No Seoul food for us!

Last weekend Josh and I went to Korea (we had to go to another country so he could get a new 90 day visa). We left the school right after the bell rang at 2:10 pm and took a taxi to where we were supposed to meet the bus. I couldn’t believe that the bus was free and it left right when we needed it to. It was funny to see the same things we saw when we arrived, except in reverse. It brought back memories of that first day and how exhausted we were when we arrived in Japan. We got to the airport at about 4:00 pm and our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 6:10 pm. We checked in and the machine asked if we would like an earlier flight. That sounded good to us, so we said yes. Turns out we only had about 20 minutes to get through security and to our gate. We made it just in time and then they decided that they needed to search our stuff. That always happens to me!

Once we finally got on the plane, we realized that we hadn’t had dinner in the airport as planned, so that was a minor problem. Other than that, the two hour flight was uneventful. We arrived in Korea and went through customs. Our conversation would have made a great act for Abbott and Costello! I had made reservations to stay at a guest house in Korea called “Friend’s House.” When I filled out the card for customs while I was on the plane, I’d left the question about where I would be staying blank because I couldn’t remember the name of the place and figured I would get do it later. Unfortunately, I forgot. When I got to the window, the guy asked the name of the place where I was staying. I’d looked it up by then and said, “Friend’s House.” He asked where my friend lived. “No, no,” I said, “The name of the hotel is ‘Friend’s House.’” “Yes, but where does your friend live?” Hmmm…we have a problem! After several more attempts and showing the paper with the reservation information, he was very frustrated with me and no closer to understanding, but he gave up, wrote down the address and let us through. I made a mental note to be careful when choosing hotels in the future.

After we got through customs and immigration we went outside, and after being shocked by the cold (about 45º F), we got on the bus. Driving through Seoul was a little frustrating because it was dark and we couldn’t see anything. We were driving on the right side of the street though and that was kind of nice! We also heard that the Koreans despise the Japanese so we spent much of the weekend avoiding mention of Japan (and pretending we were Canadian).

After we got off the bus we had no idea where to do. We started walking and asking for help. It was about 10:00 pm and there were lots of people, but no one had ever heard of “Friend’s House.” We decided to get into a taxi and the taxi driver was very confused. He eventually found the right place and we later realized that he charged us WAY too much, but I guess it was worth it to find our place. We saw the sign and knocked on the door. A lady opened the door and looked very confused. We said we were there to check-in and she pointed around her house and said, “Friend’s House?” We had knocked on the wrong door! Oops! When we finally found the right spot, the lady led us to a room that didn’t have a lock, its own bathroom, or anything else you would expect to have in a hotel. We shared a bathroom with several other rooms, the bed was rock hard, and there was stuff in all of the drawers and cabinets! Very strange! We were starving when we arrived, so we left and got a taxi to one of the shopping areas nearby. It turned out to have a Burger King, but the shopping wasn’t too good. Everything was very expensive (not cheap like everyone else said). Confused, but no longer hungry, we decided to go back and get some sleep.

We woke up at about 9 am on Saturday and decided to go to the base to get some travel info and to ask where the cheap shopping places where. We had to pay first and get a key to the place because when we got back on Friday night we were locked out and had to wake up one of the other guests to get in. They were serving “breakfast” down in the main house. That seemed to consist of sitting on the floor to eat black toast and tea with about 5 women talking away in Korean. We declined and left to go to the base.

When we got there, the guard wouldn’t let us in. After a taxi ride to the main gate we were able to get in and find their lodge. Wow!!! What a nice place! We went in and had their breakfast buffet. We picked up some travel info, found out where to shop and walked over to their PX. They wouldn’t let us in there either so we left the base and went shopping. We ended up in another area where the prices weren’t great. Extremely confused, we decided to try another area. As we were walking, we happened upon a huge gate to the city, with guards outside. Called Namdaemun (Great South Gate), it was built in 1448. We took some pictures and headed on to the next shopping area. It was expensive also, so we gave up and decided to go to visit a palace.

The palace was very, very, very big! The grounds were beautiful and there was a museum of Korean history there also. We wandered around looking at the buildings. Most were closed and locked so you couldn’t see inside, but the throne room was open to the outside and very nice. Josh wasn’t happy that we weren’t allowed into the rooms of the palace, and he got tired or wandering around pretty quickly.

We decided to go eat at the Outback Steakhouse that we had seen, but had no idea where it was. After jumping in about three different cabs, one driver finally knew what we were talking about. The steak was good, but the ribs weren’t very yummy. After dinner, we did a little shopping on the street and found some “Oakleys,” gloves, a “Prada” purse, several hats and a couple of shirts that Josh deemed cool, a toe socks, and ear warmer thingies. All were purchased after haggling and pretending to walk away. Josh was actually very good at the bargaining thing too, and perfected the pouty lip and puppy dog eyes technique. He got so into it that he was trying to talk down one of the vendors after we had run out of money! By then we were pretty tired and decided to head back to our lovely room.

On the way back, after the usual hassle of trying to find someone who could figure out where Friend’s House was located, we saw what looked like a ride on the top of a small mountain in the center of the city. We asked the driver about it and he said, “Oh yes, cable car.” That was all Josh needed to hear, so he told the driver to take us there. He did, pointed out the cable car station, and kept driving! We thought that was pretty funny and after we stopped laughing we explained that we wanted to ride the cable car. He dropped us off and we went to buy the tickets. The lady at the window asked if we wanted roundtrip tickets…it was cold, but not cold enough to ski down, so we said yes. It was a very pretty night (as beautifully clear as the day had been) and the ride up to the top of Mount Namsam was very nice. We got out and found that there were some very steep and uneven steps that led higher up the mountain to the ride thing we had seen. We walked up there, but the ride was closed. The view was great though and we were glad we had ridden up.

After that, we went back to Friend’s House, packed up, and went to sleep. The next morning we caught the bus to the airport at 7:00 am and headed home. When we got to the airport, we learned that our flight had been cancelled, but they put us on an earlier flight on a different airline. We got back to Tokyo at about 12:30 pm and decided to take the train home rather than waiting for the military bus to the base. That turned out to be a big mistake! We got the tickets and got on the train, but it kept stopping in the middle of nowhere and we eventually learned that there had been an accident somewhere along the way. We didn’t get back to Yokosuka until about 6:00 pm. We walked back to the base and when we got to the gate, Josh couldn’t find his passport! I was flabbergasted!!! We had left so that he could get his Visa renewed and as soon as it was done, he lost the passport. He also realized that he had left his new watch, phone, and sunglasses at Friend’s House! UGH!!!! I had to walk on base get the car and go out to pick him up. Luckily, he found the passport in his bag later that night and when I e-mailed Friend’s House they said they would send his phone and watch to us (he didn’t tell me about loosing the sunglasses until yesterday, so I didn’t ask about them).

So that was our big Korean adventure! We decided that although we can't put our finger on why (perhaps the stench of fish that permeated the air), we like Japan better and the people there seem much more friendly. Korea, however, is very pretty and much less crowded. Check out the Flickr site for pics.