Chousok in Seoul

Seoul
More Seoul
Even More Seoul

So, I just spent the past four days in Seoul. By the KTX (Korea Train Express) it took about 2.5 hours, and driving it takes about 4.5 hours. Suffice to say, I forked up the $47 or (47,000 Won) to get there right quick.

In any case, Seoul is a wild place, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Literally, there are the same number of people in Seoul as there are in Los Angeles, but the are all crammed in to an area about the same size as Chicago. So, with so many people, the city is literally a crazy teaming froth of cars, trains, planes, people, bikes, pets, rivers, neon lights and of course Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King and bad ol' KFC. Which leads me to the figurative reason Seoul is "crazy."

If all of the businesses signs and all of the street signs were not printed in Korean and I were dropped into the middle of the city blindfolded, as soon as I lifted the blindfold, I would be very hard pressed to determine if I were in New York, L.A., Boston, Bangkok, London, etc. So much of Seoul is just like any old city. In fact, while in Seoul, I didn't feel much of the Korean cultural difference that I feel in Ulsan or my actual town of Eonyong.

And with that said, Seoul is appealing in that it would afford me the opportunity to re-experience my freshman/sophomore year of college in which my primary focus was partying, hooking-up, and trying to figure out the perfect combination of Advil, water and sleep that negates a hang over, but then again, I'm not 18 any more, and though for this past weekend most of those old outlets proved still enjoyable, I would not want my time in South Korea to be on par w/ a "Jersey Shore" experience, but rather I want it to be, well, frankly, just what it has been so far: a relatively noticeable plunge into the UNKNOWN.

So, having seen the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), having done a little bit of partying in Seoul, trekking along part of the Seoul Wall (a wall that surrounds the whole city), visiting King Sejong's palace, and countless other Seoul-esq things, I must say, it is really really really nice to be back in Eonyong, forced again to use my broken Korean, not able to simply rely on my crutch that is English, and again feeling myself growing and learning in a way that I don't think would be possible in an ultra globalized city such as Seoul.

And before I go, just a quick story about my trek along the Seoul Wall.

Let this be a long story made short.

So, Nate and I, the only other guy that was on this past weekend trip, decided that a shopping trip in Itaywon (Ee-Tay-Won) was not our cup of tea (Nate is British, so that tea pun was intended), and instead decided to wander around the city and see what we could get ourselves into. Surrounding Seoul are some amazing mountains, so naturally, I wanted to walk up one. So, Nate and I stared out in the general direction that seemed to take us upwards, and 40 minutes later, sweat drenched shirts and swam asses like you would not believe, we neared the top of what we initially thought would be a small little hill. Well, the view was fantastic and gave is quite a perspective on what 10 million people in the are of Chicago means, but we wanted to still walk higher. Little did we know, we were nearing the star of the Seoul Wall trail. Perfect. We hoped on the trail, walked for a while, and eventually reached a section of the wall that is still used as part of SoKo's military defense scheme. We could have taken a tour, but neither of us had our passports, so we were not allowed to sign up for the tour.

By now we were both pretty tired, totally soaked in sweat, stinking like something dead and rotten, and hungry enough to snack on our toenails, but don't forget, we were essentially in the middle of the forest. Now, this is an urban forest, so off in the distance Nate spotted what seemed to be a restaurant, and we both decided to head for the food.

Well, there wasn't exactly a trail to the restaurant, so we ended up having to jump over two barb wired fences, follow one dried stream bed, and finally made it to what we thought was a restaurant, yet there was only one small problem. The "restaurant" turned out to be a super Bougie country club, keep in mind, everyone there is dressed to the 9's because it is South Korean Thanksgiving, and here are Nate and I, now not only sweat and stinky, but also muddy and having just crashed through some of the country clubs barbed wire fences. Suffice to say, we were wildly out of place and everyone at the club noticed.

In any case, we asked to look at a menu, and discovering the entrees ranged from $35-$70, we returned the menu and simply asked the hostess about how to get to the place we started our hike. We were not expecting what happened next, but as it turns out, the club has a free bus that went exactly where we wanted to go.

The End.

Seriously, the moral of this story is, if you ever decided to jump a country clubs barb wired fences and show up super nasty at their club restaurant, make sure they have a free bus that will promptly remove your rif-raffy ass from the premises.

Gottal love the spontaneity of living abroad.