Korea Has Seoul (part 1)

Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!

I spent the weekend in Seoul with my friend Lizzi, and boy did we have a terrific time! We caught a bus out of Gyeongju at about 8:30 Saturday morning, and spent the next four hours napping on the very comfortable reclining seats. In between dozing off, I had the opportunity to admire breath-taking scenery, as we passed by the many mountains. I love the way the hazy mist settles over the green tree-covered mountains around here. Simply stunning!
When we arrived in Seoul, Lizzi and I went to Tom and Tom's, a coffee shop, to plan out how we would spend our first day in Seoul. After poring over our guidebooks, we decided to visit the Korean War Museum. Since Lizzi majored in classics and I majored in history, the two of us are nuts about good museums. We had no idea just how lucky we were going to be.
When we got to the Korean War Museum, we decided to walk around outside for awhile and check out the many monuments, statues, airplanes, tanks, trucks, and AA guns. Needless to say, I was in seventh heaven! The Two Brothers Monument was particularly moving, as it show two soldiers embracing while the foundation beneath them splits into two parts. Powerful. There were also beautiful gardens and fountains to admire. We bought some Dippin' Dots ice cream and walked around in absolute rhapsody.
After thoroughly enjoying the outside, we went to purchase our tickets for the museum. Imagine our surprise and delight when we learned that the Dead Sea Scrolls were currently on display at the museum (on loan)! I have always wanted to see them! It cost more to get into that exhibit, but Lizzi and I readily agreed that it was well worth it. And we were right! The exhibit was fascinating. In addition to the scrolls, they also had many artifacts pertaining to Jewish history and the beginning of the Christian church. It was like having my theology books from college suddenly spring to life! Unfortunately, owing to the age and condition of the scrolls, no photographs were allowed.

Lizzi and I got so involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that we completely forgot about the war museum and walked outside before getting to see it! So, now I'll have to make another journey to Seoul to finish seeing the museum.

After the Korean War Museum, Lizzi and I were famished (and my blood sugar was ready to crash). We went to Itaewan (a more touristy area) to find a place to eat. Both of us were in the mood for Italian, so we started looking for an inexpensive Italian restaurant. We came upon a restaurant with a menu so enticing that we decided to splurge and have one expensive meal. It was worth the won! Lizzi, who is a vegetarian, found something perfectly suited to her tastes, and I had the best lasagna of my entire life.

After dinner, we took the metro out to the area where Jane's Groove (a club) is located. There was an Aussie/Kiwi party for foreigners being held there with live music, and Lizzi was positively salivating at the thought (it was, in fact, our original reason for going to Seoul). We decided it would be wise to find a place to spend the night before going to the club, as we knew we wouldn't be leaving there until the wee hours of the morning. Here is where our happy day took a more adventurous, far less pleasant turn...

We asked a few Koreans where we could find a cheap place to stay, and they told us about the Bobo Hotel. We headed off in the direction we were told to go in, and discovered that it was much further than we had been told. After an extremely long walk, we arrived, only to find that the cost was 100,000 won a night - way too much for our budgets. We decided to keep walking, in the hopes of finding a cheaper place. After two hours of walking and searching, we hailed a cab. We had the driver take us by the bus terminal, hoping to find something cheap near there. In a dark, steep alley, we found several motels, so we decided to look for the one with the least amount of lights and advertising (those tend to be the cheaper ones over here).

We found a love motel (very cheap accommodation specially designed for men having affairs) that was only 40,000 won. Since we were exhausted and wanted to get back to Jane's Groove for fun and music, we agreed to take the room. The woman running the establishment was exceedingly unpleasant, but the price was right. The trouble came when we asked for a key so that we could go out and then return. She started yelling at us, then, mid-one-sided-conversation she plopped down on a toilet and, with the door wide open, relieved herself. Lizzi and I discretely walked away until she was finished. Then she yelled at us some more, thrust back our money, and led us to the door. We decided to find a different place to stay.

Across the street was another love motel, so we went there to inquire about price. It was 45,000 won (less than $45) and we were quite shaken from the last place, so, since the man running this establishment was smiling and friendly, we made the decision to stay there. The room was tiny, but adequate to our needs. It featured a red light, lots of mirrors, a nearby condom dispenser, and an impressive selection of pornographic films (which we didn't bother to examine). We laughed, and headed for Jane's Groove. The proprietor of our love motel wouldn't give us a key to the room, but he assured us that he would let us back in when we returned.
At Jane's Groove, Lizzi and I ran into our friend Patty, who also teaches in Gyeongju. The three of us enjoyed the music, and even wound up on the dance floor with the rest of the foreigners. At about 3:30 am, Lizzi and I called it a night and returned to our love motel. The man kept his word and let us in, and we gratefully crawled into bed and fell asleep. Saturday had been a very full day!