Annyong, Korea! (Annyong!)

Woke up at 5am, surprisingly awake considering the 3 hours of sleep I got last night.

Did my last minute packing, then "checked out" of the hostel (China needs to think I've left but I needed to leave all my stuff there), printed out a memo to edit for work, and was out the door at quarter to 6.

Walked to the airport express about a km away from the hostel with my trusty blue backpack - the same backpack that's been with me to Morocco, to Portugal, to Ecuador, and around the world several times over. Somehow we keep finding uses for it, and somehow it never falls apart - as the morning dew lifted and the air became progressively muggier.

The ticket was 25 at the desk upstairs (no line, but downstairs by the shuttle entrance there was a big one) and the second shuttle of the day was waiting when I arrived at 6:10.

Found a seat in the back of the train, and got out at terminal 2 a half hour later.

The Beijing Capital Airport has a very strange setup. You go through customs first, walk a little and get your ticket, then walk a while and go through immigration, then immediately get into the security line which backs up right to the immigration desks. While waiting at security, I decided to count the security cameras I could see, which wasn't a very vast space in terms of area. I counted 74 cameras before I lost count. Big Brother? Is that you?

Hung out near the gate, gate 15, while I had flashbacks from being here two years ago. Ticketing section D, where I took a picture with two gigantic Olympic mascots (my ticket from China Southern Airlines today was at section C); the long conveyor belts where I frantically searched for last minute gifts (didn't find anything then and didn't bother this time); gate 13 where I tried to hit on the ticketing agent to put me in first class for the 13 hour flight. Didn't work.. Something about rules and procedures.

Boarded my plane at 8:10, at 40° 4.5' N, 116° 35.5' E. I looked at the sign next to the ramp. Scheduled to leave at 8:40, we were a little delayed leaving the gate due to fog.

We landed at 11:58; I slept the whole way. Now, I'm fine on planes, and almost anything could happen and I'd be calm. But I had fog. When I look out the window and I see fog when we're 500 feet above the ground, I just need to close my eyes; that way I have as much visibility as the pilots.

As I walked off the plane, I took a deep breath of South Korean air; it didn't taste anything like Kimchee (a SK specialty) and didn't quite smell like Aretha Franklin (cuz I'm in Seoul?). But most importantly, I didn't get the sense that this was a struggling nation led by a puppet government whose people just want to join under the North Korean flag, as I've been led to believe over the past few days on kcna.co.jp (sarcasm?).

I walked down an endless hallway and had to take a shuttle train to baggage claim. Stopped at immigration along the way, where I was drilled about why I picked the choice "Visiting Friends" on the form and not "Tourism." Skipped baggage claim and breezed through the Nothing to Declare line.

Tried to exchange money - nowhere was giving a good rate so I took a small amount out of an ATM to get me to town. Of course, by small amount we're talking in the tens of thousands of Won (₩).

I stumbled through to the subway - I've never been more lost in a metro station before. Not only was everything in Korean, but all the trains I found were going to Gimpo Airport, not town.

Even getting a ticket was hard. ₩5,200 for a ticket, I had money in ₩10,000 denominations. The machine said it would give no change of more than ₩2,000. I found a machine that changed 10k into 5ks, but it wouldnt change 5k into 1ks. A seperate machine did that.

I had to ask several people but I figured out an express to gimpo gets you to transfer to other lines, where I can then retransfer and pick up the line I want.

I got on the 1pm train to Gimpo. After a few minutes the train emerged from underground into a dreary, rainy swampland. Not the greatest first impression (though the airport was pretty magnifiscent in architecture, but not convenience).

At 1:30 we arrived at Gimpo. A train attendent had given me a subway map and I transfered to line 5, which seemed the logical choice by the map. But the signs for metro lines do not point in directions, they point towards stations. And not the next one, either - the signs say which stations a train is going to several stops from now. I had to ask a cleaning lady which direction was right. And I don't even know how to say "thank you" yet.

The train cars are quite spacious, though. At least 8, maybe 9 feet wide. I assume they fill up during peak hours but my train was empty.

When it was 2 and I was just about halfway to the palace I wanted to tour at 2:30, I began to consider the fact I might not make the last English tour of the day (and unfortunately I am not allowed to wander the grounds myself).

At 2:18 I was let off at Jongno Sam Ga, and I had to transfer to the 3 line one stop to Anguk. I missed the transfer cuz the doors malfunctioned. First the outer door opened and closed. Then the inner, and the train moved.

Fortunately another train came quickly, but by the tine I got to Anguk it was 2:28.

I got out the exit a few minutes after 2:30 and chose a random direction of four to walk towards Changdeokgung Palace. I guessed wrong, so I guessed again.

When I got out of the subway, there was light or no rain, and it got worse and better each minute. I didn't mind so much at the time, so I walked in the rain. When I passed a newsstand vendor I asked him "Eodie Changdeokgung?" He said in English it was 100 meters in the same direction I was heading.

So I wandered 100 meters, and watched on my left as a beautiful and ornate gateway appeared.

I walked to the ticket office and asked about the English tour I was 20 minutes late for. She said it had gone but if I was lucky I'd catch up. Or, she said, I could just wander around myself.

So I paid the ₩3,000 ($2.5) entrance fee and wandered inside just as the rain picked up.

I stood under the main gate reading a tiny guide they gave us, explaining that Changdeokgung was home to the Korean royal family from 1405 until 1989 when the last of the royal line died - at least the last in Korea. There are other royals still, but they live in anonymity, either in Korea, Japan, or the US.

When the rain let up a bit I ran to a big tree, where I stumbled into the English tour. So I stuck with them, hiding under doorways and overhangs and sprinting to the next place when there wasn't much rain. Eventually it let up for a while and I finished the tour and had a nice discussion with our tour guide, about Chinese influence in Korea and the Korean writing system, without fear of rain.

On my way out I stopped to see the newsstand man, whom I bought an umbrella from for ₩5,000.

He directed me to Insadong, the next stop for me, a shopping street.

I wandered down Insadong, looking without buying. Some people negotiate a little, others don't at all. Everything cost too much. One woman followed me around, and apparently was running 3 shops cuz I would move to different stores and she'd be there! It was so creepy, I had to leave Insadong just to get away from her.

Grabbed breakfast at 4:30pm of fried octopus, or something like that, on the street for ₩2,000. Delicious.

Crossed Cheonggyecheon, a stream through the city north of the main river, which was overflowing.

The rain got so intense at one point I jumped inside the first place I could find, a cafe. I ended up having a chicken cutlet, which was delicious and had a serious Korean twist to it - I had expected it to be American style, but I was happily surprised.

Went to Myeongdong, but due to rain and my incessant dawdling along the way, I didn't have time to do anything besides walk through it. It's supposed to be a fun shopping street with almost anything one might need in it, but I had to just look. I got inside the Myeongdong subway station, got a ticket, and found my line. Took the 4th line two stops north to #2, the green circle line. 7 stops west and I was at Sinchon to meet Russ at 6:30, though I showed up at 6:15. And thus ended my solo excursion that I planned in one day with no Korean skills and no map and no idea of where I was.

Russ showed up at the agreed upon spot, and the two of us started walking towards a bar that Canadian friends of his own, catching up on the two year gap since we've seen each other.

We arrived at Beer O'Clock at 7, the bar. Had a dinner of wings and pizza and beer, several beers, before we left around 10:30 to head back towards Russ's apartment.

The trip was about 1 hour long, and we got off a few stops past his place for another bar.

This city is so bright and vibrant, it's insane - the bar we went to was on a fourth floor walkup, but was only one of maybe a hundred bars in that complex alone. And they were all full! What a city! If only it would stop raining!

I had a glass of Jack Daniel's, Russ had a few Heineken. We stayed until 1 then caught a cab to Russ's neighborhood, the underground Red Light District of Seoul.

On the eleventh floor, Russ's apartment is simple and nice, with a couch, tv, bed, desk, dresser, closet, bathroom and plenty of floor space. A good studio apartment.

We turned in around 2. I slept on the couch.