NICK: To the Seoul of Korea
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2006
1
69
105
Trip End
Feb 25, 2008
Seoul, Korea Rep.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Maybe I'm also getting old, I think it's fun to take it easy and hang out in the room. The heat in Pusan was ridiculous anyways.
We headed to the main train station with our packs and caught the first train out. These trains are just as fast (if not faster) than the bullet trains in Japan. They're cheaper, and just as comfortable.
One thing that I particularly liked about Korea was that things were cheaper than in Japan. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that the people are just the right amount of politeness (in my perception). In Japan, they tend to be overly polite and it sort of makes you want to smack them to go away. In Korea, they were polite, but not to the point that it was annoying. And I think it showed in the price.
Maybe i'm just talking out my ass.
If you haven't noticed, I tend to make up little theories about how the world works; sometimes it's right, lots of times it's wrong. But it gives me a grasp on "reality" (-:
Seoul was a cool city. The hostel that we found wasn't the one that we wanted, but it was still alright - free internet, free laundry, and private rooms, complete with small winged attendants to remove any excess blood from your body. Every time we got into the room, we made a mosquito check. We can tell the previous inhabitants did too, seeing as there were a few shoe prints on the wall.
We went to see the Gyeongbokgung palace, but it was closing, so we went to their major tourist trap street, Insadonggil. I usually don't like touristy things, especially since Santa Barbara has so many touristy things on the street, bu this was kinda fun. The whole street was knick-knacks and junk that I had no desire to burden anyone with, so you're all safe.
I guess it's reasonable to imagine that since all this touristy junk in the US is made in Korea, that this country would be chock-full of the crap. I'd love to see what China's like.
After that we went to the best restaurant (which was in our guide, surprisingly) that I've ever eaten. It could be that we were half-starved, but the food was awesome, and this huge restaurant was super crowded with locals. I want to go back to Korea for the food.
Sigh.
I don't really miss the smell, though. Ashleigh made an interesting comment about how everyone on the trains smelled like garlic and kimchi. We also noticed that WE started smelling like garlic and kimchi and how it got harder to notice the smell.
so, I guess I don't mind it, as long as everyone else stinks along with me. (-:
We walked around all day just looking around Seoul, went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
