Big City of Seoul

Two weekends ago I made a trip up to the big city of Seoul.  When I mean big city that is probably not saying enough because it was a giant city.  I have been to big cities (New York, Chicago, Amman, Cairo, London, Madrid) but for some reason it seemed like Seoul was bigger than all of those cities.  That probably is not true and there has been no fact checking at all, but for me coming from the small city that I live in, Seoul just seemed huge.  I went to Seoul that weekend because I did have Monday off of work so it was a three day weekend.  Right now I will describe my weekend in Seoul.  

On that Friday I left school about ten minutes early and I don't think anyone really noticed.  I wanted to get to the bus station as soon as possible because I wasn't sure when the bus left for Seoul.  In order to get to Seoul I can take the train or bus, and I obviously decided on the bus.  This is because it goes directly to Seoul unlike the train that stops at various towns along the way.  It turned out those ten minutes didn't help much and I ended up having to wait about fourty minutes for the bus.  After about two hours and fifteen minutes I made it Seoul at the "Express Bus Terminal."  From there I did head towards the subway in order to go find my hotel.  Lucky for me there were two students on my bus and also taking the subway too.  They live at school (there is a dormitory) during the week and go home during the weekends.  So they were able to direct me the best way to go and so I didn't get lost that night.  This would be pretty easy to do because the subway in Seoul is the biggest that I have seen with about nine different tracks and probably close to a hundred different stops.  I was able to find the hotel and after checking in I changed and went out. 

That first night I ended up at a neighbourhood known as Itaewon.  It was pretty close to my hotel so that is where I went for that night.  Now this neighbourhood is known as the International part of Seoul.  I both agree and disagree.  That night there were a lot of people walking through the main part whose main language is English.  There were some other nationalities represented such as: French, Lebanese, Nigerian, Spanish, and a few others.  So, yes the crowd is International, but besides that there wasn't much more.  I thought there would be more restaurants that offered a bigger variety but not that I saw.  I did find a "Mexican" place.  They do have a taco bell (I didn't eat there) but for them they think that is some good Mexican food.  I think having grown up so close to good Mexican food there won't be anything like that, but I did eat a burrito.  Not horrible but I wouldn't keep going back.  I did end up back in Itaewon during the day and also found a Jordanian food place along with an Egyptian restaurant.  The Egyptian place was no  good but the Jordanian place wasn't bad at all.  

Itaweon was all right both at night and during the day.  There is a better place that I will describe in a little bit.  First I want to talk about getting lost.  I didn't have much of a plan and was happy with walking around.  I did want to find somethings though such as the War Memorial of Korea (its more of a museum.)  I did find it but decided to not go in because the weather was so nice to keep walking and not be inside.  There were a couple different occasions where I did get on a bus and get lost or at least not want to go in the direction or area I was headed.  I did end up seeing the World Cup stadium and a few other things that were neat when I wasn't trying to figure out where I was located.  

The last area I want to talk about is known as Hongdae.  This area is close to a couple of the local universities in Seoul and so it has a younger type feeling.  Plus it is where the art scene is located.  There are a lot of murals, artistic graffiti, music performances, and other street kind of shows.  I ended up there both at night and in the day.  At night I did find this public park where there were a few bands playing.  It was pretty neat and busy at the same time.  After the bands were finished nobody seemed to leave and that place stayed busy the whole night.  I think the nice weather had a lot to do with why it was so busy.  Basically how it worked was the local convenience store such as a 7/11 and a few others is where you would buy the drinks and then just come back to the park to visit.  I ended up meeting a group of people and staying at that park until the early morning (around four).  It was a pretty neat thing that would have never happened in the U.S. because the police would have stopped it.  Plus places such as bars, clubs, restaurants or anything like that don't have a set time when they close.  If there is people still around spending money they will stay open, unlike the U.S. where 2 in the morning is pretty standard.  I definitely like the Hongdae area better because of the overall atmosphere and it seemed like the people were more open to interact.  

Next time I head up to Seoul I will have to check out some new areas, do some of the tourist things, and take more pictures.  My camera ran out of battery and I didn't bring my charger so I only took a few pictures.  It was a great weekend but I was pretty happy to be back in the small town of Boryeong.  This past weekend I spent relaxing and stayed in town, and so no trip to Japan.  Which isn't that bad since I spent it at the beach.  In fact I ran into a couple different people who were visiting from Seoul because they wanted a weekend out of the big city.  Even though I live in a small town it still does attract other people here because of the sea and beach.  

I know it is a long post but it was a long weekend.  This week will be a normal Monday-Friday week with no days off like the last couple of weeks.  I am done with Monday and at a cafe having some tea.  Enjoying the Spring weather, but it is supposed to be raining later on for most of the week.  I think this post is long enough and I will write later.   

Seoul in the distance looking over the Hangang river