at the end. It's all about timing really. I could've arrived an hour earlier and still had to wait just as long. It really depends on when the person before you gets there. When I was waiting at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, I was in an ideal position. I was there an hour after the guy in front of me but it didn't matter because anyone who had come between figured they wouldn't get in or didn't bother coming to try. So anyways, it was lucky that I made my flight and didn't have to wait in line. Well I guess I had to wait for maybe 5 minutes.

Then I ran around the airport trying to sneak in my last meal and get rid of my excess won. I somehow dropped my boarding pass along the way. I was surprised when someone was handing it back to me. Eventually, they were ready to board my row and I left Korea feeling as confused as when I got there.