Seoul! Pt. 3 and Coming Home!

Ok so after that crazy fest of things, most of you will probably be a bit disappointed to know how I spent Wednesday. I took a few walks, ate a few meals, but mostly rested in my hotel room. I know I know, I could have done that back in Daegu. You gotta understand that at this point I've been more than 6 weeks here with no break, a few days to myself here and there but no vacation time to clear my head. So that's what I did Wednesday, in Myeongdong.

I felt like I was kinda coming down with something so I slept in. Then I took a nap. Then I decided it was time to go check things out. I'm the type of person who has to kind of scout out their surroundings, then when they feel comfortable they extend the circle of comfortability if you will. I basically mapped out the city block surrounding my hotel in Myeongdong even taking in some large department stores and underground shopping malls. I must have looked hilarious as this giant white dude just walking around by himself in all these places geared at selling to couples and women.

I wasn't worried, I was happy to get out and check out the scenery. After trying to find a good place to eat, I of course settled on McDonald's like a good American. Honestly, there was a place I wanted to try but it didn't open until 3pm, so I stuck with McDonald's. After eating at McDonald's it was time for another nap. Following the second nap, it was time to try the other place which was called 70's radio pub. I went in and had a beer and the sausage dinner platter (conveniently 30% off for Buddha's bday).

Sausage platter!

At this point it was around 7pm, and instead of being crazy like I probably would have in my 20's, I didn't take the subway to Itaewon, and went back to my room. I ended up messaging the boy band on Kakao for a few hours and then watching some English sports channel before heading to bed early. Boring I know, but trust it picks back up.

So that was Wednesday. I slept in Thursday because I could, and headed out to the hotel shuttle around 11:30 to go to Seoul Station. I was pretty early and the KTX was already prepared to go (unlike in Daegu) so I decided to head in early.

So these two videos are showing you what Seoul Station looks like with NO ONE around, which is pretty crazy for how busy it is. The second one is inside of a KTX car with also NO ONE in it, which is also pretty rare. As you can see it's very much like an airplane. Eventually people filed in and we took off not a second after 12:15. To say these trains are punctual is an understatement. I spaced out most of the way back, and got in around 1:47. An hour and a half from Seoul to Daegu is crazy fast, and I hadn't had breakfast or lunch so I was getting pretty hungry. I also had an hour bus ride from Dong Daegu station back to the campus.

When I got back only Heavy G was at the dorm, both An Hyo Sang and YJS had headed home for the break. Heavy G wasn't hungry so I headed to CJ by myself and grabbed some bulgogi deopbap (Rice and Meat). I was still hungry, but I knew we were heading to church in a few hours for dinner/small group praise so I held off.

Heavy G and I headed over to church around 7pm, and had small group praise for about half an hour or so. we sang some songs and did some bible study (mostly in Korean) which was fine because there was a sheet I could follow along with and figure out what was going on. Heavy G was EXTREMELY hungry at this point, and any lull in the action brought about a yell of "밥!" (Bap) or food! Haha, eventually we headed to a hole in the wall joint (this place literally would be unfindable to anyone who didn't know where it was) for dinner.

We had Korean beef soup, and it was really really good. You could basically add in your own spices. I added in a few small spoons of red pepper paste, and a little salt and it was perfect. I decided to copy the Koreans and threw my rice in the soup as well. After this I was decently full but still needed some food. Heavy G felt the same.

On the way home we stopped in 하양 (Hayang) the town next to ours and picked up some street food. As it was described to me, these were real Korean hot dogs. You could get cheddar cheese dogs, mozzarella dogs, or just regular dogs. I went with the mozzarella dog like Heavy G. They also put sugar on the outside and you can add any sauce you'd like. Wow was this amazing, and all at the price point of $1.50. I actually want another one right now just thinking about it.

Hayang Hotdog!

After all of this we headed back to the dorm to hang out and get ready for Friday which we had planned to go to a 목욕탕 (Mok Yok Tang) or Korean bathhouse! Stay tuned for that story! Thanks for stopping in guys! Hope you enjoyed my visit to Seoul.