Day 29 - A very productive day

I'll try and keep this brief again, as I am making the others wait - today Pat and I went to Insadong for lunch, and had something delicious and Japanese. We then went to the largest Buddhist shrine in Seoul, near Anguk, where we encountered a large number of Korean soldiers ferrying huge quantities of cabbage to, and Kimchi from, row upon row of tables full of women in aprons spicing and pickling the cabbage. I can only assume that they were making a year's supply for a local barracks or something, all very wierd. We then went to the knife museum, which has an enormous selection of edged weapons from armed forces, films (they have Glamdring and Highlander's sword, as well as the Green Destiny Sword!), as well as Helms from Lord of the Rings, and lightsabres which were immensely cool. They also had a display on how to nake a Katana, and a huge array of Shuriken, Kunai, various other Shinobi weapons and all sorts of horrible fighting knives. Once again, being boys, we absolutely loved it and spent ages in there, discussing the ingenuity and cruelty of man, and also going "Wow" at the thing that gave you claws like Wolverine.



We tried to go to a restaurant on the 33rd floor of the Jongno Tower (right, the restaurant sits at the top, above the void), but we were denied entry. We saw a lot of Insadong, which is really nice and quaint, with narrow streets and loads of shops selling monk's robes, calligraphy brushes and fans. We went to Dongdaemun market, where we haggled reasonably well, and I got a Hoodie and a hat*, and then an hour-long sports massage. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life, the dude was pummeling my spine immensely hard, crushing me into the massage table. A few times I was close to crying out in pain, as my (admittedly very large) face was squashed into the korean-face sized hole. Afterwards I did feel immensely good though, although that may just be the equivalent of how good you feel when you stop smacking your head against a wall. Pat enjoyed it immensely, the masochist. We got Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on the way home though, which made everything better.



*Since being in Seoul I have bought four hats, and managed to lose three (although one has now been found). Two of these I have bought on the street, taken off for manners' sake inside, and then copmpletely forgotten to pick up on my way out. I am a buffoon.