A very early update on Seoul

This is highly unlike me but due to circumstances and an old school available computer, I'll give you an update from Korea on only my second day here.

This trip started in a hardcore backpacker manner. My flight was too early for public transportation to get me there and I too stingy to shell 1000+ NT for a cabride. So I did what backpackers do, I went there the night before, with public transportation, and spent not my first and pobably not my last night at the aiport to ensure I could make my flight in a cheap manner.

To keep with the theme here I opted to take the subway to where I had hoped to find a hostel. The flight was uneventful which was nice since there has been a spell of bad news about planes and I was not hoping to become the latest in that trend.
The subway system was quite eleborate as I was sad to find out. Normally this is a great thing but for some reason I can't find my bearings in this system. But with a bit more trouble than strictly nessecary I found my hostel. This too by the way took longer than needed but Lonely Planet showed it's first (of many to come) shortcomings.
Even though I know better, I had not made reservations but was happy to hear there was still a bed available. This happiness quickly turned around and got replaced by suspicion, eventhough the owner claims the hostel is almost as max capacity I rarely see anyone around in what came across as a party hostel (and thanks again for that one Lonely Planet).

Feeling pretty beat up from the lack of sleep and six months of working a job I don't like (to put it mildly) I decided not to get to fancy and just stroll around the neighbouring highlights of the city.
I went to Bukchon Hanok Village and was happy to find out that this gem was only minutes away from where I stay but better than that it was lovely. Traditional Korean homes are apparantly very pleasant to look at, which was made even more apparant by the busloads of local and Chinese tourists who were there with me.
Strolled around some more and within minutes found myself in Insa-Dong another really pleasant area. As I continued walking around I found it a nice surprise to see that this Asian city had yet again been a new experience. At some point I expect these Asian capitals to blend in and just become more of the same but until now I keep on encountering the opposite.

To finalise the first day I went to Hongdae and was blown away by this part of town where people come to let their hair down. Don't think I've ever seen a bigger concentration of bars, pubs and clubs together in all of my travels. It was a Friday night and I was very keen to join the masses and let my hair down with them but as I found myself all alone and pretty much spent I returned home by mrt (still going with the cheap backpacker theme) and after the obligatory Soju fell in a deep sleep.

The second has been all about the Palaces, for those who want to google that shit (or have actually been there), I saw Changdeokgung and Gyeonbokgung and all that lies around there. The day was hot and I covered a lot of ground yet feel like I was left unimpressed. I do always faithfully visit those palaces, tempels and what not but find myself lacking being truly in awe. Last time one of these must-sees that blew me away was last year in Yangoon with the shwedagon pagoda. But todays must-see palaces were nice to look at and yes they were a bit different from the thousands I must have seen by now.

Other then that I just walked around tons wanting to go somewhere only to change my mind again 5 minutes later. Still it's been a pretty good day and now just resting my legs and drinking my first Korean beer, which is quite tasty I might add.

So now you know it, this is what's been happening. I hope not to add another entry too soon, because I'd rather be out having fun with no time to spend behind computers.



ps couldn't be bothered to read the story again for inaccuracies in the grammar, typing and such, so I apologise if there are many.