Seoul, Part Deux

As some of you may have known, I headed to Seoul today, thanks to some boneheaded planning maneuvers. Originally I was going to head to the suburb of Seoul, Seongnam, to catch a Korean soccer league game. But, when I bought train tickets I bought them for the wrong day, so I just decided to use the tickets and visit Seoul for the day. Well, I would have except the PE teacher found out and he offered to drive me to Seoul instead. Don't freak out, he and the family were already heading to Seoul this morning for a wedding. I just tagged along and hopped off at the nearest subway station. Now originally when I bought tickets, I got them for 10 am heading to Seoul and 10:45 pm heading home, which gives me a large chunk of time to work with. But, since I was now traveling by car, my window closed considerably as they were leaving Seoul at 3pm and due to the usual delays that come with 3 and 6 year olds, we didn't arrive in Seoul until noon. The PE teacher was kind enough to drop me off at Itaewon district, which is where all the whiteys hang out, apparently. I guess there is a US military base nearby and many foreign embassies, so the ratio of foreigners (primarily whiteys) to Koreans was about fifty/fifty, maybe higher. There were a lot of whiteys. It didn't even feel like I was in Korea, since all the store and restaurant signs were in English, and most didn't even have Korean on them at all. So if any of you visit Seoul, but you don't want to feel like you actually left the US, Itaewon is the place to be. For me though, it was too much, as I had forgotten how much I dislike most white people, because with white people comes....fatties. Yeah I hadn't seen one of those in a while, but sure enough, when i sat down at the All American Diner where I had lunch, there they were in droves. Now, don't be so hasty to criticize me for passing up delicious local food for the novelty American restaurant, but I was starving, it was convenient, and the block seemed to consist of American chains, like McDonalds and Subway, almost entirely. In the end, my burger was pretty freakin good, the wait staff spoke really good English (surprise, surprise). After lunch, it was off to my favorite part of town, thus far, City Hall. It's pretty centrally located with various palaces and Buddhist temples around to see, not to mention lots of shops. Since I only had a matter of hours to take in the sights, actually about 2, I quickly headed for Cheonggyechon Stream for some r&r. As you can see from the pictures, it's a very pretty and, at least for me, a quite peaceful and serene place in the midst of the hustle and noise that is downtown Seoul. But time was of the essence, so, after a much too short break, I was off to visit Deoksugung Palace. This one wasn't as impressive or scenic as Gyeongbokgung Palace that I visited last time, but it was in the neighborhood and for the reasonable 1,000 won ($1) entrance fee, I could have found worse diversions for a hour or so. After sampling the sights for an hour or so, it was off to the subway station again to try and catch my ride home. Apparently, I missed Jeong Dongchun by a matter of minutes, so no I was completely alone in Seoul and I had to find my own means home for the first time. Crunch Time. So back on the subway I climbed and headed for Yongsan, home of the enormous electronics market, and a bus terminal. The electronics market was as advertised. The section I looked at, and mind you this was only a small fraction of the electronics market, was about the size of a convention center for each floor, and there were 7 floors in total. Each floor was littered with innumerable booths of vendors hawking their wares. 2 floors dedicated to just phones, mp3 players, cameras, and camcorders, 2 floors for computers and bigger appliances (TV, fridge, etc.) and one floor for console games. All in all, it was a techie's wet dream. I don't know how they do it in Japan and other tech crazy nations, but for little old me, it was overwhelming to say the least. Once my romp through Candyland was done it was back to business: getting the fuck home. My map informed me that the bus terminal was supposed to be right outside the building, but that was not the case. After much searching and more than my fair share of griping and complaining about the map lying to me, I realized that the bus station that I wanted wasn't even in Yongsan. Oops. To the subway! Once I hopped on the subway to the right stop, it was a piece of cake. I just followed all the other subway passengers like a freaking lemming and sure enough they lead me to our cliff: the bus station. 50 minutes later and 4.30 dollars later, I was on the bus heading home. Maybe, just maybe, I might be able to not die if I visit this Korean mecca of commerce. Yipee.