EPTFlight
As you may know i live in Switzerland. The trip all in all was 20 hours long, two flights. First flight i had a row for myself and got semi drunk on Brandy with a flight attendant who seemed to not give much of a fuck about his job duties.
So after two movies, a book, some sleep and a 2 hour stay at some Arabian airport i switched planes. Wondering if i was lucky with a non existing neighbour again, a very attractive korean girl sat down next to me. I said "hi", she looked like i just raped her. She talked to a korean guy on the other row and i saw the ring on her finger. He looked at me, i looked at him, he looked at me, i looked at him, he looked at me, i gave him the troll face, he turned around.
So another 10 hours of shittay movies, a boring book and a korean girl sleeping next to me while putting her head on my shoulder and a husband who would kill me with the plastic knife they give you if he had 10 minutes alone with me.
Hello Korea! But first...
Finally. I made it. Before i go on you might need to know that i asked my travel agency to book a hotel for me for the first 3 days. You know, something nice to rest and ease myself into the experience. I called them everyday and they said they are still waiting for confirmation. Even on the day of my flight they told me i need not to worry. At the airport i called them because koreans want to know where i was going to stay, you know, legal stuff. They said "Well...we don't have a hotel for you we're sorry. But hey enjoy your time". Great. So i called up my sister told here to find a hostel. She did, and a few hours later i had my place. Send me all the directions, i took a Bus (no english at all just showed them the bus number for the ticked), fuck the taxi, and with the help of google and a walk of 10 minutes later i was here. POW!
Seoul. But where exactly?
My hostel goes by the name of "Hong Guesthouse". It looked nice and clean and the guy who runs the place was a friendly guy with good enough english. He gave me a room in the basement of the building and to be honest my room looked very...basic. Every wall had a different wallpaper and the window opened up a great view to another concrete wall like 10cm away. It was cold but clean at least. Bathroom was more like cold and dirty but whatever. I've been to India. I heard some american girls in the next room talking and joking. I wasn't eavesdropping, the doors were just paper thin. A good sign to carry everything important with you...
So anyway. Where was I? It's an area they (or we? who knows) call Hongdae. It's kind of a youngster district with lots of students, bars and clubs. I decided to not greet anyone at my place and just walk around and familiarise myself with the place. With some basic orientation skills i walked up a street, then basically walked down the street next to it and so forth. It is like you would imagine it to be. A cluster fuck of a million shops, restaurants, bars, sounds and whatnot's. No building looks the same (at first). There are a ton of people everywhere and i saw only a few foreigners. In fact this place felt like it was koreans only.
You can imagine that people look at you. But they don't stare, usually as soon as your eyes meet theirs they look away. The ones who look at you you immediately have to fight. First you walk in a circle, bow, clap your hands in the air and then you do some kinda judo. Looser has to buy the firstborn of the winner. Just kidding, gawd what's wrong with you?
Anyway. I decided that should be enough for the first few hours and headed back to the hostel and slept for 15 hours straight. I was tired as fuck.
Itaewon And Foreigners
It was already quite late and i was hungry. I read in my book that Itaewon, a district about 8 stops by subway, is kind of the place for foreigners. Oh yeah, the subway is hella easy to use. The ticket machine can be switched to english. You type in your destination, pay 1500 won (1000 to get there, 500 for the plastic card which you get back afterwards) and off you go. There are maps and signs everywhere pointing you to the right direction. Once you are on your way screens and a voice (i think at least, i was listening to music all the time) tells you the next stop. So after switching lines and some more stops i was there.
It was the same cluster fuck of shops. There seems to be this one big main street with mainly shops for cloths and bars. I did the same thing as in Hongdae, walked down the street and up again on the other side, then trough all the side streets. There was some kind of district fest with food tents, each tent with food from a different country. What felt different was the fact that there were foreigners EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE! Coming from Hongdae i immediately disliked the place. But since i was here i mind as well eat something.
First meal
I looked around a bit, walked by a restaurant that looked friendly & small and decided that should be it. A woman greeted me and said something in korean. I replied in english that i do not speak her language. She looked at me like i just shot here baby or something. I said "eating" (oh great jay, like she didn't know what you want in a restaurant), she said something and i heard the numbers 1 and 2. Which meant that if i eat here i had to order for two people. I said ok and she pointed to the stairs, telling me to go upstairs. Now what looked like this small 4 table place changed into something a lot bigger. There where a great number of booths. Most of them free and so i sat down and then she showed me the menu card a second time. Thanks lady, not that i can read anything on here. I asked if she recommends anything and she looked at me like i just shot the baby's twin brother so i pointed at something that looked affordable and told her i want beer. She understood.
She brought me the beer, about 8 different side dishes, a spoon and chopsticks. One dish, onions, was placed in front of me. A guy placed the grill (so you know where i am) and the lady brought some meet. It looked like rips, dark marinated. I looked at her and she put the meat on the grill, turned it and asked me if i want to have it cut, i nodded. She did everything and then placed all the little meatparts on the outer ring of the grill and waited. I was lost. Before i had the chance to do anything she took a salad leaf, put some onions, something else, a piece of meat and something else again on it, folded it and...well she wanted to put it into my mouth. Amused as i was i grabbed it out of her hand and took a mouthful. SHIAT! Stuff was good! She was pleased and smiled and did the same thing again this time with other sidedishes. I shit you not for about 30 minutes straight this lady prepared everything for me. Like a mother feeding here retarded child. I tried to work myself in there and she said something out loud and people were laughing behind her but then she eventually let go of the whole process. Pleased with my basic motor skills she walked away and only came back to prepare more meat for me. I once waited a bit too long and it got burned a tinny bit, i wouldn't mind at all, but she took the pieces and cut the dark parts away.
Buaaah. I was full, relaxed and happy. Time to go "home"!
Meeting new people
Back in the hostel i decided to go to the living room and say hi to everyone. There were people from all around the world. Americans, Canadians, a baller french guy, one from germany, a girl from hong kong, one from south africa, one from sweden, a young korean from london and an older guy from japan who nobody could understand despite him talking like mad. The stalker guy he was he took about 100 fotos from everyone that night.
Everyone was invited to soju (tastes like vodka with water, or water with a drop of vodka) and some other stuff. We all just talked and had a good time. Politics, Football, Vegans, topics about anything. I talked quite a bit with the korean guy who was into punk and cried on and on about him having to go to the army. I shared my own experiences from my military time and teased him about having to cut of his "shaped by the wind" hair. He looked depressed as fuck sometimes haha. After a few hours some decided to go to sleep, some went out and i decided it's time to go clubbing.
Hongdae Night. Destination M2.
As a DJ myself i grew up with clubbing. I love it. If you ever been to Zurich you know we have a shitton of clubs comparable to London. My destination was a club called M2, electronic music, dancefloor, lots of people. Finding it was difficult tough. The streets were full of young drunk party people. I mean they were everywhere! Quite a few foreigners now on the streets and i just walked around . Eventually some guy approached me in front of what looked like another club. "No cover", he said. I was like: "...no cover?". "Yeah man, girls no cover". Tempted to go in i declined, I first wanted to go to M2. So i asked him and he told me where to go. One minute later i was there. They checked my ID twice had to pay 20k (free drink included) and 2k for my coat.
M2 - R U RDY!?
Oh boy. The club was full! And by full i mean stacked. I immediately felt right there. Music was hella loud and people were dancing and screaming. Lights and lasers flipping and flashing everywhere and the walls behind the DJ had some forms and shapes projected on them. Poles to dance with on the left and right side. People put their hands in the air whenever there was a break and made some mad noise whenever the DJ asked for it. Music was pumping (House, Electro and later on some Break Beats) and like I said loud as fuck but still suprisingly clear. It was heaven for me. The music was my taste.
I grabbed a beer and walked right into the middle and danced like there was no tomorrow. There were a few white guys in there but mainly young koreans and a shitton of girls. There was no place were i wasn't surrounded by 3-5 girls. Most of them looked hot as fuck, dang i love korea i said to myself.
It was really different from outside. Many koreans approached me and said hi and asked where i was from. One guy invited me for a drink even tough he couldn't speak english. He said he liked me, and i was kinda hesitant. Getting anal raped wasn't on my things-to-do-while-in-korea list, but then a girl came over and made out with him so i felt safe(r). Needless to say i got smashed.
Girls. Yeah haha great topic. Later on they told me i had to rent a cellphone to grab numbers. Oh if i had known!! About 30 minutes into the whole experience I started to dance with girls. Grinding away with the cutest girls. The funny thing is how they approached me if they wanted it. Korean girls seem to be very shy. So this is how it went down the first time:
- She turns around and looks at me
- I smile
- She doesnt, but then turns around and walks backwards into you and does NOTHING!
This looks so crazy funny. Like a dog ritual or something. The first time i completely didn't get it and she walked away. This happened about 7 times trough the night. None of them could speak any english. Some i approached myself and when they were into it their korean boyfriends would pull them away haha. No confrontation whatsoever. Back in Switzerland you would get punched down for shit like that. One girl kissed me right on the dancefloor but then got pulled away into the masses by her girlfriends and I never saw here again. FUCK YES ANYWAY!
I came home at about 7 o'clock or something. Legs hurt like crazy and were cramping but I shure had a great time.
Puuaaah. That's it. Took me more than an hour to write down. I have two more days i could write about but I got to get ready for GSL. Will write later. Hope you enjoyed it. There is no spellcheck here so I'm very sorry if some things read gibberish. Oh and btw, i wrote analrape up there and it was highlighted so i clicked on it and a voice said "anal rape" and my speakers were on hahaha.
Take care guys
