Seoul Part 1

            This past weekend I was finally able to get up to Seoul and visit one of the largest cities in the world.  I was going up to play in my first rugby tournament and was really excited to do both in the same weekend.

            I met up with Jonathan, James and Jonathan’s buddy Leroy, yes like the song, and we took the train.  Of course we were swapping stories but Leroy definitely topped us by describing what it was like being in Egypt as the revolution took place.  He talked about sitting at his hotel’s pool and looking up to see mortar fire and tracers flying overhead and across the city.

            The next morning he went to the airport to leave, was going through the screening process when the one of the guards said, “That’ll be 100 dollars.” Leroy didn’t know what he was talking about but quickly realized that if he didn’t pay he wasn’t going to be able to go into the airport.  I’ve looked up some stuff online and found many similar stories because the police were in the streets trying to quell the revolution. 

Getting on the train.

Beautiful country.

Would love to climb that.

Catching up on his missed Z's.

Seoul is the second largest metropolitan area in the world.

            Once we made it to Seoul Leroy split off to meet with his buddies and we went to Changdeokgung to visit the Changdeok Palace and Biwon Secret Garden.  We wandered around debating if we wanted to eat Korean or Indian when I saw a Subway.  I headed straight for it, walked in and relished in the familiar smells of roast beef, freshly baked bread and American cheese.  It was glorious eating a sandwich again that was toasted with Oregano, black olives, plenty of veggies and three kinds of beef.  Ah it was fantastic just fantastic.

            After fueling up we got our bearings and went to the palace.  It was definitely one of the coolest places I’ve visited here in Korea and had some beautiful places to walk around in or sit down at.  The Palace was built in 1405 was burned down in 1592, rebuilt in 1609 and was the official residence of Korean kings until 1926. 

Entrance to Changdeok Palace

Please excuse Jonathan's hat placement as he's from Miami.

Main gate that leads to the throne room that you can see in the distance.

Walking up.

At the throne room and the ceiling was easily 50ft high.

Biwon, the Secret Garden.

Really great pond with an island.

Another view.

Could definitely run those every morning to start my day.

This is an awesome water clock that has the zodiac, calendar, harvest times and daily time.

The ceiling of a Pagoda at the garden.

My favorite spot was Bandoji, or Peninsula Pond. It's shaped like the outline of the Korean Peninsula and I really enjoyed having my deep meta-thoughts there.

            Next, James and I went to Iteawon, Jonathan left to meet up with his girl, to watch the New Zealand and France rugby teams play in a big Rugby World Cup game.  Rugby isn’t that big in the States but to the rest of the English-speaking world it’s huge.  The passion and emotional investment by the fans is on par with fans of college football back home.

The bar we were at was packed.

           Check out this video of the All-Blacks pregame tribal war dance called the Haka:

          

            New Zealand won the game and we left to clean up and meet the rugby guys. Iteawon is the foreigner part of Seoul, has a red light district that started up when the Japanese occupied Korea and feels very much like you’re in a Western city.  It’s over commercialized; the Irish pubs are run by Koreans and the foreigners there are not my style.  However I had a great night going out with the rugby guys, Jonathan ended up meeting with us too, and was ready to play some rugby the next day. 

Finishing the night off with some great kebabs.

            I’ll tell you about playing in my first rugby game in my next post.