So last weekend I had a 3 day weekend which I decided I was not going to spend in Busan and instead do a little light traveling. Originally my plans were to go to Jeju Island which is a semi-tropical island south of the Korean Peninsula. It is referred to as the Hawaii of Korea (interestingly Busan is called the San Francisco of Korea…why Korean places are being compared to American places is beyond me, but there you have it) and generally visited for family vacations or honeymoons. So me being in neither of these situations I was going to go stag to this island that all my students seem to dream about visiting. Then I decided against that due to price and other considerations. So next up was a trip to Fukuoka, Japan which is just a puddle jump across the Korean Strait that divides the two countries (on a clear day the closest island of Japan can be seen from Haeundae beach). Then again the money thing jumped in again since the Yen suddenly spiked against the Korean Won that made the trip more impractical. So I decided what the hell I haven’t been to Seoul yet, the second largest city on the planet!

Here is just a little background on Seoul and it’s ridiculous statistics. Seoul has been inhabited for about that last 2,000 years, dating back to sometime near 18 BC when one of the Three Kingdoms established it’s capital there. Fast forward those 2,000 years (hey, I’m not here to give a history lesson. Just want to lay some ground work for how crazy this city is) now the city encompasses about 233 square miles with a population of 10 million!!! Let me lay these numbers out a little more clearly, that means in every square mile there apparently resides 45,000 people! I know people back home that complain about how packed San Francisco is and it’s population density doesn’t even reach 7,ooo per square mile…that is about 1/7th of the population density in Seoul. Now saying that the greater metropolitan area of Seoul actually has a population of 24 million, that is half of South Korea’s population!!! This city produces a GDP that is greater than the combined GDP of New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden! So let’s just say this city has a lot going on… WTF 24 million people,  Jesus!

Anyways, keeping with my usually wishy-washy style of planning trips I decided to go to Seoul a whole 2 days before my weekend started. Originally I was going to go with Aarun “Soju Monster” Lee but he had to work so then I was going solo. Luckily for me at the last minute my new friend Yoonjeong “조금 Monster” Oh (Just noticed that I have two friends now with monster as part of their nicknames) decided to go with me and when I say last minute she decided to join at 4am when we were leaving departing via subway at 8am (definitely my style, right?). So we got up, had some McMorning (nothing in Korea is open before 9am except McDonald’s), and hit the KTX! So the KTX is way cool in my Californian opinion, I’m pretty sure it’s pretty mundane to the Korean’s that they have a train that will take you to the other side of the country in 3 hours at speeds close to 200 miles/hour, but for me that was freaking cool!

When we arrived in Seoul I experienced something that I have heard about but totally underestimated…the weather. Now I’m Californian and I am used to hot weather (hell yesterday back home it reached 108˚F, which is about 43˚C for you metric folk) but I was not prepared for this. Weather such as this can only be described by comparison in order to be understood. Imagine stepping off of an air conditioned passenger rail car fully dressed and laddened with a hiking backpack filled with the equivalent of a fortnights worth of clothes in some countries, and travel books into what feels like a steam room where some fool has been steadily ladling gallons of water onto the hot rocks in the center creating a pea soup effect of muggy steam, now make this room in direct sunlight with the UV rating of a supernova, and place this wondrous weather in a train station surrounded by a myriad of intriguing smells that consist of industrial musk and the effervescence of 24 million people sweating in this weather. Luckily for me stuff like weather rarely bothers me, but this came to the detriment of my travel com padre later.

After the first punch in the face of weather it was time to tackle the beast that is tourism in Seoul. Let’s just say a city that is more than 2,000 years old generates a lot of tourist destination, definitely more than can be explored in a time frame as short as a 3 day weekend, but I was down for some power tourism, with guidebook in hand, camera in pocket, and wonderful Korean local to boot! So first off we trekked on to Namdaemun (남대문) which is a famous image of an ancient 700 year old temple gate that is surrounded by modern civilization on all sides, namely a multi-lane rotary. The juxtaposition that this ancient monument has with modern society made it an iconic symbol of Korea and how it’s rapid western modernization into an international heavy weight clashes with it’s long cultural history and national heritage. This symbol was powerful enough to be considered the Heart of Seoul, this combined with the stirring photos I have seen of the site gave me great anticipation to see it. Thus I was very saddened when I approached it only to discover from Yoonjeong that the gate had burned down due to arson (the guy felt his he was cheated out of money so he burnt down a national and cultural icon…makes perfect sense, right?). Even though I am a foreigner to this land, I believe Korea is finding a place somewhere deep down within me because I felt an honest sense of sadness and loss when I saw that the gate was burned down.

After the disappointment of seeing Namdaemun due to some idiots misguided notion of social justice, Yoonjeong and I moved onto Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장). Namdaemun market has been running continuously for centuries and you can find just about anything you want there…included chocolate covered kimchi to my horror (but to be honest I am pist that I didn’t buy any now). After wondering this market for an hour or so, Yoonjeong and I decided to navigate the ever so uncomplicated Seoul subway system (Click here to take a look for yourself) to Insadong (인사동). Insadong is a really nifty area of Seoul with a great amount of art and other cultural aspects, also it has lots of really good restaurants and cafes. Although it does have a heavy touristy feel mainly because the number of Korean souvenir shops and the heavy amount of tourists (Yoonjeong and I were talking about how most of the tourists seemed to be 1 foreigner and a Korean like our situation, was interesting to think about at the time). So Yoonjeong and I cruised the shops then went and got some fabulous lunch.

At this point, I had my weather related breakdown of my will to continue site seeing for the day. At this point I had only several hours of sleep, traveled across the country and the backpack on my back combined with the unforgiving weather had transformed my shirt into a sweat rag of discomfort that I only continued to adorn due to common decency. So I pulled out my trusted Lonely Planet: Korea Guidebook and found a hotel near buy with a good rating. When I say near by the hotel was within a 150 meter radius from where we were standing but due to the nature of Korean alleyways coupled with the lack of any street naming conventions it took us several phone calls (I’m was so glad that Yoonjeong speaks Korean for this part) and nearly 40 minutes to find this place. Thankfully we finally found it and I was able to take a much needed shower and get that damned backpack off me!

It has come to my attention via the word count device below where I am typing that this post is getting extraordinarily long…so time to be a little more succinct in my writing. Anyways after I finally took that much needed shower then napped for about an hour or so, Yoonjeong and I began to make the trek over to Seoul Tower. Along the way we stopped by the Cheonggyecheon which was one of my favorite parts of Seoul. The Cheonggyecheon is a man made 5km long river through through the center of the city constructed as part of an urban renewal and beautification project. Now normally I am not one for man made outdoor landscapes, I usually can’t escape the artificial feeling of a man made lake or what not, but the Cheonggyecheon did not leave any bad taste in my mouth. First off it doesn’t have the pretensive air of pretending that it is a natural landscape and instead embraces it’s artificial nature, with a laser light show through the mist, sculptures, fountains, etc…. The Cheonggyecheon is a welcomed breath of fresh air to the cement garden that is downtown Seoul. Also I believe my favorite memory of being in Seoul is just sitting beside this river and drinking some Guinness (and laughing about Bumble Bees retarded little brother).

After wandering the Cheonggyecheon for about an hour Yoonjeong and I took a cab ride that could have been passable as an amusement park ride. With the taxi driver taking blind turns at speeds in excess of 80km/hr and weaving in and out of traffic in a way that would make Mr. Toads head spin, hell even the price of the taxi ride came with amusement park prices…wahoo (sarcasm heavily intended). Well we reached Seoul tower and it does give an impressive view of the city, which if my recommendations hold any weight with you…please go at night. It would be interesting to see Seould from it’s highest point during the day but then again it really is a cement garden (most Korean architecture always feels somewhat lacking to me) but they do a great job of making things light up at night. So naturally many tourist-esque pictures transpired here and it was off to go eat and do a little light drinking (I highly recommend just buying some beers and drinking next to the Cheonggyecheon).

Next day we hit Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) which is an ancient palace built by the Josen Dynasty sometime near 1394 AD. The palace is very impressive with it’s many brightly painted buildings and with much of it’s design based on ancient Confusion and Buddhist ideals. Definitely worth a stop if you ever find yourself journeying through Seoul.  Another thing to be aware of is this palace also comes with no shelter from the elements, namely the sun. Which prompted Yoonjeong to go into a sun induced mental delirium that resulted in her English abilities deteriorating into strange phrases such as “Shadows where are the shadows!” as she went skipping around looking for shade to protect what portion left of her brain had not been baked by the sun. Needless to say I was in a hysterics which again was probably because the sun had already poached my brain in boiling cerebrospinal fluids.

I forgot to mention that a quick history of Gyeongbokgung can help someone understand why the Korean’s have a little difficulty liking the Japanese. First, the Japanese burnt down most of the palace while invading Korea in 1592. That was cool the Koreans just rebuilt it but bigger with something like 330 buildings (wtf does a palace need 330 buildings for). Well when the Japanese invaded Korea again in 1911, they burnt down 320 of those 330 buildings. Oh on top of that, in 1895 the Japanese assasinated Empress Myeongseong in the palace for trying to protect Korea against Japanese foreign interests. So needless to say there are some harsh feeling towards Japan (also this is just some stuff about the palace not accounting for other fun Japan had in Korea).

After retiring back to the hotel room for showers and naps (by the way if going to Seould during the summer plan on at least 2 changes of clothing a day) we went and hit Itaewon (이태원동). Itaewon is a the international district in Seoul where you can find just about anything that is not Korean, even Redbull much to my excitement because it is illegal to sell in Korea. Basically, Itaewon is where every foreigner ends up for a time and while visiting they usually wish that they weren’t there anymore. It was great to see this area (also to buy some foreinger supplies such as Old Spice Deodorant) but definitely has a vibe that is different than the rest of Korea and not necessarily in the postive sense. From the bars that are patrolled by fully armed American Military police with Korean police in tow. FYI: Korean police do not carry guns where American MPs do…when they walked into the bar that Yoonjeong and I were patronaging she instead went wide eyed and said “What is going on!” So the gentlemen at the table next to us (an American service man pretending not to be for the evening because of the MPs and the stereotypes associated with American military in Korea) and I filled Yoonjeong in about curfews and problems with American service men in Itaewon. In Seoul American Military are often not viewed very favorably due to certain aspects of how some interact with the local population (cause of much friction and additional prejudices for Koreans and foreigners in Korea). Anyways after our experiences in Itaewon we retired to an Izakaya near Myeon-dong that read Japanese-French Fusion food. You may ask as I did to myself, “hmm I wonder what that would be like?” Well just so you know when you fuse Japanese and French food what you get is Nachos…literally that was all we could get on the menu (at least Mexico is the mid-point geographically between France and Japan perhaps that was the thought behind Japanese-French Fusion).

Finally we retired one last time to the hotel in Insadong passed out hoping to do more exploring of Seoul on Sunday…which definitely did not happen. After days worth of non-stop power tourism, some drunken revalry, and unforgiving Korean summer weather we at least met the end of our willingness to continue. Instead just barely getting up the energy to get back to the KTX and take the ride back to Busan. All in all it was a kick ass trip full of many great and unforgettable memories, “Gambae” to you Seoul!

A couple more photos are posted here