My Friends, the Visitors, Part 2

A day after Desta leaves, Lydia comes to visit. Lydia was visiting from Konstanz, Germany, though I also met her in Istanbul as she was one of my friends and roommates. The days in Seoul again consisted of Korean BBQ, Gyeongbok Palace,

Cheonggyecheon Stream, though this time we saw a laser light show in the mist they spray

Bukchon Hanok village (traditional looking houses, though they were all newly maintained and renovated to look old)

But the new happenings included Changdeok Palace and its secret gardens, Yongsan Station's huge electronics stores, Myeongdong shopping district, Namdaemun and Dongdaemun night markets, eating gimbap almost daily (thank you GS25!)
the Han River boat tour (which, after living in Istanbul and going along the Bosphorus River everyday, turned out to be a wee bit disappointing)

going up North Seoul Tower

the men's bathroom of the N Seoul Tower reminded me of the women's restroom at the Signature Room at the 95th in Chicago's Hancock Building, minus the urinals  (I know this only because I've seen the window when the ladies' door swings open, honestly!)

I also met a few of Lydia's German friends that were visiting/working in Seoul. The power of Facebook and it's ability to notify anyone and everyone where they are in this world can actually be pretty neat.

My Friends, the Visitors

(September 2009)
Back to back visitors coming to Korea to visit me! This is great! Friday afternoon I take the bus from Busan back to Seoul. I'm worried I'm going to be late to meet my first visitor, Desta. This would be the same Desta from Istanbul that took CELTA with me, though this time she is visiting from Manila, Philippines. Desta booked the lovely Bebop Guesthouse, and I'm so glad she did. Definitely a place worth staying at if you are ever in Seoul. Because her flight was delayed, we were forced to eat dinner a bit late. I'll never forget this meal, and to this day I still don't (and don't want to) know what I ate. Fortunately, it was really the only bad meal I had while there, bad first meal for Desta though!

After backpacking through Korea for almost two weeks, and Desta having just completed a whirlwind Japanese trip, neither of us were anxious to go out and explore. Every morning consisted of toast, eggs, and coffee at Bebop accompanied with sitting on the couch and good conversation. The afternoons are when we actually explored, but often included more coffee breaks at random coffee houses.
We did successfully visit:

Gyeongbok Palace and witnessed the changing of the guards (I think)

Cheonggyecheon Stream (which is a stream they unearthed smack in the middle of Seoul)






Ate Korean BBQ many times, including one time where we befriended three Korean girls in their early 30's who were so excited it was Friday and they were free of their children and husbands that they consumed entirely too much soju, and one girl ended up on the floor. If I only had snapped a photo!

Met the famous Hongdae Makgeolli Man

Discovered mural alley, with new friends, through pure happenstance

We also visited Bukchon Hanok village, the open air market, the National Museum of Korea (where Desta was thought to be a gypsy by an old Korean woman), ate dak galbi in Gangnam, did a lot of perusing, more coffee, and meeting lots of other random travelers at Bebop including an Italian guy bouncing around the world, an American girl teaching English in Japan, two Canadians girls teaching here, a Mexican girl visiting here, and some US military boys enjoying their weekend off. Thanks for visiting Desta et à bientôt! Worth noting that Desta almost couldn't make it back to Manila since they had their huge flood as soon as she had left the Philippines, but fortunately she did!