Seoul in Seven Days! (Days 1 & 2)

Soooo.... this happened...

Yep, pretty much exactly like that...

It was complete soju and kimchi fueled insanity. It's been a week and I'm only now starting to recover from just how great of a time I had. Seriously, drunken times were had by all...

... maybe some people more than others

I really can't remember all the epicness that was their visit, so I'm just going to do the best I can. I'm going to split this up into a few posts, just because it's going to get hella long. We did a LOT of stuff!!! They were here for a week, so bare with me, some things get fuzzy:


Day One: The Arrivening

Their flight touched down on a Monday afternoon, which kind of sucks because I teach until 7 Monday-Thursday. I couldn't pick them up from the airport, so I constructed a massive travel guide for them explaining exactly where they needed to go, what they needed to do, and any and all Korean they'd need to have on the journey (seriously, the beast was 25 pages).

After work I hustled to their hostel (alliteration!), stuffed them full of Korean BBQ, and then whisked them off to their first jjimjilbang experience at Dragon Hill Spa!

Welcome to Heaven, it's full of Koreans and kinda smells like feet.

If you don't know what a jjimjilbang is, take a look at my previous post here for more info. For the TL;DR of you out there, it's a public bath house where, in segregated bathing rooms, you are extra-nakie around people and dipping in and out of hot tubs before putting on gym clothes and sweating it out in saunas.

I have to say this is an EXCELLENT idea for people coming off of a long flight. You leave feeling utterly relaxed and with all the filthy of travel thoroughly scrubbed off and sweated out of you. Amanda and I even opted for the ajumma scrub, where they literally take a brillo pad to your skin and scrap off the outer-most layer. Most invigorating!

Day Two: More Possible Than Anticipated!

The original plan for the day was to just do Myeongdong, for some of the best mandu and kalguksu in the freaking city, let them take a nap back at their hotel, and then hit Namsan. I had GREATLY underestimated just how excited I was going to be to walk around with my brother and his awesome girlfriend and might have dragged them to...

 Myeongdong...

Cheonggyecheong...

AND Samcheongdong

Amanda REALLY likes Green Tea Patbingsu!

After that I left them in Insadong, because I had to go to work...

Insadong: Where Tourist Money Becomes Korea Money

That night I met back up with them an we headed up to Namsan Tower

THERE IS NAMSAN TOWER!

The fun didn't stop, my friends, ohhh nonononono. From there we were off to Dongdaemun. We walked around, exploring some of the more weird parts of the area before settling into a pojangmocha (food and booze tent) for some street food and, of course, a LOT of soju!

Classy betches drink only from plastic cups  at plastic picnic tables, sitting on plastic stools,  in a plastic tent on the sidewalk!

That's where the night gets a little hazy. I remember trying to find a subway entrance (DAMN YOU DONGDAEMUN H&C PARK AND YOUR UNRELENTING CONSTRUCTION!), then trying to find a bathroom, then finding this...

It's not "douche," it's "doo-che!"

And then somehow we wound up at one of my favorite self-bars in Anam!

Self-serve bars: rest of the world, get your shit together!

To recap we went to SEVEN different neighborhoods in ONE day.

FUCKING PROFESSIONAL WAYGOOKIN AND TOURISTS!