Fun-filled weekend

Ah, an action-packed weekend. Where to start? On Thursday after school I went out with my 8pm adult class [Photos]. This is a "Level 2" class and consists of an interesting mix of business men and (male) university students. I had not been drinking with the class yet, just my friends Jin-cheol (pron jeen churl) and Yeong-seok (yes, young suck). So after work we hit Beer Hunter, a pub near the school. Yeong-seok and Jin-cheol came; as well as Yeong-Seok's girlfriend, He-ok (hey oak); John, a business man at Bosch; and Barb joined us also. J.S., who works at 3M could not make it.



Beer Hunter is an interesting place. It is one of the few places in Korea where you can get good western greasy appetizers - potato skins, nachos, wings, etc. The food has a German tinge to it - lots of sausage, etc. I think the Germans must travel more than any other nationality, because their (none too exciting fare) fare is everywhere. Korea, Thailand, Canada, you name it. The decor of Beer Hunter is very odd, being about 80% German pub-ish and 20% Egyptian. Weird. Maybe it's a Rommel (sp?) thing?

We had a few rounds of beer and appetizers - an interesting mix of greasy goodness and Korean spicy/sweet/fishy stuff. It was a lot of fun and the guys loosened up a little more and spoke more English whilst drinking, especially John. John generously picked up the tab (hooray!) and we were off around midnightish.

Friday was Independence Day in Korea, so most people had it off, including our friends Colin and Lilly in Gumi. So they decided to come visit Seoul, since they only have a few months left in Korea. They arrived at Wangsimni (the subway station near our house) at around 1:30 am and Barb and I went and met them. They of course wanted to go out for drinks so we went to Cass House for another few rounds. We then went back to our place, tucked Colin and Lily into bed, and got to bed ourselves at around 4 am. Now normally this wouldn't be a big deal, since we didn't work on Friday. We did have other things in the works, though.

Yeong-seok asked Barb and I if we wanted to go rafting on the weekend. We jumped at the opportunity to get out into the Korean wilderness (if that was what it was to be), get off our asses and get some exercise. So we were to meet Yeong-seok and He-ok at 7 am at Wangsimni. So yes, we got about two hours of sleep (ouch). We were hoping for a good sleep on the bus (and we would be lucky in that regard). We got to our departure station at around 7:30-ish. Here we met Jin-cheol and his girlfriend, Chan-hee. It would be the six of us venturing out to go rafting. We eventually got on one of the three tour busses waiting for us. We thought we would be leaving around 8 am, but we didn't get going until 9 am.

Now, you know what long weekend traffic is like in Canada. Well, add 20 million people and then squish them into somewhere the size of Newfoundland and you can imagine a fun driving experience. The trip (to just outside Seoul) was supposed to take around 3 hours. It took us at least 2 to get out of Seoul. Bounding down backroads at what seemed like a snails pace, we arrived at Dongna, our destination, six hours after we left. You can usually traverse the whole country in less than six hours. But at least we were well rested.

We had lunch (bibimbap, included in the deal) and joined what seemed like thousands of Koreans at the riverside and were split into our rafting team- The six of us plus six others. The instructor gave us directions which we learned via good body language and we were off. I've been rafting twice in Canada, and it was pretty much par for the course. Liberal amounts of being dumped into the water by your instructor, lots of splashing, and occasional paddling. It was a lot of fun. The area we were in was very beautiful and natural. A much-welcomed break from Seoul.

We rafted for about 3 hours, which was a good amount of time, as the sun was setting. We then headed for some showers (I'll spare you that irksome story) and climbed aboard the bus again. It took us about 4 hours to get home with frequent pit stops. Despite the fact that the day was 75% bus riding, it was a lot of fun. I'm very glad we went, it was just what we needed.

We got to our house around eleven-ish. While this might seem like it should be the end of the day, I assure you it was not. In addition to Colin and Lilly, some of our other friends from Gumi (including Rhoni) were in town, and wanted to go out to Itaewon. They called us up and said they were at Gecko's, a nice little pub in Itaewon. We jumped in a cab and joined them there. Colin and Lilly were trashed by the time we got there and only lasted about an hour more before they had to go home to bed. Drunken friends are fun though. After we left Gecko's and Colin and Lilly departed for their yeogwan we went to Limelight, the current "it" dance bar in Itaewon. Although generally full, Limelight plays lackluster electronic music and Barb and I usually avoid the 10 000 Won cover charge. But Rhoni and her crew wanted to go, so we obliged them (plus paying for a cab would have been 6000 Won anyway). [Photos]



We had a pretty good time at Limelight. I danced the night away. Barb's a bit of a wet blanket at dance bars, but I think she had fun. We saw Julio and he didn't yell at me for being a drunk (although I think he was on E), so hopefully I'm not banned from Bricx. Tracey (from South Africa), a gumite, is going home soon, so we said our goodbyes to her. We stayed at Limelight until subway running time - around 6 am. We then bid everyone farewell and trained home. We crawled into bed, 24 hours after we got up, for a nice sleep.

Our weekend was not over yet, though. We had plans with Colin and Lilly to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace on Saturday. They called us around 2 pm and we headed out to meet them. After some confusion (There are many palaces in downtown Seoul) we met up at Gyeongbokgung (gyuhng-bohk-goong). Gyeongbok is the main Joseon (joh-sun) Dynasty palace in Seoul and quite beautiful. It's also a little similar to the palace we visited in Nara, Japan. Unfortunately the main building at Gyeongbok is under renovation, so we didn't get to see all of it. It was a nice city-sightseeing event though. It rounded out our weekend of outdoors, drinking, and culture. [Photos]



After we left Gyeongbok we went to Insa-dong. Insa-dong, which in Korean means basically "Ginseng neighbourhood," is a traditional street in Seoul. It's an interesting mix of old handicrafts and artwork as well as modern art galleries. This is a rare place in Korea, as it is about 95% cheesiness-free. By contrast most of Korea is 70% cheese, while Itaewon is 105% cheese. It's a beautiful place and Colin and Lilly bought many souvenirs to take home to Canada (no floaty pens though).

We went out for dinner with Colin and Lilly at Pizza Hut - Colin is allergic to fish and therefore 99% of Korean food is off-limits to him. They caught the train back to Gumi at around 9:30. At Barb's urging we then went and saw Bad Boys II. It was an Ok movie. Some good action with a lot of unnecessary gore (dead bodies being beheaded, etc.). The ending was quite implausible, but hey it's an action movie.

So, that pretty much sums up the weekend.