Day 5 - Seoul! Crabs and Fighter Jets!

We all got up at about 8, to do some packing, and go for brunch at Freshness Cafe, a burger bar in Shinsaibashi. We said goodbye at the Namba bus terminal, as Leona was going to Yokohama as well -I taught them the fish as well. The flight was a bit of a nightmare - because I had changed it over the phone, and it's a paper ticket, she could find no record of it, said it might not work, and made me wait for about an hour at the desk, pissing off the people behind me. The flight itself was fine, but then at the other end I waited for ages in line behind a large african family, all of whom were subsequently taken off into the immigration office, reinforcing the slightly racist sterotype of Koreans, and also shortening my queue by a lot. I called Leo, and met him at the train station (Incheon airport is mental, huge and futuristic).


The Hostel we're staying in, Mrs. Kim's, is pretty cool - we're in the subsidiary house, which means we're not in the same building as Mrs. Kim. We went out for Barbeque, Leo Henry Steve and I, which was really tasty - tons of pork on the griddle in the middle, Kimchi, Beans, Todu, Coleslaw, Lettuce & Nettles, Beers and Soju & Coke, all for W9000 (under £6) each. The whole Ben Bruce thing has really taken off here, Jose Luis (Villanueva, plays football for Chile!) and Farrah have been losing it loads.


Today we got up, had some free toast, and were regaled with stories from last night from Jan and Jim (there is a massive crab in the bottom drawer of the fridge). We went for a walk to get some food, some Korean thing called Kimbup, which is like a long Sushi roll, and was cheap and delicious, and then on towards the World Cup Stadium, down by the river. While we were walking there was a sodding air raid siren! None of the locals seemed very phased, but then fighter jets started going over head and we all got a bit freaked out. It stopped after a couple of minutes, so we calmed down, and Jim started doing an impression of it, and Just as he did it started again! Once again, noone seemed too bothered, so we just waited it out (WHen we got back we looked it up, apparently they have a countrywide drill on the 15th of each month).

It's nice and hot today, shorts weather (I went out in black Jeans, bugger). We rented a couple of Tandems from a stall by the river, which was really fun. We rode along the river for ages, out to an observation deck and back, nearly falling off all the way. We're back at the hostel now, heading into the city later for food and booze, I think. There's a big spider, look!