Lessons 32-33

(9/26) Lesson 32: Always have the phone number of your hostel written down.

I wish Seoul were more like New York in regards to train schedules. In New York the trains stop running around 2AM. In Korea, it's far earlier, i.e. midnight. This meant that getting a room at a hostel was the only way the girls and I could go out at night in Seoul.


We reserved a room at a little place called Hongdae Guesthouse 2.0: Yellow Submarine in the Hongdae area of Seoul. It was a little farther from the main area than we thought, but I really didn't care. It was a really nice hostel with free internet, a big washroom, nice little bunkbeds, and a quiet location with practically no traffic noise. We also discovered the massive amounts of peanut butter stashed away in the kitchen. Kristen and I nearly died; peanut butter is ridiculously expensive in Korea and these jars were the size of our heads.

Yellow Submarine

Kristen overjoyed about the 10 pounds of Skippy we discovered.

We went out for galbi and upon returning we discovered that we were locked out of our hostel. Remember those keypads I mentioned in my first post? That's what was on the door to the hostel, but the hostel guy hadn't told us the password. He wasn't there and we were banging on the door for about ten minutes hoping a hostel resident was around. Then Kristen goes, "Oh wait... this might help." She takes out her phone and calls the main office of the hostel, then gets up and types in the password.


If we didn't have the phone number, we would have been outside for a while: the guy returned at least and hour and a half later. When he arrived we were dressed up to go out on the town, drinking soju around the main table and occasionally sneaking spoonfuls of peanut butter. We headed out to the bars around 11:00 and that's when I also learned that if you're too noisy you can get kicked out of a taxi. I was quietly observing the nightlife from the window of the taxi, but Kristen and Holly's husband, Chris, were a little on the loud side (blame the soju). The driver suddenly said he didn't know the location of the place we wanted to go to, pulled over, and asked for the money.

We went to a few different places that night: Sub Zero Ice Bar, Ho Bar (not what it sounds like), and Club Ska (the first dance club I've been to in my life). The only place that is worth mentioning is Ice Bar. You pay 15,000 won to hang out in a big freezer with ice sculptures, wear a parka-poncho, gloves and booties, and drink alcohol from a big ice cube. Not as cold as I thought it would be, drinks were incredibly disappointing (i.e. not strong at all), but it was a great start to the night.

Coolest bar I've been to. (Ba-dum bum...)

Shannon and Holly putting on their booties.

Warming myself by the "fire."

Ice cups: can be used as drinking vessels, drink chillers, and weapons of self-defense.

(9/27) Lesson 33: A few things that you should know when riding a Korean train/subway:

1. Red seats are for children, the elderly, or pregnant women. So don't sit there or people will be pissed.

2. The colored line running down the middle of the train car indicates which subway line you're on. Helpful.

3. Do NOT talk loudly on your cell phone. People will hate you more than they would in the U.S.