Day 3 - Street Carts FTW

We woke up at 11 am which is still relatively early considering our previous late nights of debauchery. Having not tried the odeng aka fish cake street cart food yet, we went over to a busy one in the middle of the Myeongdong shopping area that we wanted to try but didn't get a chance to. The fish cakes were cooked in either regular or spicy soup which they serve in a cup along with the fish cake:



Hella good! Afterwards we walked over to the bigger department store across the street, but not before stopping by another cart to get more fish cake. The ones here were fried and greasy, but tasted fine deluged in ketchup:



Then we traversed across the street to AVENUEL, a Lotte Department Store adjacent to the one we went to yesterday. Everything was ridiculously expensive and having spent so much money considering it was only the third day, we just browsed at everything we couldn't afford from men's clothing to electronics. After an hour or so, my cousin Yunhee called to let us know she was coming over. Upon her arrival, we met up and took a cab to Jogno-gu's (Jogno district> Insadong-gil (Insadong street) which is famous for cultural souvenirs, antique wares, and art. We did a little souvenir shopping, but arguably, the coolest thing here was making of the kkultare candy which takes one block of honey dipped in corn starch and through some fancy twisting and folding, yields 16,000 individual strands used to wrap walnuts, peanuts, or almonds:



The video isn't mine, but you get the point. The people that made ours were much funnier and having encountered foreigners before, they seemed adept at performing the creation of the kkultare in english, japanese, and maybe chinese. Yunhee bought us a box of each. <3. It was getting dark and it was time to go, but not before Stephen needed to reenact this scene from Euro Trip:





Well done. We took a cab from Insadong back to the hotel. Stephen had made dinner plans to meet Nicole in Itaewon later in the evening, but we couldn't resist eating street cart food yet again. This time we had tteokbokki, dumplings, and soup:





My cousin Ki-Young came to pick us up to take Stephen and me to Itaewon and Yunhee to Seoul Station because she had school the next day. Nicole's place was hard to find, but we managed. When we finally met with her, she tried taking us to a nearby restaurant so that we could try dongdongju (similar to makgeolli which is unstrained rice wine) but it was closed, so we went to back Jogno-gu to have ddakgalbi chicken and vegetables stir fried with gochujang and other assorted ingredients. Nicole didn't want tteok, but that's okay since we had tteokbokki earlier. Stephen was craving Red Mango so we had some after dinner:



I just vultured some from Stephen and we both agreed that it was much better than Pinkberry. Nicole had to call it a night and after saying our farewells, Stephen and I walked around the alleys of Jogno-gu to find a bar. We found a pretty nice looking place (forgot name) where we drank some Hite Stout and Chamisul Soju. We got drunk pretty fast and did some male bonding sharing our past dating experiences and our dating philosophies in general. It was still relatively early in the evening (midnight), but since it was Sunday and having partied hard the two previous nights, we called it a night. Once we got back to the room, we drank off the last of our reserves, talked some more, and went to sleep.

Extra - Nicole taught us that tteokbokki is also slang for (highlight if you want to know): sex during a girl's period. Yeah, it's foul, but I thought it was interesting that she knew considering she's Caucasian. : p

Day 2 - Exploring Myeongdong

Stephen and I got up at the crack of dawn around... 3:30 PM. A long flight to Korea coupled with a long night of drinking does that. After recounting our night-time festivities and wondering if we'd be able to top it with the long week ahead of us, we ventured through the Myeongdong shopping district:



We got a little hungry and thirsty, and having traveled hundreds of miles to get here, we had to do something special... like getting sandwiches at 7-11 and eating them on a sidewalk like bums from America. The sandwiches are actually pretty good and eating on the sidewalk was pretty funny:





Sated and quenched we headed over to the department store across the street from our hotel where Stephen picked up a snazzy jacket:



We planned on doing some more exploring and Stephen wanted to drop off his jacket at the hotel, but not before we picked up some soju and Hite Stout. 7-11 ftw! When we got to the room, it was about time for my cousin Yunhee to meet up with us so we ended up not going back out and just chilled in our room. A long flight to Korea coupled with a long night of drinking does that. When she arrived, it was close to dinner time and she had invited a friend that wanted to meet us so we just chilled some more. When her friend arrived, it was off to dinner at a ddeok jjim restaurant:



Yunhee's friend Bo-rahm was really cool to meet (nice to meet or mahn-nah-suh-bahn-gah-wah-yo). She's an accomplished pianist working as a piano tutor, learning to play organ, and serves as the pianist at her church. Hot. She also joined me in clowning on Yunhee which is always fun. After dinner we all went over to Cheonggyecheon, a creek flowing through Seoul that was at one point nearly dried up from years of development and neglect, but was restored in 2003-2005. It's really nice:



We met up with Ki-Young there and since it was cold we grabbed some Starbucks. Afterwards Bo-rahm had to leave because she had church in the morning so we went to drink in Hongdae because we didn't. Wine out of a bamboo stalk:



Yunhee was getting tired so we decided to have another boys night out. This was an adventure in itself because Stephen was out of cash and we were running around Seoul and taking taxis in the middle of the night looking for a Global (or as I like to say mockingly say 'grober') ATM. We finally found at a Citibank and proceeded to be bad. Again.

We got home before dawn this time, but cut it pretty close.

Day 1 - The Longest Day Ever

Despite having to sit bitch for 12+ hours, the flight wasn't bad at all as I was able to catch up on some movies, dozed off when I could, and played some games on my DS. Out of all the movies my limited attention span could tolerate, Juno was by far the best movie I saw on the plane. It was a very pleasant surprise and I didn't think I could enjoy watching a movie about a high school girl getting pregnant as much as I did.

The flight landed a little early, and considering the time (06:00), getting my luggage and passing through immigration wasn't bad at all. My cousin and aunt were waiting for me at the terminal and my uncle picked us up at the curb. After a couple of minutes of catching up, they asked if I was hungry, to which I responded, "I can eat". After about 10 minutes of indecisiveness on everyone's part, I put my foot down and suggested McDonald's. Yes, my very first meal in Korea was McDonald's. My uncle not ever having McDonald's breakfast before said it was terrible.

After breakfast, we ran errands. I dropped off all the crap my relatives from the states had me deliver and it felt great being relieved of that burden. Once we were done, we went to my aunt's place where I met my cousin's son for the first time ever!

I don't remember the last time I held a baby, so it was a little frightening at first, but I didn't drop it or make it cry so I guess I'm good.



My uncle still dissatisfied about his breakfast wanted to go eat, so went to some restaurant to have some kind of pork and kimchi dish:



After lunch we split up and my girl cousins took me shopping. I told them to pick a top that would allow me to fit in better with the natives, so my cousin Min-Hee picked and bought me an awesome but absolutely fob-ulous hoodie:



As a thank you I bought her baby an awesome outfit:



Feeling pretty exhausted from the red-eye flight, running errands, eating, and shopping, I took a nap for a couple of hours until it was time to pick Stephen up from Seoul's Incheon International Airport:



We got there at 5:50 PM and at 6:25 PM, he finally appears:



Stephen and I decided that we'd eat first and then check into the room. We had Korean BBQ which is probably a better way to kick off a trip in Korea than McDonald's, but I waited for Stephen on purpose. That's how bulgogi brothers do it. If you notice in the pictures, the vents are pulled down to the grill, and while it's not 100% effective, it does an awesome job. Despite neither of us getting much sleep in the past 24 hours, we decided to drink, but that goes without saying:



We were probably more exhausted than drunk, but the night must go on. Stephen has a high school friend living in Itaewon, so after checking in and resting a bit, we made plans to rendezvous with her there. Since we had time to kill, we decided to scope out the area:



Later we had some Glenfidditch whiskey at the hotel bar which was kind of a rip off quantity wise (tiniest shot into a glass of ice ever) but at least it was good. My cousin Yunhee met up with us and we made way to Itaewon. It was around 11:00 PM and trying to acquire a cab at this point was annoyingly difficult. It's not that there weren't any cabs. On the contrary, there were many and we must have got refused around 20 times. Taxis are extremely cheap in Korea so at this time of night, so it has to be worth it to them to take you around. We finally found a nice cab, but it was of the more expensive variety. I think it came out to $5.00 whereas the normal cabs would have been around $2.50.

At Itaewon, Stephen was anxious to drink so we entered a random dive bar only to be denied because we brought a girl. Wow.

We finally met up with Stephen's friend Nicole and went to a trashy but packed lounge called B-One:



After they were sufficiently caught up and parted ways, we waited for Yunhee's friend Nari and my other cousin Ki-Young. The drinks at B-One or whatever were pretty strong, but Stephen and I were still anxious to drink so we had soju in a street vendor tent (pojahng mahchah):



Once everyone convened, we took a cab to Gangnam Station and drank more at a bar called Lemon Terrace:







Nari and Yunhee left us around 3:00 am when Ki-Young decided to take us to one final stop at Chungdahmdong. More drinking ensued and we'll just have to leave it at that because I'm sure by now it's boring to hear that we just kept drinking.

We finally got home at 7:00 AM or so after 12 hours of drinking. It was awesome and somehow memorable.

Day 0 - Trip Planning Skills

06:00 is 6:00 AM. I bet you knew that. Unfortunately, I neglected that fact, and that's why I would be landing 12 hours before Stephen. See, he booked his flight to land at 5:50 PM which is pretty smart. I wanted to make it easy on my relatives picking us up, so I thought it'd be smart to book the flight departing from LAX at 00:10 and arriving in Seoul at 06:00 which was pretty stupid to say the least. I think I had enough time to change my flight, but then my relatives stateside wanted me to take 2 luggage bags full of crap to deliver to my relatives in Korea so I figured I'd run those errands before Stephen arrived so that we're not wasting our precious time in Korea. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded, but I would've.

If my flight booking fiasco provided any indication of my trip planning skills, then one could surmise that I probably have a difficult time packing. This is somewhat true. I just like to take enough to be ready for anything considering we planned almost nothing to do in particular. When the itinerary for a trip is to eat, drink, meet girls, and go sightseeing as time permits, packing can be quite tough. Oh, did I mention I already had 2 luggage bags of crap to deliver? Yeah, imagine packing with all that baggage weighing down on your mind. In total, I would be taking 3 luggage bags and a backpack. /wrist

Speaking of trip planning skills, I should also mention that over 50% of the time, I get to the airport 100% later than I should be to be comfortable. I actually know what time I should leave my place to get the airport with time to spare, but I have a tendency to lag and find myself having to race to the airport and pray. For a 00:10 flight, I figured I should leave my place by 8:00 PM. I left at 9:00 PM. I wasn't stressed though because for a 00:10 flight, I should get to airport no later than 10:00 PM and it's Wednesday night so I should be okay. Oh wait, I'm neglecting the fact that I live in LA and traffic tends to suck ass when you don't want it to. Thanks for sucking ass LA traffic. I was stuck in traffic for an hour and half because 3 lanes were closed near Santa Monica which is already a congested area and got to the airport around 11:00 PM (or 23:00 if you please). My mom even called to say that I was screwed. Thanks Mom.

Of course, it all worked out in the end. There was no line at check-in because everyone else is smarter than me and got there early, so I checked in my 2 bags-o-crap and walked through the security checkpoint relieved that I miraculously made it. I even had time to shop at the duty free shop where I hoped to stock up on cigarrettes and alcohol for myself and my relatives.

Where am I headed? Seoul. 1 carton / 1 liter limit. Crap. Of course I could have bought all this beforehand and packed it instead, but you know the story.

We boarded at 23:40 and left on time at 00:10. I was assigned a middle seat because my uber trip planning skills failed me once again as I neglected to assign myself a more comfortable seat in time. Doh! I know it sounds like a lot of complaining, but I had so much to look forward to so it was all worth it. Given all these lemons, I'm just going to have to make some lemon soju.