How was Seoul? eh... wait a minute... again?

So I went to Seoul.

Again.

Hey it is a big city. A huge city. There is a lot to do and see there. I got a book, a visual tourist atlas of Korea that told me so, and I have to admit it was right.

But I am a head of myself. I went to Seoul with a plan. I was going to get some stuff. I even made a list: Computer RAM, USB port, TKD Book, Guitar Pickup, and Korean Dictionary. Then I was going to go to the Juggling shop for the Juggling club meeting.

Well, so here is how it went. James, Beth, two of my co-teachers Abby their daughter and I got on the train at 7:13ish am. After about thirty minutes James and I hung out in the Snack car, and got on the internet just for the fun of it. We talked for most of the trip, and Beth and Abby joined us and Abby got to play arcade tetris for the first time, and for a three year old she wasn't half bad.

In Seoul James and I got off a stop before our usual stop there and went to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. The doughnuts were the first fresh ones I have ever had at a Krispy Kreme, and I have now learned that the hype around them is quite justified. After a couple of doughnuts each
and getting a dozen more for later, we took the Subway to Yongsan station where Beth and Abby were. We got train tickets home, and then visted a booth in the Electronics mart that James knew for the RAM, and USB port. I got the port (I just got a "old" desktop from the school last week and I am fixing it up just a bit) but ofcourse I forgot to write down what kind of ram it takes, so James is going to get it for me on Wednesday when he goes to Seoul to do something or another. We also visited the Book store at Yongson station and I found that Visual Atlas I mentioned earlier.

From there we parted company, and I got on the Subway on a quest for a foreign music store I heard about near Itaewon, where the American army base is. I found it, but it was closed. So I walked back to the main street of Itaewon, and went to the Foreigners Used Book store and picked up a TaeKwonDo book, and a English to Korean dictionary. Then I walked some more, and ran into James, Beth, and Abby. We walked some more together, but we all had things to do so they went to a watch shop, and I went on the Subway on a quest for American Pizza.

The best I could manage was Pizza Hut. A very nice Pizza Hut at Seoul Station that James had told me about. So I had a good nine inch American style Pepperoni Pizza sans corn.

While I was waiting for my Pizza, I took a look at the Atlas, which has a very large illustrated section on Seoul. I found some cool festivals... and a Flea Market. If you have known me at all he last few years, you know I am a sucker for Flea Markets, and the book said there was a Huge flea market (sometimes called "The Goblin Market" how cool is that?) in a soccer stadium. So I resolved that if I had anytime after juggling, I would check this place out.

But first things first, I took the train down to Sadang Station where the Juggling shop was. I went there, and found out that the meeting of the club was a maybe today, but stay and see. So I did and had a wonderful time talking to the owner So Sang Man or "George" and his wife, the lady who had broke her foot mountain unicycling. I also got to meet their one year old daughter. One other kid did show up for the juggling club, but didn't stay too long. I learned some basic Diablo, which is the yoyo thing controlled by a string attached to two sticks. George also showed me how to juggle four balls in preparation for juggling five balls. All in all it was a great time, and I promised to help him with the English on the English version of the website, which actually isn't that bad. Both of them speak English fairly well.

So after a couple of hours and a couple of new friends later, I left the Juggling shop, and went on my third quest for the day which was to find this flea market. I had about three hours to kill before the train back to Sapgyo left. To get to this market was a straight shot on the blue line... eleven stops which is as many stops as I have ever done at one time.

When I got there, I immediately found the market. It started in the subway station and then spilled onto the street, and then went on, and on and on and on and on and on. I never did find the "flea market" I think it was closed. But it didn't matter. There were stalls, everywhere. In plazas, on the sidewalks, in the tunnels that go under the street, in tunnels that I have no idea what their origional purpose was. They were in buildings, and under them, and they just went on and on, selling all kinds of stuff, but at the part I explored it was mostly clothes of all descriptions. I also found a pet section and a book section. I even found two shops selling bags and bags of buttons. I barely explored it. For two hours of straight wandering I probably only saw a fifth of it if that much. It was overwhelming. And that was with half the places closing up because of night and drizzle. It brought to mind every vast fair, bazzar and out door market I have ever read about. I always suspected those authors of using some literary license, when they described such places... how wrong I was. I did buy a couple of umbrellas (one real one and a tiny red panda one for clowning) and a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz. If you have never been to such a place, you really should sometime. I am going back to Seoul next week for the juggling club, and I have resolved to explore that place further, this time in the morning, and hopefully when it is not drizzling. Maybe I will find a instrument section.

I left the market about an hour before my train was do to go, and headed back to Yongsan Station. I got some Baskin Robin's for dinner (I tried some chicken on a stick from one of the stalls at the market, but it needed some sauce which it didn't have since I didn't know how to say "sauce please but not the kid that makes ones head explode") and waited for my train. On the train I slept.

Until one of my students tapped me on the head to say hi. The one in the picture standing on her desk in a earlier blog actually. She was really excited to see me on the train, and she gave me some crackers and a ginsing mint hard candy. She had been in Seoul that day with her Mom. When we reached Sapgyo station about thirty minutes later, it was raining so I gave her mom my umbrella so she could pull up her car, and she gave me a ride back to my apartment.

And that is a full account of my day in Seoul. I know it lacked elves, dragons, pirates, or ninjas, or even insidious mob bosses. I wasn't knocked out of the way in a chase scene at the market. Heck, I never even got to "The Goblin Market." But it was pretty neat anyways.